Dennis Tuuri

Towards strangers. I have a series of remarks to make though before we get into the text itself. One is going to comment on several contemporary events of the last week, actually the last couple of days in my life. Last Friday I went to my family to see, or some of them, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but I think you should know the worldview that’s reflected in it.

That’s probably, I’m sure, entertaining and well done in many ways. But the worldview of the movie, and I’m not saying this to discourage you from seeing it, but to review what we said last week, the worldview of the movie is that Ichabod Crane, now an investigative detective sort of a guy instead of a schoolteacher and a rationalist, a man who wants to use evidence and scientific techniques to find criminals, works together with a white witch in essence, a girl who has a book of charms to roll back the evil witches and the evil witch is doing in the context of this town.

So essentially it’s about rationalism and good witchcraft fighting bad witchcraft and Christianity is portrayed the only way it’s portrayed in the movie is bad, of course. And so Christianity is kind of this superstitious thing that, you know, killed this good white witch earlier and we are suffering the effects of that now. So it’s really bad in terms of its basic worldview. Now they can’t make it really explicitly anti-Christian. These movies can’t or nobody’s going to go see it in a Christian nation. But what it does reflect is this continuing movement in our country away from Christianity and towards some sort of odd blend of spiritualism and rationalism as the replacement for Christianity.

Kick it out of the culture. That’s what the movie is. You know, I don’t know if they’re attempting to do that, but that is the worldview that’s being portrayed. Now, I don’t worry about myself. I don’t worry about my older children. I’ve instilled a biblical worldview to interpret these things and I explain these movies to them. But if you let your children go see these movies, number one, you should be assured of their worldview before you do.

And number two, you should help them to critique these things in terms of worldview. The scriptures, you know, in prohibiting witchcraft that we talked about last week prohibit the kind of activities that now are becoming more and more commonplace in our culture. So that’s the way of review.

Another event happened to me this last week. Well, it didn’t happen to me. My wife went over and helped the Youngers move yesterday. And it was interesting that all of the officers’ families of the church were represented at the move. Some member, or one or two or more, were there helping the Youngers move. And that’s a neat thing, the service of the officers of the church and in the context of their families to assist people to demonstrate compassionate actions, which is the theme of our sermon today toward people that needed help yesterday.

And so it’s a practical picture for us yesterday of the kind of compassionate actions I want to talk about today, albeit in a little different context. The Youngers aren’t strangers, of course, but still, these are compassionate actions to folk that needed help. And so that I mentioned from yesterday and I’ll bring it up again in the context of the sermon directly.

Another thing happened this week. I got an email from my brother Mike recording some songs. The email says that “the lukewarm church of the lukewarm announces the publication of ‘church songs,’ end quote, whose title according to the editor was chosen because we didn’t want to turn anybody off with threatening words that no one understands anymore like ‘worship’ or ‘hymn.’ This a joke, of course. People in today’s society get kind of uncomfortable with too much talk about things like commitment and dedication.

They’d much rather have a religion that they can turn on or off at will. Our book seeks to meet that need.” And then they have some takeoffs or satires, not satires, some twists on common hymns of the faith. For instance, on Reformation Sunday, we always sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” In this hymnbook, we have “A Comfy Mattress Is Our God.” And several others. We have three hymns. I’m not going to read all of them, but we have three hymns that talk about one’s view of God.

“He’s quite a bit to me” instead of “He’s everything to me” is the hymn in this thing. “Joyful, joyful, we kind of like thee.” “Above average is thy faithfulness.” And then in terms of application to life, sermons: “Amazing Grace, how interesting the sound” and “The Intellectualization of the Faith.” “Take my life and let me be.” Okay. So I bring these up because we’re here today to be reinforced from the word of God in the greatness of God toward us and to call for commitment.

“Take my life in total.” And we want to be totally consecrated to God, not to be let. And today’s sermon is about practical applications, sort of things where we are urged by the word of God to take compassionate actions towards strangers but to have it as a characteristic of our lifestyle as well.

