What is the meaning of Deuteronomy 10:19? So you also - Moses has just declared that “He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18). - The phrase “So you also” draws an unbreakable line from what God does to what His people must do. - We are reminded that obedience is imitation: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). - God’s actions set the standard; our actions follow. must love - “Must” leaves no room for negotiation. Love is commanded, not suggested (John 13:34). - Love here is not sentiment but active care: meeting needs, protecting rights, showing hospitality (Romans 12:13). - Jesus summarizes the Law with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39); the foreigner is included in that “neighbor.” - Love fulfills the Law (Romans 13:8-10). the foreigner - The term covers immigrants, refugees, travelers—anyone outside the covenant community who dwells among God’s people (Leviticus 19:33-34). - God’s Law repeatedly safeguards them: • Fair treatment in courts (Deuteronomy 24:17). • Access to gleanings and tithes (Deuteronomy 24:19-22). • Inclusion in community festivals (Deuteronomy 16:11). - Welcoming outsiders anticipates the gospel’s reach to “every nation” (Revelation 7:9). since you yourselves - Motivation grows out of memory: who we once were shapes how we treat others now. - Israel’s story becomes the lens for empathy. Similarly, believers remember: “At that time you were separate from Christ… foreigners to the covenants of the promise” (Ephesians 2:12). - Gratitude fuels compassion; forgiven people forgive (Colossians 3:13). - Forgetting this past leads to pride and hardness (Deuteronomy 8:11-14). were foreigners in the land of Egypt - Four centuries of oppression (Exodus 12:40) stamped foreignness into Israel’s collective memory. - God redeemed them “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15). - Redemption carries responsibility: the rescued become rescuers (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). - Every Sabbath, feast, and Passover retold the Exodus so the people would never lose that outsider perspective (Exodus 13:8-10). summary Deuteronomy 10:19 commands God’s people to extend the same active, self-giving love God shows, especially toward outsiders. Remembering their own experience of alienation and God’s powerful rescue, Israel—and by extension all believers—are to welcome, provide for, and protect the foreigner, displaying the character of a God who “loves the foreigner” and once loved them when they were strangers to His covenant. |
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