“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:33-34
“The great command to love one’s neighbor as oneself is specifically extended here to cover foreign residents… Israel should be particularly sensitive to the resident aliens’ problems since they were once themselves in that situation in Egypt.”
Gordon Wenham in The Book of Leviticus (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979) 273.
The more I think about generosity, the more I believe that it must flow from people who are “particularly sensitive” and I find myself lacking in this area most of the time.
Perhaps that’s why God has me on the anvil doing these Daily Meditations, to pound out the weaknesses in my will and conform me into the image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, God is forming His people in the Old Testament and wants them to “remember” what it was like to be an alien and foreigner,and to extend help to such folks. What if we did this today?
It would come across as generous hospitality to people who feel lost and displaced. Ask God if there’s someone you need to be “particularly sensitive” to love and serve. Go do it.