Another thing I wanted to mention before we get started: there’s lots of outlines today. Too many, too much paper. Isn’t it great? I do that just because I want to continue to urge us to work toward, pray toward, and contribute toward the building fund. When we have eventually pews that have holders in the front so that we don’t have to have these things falling all over us. It’s not why I do it. Of course, why I did several outlines today is that I wanted to put the context again for this particular case law before you.

I got a new book from amazon.com on Friday called “The Literary Structure of the Old Testament.” It’s a commentary on Genesis through Malachi. Goes through the entire Old Testament and looks at the literary structure of it, including a number of chiastic structures. Peter Leithart recommended this book. I bought it and it is just wonderful. Peter [unclear] is a man that we’re trying to get and I would ask you to pray specifically that he’d be able to attend our family camp.

He’s still trying to see if his schedule will permit it. But we do want to build a relationship with Reverend Leithart over the years who now teaches at New St. Andrews and is of course up in Moscow, Idaho. And couple of these handouts are from there and they just give you the context, the more extended context of this section of scripture that we’re dealing with and one of them gives you the overall context for the case laws and what it does is it attempts to give the structure of the middle of Exodus to the middle of Numbers more or less by having a demarcation of when they come to Sinai and encamp there and then in Numbers when they actually leave Sinai.

So there’s a whole section here of Sinai encampment stuff going on and it is in the context of that Sinai encampment that these case laws are given. So that one outline provides you with the overall context for the law of the covenant that we’re dealing with in terms of the bigger section of scripture that seems to be demarcated or delineated, lined off by God in the section of things given at Sinai.

And so that’s helpful because it helps us to see the correlation between these case laws and other portions of what is given at Sinai. And specifically for those in my Leviticus class either here Sunday morning or at my school during the week, it helps us to see a correlation between the laws in Leviticus and these case laws. The way this author thinks these sections line up is that the purity laws, the uncleanness laws of Leviticus 11-16 correlate with these case laws.

And what it shows us that as we prepare ritually in terms of Leviticus to approach the throne of God with the effects of the curse being removed from the application of Christ’s blood, that’s what the cleanness, uncleanness laws are all about. To be unclean is to suffer the effects of the curse. To be clean is to have those effects rolled back. And it’s talking about ritual approach to the throne of God.

So we come forward ritually clean. And we manifest that by showering and brushing our teeth good and putting on nice clothes, whatever it is. But the corollary to that according to this man’s understanding of the literary structure of this portion of scripture are these case laws that admonish us to take that ritual purity into our actions as we go into the world. So when we do compassionate actions to the stranger or to the widow or to the fatherless or to our neighbor, we’re working out the ritual cleanness that Christ has provided for us by which we approach him in worship.

So worship is transformed into these laws that direct our actions as we go into the world.

The other structure he’s provided there gives you the actual structure for the case laws themselves. And what’s interesting here is he breaks these up into two sections as we’ve talked about and without belaboring the point. These two sections: the first section he sees as being concluded by the section we’re starting today.

In other words, we began with laws relating to kindness to servants and moving them to freedom. And we conclude this section according to this author, at least his understanding of the text, by looking at kindness demonstrated or compassionate acts towards strangers, fathers, widows and the poor. What it says is that encompassing this whole first section of the law is this tremendous emphasis on compassion and kindness.

So when we talk about compassionate actions in the scriptures, we’re talking not just an incidental part of God’s law. We’re talking about something that is critical to understanding the entire law of God. The book of Leviticus is the center of the Pentateuch and many commentators have seen as the literary center of the book of Leviticus chapter 19 with its admonition to not hate your neighbor but to love your neighbor as yourself.

The very center of the Pentateuch, the very center of the law, the very center of a person who claims a theonomic perspective, the very center of our lives—if you want to call yourself a theonomist, as a believer in God’s law—are these positive admonitions to be kind and neighborly to your neighbors and also to not oppress or vex the stranger but to love him. So what we’re talking about today really is a core element of what the law of God instructs us in and we had best pay attention to it.

We can be you know politically active and try to change the laws of the state as much as we want but if we fail in this critical area, God says there’s tremendous judgments that occur to us and if we succeed in this critical area of showing compassionate actions toward others, God says there’s tremendous blessings that come to us as well.

