Deuteronomy 10:19

And you will love the sojourner/foreigner/resident alien, because you were a sojourner/foreigner/resident alien in the land of Egypt.

In Deuteronomy 10:12 the question is posed: “What is YHWH asking of you?” This question is followed by a series of laws or instructions. The premise of this instruction is that the obedience of the people is a reciprocal action for what YHWH has done for them. What has YHWH done? YHWH delivered the people from bondage. Included amongst the instruction is the command for hospitality. Love the person who is different because you were once different.

Let’s be clear, the commandment is not to tolerate them foreigner. The commandment is not “do no harm.” The commandment is to love. Furthermore, the commandment is to remember when you were different and love out of the remembrance of that moment.

It is as if YHWH is saying, conjure up the most painful collective moment in your history and use it, not to oppress, disregard, or alienate someone else. Instead remember that moment in order to evoke a sense of how you wanted to be treated and then do that!

We’ve all been different. We’ve all been the resident alien/foreigner. Some of us come from social locations in which this is our entire existence and some of us have only had fleeting moments of isolation. Regardless, now is the time to evoke of the memory of relief and deliverance, or even the moment of pain and oppression so that we might do better for someone else.

Disclaimer: All translations are made by Min. Yolanda Norton (from the Hebrew and/or Greek) unless otherwise noted.