DEALING WITH STRANGERS
BY VENERABLE STEPHEN WOLEMONWU
Rector, Ibru Ecumenical Centre
LEVITICUS. 19:33-37: “33- And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34- But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 35- Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36- Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37- Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.
The World is a strange place; everyday through different channel we come across people we barely know. True friends, close associates and even couples were once strangers to each other. There is a saying by an anonymous person: “it takes a day to know someone”. Every stranger is a strange person until you interact closely.
Building a positive mind-set in relationship especially with people we don’t know is the aim of this discuss and study.
WHO IS A STRANGER?
Anybody could be a stranger. Everyone is a stranger to somebody somewhere unknown. In life, we will keep meeting with strangers.
Oxford define stranger to mean:
- A person who one does not know or with whom one is not familiar.
- A person who does not know or is not known in a particular place or community.
- A person who is entirely unaccustomed to a feeling, experience or situation
- A stranger in the technical sense of the term may be defined to be a person of foreign extraction.
During the bible times, anyone from a foreign land residing in Palestine was considered a ‘stranger’. Jews had regulated ‘special laws’ to strangers:
1. They were not allowed to enter the congregation of the Lord even to their 10th generation. “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD forever:”(Deut. 23:3)
Other rules on dealing with the strangers was also given in Deut. 24:14-21
14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you. 16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin. 17 “You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 18 But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing. 19 “When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
These includes:
2. They were not to be oppressed
3. They were to be paid for their labour and on time
4. Their relatives were not to suffer for their offences
5. Their Judgment were not to be perverted
6. Leftover was to be intentionally created for them during harvest – share your abundance with them.
7. Always have a reserved item for strangers – they were to be budgeted for and
8. Widows in Israel were not allowed to many strangers – Deut. 25:5
9. Strangers should be part of your celebrations and feasting – Deut. 26:10-11
10. Strangers were to be part of the 3rd year tithe – Deut. 26:12
11. Jews could buy them as slaves – Lev. 25:44
In Psalm 146:9; the Bible said that God protects the strangers.
Know this about strangers: Not all are good and not all are bad
In writing the epistle to the Hebrews, the author in 13:2 said: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers………….”
An exegetical x-ray into 1 Corinthians. 13:1-13 exposes to us the greatest gift
The Greatest Gift
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of a prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love
Love is the great gift we need to have and share with those around us especially those we do not know. Do good to those you meet here; you may never know if they will meet you there.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
See 1Corinth. 4:7, and 1Kings 4:1-7
Life is a gift, the gift that life affords is for ‘us’ rather that for ‘me’. This means it is for the overall good of all, it is not ‘self-oriented’ but general goodness. God gives us opportunities, talents, spiritual blessings which most times are temporal, earthly and for a season. What we do with them at the time counts. A lost time, a lost opportunity, talent, privilege may never be redeemed. What to do with what God gives to you. In Genesis 12:1-2; God only blessed Abraham that he could be a blessing: “I will bless you and make you a blessing”. We are truly blessed when we become a blessing to those around us and more so to those we barely know.
NOTE THIS: God is the source and author of all things – Eccl. 9:11, 1Sam. 2:1-10
Therefore,
- Don’t be proud of what you have or who you are – 2Kgs 4:3, 1Sam. 2:3
- The full can be made empty overnight – 1Sam. 2:5, 2Kgs 4:1
- Everything we do with God’s provision and blessings is weighed – 1Sam. 2:3
- Those who stumble can be guided with strength – 1Sam. 2:4
Are you stumbling again and again?
Do you fail often and repeatedly?
Do you see everything you touch die or depreciate?
God is here to help you.
- God can raise anyone – 1Sam. 2:7-8
- How do you judge what you have – 2Kgs 4:2-6, Job 8:7
Never look down on anything you have – vs 2 ‘except a pot of oil’
Never neglect what you have
- The insignificant can be significantly rewarding if you believe
- Connecting with others can improve your status and make your nothing to become something never look down on people you come across. Vs 3.
- Develop what you have secretly – shut the door.
Some people need to shut the door of their mouth, some need to shut the door of their nudeness, some need to shut the door of their excessive socialization. Ask yourself now and possibly pen it down:
- Which door do you need to shut?
- What kind of people do you need to shut out or your life?
- Everybody is not needed in your life. Learn to work inside.
- As you have these opportunity ‘learn to pour out’
- Pour into vessels
- Pour out what you have.
- Hurdling does not bring increase
ASK YOURSELF!
- How do you handle assignment, opportunity?
- How do you sow into people? What do you pour into them?
- What do you pour out into people?
- Anything you pour out today will pay out tomorrow.
- Those who often hold back, most times don’t mold forward.
- What you need to know about possession
- They are investment, a contribution either by others or nature.
- Possessions could be acquired or inherited.
- Possession could be visible or invisible – open, revealed or hidden, concealed.
- Possession could be what you own or what owns you.
ASK YOURSELF AGAIN!
- What I have how did I get it? Was it by Self-effort?
- Are you the smartest of all your equals?
- What made you smart?
- Was it by the Support from others?
- What you have did, you get it legally or illegally? Was it peacefully received or violently received?
- Did you gain it by pulling others down, by doing good or bad?
- By making others better or by making others bitter?
- What you have, is it helping society or killing society? Is it making people move forward or setting people backward?
- Did you get here by pulling others down or by lifting others?
- What you have, does it have value, and can it add value to the society?
PRECIOUS TREASURES IN CLAY VESSELS
2Corinthians 4:7: “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves”. (New Living translation, NLT)
And Amplified Bible puts it this way: “but we have this precious treasure (the good news about salvation) in (unworthy) earthen vessels (of human frailty), so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be (shown to be) from God (His sufficiency) and not from ourselves”.
Man is nothing without God; and anybody can be somebody. In God’s creative setting, no vessel of His is useless. You are not useless, your family is not useless, and that business is not useless, that destiny is not useless.
Sometimes, our today may be small, looking empty and useless, very possibly unreal but hear this: “For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the land of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (Zech. 4:10) KJV.
JOB 8:6 reads: “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly”.
EVERY VESSEL DESIGNED BY GOD IS PRECIOUS AND PECULIAR
- Prov. 14:31 – Even the poor should not be oppressed because God is his maker – Designer
- Psalm 139:14 – “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.”
Two things you should know:
- Everything God created is good – (Genesis 1:31). You are God’s creation and you are good. In Timothy 4:4, the scripture said: “For everything God created is good, and no things is to be rejected….
- Everything God created is for a purpose. Prov. 16:4 (New Living translation – NLV) – “The Lord has made everything for His own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.” And Christian Standard Bible reads: The Lord has prepared everything for His purpose – even the wicked for the day of disaster.
GOD IS READY TO USE ANY VESSEL
No one is too small or too big for God to use. See 1Corinth. 1:27 “But God choose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is week in the world to shame the strong”. This is because God’s wisdom is greater than man – Isaiah 55:9
To God, nothing is useless. You are not useless. What we all need is grace
2Corinth. 12:9 – “And He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
THEREFORE, DON’T LOOK DOWN ON ANY VESSEL – 1Tim. 4:12
This is in two ways:
- Don’t look down on yourself
- Don’t look down on others
MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE – Isaiah 6:8: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me”.
Never look down on any one based on the following: Weakness, Fragility, Unworthiness, Age, Sex, stature, IQ, or Economical/sociology background