All right, let’s deal now specifically with this text and the implications of it and I’ve listed seven very simple points, many of which you already know, but all of which it is good for you to hear again and to be encouraged of faithfulness in the context of your life as a Christian.

First of all, this text tells us that God prohibits the oppression of strangers. There’s two words used here to oppress or to vex. The word to vex means to treat someone with hostility or to constrict them. Okay, it can be used in a wide range of expressions dealing with a range of afflictions to treat somebody with hostility—whether it’s verbal, legal, economic, whatever it is—to treat somebody with hostility and to constrict someone.

The word to oppress, to vex or oppress the stranger, is not to be done. This word is used explicitly of Balaam’s donkey oppressing him by crushing his foot against a wall. So it’s a kind of an intensified form of the first word. Now, if we’re told that we cannot vex or oppress a stranger, we have to know what that means. What is the stranger in the context of the word of God?

The root word for the word stranger means to live among a people that are not blood relatives. Thus, rather than enjoying native civil rights, the stranger was dependent upon the hospitality that played an important role in the ancient Near East. This according to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. So the root of the word stranger means to live among people that are not blood relatives. It means to be separated from family or clan and as a result in the context of the patriarchal societies represented here to be removed from the legal and economic and community protection that families and clans provide.

Yet represents a person in a very vulnerable, weak position. Now in the context of the growth of Israel, in context of these laws, the strangers were explicitly the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with them that were with them at Sinai where they received the law of God. So they had strangers in their context, people outside of their family groups who were new to the faith, so to speak. They were proselytes.

They were God-fearing Egyptians, but they were still a mixed multitude. They were strangers in the context of their land. When they actually move into Israel, the stranger is talked about as those who are naturally going to settle there for economic or other purposes or would flee there for refuge. Israel was a great trading center of the world and so people, merchants would settle there. And so stranger began to be transformed in this idea of resident aliens who would live in the context of the country.

You know, Jerusalem was to be a magnet culture like America was to be a light, you know, a city with a light, a city that represents a light on the world to draw people and attracted to them. And today when we attract people, we don’t like that anymore. We want us to have America for Americans. And that kind of attitude, I think, is what this verse specifically speaks against. Kind of a natural privilege.

It’s our place as opposed to recognizing that God has given us this by grace. God had given the Israelites the land by grace. And they were to embrace, not just not to keep them out but to positively embrace the strangers who agreed to live in the context of the country governed by God and to obey its rules. So it became to be like a resident alien.

In the Bible, the stranger was a member of a particular social group. Abraham was a stranger, for instance, among the Hittites in Hebron. Moses in Midian. The Israelites in Egypt are referred to as strangers. The term then in Canaan designated not only a temporary guest but also acquired the more specialized meaning of a resident alien who lived permanently within Israel.

Strangers were to be treated according to the scriptures with kindness and generosity, which we’ll see. They were included in the Israelite legal system. They were subject to most of the religious requirements including the laws of ritual cleanness and uncleanness. They were required to keep the Sabbath and fast days of Israel. And they could celebrate Passover if they were circumcised and they could also offer up sacrifices. So to these particular kinds of people, there was a prescription given.

And by way of application, this law tells us there’s a certain prescription, something that’s not allowed for us to do. Matthew Henry puts it this way: “Strangers must not be abused, not wronged in judgment by the magistrates, not imposed upon in contracts, nor must any advantage be taken of their ignorance or necessity, new language, new culture, no protection of family and clan, weakened status. They could be taken advantage of and were explicitly told not to do that. No, nor must they be taunted, trampled upon, treated with contempt, or upgraded with being strangers.

For all these were vexations, and would discourage strangers from coming to live among them, or would strengthen their prejudices against their religion, to which by all kind and gentle methods they should endeavor to proselyte them.” So the greater goal here is the proselytization of the stranger by treating him kindly so other people would come and agree to live under the laws of the theocratic republic and thus it becomes a form of evangelism.

So today we’re explicitly commanded not to vex or oppress in these various ways a stranger.

