Daily Devotional · Deuteronomy 10:17–19
You Were Strangers
Reflection
"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt." The logic is powerful and personal: you know what it feels like to be a stranger in a land that does not welcome you. You know the vulnerability of having no legal protection, no community, no advocate. Therefore — love the stranger. God grounds His command in His own character first. He is the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribes — and He loves the foreigner. The God who is highest cares for those who have the least standing. Israel's calling was to embody the character of God toward the vulnerable. Caring for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner was not optional charity — it was covenantal obligation, rooted in the very nature of the God they worshiped. This principle resonates throughout Scripture: Ruth the Moabite was welcomed and became an ancestor of the Messiah. The prophet Amos condemned Israel for trampling the poor. Micah summarized the law as justice, mercy, and humility. Jesus was a refugee in Egypt as an infant. The measure of a community's faithfulness is often found in how it treats the most vulnerable — those who have no power to demand their rights.
Background
The Hebrew word for foreigner/stranger (ger) appears over 90 times in the Old Testament and carries consistent moral weight. The stranger, alongside the widow and orphan, forms a triad of the legally vulnerable in Israelite society. Protection of these three groups is repeated so frequently in the law that their welfare was clearly a litmus test of Israel's covenant faithfulness.
Truth
The character of God includes a specific bias toward the vulnerable. Those who belong to Him are called to embody this — not because it is politically convenient but because it reflects who He is. How we treat the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan reveals what we actually believe about God.
Application
Who in your immediate community is the "stranger" — the outsider, the immigrant, the person without a network? Ask God to show you one specific person, and take one concrete action this week: an introduction, a meal, advocacy, presence.