Now we're going to read from the scriptures, and tonight we're reading in Ruth chapter one, starting at verse 19, and reading to verse 18 in chapter two. Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. This is Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. And it happened when they had come to Bethlehem. that all the city was excited because of them, and the women said, is this Naomi? But she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me. So, Naomi returned, and Ruth, though Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now, they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. There was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. Then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, it is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house. Then Boaz said to Ruth, you will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn." So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? And Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge. Then she said, let me find favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants. Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, come here and eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her, and she ate, and was satisfied, and kept some back. And when she arose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, let her glean, even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her. Leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. Then she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, so she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied." This is God's word. I have heard people argue strenuously that immigrants are criminals, that those who enter the country, maybe enter the country without a visa, are criminals, and that immigrants need to be deported from the country to keep our population and our society safe. Now, last year, a report from the Federal Department of Justice looked at the arrests in Texas between 2012 and 2018, and that study showed something just very definitive, it showed that American citizens committed crimes twice as frequently as undocumented immigrants. That study showed that US citizens also committed violent crimes more than twice as frequently as undocumented immigrants. Quoting the report, the offending rates of undocumented immigrants were consistently lower. than both U.S. born citizens and documented immigrants for assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft, and arson. For drug offenses too, undocumented immigrants were less than half as likely to be arrested as native born U.S. citizens. So what does that tell you? That study says that undocumented immigrants reduce the violent crime rate in the U.S. And yet some people will insist that undocumented immigrants pose a great danger to the nation. Now, that is just a report, those are just statistics. Apart from statistics, whichever way those statistics may be and may shift, apart from statistics, what attitude should we have towards immigrants and outsiders? What does the Bible say about what attitude we should have towards foreigners? Our text addresses the attitude that God's people had towards foreigners and immigrants. We look at three things. First of all, we look at the plight of immigrants, the plight of immigrants. We look at a place for the immigrant. And then thirdly, we look at a planet of immigrants. So the plight of the immigrant, a place for the immigrant, and a planet of immigrants. Let's start with the plight of the immigrant. And so we're looking at verse 20, going to verse two of the next chapter. What problems do immigrants face? And here we've got two immigrant women. You have Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth is an immigrant from Moab, arriving in Israel. But Naomi, even though she's coming back to her homeland and is an Israelite, She also was an immigrant. For 10 years, she was an immigrant in Moab. So what does the situation for these two immigrant women, what does their situation tell us about the plight of the immigrant? Let's just look at some of the problems that immigrants face. First of all, we see this. Immigrants enter empty. Immigrants enter empty. Verse 21, Naomi says, I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. these two immigrants enter the country with nothing. They've got nothing. I spoke yesterday with a family who recently arrived here from Afghanistan, and with the younger couple that came, their elderly parents also arrived, and the elderly parents They didn't even have a day to pack. They just had to get out. And you probably remember some of the events surrounding that. They came with nothing. Now, can you imagine starting life in a new place with no assets, with few connections, and with none of your stuff? And what if you couldn't even speak the language? Well, Ruth enters Israel empty, and plenty of immigrants, know what that's like. So immigrants enter empty. Secondly, immigrants put a lot of weight on very few connections. They have to put a lot of weight on very few connections. So for plenty of immigrants, they arrive and they don't know anyone. They know nobody. Or maybe, maybe they've got one distant cousin, maybe a distant cousin in Schenectady. And maybe it's something like this. Maybe there's someone back home where you came from, and they know of some guy who's working somewhere in town, and there's this one slender contact, and you just hope that that one person who's already here can help you with everything, can help you with an apartment, can help you with a job, can help you with transportation, Verse one, these women have got one person to whom they're loosely connected. It says in verse one, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, Elimelech. a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz." Naomi is related to this wealthy man, Boaz, through her husband, and now her husband is dead. This one named person, there's this hope that maybe this person can help us come in with a little bit smoother landing. Maybe this person could be a safety net for Ruth and Naomi, but there's no indication that they're tapping into that when they first arrive. Thirdly, we see this, immigrants also depend on kindness from random strangers. Immigrants depend on kindness from random people. Verse two, Ruth says to her mother-in-law, let me go out and look for work. Perhaps I can find farm work in a farmer's field in whose sight I may find favor." So this immigrant woman says, maybe some random business person will be nice to me and give me some work. And this is what happens in so many ways for immigrants. They go to the DMV and they just hope they will get a DMV person who will be decent and helpful as they process all this different international pieces of information and forms. And immigrants maybe, they look for a used car and they just hope that the person that's selling them a car will be kind and won't sell them a junk car. And so immigrants depend on kindness from random people. Fourthly, immigrants work from the bottom. They work from the bottom. They work in poverty. Verse two, Ruth is looking for ways just to gather scrap food. What she is looking for is just one step above dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is going to the back of Dunkin' Donuts and going through the trash looking for leftover food that was thrown out at the end of the day. Immigrants are willing to do, willing to work to do work that others won't do. Immigrants are working from the bottom. Fifthly, you also see this, immigrants work to the bone. Immigrants work to the bone. Verse seven, Ruth gets a position collecting crops, scraps in the field, and she worked to the bone. The report about her is verse seven, so she came and she's been on her feet from early morning until now, barely resting even for a moment. The more immigrants you know. you know that this is often usually the situation. Isn't it the case that plenty of them are overworking and they're underpaid? Long hours, little pay, because they're just trying to keep it together for themselves and for their family. And so many of them even have this dynamic on top of that. They are working to try to keep their own family, their own person here established and provided for. And on top of that, they're often sending back home to the people. That's what Ruth is doing. She brings back home for her mother-in-law, not just for herself. Sixthly, we also see this. Immigrants are vulnerable. They're vulnerable and they have limited access to basic needs. So verse 8, the manager sees this poor immigrant employee and says, stay on our company property. Other places are risky and unsafe for a foreign single woman. So Ruth, he's saying there, Ruth was vulnerable and she actually had a legitimate worry about her physical safety. She also, though, was not only vulnerable, she had limited access to provide for basic needs. Verse nine, working in the field, she would get hot and thirsty. It just wasn't easy for her to stay hydrated. And so, verse nine, she's invited to drink from the water that's for staff. And it's like that in so many ways for immigrants. Immigrants have to figure out not just food, not just housing, but also just all the basics in order to live in this new society. They've got to figure out, how do I get access to medical care when I've got barely anything? How can I do laundry? How can I deal with supervisors who seem to be exploiting me? But you fear reporting it because it might risk your visa status. And so immigrants are vulnerable, they've got limited access to basic needs. Seventh, we see that immigrants are, they're either unseen or they're stereotyped. Either unseen or stereotyped. They're either invisible, ignored, or they get caricatured. So verse six, how does an employee refer to this immigrant woman? And what he says is, in verse six, she's the young Moabite woman. There's no name. when people talk about her, she's known by her nationality, not by her name. The Moabite woman, the Nigerian woman, the Ukraine woman. In the book of Ruth, race plays a major part of the culture. Over and over, Ruth is called the Moabitess, the Moabitess, the woman from Moab. And for the readers of this that triggers all of this historic and cultural memory, the implications of Moab and its shady history with the people of Israel. And so she gets stereotyped. Or, as is the case for many foreigners, by not giving her a name, she's just invisible. She's unseen, she's just in the mix of all the other people, she's forgettable, she's not noticed. Verse 10, she's amazed when Boaz starts to understand what her needs are. She says, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? She knows that foreigners are not noticed and she's surprised when someone notices her. She says, everyone else ignores me. I'm unseen. Why are you being so kind when everyone else avoids me? We live in a country that has always had this reputation as being a melting pot. In this city, it's not unusual to go to different venues, to be in stores, to be in public places, and there's someone behind the counter and you can just tell. You are You are not from here. And what we want to think is that person has a story. That person has mothers, fathers, kids, hopes and burdens. That person has food and friends that are far away and they probably miss them. So eighth and finally, part of the plight of the immigrant is