Secondly, on the outline: God commands compassionate actions toward strangers. There’s a parallel passage to this law which we’ll deal with in a few weeks at Exodus 23:9 where we read: “You shall not oppress a stranger for you know the heart of a stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” So they’re to be not oppressing them because they have a compassion toward them.

They were strangers in Egypt. We were outside of the grace of Christ. So we’re to have compassion to those people that are outside of the grace of Christ and want to demonstrate through compassionate actions the grace of God that he exhibited to us. So the passage from Exodus 23:9.

So while we were told last week don’t engage in the sins of the nations round about you, there’s now a quick correction to make sure we don’t misunderstand that as to say that we’re not to have anything to do with them. We’re to wall ourselves off from them. No, we’re to be holy and separate in our actions as Christians, but we’re still to have compassionate actions toward those we live in the context of to demonstrate the grace of God to them. So Israelites were told, “Don’t fall into the sins of the nations, but understand you’re to be a magnet to the nations of the world.” And when the strangers come, befriend them.

Make them live under the laws of the theocratic republic, but befriend them. Be kind and gracious to them. So God commands compassionate actions toward strangers. In the laws, we can’t take the time to go through them all now, but in summary fashion, the grain was to be left behind in the context of Israel’s farm economy for strangers, widows and orphans during the harvest. They could glean the harvest, strangers could. The edges of the field were to be gleaned.

Not just the remnants of the harvest, but the edges of the field were not to be harvested by the Israelites, but to be left for, among others, the stranger. The strangers were to be given special hospitality at the feasts of God. Deuteronomy 16. The rejoicing time was to include the strangers. The strangers were to receive a special tithe every third year. And they were to be allowed to plant crops in other people’s field during the sabbatical year.

You couldn’t plant crops during the sabbatical year. But what came up in the fields was allowed to be harvested by the strangers during that year, totally given over to them, the widows and the fatherless. So God’s laws here prohibits action. But we know the fuller treatment says that God commands compassionate actions: gleaning, the provision of sabbatical release or sabbatical harvest, the provisions of a portion of our rejoicing times to be given to the stranger, the widow and the fatherless.

And the third year particularly they got a significant portion of the tithe of this particular economy. Calvin said that when God recommends guests and sojourners to the Israelites, he does it just as if they had been their own kindred. They were then to understand that equity or justice is to be cultivated constantly and towards all men. “Equity or justice is to be cultivated constantly and toward all men.”

Calvin said, “It appears that the name of neighbor is not confined to our kindred or such other persons with whom we are nearly connected but extends to the whole human race.” In this designation of compassionate actions to the stranger, Christ shows in the person of the Samaritan this same truth who had compassion on an unknown man and performed toward him the duties of humanity neglected by a Jew and even a Levite.

Today is the time when we come, we have this wonderful festival. We experience the blessings of God, cornucopia of grace flowing over to us. The picture of that is the wonderful meal that’s presented. But the point is that in the context of remembering that this is also a time of year when churches should and many do provide ministries to the homeless, to the poor, etc. as an extension of the grace that we’ve received from God.

And that’s what these laws relative to the stranger portrayed in the context of the Old Testament. Positive actions, compassionate actions—you know their heart, remembering that you are a stranger in Egypt—are commanded of God’s people.

The Bible rounds off examples of compassionate actions. Pharaoh was hospitable to Abraham. Melchizedek was hospitable to Abraham. Abraham showed hospitality and compassionate actions to the angels that visited him. Abimelech was hospitable, showing compassion in his actions toward Abraham. Joseph to his brethren. Pharaoh to Joseph. Jethro to Moses. Rahab to the spies. David to Mephibosheth. The wife of Zarephath to Elijah. The Shunnamite widow to Elisha. Hospitality. Compassionate actions. To men that had a need and then the reward given to them in the context of the widows, the Shunnamite rather, to Elisha, and certainly Rahab’s compassionate actions to the spies.

