Strangers in the Land: Ger 31

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

[Sections relating to ger in bold]

“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ 

“Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ 

“Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the ger who is among you. 

“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the ger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the ger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

What Does It Say?

Today we're looking at another substantial chunk of text, because I think the context of these verses is what is most interesting.

The context is the offering of first-fruits when the Israelites come into the land. Two separate occasions are mentioned: the 'first of all the produce' when the Israelites initially come into the land, and then another on the third year, or "year of tithing."

What's fascinating here is that the text assumes there will be ger in the land with the Israelites, from the initial conquest and onward into the settled occupation. As mentioned previously, there was a 'mixed multitude' of non-Israelites following Moses through the Red Sea. Ger were part of Israel before Israel had any land.

That leads into some thoughts about what it means to be a nation. This section gives some good thoughts:

My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

The "Syrian" of course refers to Abraham (nee Abram). He (through his descendants) went down to Egypt, increased in number, and thus became a nation.

Two things here. First, the nation is the people - not the laws, not the land. Israel is a nation because they are "great, mighty, and populous." This is while they still dwell in Egypt, before God gives Moses any commandments or Joshua conquers any land. While, as we have seen, it is possible for others to be grafted on to the nation, the nation is primarily identified by common descent.

Second, there are some Christians who say that all nations and their natural boundaries were defined for all time in the "Table of Nations" in Genesis 10. And while there are some verse that could be construed to support "national eternalism" (Deuteronomy 32:8, for example), that's clearly not how God has worked in history.

Israel was not a nation until they increased in number. The people living in the Promised Land were nations until they decreased in number. The "boundaries" of the nations have and will be redrawn by the hand of God in history.

Next: Deuteronomy 27