For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
– Deuteronomy 10:17–19
There’s so much here. I love this picture of God’s glory. His greatness, his might, and how awesome he is. Specifically on behalf of the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. This is why we see all throughout Scripture an emphasis on God’s people reflecting his love for the fatherless and the widow. Think about James 1:27. This is true religion to look after, to care for orphans and widows in their distress.
Deuteronomy 10:17–19 teaches us God’s heart for the sojourner.
But what I want to camp out on today is this picture of the sojourner. And lead us to pray in light of this command to God’s people in the Old Testament. To love the Sojourner. The person who is among God’s people but is not a part of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. That’s the context here. This is why we must be really careful when we read verses like this. We must not make a one-to-one comparison with maybe nations we’re a part of today.
This is God speaking to his people who were making up a physical nation. The nation of Israel, the Jewish people in the Old Testament. In a way God says, when a sojourner comes to you from another nation to live among you, love that sojourner giving him food and clothing.
And I want to make sure to mention that not being a one-to-one correlation. Because I don’t think Deuteronomy 10:17–19 outlines what immigration policies must look like for every nation in the world. But this is God speaking to his people in the Old Testament. And so I want to encourage us as the church to hear this. God loves the sojourner. He executes justice for the sojourner. And so as you think about immigrants… Refugees from other nations who you might know who might be in your neighborhood. I simply want to encourage you based on Deuteronomy 10. Look for ways in your life and in the life of your church family to love the sojourners around you as the overflow of Jesus.
Deuteronomy 10:17–19 reminds us to pray for just laws while caring for the vulnerable.
This a clear command for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. So yes, let’s pray for wisdom for government leaders in any nation we live in. Pray for them to enact and implement just laws when it comes to citizens of a country, immigrants, and refugees. Especially in light of the unprecedented refugee crisis in the world around us today.
Let’s pray for government leaders. At the same time, let’s pray for the church to be a reflection of God. His might, greatness, and awesomeness are demonstrated in his love for the sojourner. Oh God, we pray that you would help us individually and as your people… In whatever nation we live in… To love the people around us from other nations who have been brought near to us. I think about so many places in the world where the gospel has not gone. Places that are unreached by the gospel. And how you have brought many people from those places to our neighborhoods and the cities where we live.
Oh God, please help us to share the gospel. Help us show your love to all the peoples around us. Including the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. God, we pray for leaders in governments to make and implement just laws that execute justice for citizens of countries and sojourners in countries.
This verse pictures God’s justice and mercy for the oppressed.
And God, we intercede, especially for those sojourners, especially thinking about people who are forcibly displaced from their homeland for any number of reasons.
God, I think about walking through a refugee camp in a country near the Middle East and seeing tents after tents, after tents as far as the eye could see of men and women and children, little babies crying out who months before were doing fine in their homeland, and then whether due to war or terrorism or natural disasters, so many different things in this fallen world that have caused them to be displaced from their homes.
God, we pray on their behalf. We pray for your grace and your mercy over them, and we pray that you’d help us as your church around the world to be a depiction of your love for them, your greatness and your might, and your awesomeness in the way we love them as ourselves.
Prayer for the Rohingya People
God, we pray specifically for people groups like the Rohingya of Myanmar. Lord, we pray for this people group that has experienced such horrible, brutal treatment as they’ve been forced from their homes and most of them having no hope in the gospel. God, we pray that the Rohingya of Myanmar would be reached with the good news of your love and your grace and your mercy. And God, we pray that you would help us as your people, whether it’s with individuals, families, right around us or far from us. God, we pray you to help us to make your hope and your grace and your mercy and your justice and your love known among immigrants, refugees around us. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, according to your Word, to your people in Deuteronomy 10. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