Elisha to the Syrian spies, Job to strangers, Martha to Jesus, Zacchaeus to Jesus, Lydia to Paul and Silas, Publius to Paul, Phoebe rather to Paul, Onesiphorus to Paul—all kinds of actions go from one end of the scriptures to the other, showing compassionate actions toward others. And then of course, as I said, these are frequently rewarded in the context of the scriptures.

Our Savior himself positively enjoins us to compassionate actions. In Luke 14:12-14, he says to them who invited him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, don’t ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the halt, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Now, I know there’s great theological lessons here that are portrayed for us in the table of the Lord. But we can’t miss the obvious command of our Savior that we are positively enjoined to become part of this long list of the saints of God in the scriptures being the saints of God today who show compassionate actions to others. Compassionate. Our heart knows their position and actions. It’s not enough just to pray for them or to think about a little bit. We’re to be moved to actions. Our Savior says when you have feasts, invite in the poor, the halt, the lame.

Now, these were exclusions from the kingdom. There’s a big theological picture going on, but that theological picture is reinforced as we engage in these compassionate actions that God commands us to do. See, these compassionate actions flow from the very character of God. In Exodus, I reasoned I read verse 27 of this whole context of compassionate actions to various groups is that it concludes with the statement that God will hear the one you might oppress.

And the reason why he’s going to hear him is, “I am gracious.” God says. It begins at the beginning, “Don’t vex or repress.” Concludes these seven verses by saying, “I am gracious.” His character flows out in graciousness to us. And our character is to flow out with the character of Christ represented through us in grace, graciousness to others.

To be gracious is to favor, to feel sympathy or compassion with. This particular term that’s used here, translated gracious, depicts a heartfelt response by someone who has something to give to one who has a need. The immediate application is the person that’s being oppressed cries out to God. God sees his need and is gracious and in his graciousness will judge you because of your oppressing him. So we’re to see the need of the strange, the widow and the fatherless and the poor and be moved to compassionate actions to fill that need if we have the ability.

The verb describes an action from a superior to an inferior who has no real claim for gracious treatment on us. That’s what we’re to do. That’s the kind of gracious actions we’re to show to each other. The psalmist pleads for God for this kind of gracious, compassionate action when he is lonely in Psalm 25:16. The stranger is a lonely man. He is cut off from connections. The psalmist represents a lonely man in the context of his particular setting being oppressed by various people.

And in that loneliness, he cries out to God. In their loneliness, the stranger should cry out, be able to demonstrate his loneliness to the people of God. And the people of God should show him compassionate actions. David’s distress in the psalmist’s transgressions, he cries out to God for forgiveness. And God is gracious and hears these cries.

Now, I said that these compassionate actions flow from the character of God. God’s character is gracious and our character is to be gracious. God’s character is also love. God is love. And the scriptures tell us repeatedly that we’re to love the stranger. Not just not oppress him as this verse says, but to look at the parallel, the greater context for this.

Leviticus 19:33 and 34, we read the following: “If a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, as your kindred. You shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” It wasn’t just love for your neighbor, your relative in the Old Testament. It was loving the stranger as yourself.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21: “The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality or takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow. He loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore, love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name.

He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.” That hold fast. We’re enjoined here to cleave to God, to cleave to the bridegroom as a bride cleaves to her husband. And that cleaving is demonstrated by loving those whom our Father in heaven loves, which includes the stranger, and being moved in our love as God has moved to give them food and raiment, to be moved to extend to them gracious, compassionate actions.

Compassionate actions are required of elders, godly widows, and all Christians. To be hospitable, to be given to compassionate actions toward others who have a need, is a positive requirement given to us in 1 Timothy 3:2 and also in Titus 1. You’re not just to do hospitality. Titus 1 says you’re supposed to be a lover of hospitality. It is a critical element of the evaluation of elders.

Do they show that grace that demonstrates that they know the grace that God has given to them? Widows of the church who can be supported on the church rolls? Well, those who are well reported of for good works. If she’s brought up children, if she’s lodged strangers, if she has washed saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work—has she engaged in compassionate actions?

