God of the Immigrant
13When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, 14she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; 15and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” (Genesis 39:13-15 NRSV)
Blessed Sunday friends. As I mentioned yesterday, I have started to reread the Holy Bible, and this go-round, I am reading the New Oxford Annotated Bible. I have been marinating in the Book of Genesis for the last three weeks. Today, I was reading through the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. In chapter 39, when Potiphar’s wife is trying to seduce Joseph and have an affair on her husband, for the first time ever I noticed something unique about the verses above. This is why I tell everyone that they just HAVE to read the Bible for themselves, cover-to-cover. Once you complete that journey, you realize how wonderful that experience is, how enlightening, how invigorating, how liberating. And after reading the Good Book that first time, you feel yourself being called back to the Bible and starting the journey all over again. Well, I have read the Bible in its entirety just four times, and I have never read the above verses and caught this before.
Potiphar’s wife is calling Joseph a Hebrew. Where did that title come from? At this point, Joseph is one of twelve sons of Jacob, whose name had just before been turned to Israel after wrestling with God. Why is Joseph, who was sold to the Ishmaelites and brought to Egypt, being called a “Hebrew” by this Egyptian woman? This made me do some research into the earliest mention of the word “Hebrew” in Genesis. This happens in Genesis 14:13 which reads: “Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the terebinths of Mamre…” I had read that verse last week and did not catch this original use of the term “Hebrew”. So then I researched: “What is the earliest translation of the word Hebrew?” and this is the answer:
The God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. The God of Jacob. He is the God of the Hebrews. The God of the Migrant.
Let that sink in for a minute.
This morning, my family and I did our normal 9 AM serving within our home church of Compassion Christian. Then we were heading out the back door to go home and catch the 11 AM service online in the comforts of our living room. But as we were walking out, we saw this display of classic luggage with the flag of Spain and the flag of Ukraine draped over these hard suitcases. You know the kind, the ones that remind you of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Seeing that display, the Holy Spirit stopped my wife and I in our tracks and we shouted at our three kids to turn around. We were not going to be watching the service at home, we were going to be attending in person (like we should ever week). Despite their grumbling, we led them to our normal seats in the balcony section.
This week was the launch of our church’s annual “Faith Promise”, where they are asking the congregation to either commit to an outreach missions trip next year, or to help fund these missions from around the world. For the message today, the head Pastor from a church located in Kherson, Ukraine preached to our campus. This man’s testimony and what his congregation is currently going through every single day left the auditorium in humbled silence. It was a stark reminder of how blessed we are to live in America. And an even more important reminder of the support Ukraine continues to need.
In 2017, almost a decade ago, I spent three weeks in the Republic of Georgia (ROG), a country most of the world does not even know exists. I was there for Nobel Partner 17, a multi-national training exercise with NATO partners. I am sure most of you readers are unaware, or have forgotten, but in 2008, Russia and Georgia got into a five-day skirmish over a section of the country of Georgia that still claimed to be part of the Soviet Union. Well Russia pushed deep into Georgia and after five days of fighting with the much larger country to the north, Georgia allowed Russia to somewhat take ownership of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions. Well, nine years after that, I was in the ROG, training with their soldiers. At the end of the training event, they hosted us for their traditional feast (a Supra). During ROG Supras, there are a lot of toasts that go on. Repeatedly, the Georgian Soldiers raised their glasses and shouted, “FUCK RUSSIA”, and all of us American soldiers raised our glasses and shouted in return: FUCK RUSSIA.
After hearing this Ukrainian Pastor speak today, I drove away with that same sentiment in my mind. F- Russia. But more than that, the thought of what our government is currently doing to hurt the Ukrainians is absolutely disgusting. So yeah, Fuck Russia, and the same goes to anyone that continues to support cutting off funding and military aide to that country, a country that continues to fight for their lives.
If you are a Christian, I want you to remember that God was the LORD of the migrant long before He was the LORD of the sovereign nation. God is the LORD of the defender, not the invader. He sent His SON to establish peace on this Earth, and anyone who does not stand for peace, stands against the foundations of Jesus Christ.