this. Immigrants have God questions. Verse 12, Boaz addresses some of this immigrant's woman's God questions. In verse 12, Boaz says, the Lord repay your work and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel. under whose wings you have come for refuge. So he brings out there, may you be repaid, may the Lord give you a reward, you've come to him for refuge. So what are the implicit God questions in the mind of this immigrant woman? Does God see how hard I'm trying? Does God care about me? Will God keep me safe in this country? You know, immigration, they talk about the immigration crisis. Immigration is a crisis for the immigrant. And crisis makes us ask God questions. Immigrants ask God questions. So we see the plight of the immigrants. Next, let's look at a place for the immigrants. So this is verses 3 through 18. We see in the text a man of God making a place for an immigrant. The man of God here is Boaz, and Boaz illustrates how God wants his people to treat immigrants. Now, If you've read through the Bible, this is not a surprise to you. The Bible speaks frequently and it speaks firmly about how to treat foreigners, how to treat immigrants. And depending on the translation you use, the immigrant is sometimes called the stranger, sometimes called foreigner, sometimes called the alien. It's just talking about people who are not born here. They don't come from this place. And that was just a feature for the people of Israel. Here's one command in the Law of Moses that gives you a little bit of the flavor of how God wants immigrants treated. Deuteronomy 24, verse 19. He's speaking to his people, to the Israelites. When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you're harvesting, you're loading up inventory, and something falls off the truck, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, so again, this is a different kind of collection and production and harvest. When you beat your olive trees, collecting the olives, you shall not go over the boughs a second time. it shall be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow." He's saying, just make one pass, collect what you can, and there's gonna be stuff left in the tree. Leave the rest of it for the poor, for the foreigner. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, You shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember, and here he's giving some motivation, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this thing. So he's speaking to a people that are agricultural. Largely, they're a fields and flocks economy. And the Lord tells them, leave work. Leave work and leave food for people at the bottom. Don't maximize for your harvest efficiency. Don't completely harvest everything so that the branches are empty and you've got every last piece of fruit, every olive. He says, leave leftovers on the branches. Just make one pass, leave the rest for the poor, for the foreigner. Leave pickings for them. Leave them work because it's still there on the branches. leave work for them to do so they can have something to eat. So there's something that's just very beautiful about this simple principle of what God's given here. On the one hand, the poor and those who are at the bottom need to eat. And so he tells business owners, leave some food for them. On the other hand, what he says here is the poor and the foreigner will have to work for that food. He says, leave fruit for them to pick, leave bundles for them to gather. They're going to have to work for this food. So do you see what that does? He humanizes the poor. It gives dignity to those who are at the bottom. It would be one thing to just do a complete harvest of everything, take a fraction of it and just find people in need and just give it to them. That's not what he says. just dumping a basket of food at their house, it could actually feel shameful, rob them of dignity. He's saying, let them have a chance to work. And plenty of people who are at the bottom are saying the same thing. Give me a chance to work. Work, labor, It's part of the creation, the created order that God made. Work was invented by God before there was sin, before the fall. He created man and woman to work and to tend the garden, to have dominion over the creation. Work is not evil. We were made as human beings to work. And so you might accurately say work makes us more human. Work is part of what makes us healthy human beings. So let's look at how this man of God, Boaz, makes a place for the immigrant. First of all, we see the man of God provides work. He doesn't just give Ruth money, doesn't just give her food. Verses seven and eight, Ruth, the immigrant woman, asks for a position. She asks for entry-level work, and Boaz invites her to work with the rest of them. Verse 16, Boaz says, Let, make sure you let bundles of grain fall purposely for her. He's echoing what was commanded in Deuteronomy 24. Let bundles of grain fall purposely for her, leave some for her, don't stop her. So what's going on here? Boaz is invoking the law for the foreigner, the widow, the poor. It's almost like one of these, if you were to look at the Mosaic Law, you could say there are some social security, there are some social safety net provisions in God's law, and this one in Deuteronomy 24 is one of them. It's almost a right to work principle in the kingdom of God, especially for those who are disadvantaged, especially for foreigners who are trying to make it. And Boaz gives her a position, for the entire harvest season. By the time you get to verse 23, it says, Ruth started at the beginning of harvest season, and she works there for the entire harvest that would have been on average about seven weeks. The question I think for all of us, because