God has shown compassion on the widow. Has she in compassion to those in the context of her life? If she actively involved in the lives of others and not just concerned with her own existence—not just, you know, sitting there alone and feeling sorry for herself but out there moved to compassionate actions for others. If she is moved in such a way, it’s because the grace of God is flowing through her and she distributes it.

I said yesterday that elders in this church are good representatives of this because every household of the elders and the deacons and even the [unclear] and [unclear] families, even the deacon candidates set before the church for several months of training and evaluation, all of them were represented yesterday at the move. Now, they don’t have to be. I don’t want to put a big thing on everybody having to be there, but in the providence of God, he did that yesterday in his providence.

And it’s to demonstrate to this church that God has given you representatives of Christ to you who are indeed lovers of hospitality and their families have this idea that other people who have a point of need should be helped and ministered to. They’re a model to you and it shows they meet the qualifications of these lists in First Timothy and Titus. So, that’s good, right? It’s good those elders and deacons and widows are good, compassionate, kind, loving people to strangers.

But the scriptures go on to say, of course, that it’s not just required of them. Their point in being the model to you isn’t that they end up doing all those things and you don’t do anything. Their point is to lead you in. Now, I don’t want to make anybody… Well, we shouldn’t say that. I was going to say I don’t want to make anybody feel bad who wasn’t at the move yesterday. Maybe there’s somebody who should feel bad.

I don’t know. I’m not saying everybody who wasn’t there should feel bad. But I am saying that the elders of the church and the officers are models of hospitality and service to people who have a particular need and they demonstrate this gracious, compassionate action in the context of their families. And you should be the same way. That’s to the end that you might be encouraged in whatever way you can work it out in your life and whatever time and all that stuff.

You should take a reading on yourself today. What kind of compassionate actions do I extend to people in points of need?

Now, the scriptures tell us in Hebrews 13:1-2, “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels.” Don’t want to talk about what that might or might not mean, but the point is obvious that not only are we to show this kind of brotherly love in the context of the body, but we’re also to entertain strangers.

The same admonition found in these case laws and repeated in various ways throughout the law of God. Romans 12:9-19. “First, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. How do you do that? Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, and given to hospitality, given to compassionate actions, including, according to Hebrews 13, entertaining strangers, being hospitable to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.” You know, the ones who are in lonely and as a result are in a point of need, we should have compassion for. And compassion doesn’t say buck up, put the smile on your face and knock it off. It says you to weep with those who are weeping. Now, our weeping is not like the world. It’s not an undue sorrow.

We know that God is in control. But part of compassionate actions toward those in need is a recognition of the need of people who even in our community, even in our close-knit church community, can for a season be isolated off by God as a stranger in our midst through various difficulties, trials or tribulations. You know, we shouldn’t think of this just as outside of the church. There are people in the context of this body who feel isolated, who feel alone, who feel a need for the demonstration of God’s love and compassion toward them.

I would venture to say there’s probably people in most every church who may have that need for a long time, even in the context of a large group of people, people who are isolated for one reason or another. Well, it’s their fault. It doesn’t make any difference, does it? God didn’t say it was your fault that you were a stranger in Egypt and you were outside of his grace. He reached to you in spite of that and you’re to reach to those people who for whatever reason are alienated and isolated and to demonstrate the grace of God toward them.

And so these compassionate actions are required of all Christians. 1 Peter 4:7-11. “Above all things, have fervent love for one another. Love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” This is not the ministers being spoken to. This is the congregation who are exhorted to minister to one another in the context of being moved toward those who are humbled for whatever particular reason.

The purpose of this, 1 Peter goes on to say, says that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs glory and dominion and honor and blessing. Okay. So God positively enjoins us to compassionate actions. These actions are bound throughout the scriptures. Our Savior commands us in compassionate actions toward strangers. These compassionate actions flow out of the very character of God, his graciousness and his love.

These actions characterize church officers and widows who are on the church lists and are to characterize all of the people of God.

Next point, Roman numeral 3. God trains us for these compassionate actions by distressing us over and over again in these case laws. “You know the heart of the stranger. You were a stranger in Egypt.” Now you know when they first went there, they received hospitality. It felt pretty good.

