Jeff Sessions referenced Romans Chapter 13 when talking about the immigration into the United States of America, and the fact that parents are being separated from their children.
Yes Romans 13 does talk about submission to authorities, but quite simply Mr Sessions and a lot of people in authority must have ignored verse 10:
10 Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah. (Romans 13:10 CJB)
In that verse Torah mean’s law, specifically God’s law, but more generally this chapter is dealing with the laws of nations also. OK the parents may have broken the law but have the children? Why punish the children by housing them like cattle in an unfeeling, uncaring system when they have done nothing wrong? The children could be separated from their parents for days, weeks, months, years, or may never see them again.
One should also draw a distinction between God’s law or Torah, and mans law however, for If we examine the following scriptures, we can see that God criticises some rulers.
2 [Rulers,] does your silence really speak justice?
Are you judging people fairly?
3 [No!] In your hearts you devise wrongs,
your hands dispense violence in the land. (Psalm 58:2–3 CJB)
And again:
1 Elohim [God] stands in the divine assembly;
there with the elohim [judges], he judges:2 “How long will you go on judging unfairly,
favoring the wicked? (Selah)
3 Give justice to the weak and fatherless!
Uphold the rights of the wretched and poor!
4 Rescue the destitute and needy;
deliver them from the power of the wicked!” (Psalm 82:1–4 CJB)
It’s clear God favours rulers who protect the rights of the poor and the needy, those who judge fairly. Yahshua himself said of the Pharisees, those who appeared to have a very precise view of the law:
23 “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah—justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to—without neglecting the others! 24 Blind guides!—straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel! (Matthew 23:23–24 CJB my emphasis added)
Put quite simply, when we focus on the letter of the law, whether that be God’s law (Torah), or man’s law, and we don’t have a heart for people, we miss the point both in God’s eyes and in mans. It’s not about upholding one part of the law to the letter and forgetting the other, a right attitude to the law evenly balances, judgement, justice and mercy. The deep tragedy is, this affects the whole world, and the Jewish people living in Israel are also part of a regime that also lacks mercy.
Take for example a country like Uganda, one of the poorest in the world let alone Africa. It accepted over 1 million refugees in 2017, and only having a population of 41.5m. That totals 2.41 percent percent of its population. America on the other hand reached its limit of 50,000 refugees for 2017 half way through the year! And that only accounts for 0.0154 percent of its 325m (approx) population! Not only that, but refugees get a 30m square piece of land to do what they want with – and if you compare that to many developed countries, where it is very difficult to actually own land, shows a huge amount of generosity for such a poor country!
If you know your bible, you will see that Yahshua praised the widow who gave all of what she had though she was poor, compared to those who gave out of their great wealth (Mark 12:41-44). If we can transpose that concept to nations, and compare America (the wealthy) with Uganda (the poor), do we in fact see a situation where the poor not only give a greater proportion of their wealth than the wealthy nations do, but in fact more in value than what the wealthy nations do?
Read this from Revelation, and see what makes sense to you:
14 “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: ‘Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s creation: 15 “I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! 17 For you keep saying, ‘I am rich, I have gotten rich,
I don’t need a thing!’ You don’t know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked! 18 My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see. 19 As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins! 20 Here, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me. 21 I will let him who wins the victory sit with me on my throne, just as I myself also won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.” ’ ” (Revelation 3:14–22 CJB)