we're thinking, well, I'm not a public policymaker, I don't have a corporation, some people actually do, but can you find work? Can you find work? for those at the bottom? I mean, can you make recommendations for them? Can you try to open doors? Can you try to make connections for those who need work? I mean, the vision is this. Think of what could happen. Think of what could happen if every business built in some kind of entry-level position for people who are in need. So not only does Boaz provide work, he provides work, second, the man of God protects the immigrant. Verse eight, Boaz tells this vulnerable Middle Eastern woman, Stay close by my young women. Verse nine, I've commanded the young men not to touch you. So he's offering her protection. Sometimes foreigners fear being harassed, being scammed, being mistreated. Boaz is offering her safety, protection. And he's offering also basic human provision for her. Verse nine, Boaz says, you are welcome here. Get hydrated here, just like any other employee. Don't feel bashful, come to the water, drink water, stay hydrated. Now, in our country, it depends on how much you're into just following the news, following the public policy arguments and debates, there's lots of debate about the rights of immigrants, the civil rights, the legal rights of immigrants. And believe me, there are plenty of complexities. But here's one principle, just a principle, a broad principle that we're bringing from scripture One principle that we bring to this complex equation, protect immigrants, protect foreigners. Places in God's word like Jeremiah 22.3, thus says the Lord, do no wrong and do no violence to the immigrant, the fatherless or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. Exodus 22.21, Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you are foreigners in Egypt. Leviticus 19.33, and if a stranger, if a foreigner dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. Now, this is just a sample. There are lots of places in the Bible that speak like this. Why does God put this in there? Why does God issue these kinds of laws to his people? It's because it's very easy, it's very easy to mistreat the foreigner, the vulnerable, the poor. Now, public policy is complex, but what I want us all to see is that there's this kingdom value in God's public policy prioritizing fair treatment for immigrants. And so all of us watch things, all of us read things, listen to things, I just want to invite you, can I even challenge you to notice, just to notice, if the voices that you follow embrace protection of the foreigner. Thirdly, we see this, the man of God makes a place for the immigrant this way. The man of God treats the stranger as a citizen. The man of God here treats the stranger as a citizen. You see social inclusion, social inclusion. Boaz has Ruth at his table with the rest of the staff, and in the Near East culture of that time, to have someone eat at your table, that was an act of friendship, that was an offer of being included socially. Verse 14, Boaz speaks to this poor Middle Eastern woman at mealtime and says, come, eat from our food, have a place with us, sit with us, and he says, let me serve you. So Boaz sees the unseen person, Boaz brings to this woman who no one even names, Boaz treats the stranger as a citizen, and even more, he treats her as family. It says, verse eight, Boaz calls her, calls her daughter, In this town, we are surrounded by all kinds of foreigners. We are surrounded by people who are not from here. Some of them are foreigners from places like Michigan. They transfer in from the military. Others come in as students. Others are here seeking asylum. Others are seeking a better life, a safer life. I'm inviting you not just to support laws that welcome immigrants, I'm asking you to sit at a table, literally, to sit at a table and to invite a foreigner to eat with you, maybe to join you for your Memorial Day picnic, maybe to join you for part of Christmas, not only for meals, maybe the principle is this, can you make one of them feel like one of us. Listen to God's value statement for his kingdom, the way he wants things in his kingdom. Leviticus 19 verse 34, the foreigner who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you. The foreigner the immigrant who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." Now I know this sounds very basic, but God just puts this very, very fine point on it. Love the immigrant and the stranger. Love the foreigner as you love yourself, treat the immigrant as one born among you. Other places, Deuteronomy 10, 19, therefore love the foreigner, for you are foreigners in the land of Egypt. Now when people get to talking about immigration policy, about deportation, about what ICE should do and what ICE shouldn't do, if you're a believer, Here's one of your personal values that you need to bring into this complex, maybe confusing question. This has gotta be one of your personal values as a believer. The immigrant who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. So advocate for immigrants as if you were an immigrant. Embrace immigrants as if you were once an immigrant. Love immigrants as if you were once an immigrant. So we've looked at the plight of the immigrant, we've looked at a place for the immigrant, and finally, a planet of immigrants. You notice this motivation that God repeats over and over, this motivation for why God calls us to have a heart for immigrants. He says, love the foreigner among you because you were foreigners in Egypt. For 430 years, the people of God were oppressed minorities in Egypt. And so God says to them, he says to his people now living in their own land, he says, immigrant is part of your