But pretty soon that hospitality turned to affliction, did it not? In the providence of God. God uses affliction in our lives to remind us what we were like prior to God’s bringing us into the household of grace. To remind us what it’s like to feel alone, to feel isolated, to feel humbled from whatever problem we’re having, whether it’s economic, social, legal, whatever the problem is we’re having, God uses these trials and tribulations to make our heart sensitive and compassionate toward other people.

Isn’t this what he’s saying? He calls on them to treat the stranger differently, reminding them of what he did to them in humbling them and bringing them down to Egypt and then in their affliction that they might not be afflictors or oppressors, but that they might show the grace of God in the context of their particular sphere of influence.

Now, this, you know, this reminds us when we’re in the midst of trials and tribulations that what the Lord God is doing for us is he is training us for service. He is training us in humility to cause us to remember. It’s so easy when you come out of a period of affliction to forget it all, to want to put it all behind you. God says, “Remember the lessons when he was gracious to you.” We have people in the context of this church. Always will in the life of a church who are going through great struggles now. And we have other people in the context of this church who went through great struggles in the last few years and God puts you together. He says, “Look at the person.”

Well, they’re not a stranger, but they’re a person in need. God has humbled them and he’s humbled you previously that you might minister to them. God trains us. He just doesn’t say, “Do these things and leave us alone.” He gives us his grace and love flowing through us. And then he trains us in compassionate actions by taking us through Egypt.

Matthew Henry says that those that have themselves been in poverty and distress, if providence enrich and enlarge them, ought to show a particular tenderness toward those that are now in such circumstances as they were in formerly, “doing unto them as they went then wish to be done by.” What happens sometimes? You come out of those distresses and you don’t have compassion on people then. Why?

Because you think you brought yourself out of them. You think you turned it all around. I was in control. I’m the one that did all this stuff. I turned the corner on this thing. So why should I help that poor shnook? You see, to not help the guy, to not be moved by our afflictions, to be kind and compassionate with actions toward others is to demonstrate our failure of the apprehension of the grace of God in Christ.

God trains us for these compassionate actions. And these compassionate actions—Roman numeral 4—are of the essence of covenant keeping. Deuteronomy 26, I’m going to read this. It’s 10 verses, but I’m going to read it anyway. Listen to it. And this is the context. This is at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. This is like the height of the affirmation of covenant keeping. Deuteronomy is laid out like a covenant structure, five-part covenant model.

All you’re familiar with that. Deuteronomy is God’s people are shown in covenant relationship to him. And in Deuteronomy 26, before the blessings and cursings are announced, the man is supposed to come forward and declare that he’s a covenant keeper. And God, if he sees that declaration, he hears it and it’s true, all these blessings come to him. And listen at what’s at the heart of this declaration of covenant keeping.

Deuteronomy 26:5. “You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, my father was a wandering Aramean, a Syrian about to perish.” That’s probably referring to Jacob. Abraham encamped in Haran, which later was Syria. Haran was part of Aram and camped in Aram rather, which became Syria. So Aram, Arameans, Syrians—it’s all the same thing from up in that area where Abraham first encamped. Some of his family stayed there when he moved into Canaan.

Jacob and Isaac both got wives from there. So Jacob could be said to be a wandering Aramean or Syrian as well. They have connections to this place of foreignness. My father was a Syrian and about to perish. A stranger about to perish. “And he went down to Egypt and dwelt there few in number. And there he became a nation great mighty and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked at our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to the place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which you, oh Lord, have given me. Then you shall set it before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. You shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house—you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increases in the third year, the year of tithing. This declaration happens in a three-year cycle. It is the culmination of three years of covenant keeping, what he’s going to say now.

“And you have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow so that they may eat within your gates and be filled. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house and have given them to the Levites, the strangers, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandments which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forsaken them or forgot them.

I have not eaten of any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of these gracious tithes for the demonstration of compassion, actions. I have not removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that you have commanded me.

