One of these evil pagan nations was Moab.
In the midst of this history, in the time of the Judges, a pagan woman, a Moabite refugee, enters the small Judean town of Bethlehem. In Bethlehem she is welcomed and protected. And in the sovereign plan of God, she has a son (a "Redeemer".) Her great-grandchild is David, a future king. In her lineage is the Messiah, the Son of David.
The line of Jesus goes back through this Moabite refugee welcomed by the village of Bethlehem.
The book of Ruth displays God's sovereign plans, the ways that God works out, over a long period of time, His redemption. The short book of Ruth is a beautiful work. Read through it slowly! Read it as a romance, if you will, between Ruth and Boaz ... and between God and the widow and orphan.
Do not miss an undercurrent theme in the book of Ruth -- indeed, throughout the Old Testament -- the emphatic insistence that the people of Israel were to welcome the alien and the stranger. God worked through the "alien and stranger". In the Old Testament there are two, three dozen explicit instructions to welcome, protect and shield the alien!
And so, to my Christian friends, a plea –
IF you have looked at the heartbeat of a fetus and -- knowing that it had a beating heart and felt pain -- if in love for the vulnerable fetus, you have taken a stand for the unborn,
IF you are aware of those sweet children who are born with an extra copy of chromosome 21 and if you have then acted in love for those with Downs Syndrome (some of you even have started calling it Ups Syndrome!)
THEN, as your brother in Christ, seeking to speak in the Holy Spirit, I plea with you, I beg, that you consider the plight of the "undocumented aliens" and those "dreamers" around you who love this country, their home!
They are in your block. They live near you and go to your church.
Please, walk down the block, cry with them and pray with them! And then (as you would for the unborn and those with Downs) take a stand for the Immigrant. Reach out to your congressional representative and ask that our country find a way to legally welcome these people who love the USA and who are doing so much for our beautiful country!
My wife and I are currently involved in a Christian ministry that includes at least three students who have publicly identified themselves as DACA recipients. These friends are anxious and frightened. Last year they studied hard, hoping to soon graduate and start a career. Now they are afraid that in six months they will be deported to a country they do not know.
And IF you are sympathetic with the unborn and IF you are sympathetic with those with Downs but can still turn your back on the Dreamers – if you as a Christian, but can ignore two dozen Old Testament passages on the immigrant – if you can find words like "Obama" or "America" or "Muslim extremist" to ignore that scared neighbor down the block – then your conscience has been seared. I pray, in Jesus name, that you RESET your conscience – that you put Jesus above your job and your country – and I beg that you weep with the dreamers and then act to protect them. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, if your Master is concerned about the unborn and the child with Downs, then please prayerfully, slowly, read through the last half of Matthew 25, read the book of Ruth, read through the more than two dozen Old Testament commands, and see your dreamer neighbor as God does!
Republican, Democrat or Independent, this issue is above American politics. It is an issue for Christians, residents of a different country (Hebrews 11:13-16.) Please, act as a citizen of that eternal kingdom!
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