Africans evicted from Israel

“He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. Therefore you are to love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. You are to fear ADONAI your God, serve him, cling to him and swear by his name.” Deuteronomy 10:18–20 Complete Jewish Bible.

Judaism teaches love for foreigners that enter Israel, we could term these people as immigrants or refugees or however we see them. In these case the law of God seems to put the onus on the “foreigner” to follow the ways of God and for Israel to accept the foreigner and not discriminate against them.

What we term as Christianity reaches out to people to a greater degree, there is more of an active energy involved with reaching out to people and inviting them into the community of believers, but this is a spiritual community, rather than a physical community.

It’s such a pity that in Israel that application of the law is partial, there is an emphasis on national identity in the sense of something that needs to be guarded so that it is not lost, instead of a more transcendent identity that outsiders (foreigners) can share and help to edify the whole community.

Outside of Israel, within the Church, application of the law is even more partial, but there is the notion of this transcendent identity which can embrace others and bring them into a community.

I don’t think any religious community has the interpretation of God’s word right, either those in Israel or outside of it, and neither myself, but as an outsider looking in, for I am neither in Israel physically or part of a church, I can basically see that no matter what ways in which we misinterpret God’s law or are partial in our application of it, the end result is the same – division, pride, prejudice, corruption and injustice.

I would say there is wisdom enough in the world for us to do better at achieving God’s righteous standards, but the evil in the world is winning over the good, and the more it does so, the deeper we slip into a dystopian reality – it’s not in the future – it is here and now, and has actually been around for a long time.

Posted in Faith, Race.

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