Look down from your holy habitation from heaven. Bless your people, Israel, and the land which you have given us, just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

At the height of the three-year cycle of covenant affirmation, of covenant keeping, the action that is looked upon as to whether or not this guy has kept the commandments of God, whether he is a good theonomist, reconstructionist, transformationalist, theocrat, believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and his laws, the proof is whether he has demonstrated through compassionate actions the love and grace of God to the stranger, the widow, the fatherless, and the Levite who had no land.

We come to the greater table. We come to the land flowing of milk and honey, the table of our Lord. And God says, “As you come here, make sure that you understand that if you understand what this is all about, if you love me, you’ll understand that I showed you grace and compassion. I brought you a wandering Aramean into the land flowing with milk and honey. And don’t you dare shut up your bowels of compassion against the poor, against the stranger, the one who is isolated or in need or dependent, and against the widow and the fatherless.

Don’t you dare do that.”

The height of covenant affirmation is in terms of these compassionate actions that God commands of us. And as a result, Roman numeral 5, grave judgments are promised to those who oppress the stranger. In verse 24 of the text, Exodus 22, he says, “If you don’t do right by the widow and the fatherless, my wrath will become hot and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives will be widows, your children fatherless.”

The implication is, of course, doesn’t have to be stated. If you abuse the stranger, you’re going to become a stranger. You’re going back to Egypt. Grave judgments for abusing these things. Jeremiah 22, thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word and say, the word of the Lord, oh king of Judah, you who sit in the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates.

Thus says the Lord, execute judgment and righteousness, deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do you no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. If you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house. In other words, if you don’t oppress them, you will have entered the gates of this house riding on horses and on chariots accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David.

Show compassionate actions to the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless, and you will be having kings in the context of your land on the throne of David. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.” Congregation of the Lord. If we do not demonstrate compassionate actions in the context of our church toward one another, in the context of people who have greater needs in the context of our fellowship, and then extend that grace and compassion out to the strangers in the context of the land, and the widows and the fatherless, our house shall become desolate.

“Goes on to tell this king of Judah, thus says the Lord of the house, the king of Judah, you are a Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet I love you. He says, you’re wonderful. You’re beautiful. But I surely will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited. I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons. They shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire.

Many nations will pass by the city and everyone will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord done to this? What has the Lord done this? Why has the Lord done this to the great city?’ And they’ll answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and serve them.’”

To fail to engage in compassionate actions toward others is to deny the covenant of God. And worse, it’s to cut up those animal sacrifices to perform bestiality and to engage in witchcraft. That’s the connection, isn’t it? Flowing through these laws. Don’t do these things culminating in idolatry with animal sacrifices. Instead, be admonished in terms of the poor in your culture. And then the king of Judah is brought to task for not showing compassionate actions. And by not doing it, God says, “You’ve broken the covenant. You’re worshiping other gods. Because you see, God is not a God of works.

God is a God of grace. And when we fail to extend grace and compassion to others, we really say that we are worshiping some kind of God of works. And now we’re back to like cutting up animals the way we think is best and put them before these gods of works to accept us on the basis of who we are, not on the basis of the work of the one sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Great judgments. On the other hand, great blessings if we do these things. Proverbs tells us that he who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker. If you oppress the poor, you reproach your maker. “He who honors him has mercy on the needy.” And then Proverbs 19:17, “Who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord. He will pay back what he is given.”

God pays you back what you do in these compassionate actions toward strangers—great reward. As I said to the king of Judah, kings will stay on this throne if you do these things. But the greatest reward is given to us in terms of these actions. In Matthew 25, our Savior says he draws a correlation between compassion and actions toward people and doing these things to him. He says he’s going to separate the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left.

“The king will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’”

The blessing of covenant keeping, demonstrating our knowledge and apprehension. You know, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” If it’s just an intellectual apprehension of the faith, we will not show ourselves in compassionate actions toward other. But if we know the sweetness of that sound, if we know the depth of our sin and misery and how God has brought us out of it, and amazing grace, how sweet that is to us, we’re going to engage in compassionate actions toward others and we’ll be ushered into the kingdom of Christ in the eschaton.

Seven: compassionate actions are toward God ultimately reflecting our belief in the gospel.