Foreigners

S: Deuteronomy 15

At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. ² This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbour. He shall not require payment from his neighbour and his brother, because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. ³ Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. 

O: Verse 3 struck me, because I remember many passages, even in the Pentateuch itself, that says things like “you must have the same law for the native as the foreigner.” Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:15–16 say pretty much that, in slightly different words.

Many people, Christians included, want to have a different law for the local and for the foreigner. Many people, Christians included, are anti-immigrant, and anti-“illegal”-immigrant, even if the immigrant has lived and worked peacefully here for years – and sometimes, generations, e.g. the Bajau Laut – whether “legally” or “illegally.”

This is the case both here in Malaysia and in USA and Europe. In Europe and USA, especially, there’s a lot of Islamophobia and White Supremacist attitudes, sometimes disguised as “well, they’re ‘illegal’” but the difference between “legal” and “illegal” is often a matter of differences in opportunity – no “illegal immigrant” wants to be illegal and would be legal if they were given the opportunity. Here in Malaysia, a lot of “illegal foreign workers” actually came legally but were played out by unscrupulous employers and agents aided and abetted by a corrupt system.

The fact is that there are 2 different Hebrew words that are translated “foreigner”– נָכְרִי nokri, and גֵּר ger. The word used in Deuteronomy 15:3 is nokri, while the word used in the other passages I refer to above is ger. So the Bible is not contradicting itself: equal law is commanded for the ger (resident foreigner), while certain covenant-family economic protections did not extend to the nokri (who are just passing through).

And lest one argues that the ger are only those who convert or assimilate, that’s clearly not true for Deuteronomy 10:19, which says, “Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” uses ger. The Israelites had a different religion and race than the Egyptians, yet they were gerim. (Plural of ger.)

We ethnic Chinese are gerim in Malaysia – we decry the Bumiputera discrimination against us, yet the foreign worker also is ger and we don’t stand up for their rights. We are gerim, but treat foreign workers like nokrim though they live here for years to earn an honest living. In fact, we treat tourists better, when those rich people are actually nokrim.

I also see Malaysian Chinese Christians spread Islamophobic videos from UK decrying Muslim immigrants “taking over” London. People justify it by saying, “Look what the Taliban did” or “Look what the terrorists did” but the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful. And the fact that some Muslim-majority governments persecute Christians never licenses Christians to return evil for evil. Jesus commands love for neighbour and even for enemies. Our conduct must display His holiness and mercy, not the world’s fear and revenge. How can we show the love of Christ to an unbelieving world if we spread such hateful propaganda?

A: Let us check our own attitudes. Let us not spread hatred for foreigners. Jesus calls us to love everyone, of every race, of every national origin. We are to treat everyone well. We are not to oppress.

Greet the foreign worker with a friendly smile. Treat people of other races as what they indeed are – human beings created in the image of God.

Let us never speak in a racist manner. Let us eschew whatever-phobia. We are to be salt and light to everyone. That is our primary mission as disciples of Jesus. If our actions are not being ambassadors for Christ, we must repent – which means to turn around and go the other way.

P: Father, I am not perfect either in being Your ambassador and showing Your love to everyone. Help me, and help me to encourage other believers to be Your salt and light and a conduit for Your love. Give me courage to confront lies with grace, and wisdom to advocate justly for the foreigner and other oppressed. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Ulangan sekali lagi

S: Deuteronomy 5:3

³ Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.

Deuteronomy 6:4-35

⁴ Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. ⁵ You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; ⁷ and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities which you didn’t build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; ¹² then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, ¹⁵ for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. ¹⁶ You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, ¹⁹ to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

²⁰ When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?” ²¹ then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; ²² and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; ²³ and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. ²⁴ Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. ²⁵ It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”

O: As I observed in my earlier post, Revision, we need reminders, because although we know something, we need to remind ourselves of these truths or we will forget to live by them. 

At first, Deuteronomy 5:3 seems puzzling, because Yahweh did make the covenant with their fathers. But in Hebrew thought, this kind of wording is an idiom — not meant to deny the past, but to stress the present. It emphasises that the covenant is not just a story about their fathers; it is living and binding for the people standing there that very day. In other words, “This is for you. Don’t dismiss it as only for your parents’ generation — God wants a relationship with you now!”

Deuteronomy 6 builds on this. It reminds us that we don’t just need to learn God’s truth once; we need continual reminders. And we don’t stop there — we are also called to pass on the knowledge of God to the next generation.

So: Deuteronomy 5:3 reminds us that God’s covenant is personal and for today. Deuteronomy 6:4–9 shows how we live that out — by loving God fully and passing the truth on.

A: I need to keep reminding myself of God’s truths so that I live by them and don’t forget. Now that my daughters are teenagers, “passing it on” looks different than when they were little — it’s less about direct teaching and more about guiding, encouraging, and living out an example of faith they can see. Together with my wife, I want our home to be a place where God’s Word is not just heard but lived.

P: Father, thank You that Your Word is for me today. Help me to keep meeting with You daily, reminding myself of Your truths. Strengthen my wife and me to walk closely with You, so that our daughters see a living example of faith in our family. May they continue to grow in maturity and love for You, and be firmly established in their walk with Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

From War to Love: My meditation on Deuteronomy 3

S: Deuteronomy 3

³ So the Lord our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. ⁴ At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. ⁶ We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women, and children. ⁷ But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.

