equal protection under God’s law

You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 24:22

This call to equal treatment under the law is repeated numerous times in the Pentateuch. It the case here in Leviticus 24, the end of this chapter lays out two instances where Israel must apply the death penalty fairly: cases of blasphemy (Leviticus 24:10-16) and cases of murder (Leviticus 24:17-23).

God foresaw that Israel might be tempted to be biased when it came to the treatment of immigrants. In the crime of blasphemy, it might be easy to give in to suspicion of differences and treat immigrants with contempt. Or it might be easy to lean towards laxness and not treat their blasphemy as seriously. But God was clear: Proven blasphemy would be punished equally for both the natural born Israelite and the sojourning immigrant.

The same was true for any phase of legal understanding in the nation. The same rules governed both the Jew and the Gentile living among God’s people. God’s Law was meant to be seriously followed by all people in the nation. Immigrants enjoyed the same protections and were also responsible for the same behaviors. God’s justice had spoken in His revealed Word.

Just as in the Old Testament God offered Gentiles the blessings of the Law if they also submitted to its consequences, so now the grace of Jesus Christ is offered to the entire world. All people everywhere are invited to come to Jesus Who is the hope of the world, to receive abundant and eternal life! And they all must submit to Christ’s lordship. Nobody gets a pass on that reality. Nobody gets better treatment. All take Jesus’ easy yoke and follow Him.

And Christians that are serious about following a Lord Who loves ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE will also notice and seek to promote His saving grace to the world. They will not harbor favoritism, give in to fear of strangers, allow the mistreatment of sojourning immigrants, or participate in the injustice denying legal recourse to people that are made in God’s image.