Strangers

Leviticus 25:39 ESV

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”

Leviticus is a book often seen as flyover country. As biblical illiteracy continues to climb and many simply “hit the high points” between Genesis and Mathew. Choosing to read the bible as tourists who only have so much time and need to hit the big draws before retreating to “normal” life. This tourist approach has led to the loss of a great deal of conviction and wisdom. The occasional stops for the Sunday School stories and a word from Psalms does much to sustain a person in famine but it leads to an unbalanced and malnourished faith. As Christians read through the depths and work through the vast expanses of Gods word they find the health to fight the battles worth fighting and the faith strong enough to endure the siege of the enemy.

As our nation becomes a community of vagabonds under one banner the words of God given to a group of nomads wandering in the desert fighting amongst themselves and with their leaders always doubting the goodness of God as trials and tribulations were constantly found along the way. Our nation has not been tied to homesteads for many decades now, but we also are no longer tied to factories, nor any job in particular or profession in general. With government organizations and institutions of all kinds wanting to create fluid workers, men and women able to change direction and jobs as quickly as a new need arises, we have become as mobile as the devices we carry and the cars we drive.

Looking at the text of Leviticus speaks to us in a way that it has not spoken to a generation of Americans for the last hundred years. The American experience was one of strangers looking to set up roots and place them deep in the land, yet, often now we are simply strangers and wanderers. Even in this though we are not left alone and abandoned. Even as God was setting up the laws of the promised land he made sure that all were to know that they were strangers and the land was not theirs. They were strangers walking in his land. He had given it to them but it was his. They were on this journey WITH him though. Psalm 139 tells us that no matter where we go God is with us and can find us. The promise of God in his law and in his song are the same he loves us and provides for us and there is no escape from his love and care.

At times this care looks as if we are putting down deep roots and times it looks like we have wings to rise and be blown with the wind, but in all of this it is God’s hand that guides us and plants our footsteps even as we plan our path. Know that no matter where you, dear Christian, find yourself you are always dwelling in the safety of God’s sovereign hand.

CORAM DEO