identity. Speaking to his own people, Israel, he says, immigrant will always be part of your identity. He says, you know, you know what's hard for the immigrant, you know what, you know the hurt of the immigrant, and that must give you a heart for the immigrant. And that theme, that theme of immigrants, It recurs through the whole Bible. You've got Father Abraham, who leaves his home country of Ur to go to another country, Canaan. And then you've got Israel, who is captive in Egypt. They're foreigners in Egypt for centuries. Then the Jewish people, once again, they're utterly uprooted. They're exiles. They're captives in Assyria and Babylon for decades and decades. and Christians, Christian believers, part of your core identity is also that you're an immigrant. You are, in this life, strangers, aliens, you're not of this world. Places like 1 Peter 2, 11, dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage against your soul. Hebrews 11, 13, all these people died in faith and confessed, speaking of the faithful throughout all of the history of the church, these all died in faith and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. So what he's saying here is believer, you have a dual citizenship. Maybe you're a citizen of America, maybe you're a citizen of Ghana or some other country, but if you're in Christ, your primary citizenship is in the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his glorious son. And even if you're not a Christian and you're listening to this and you're not a believer, Even if you're not a Christian, you are still essentially a foreigner, an immigrant. Even if you're like, what are you talking about? I was born here. I've always lived here. Everyone on the planet is a foreigner. Everyone on the planet is in exile. And deep inside, we know this is true. Long ago, the very first human beings, they cast off their original citizenship and they were cast out, cast out of our first and our true home in Eden. We sinned in Adam and God cast us out of paradise and his presence. And just the entirety of human history since then is fallen and we're marked by this profound sense that we've been banished. I've been banished, banished from our home country. That's why you often just feel out of place, even if this is where you've always grown up. That's why human relationships are so hard. That's why you can be surrounded by professional success and still feel insecure or still feel unsatisfied. That is because we know We aren't in our home country, and we can't return to our home country. We were deported, and we can't go back home. Why? We can't go back home because we have outstanding charges against us there. That's called sin, our sin. All the ways that we broke the law of our land, we are on this side of Eden, all of us, every mother's son, We are a planet of immigrants and exiles. I mean, when you sense that, when you tap into that, doesn't that sense of our immigrant displacement, doesn't it give a little bit more poignancy to the inscription under the Statue of Liberty? Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. All of us, all of us are outcasts, all of us are exiles from our country, all of us truly are strangers in a strange land. And Jesus is the man, Boaz was the man of God who made a place for the immigrant. Jesus is the true man of God who opens his doors, who offers his table, and says, come unto me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens. Jesus is the man of God who says, I have a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you in my Father's house. What you see is Boaz made a place for this immigrant woman. Jesus makes immigrants and foreigners into permanent residents and citizens. Jesus takes strangers and turns us into native sons and daughters. Ephesians 2, 12, at that time, you were without Christ. Being foreigners, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers. from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The command says to love the foreigner and to love immigrants because you fundamentally were foreigners and immigrants and Jesus loved you. And what this tells you is if you're the kind of person who just struggles with assurance, feels that there's this coldness or even a bit of irritation that God has against you, and maybe you struggle to really sense that Jesus loves you, how can you be certain that Jesus loves you? You can be certain that Jesus loves you. because he was also a foreigner and an immigrant. How was he an immigrant? Jesus is the highest citizen of heaven who came to earth and they never granted him Roman citizenship. He's the man of God, the God-man who now lives among us. He is not an American citizen and he died on a cross. That form of execution was reserved for non-citizens and Jesus died in our place as a non-citizen, and as he was dying on that cross, he assured another non-citizen, today you will be with me in paradise. Today you will enter into the citizenship of heaven. You wonder if Jesus loves you. Jesus loves immigrants and exiles because he was an immigrant and exile. Let's pray. Lord, we're sobered by the law of God that we've read from and looked at, but we're also warmed by the reasons you put after these laws. You loved us. We have always been strangers and foreigners in this land, and you have just been leasing it to us, letting us be here. And we thank you that Jesus came to us in order to bring us home. I pray, Lord, that we would have this sense of security and our heavenly citizenship, and I pray that those who are far from you and without God and without hope in the world would seek after you and come to know the way to return from exile. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.