“Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.” – 2 Chronicles 6:32-33

Here, Solomon sees a time where foreigners will be drawn to Israel to worship God. God’s grace and mercy has always been intended for all nations, and God’s elect should not dissuade the lost of the world finding salvation wherever they are. Solomon is seeking the Lord’s wisdom in helping the elect of Israel to not shun, but welcome, the foreigner to their lands. This points ahead to Christ’s call for the elect to take the gospel to the world (Mat. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

Disciples of Christ were not instructed to turn away or discourage the foreigners. We are called to welcome them without judgement or persecution. The boarders of our lands are less relevant than the salvific state of those who cross them. John Arthur Thompson said, “There is a fine spirit of tolerance toward the foreigner who came from a distant land because of God’s great name and his mighty hand and outstretched arm. Let God hear the foreigner and do whatever he asks so that the people of the earth may know his name and fear him as do God’s own people Israel.”[1] The Christian is instructed to be different than the world. We are not to reject or malign the foreigner who travels among us. For God’s glory, and the eternal state of the foreigner, the elect are to love the foreigners.

The political immigration discussion and the biblical mandate on the treatment of foreigners is confusing for some disciples of Christ. Solomon does not regard politics nor the legal status of a foreigner. Our Father is using immigration to bring foreigners into our land so his elect can share his grace and mercy with the foreigner. Frequently we travel to foreign lands to serve other cultures in Christ’s name. When our sovereign Lord brings the foreigners to our doorstep we should show them no less of God’s perfect love.

[1] J. A. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, vol. 9, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 230.