O: Reading Deuteronomy 3 this morning again disturbed me, as it seems at first to justify genocide. In fact, Bibi (Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu) has used passages like this to justify his genocide of Palestinians, including our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus explicitly rejected violence against enemies, calling His followers to love, bless, and forgive (Matthew 5). The New Testament reframes “holy war” as spiritual: we battle sin, injustice, and powers of darkness — not flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).

Ancient Near Eastern conquest accounts (Moabite, Assyrian, Egyptian inscriptions) often used “utter destruction” language as standard rhetoric, even when survivors clearly remained. Some scholars argue the biblical “ban” (ḥerem) functioned similarly — theological language of total devotion or judgment, not necessarily a literal genocide.

In fact, the Bible clearly shows that many of these peoples eventually came to follow Yahweh and joined the family of faith — I touched on this in my 22 August reflection, Curses with a Hidden Door: Repentance.

Bibi cited passages like this when he said: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” He was referencing Deuteronomy 25:17–19:

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. ¹⁸ When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. ¹⁹ When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

(Note: his apologists later claimed he was only referencing Hamas, not Palestinians in general.)

When modern leaders quote these conquest texts to justify killing, they rip them out of their historical context and ignore Christ’s fulfillment of the law. (Granted, Bibi is not a Christian.)

Christians are called to reject that misuse. The early church lived under empires that persecuted them, but they never used Joshua or Deuteronomy to justify violence — they saw themselves as called to witness, not conquest.

Palestinian Christians are part of our family. And Palestinian Muslims are also created in the image of God. Using Scripture to justify harming them is a betrayal of the Gospel.

A: Jesus calls us to love our enemies. Even in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 33:11 says:

¹¹ As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!

Isaiah 55:7 declares:

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, for He will abundantly pardon.

And the whole book of Jonah is a parable teaching us that even for brutal enemies like Nineveh, God desires repentance, not destruction. Jonah, the Israelite prophet, knew this — that’s why he ran away toward Tarshish instead of preaching God’s warning. He feared that if Nineveh repented, God would relent from judgment. And indeed, that’s what happened.

Jesus calls us to love our enemies, not to hate them. When we as Christians engage in hateful rhetoric, we are not walking in the way of Jesus — we are walking in the way of Satan.

P: Father, help me to always act and speak in Your love. Let me never be vindictive or harsh toward people with whom I disagree. Instead, let me always be Your salt and light, drawing people to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Revision

S: Deuteronomy 1–2

1:2–3a Normally it only takes 11 days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir. But 40 years after the Israelites left Egypt…

1:31 You saw how Yahweh your God cared for you … just as a father cares for his child.

2:7 Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.

O: The book of Deuteronomy in Malay is called Ulangan, which is also the same word we use for “revision” — as in revising for an upcoming exam.

This whole book is meant to remind the Israelites of what had happened in the past: the 40 years of wandering in the desert on a journey that normally takes only 11 days. It reminds them why it took 40 years, even though God cared for them as a father cares for his child.

Elsewhere in Scripture, we read many times that God had the Israelites build memorials to remind them of what had happened in the past.

As the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir often said, “Melayu mudah lupa” — which literally means “Malays forget easily.” But in reality, it’s not just Malays; all people forget easily.

So often, when we find ourselves in times of trouble, we forget the blessings that God has bestowed upon us in the past. When we face temptation, we forget how God taught us to live. Just as students fail exams without revision, believers wander away if they don’t remember God’s blessings.

We know, but we don’t know. We forget.

A: That’s why we need to revise — to remember what God has done before and what He has called us to.
We need to remind ourselves daily of God’s goodness and God’s calling on our lives, renewing our love for Him in response to His love for us.

Daily prayer, daily Bible reading, and other spiritual disciplines keep Jesus at the forefront of our hearts and minds, shaping our thoughts and actions toward “What Would Jesus Do?”

P: Father, thank You for all You have done for us. May I be continually reminded of Your love and respond in love and action. Help me not just to remember but also to live out Your Word, so that others too may see Your faithfulness through me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Wow, vow

S: Numbers 30

O: A young woman’s vow could be annulled by her father when he first heard of it. A married woman’s vow could be annulled by her husband when he first heard of it. But a widow or divorced woman’s vow was her own responsibility.

This was a patriarchal culture, where a woman’s economic security and social standing were usually tied to her husband or father. The law allowed the father or husband to annul her vow because it might involve family property, finances, or responsibilities that he was accountable for.

In that context, the Bible wasn’t devaluing women but recognising their vulnerable position and protecting them from being bound in situations where they lacked autonomy over the family’s resources.

Instead of showing that women’s words had less value, it shows that God took their words seriously enough to legislate about them—unlike surrounding cultures that often ignored women’s self-determination entirely, treating them merely as possessions.

A: In the New Testament, God has poured His Spirit on everyone. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount not to make vows at all: “Let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:33–37). James 5:12 reinforces this: “All you need to say is a simple yes or no. Otherwise you will be condemned.”

Numbers 30 regulated vows in a patriarchal society, where vows carried great weight before God. But under the new covenant, the Spirit calls us not to rely on vows, but to live in daily truthfulness and integrity. We should say what we mean and mean what we say: “My word is my bond.” We shouldn’t need to swear before speaking the truth.

P: Father, help me to always be truthful, and give me wisdom when the plain truth might be hurtful. Help me to speak the truth in love. Forgive me when I fail, and give me humility to admit it to others. Fill me with Your Spirit so that my yes is truly yes and my no is truly no. In Jesus’ name, amen.