Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everybody, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, does the Bible support breaking the law? Now, this is in response to an opinion piece I read in the New York Times by Rabbi Shai Held, who wrote a pretty spirited argument, defense of the Bible. The idea that the Bible pushes for embracing the immigrant, embracing the foreigner, embracing, in the context of American politics, those who are here illegally, those who have been targeted by ICE and by the Trump administration. And Rabbi Held is using the Bible to support his political position, which is great. I mean, I love that he's appealing to a higher source of authority. And of course, because he's a rabbi, to him when he references the Bible, he means the Old Testament. And his argument is that the Old Testament does a lot of work calling Israel the people of God, to be kind and generous and compassionate to foreigners. And he's right. He even says that God encourages and even requires Israel to further than most Americans might think, or most Americans might think their own country should go, and embracing the other, embracing the sojourner. And I think he's probably right. The Bible does have a lot to say about, not oppressing immigrants, not making things too hard on them. And compassion, of course, is a key attribute of God and something that should be true of the people of God as well. however, this article, this op ed piece, is really a great example of selectively using the Bible to make your point. I'm not taking shots here at Rabbi Held. We all can tend to do this, because when you read his op ed piece in, the second to last paragraph, he says, well, the Bible does have some things to say, too, about the immigrant, and they're coming up under the law of the country they're in. But then he just keeps moving tacit reference to passages that actually complicate his view. Because while the Bible does teach that we should be compassionate, and the Bible does teach in particular we should be compassionate to foreigners, it also says pretty clearly that foreigners must come up under the law of the people of God in the Old Testament or of the country in which they've immigrated to in modern times, Rabbi Held knows this, but he left it out of his peace. Like, let me give you two examples. the first one is in Leviticus 24:22, a passage from the Torah. I know something that Rabbi Held will see as authoritative and in Leviticus 24. God says this. You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native born. The context of Leviticus 20:24 is justice. And what God is saying is that foreigners must also live under the law the same way native born Israelites do. In other words, compassion for the foreigner is one thing, but compassion doesn't mean ignoring their illegality of their actions. Another passage, Exodus 12:49, says this. The same law applies both to the native born and the foreigner residing among you. In that passage, the context is circumcision. God is saying that foreigners can assimilate into Israel, into the people of God. In fact, this happens throughout the Old Testament when people like Rahab or Ruth, who are not born Jewish, but are assimilated into the people of God. But what God also says in Exodus is that the men who assimilate must be circumcised. In other words, there's a process they must go through to identify within the people of God to show that they're no longer a foreigner and are now a citizen. Boy, that sounds a lot like legal immigration. Here's my point. When people cherry pick the Bible, they're showing a side of the Bible, but not the whole thing. The Bible does say to be compassionate to foreigners. It also says that foreigners must obey the law. Because, you see, God can walk and chew gum at the same time. He can hold two things in his hand. He can hold compassion and justice, citizenship and love. He can do both those things. It's hard for us, which is why we tend to run to one political side or the other. We champion compassion over and against the law. We champion the law over and against compassion. But that's us. We. We do that. We are one dimensional, but God is not. So a great test of this for you and I, so that we won't cherry pick the Bible to support our own point is not to start by saying, are there verses in the Bible that support my position? Instead, it's better to ask, are there verses in the Bible that oppose my position? Have I wrestled with those? Because that will change. Change my position in such a way that I actually reflect what the Bible says and not what I want to represent it as saying in order to defend my politics. Immigration is incredibly complex, which is why simplistic answers won't work and simplistic readings of the Bible won't either. People like Rabbi Held have a position. I don't begrudge them that. But the Bible represents God's position. It does not exist to simply to support and defend ours. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

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