Remember What It Was Like Not to Belong

Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:19

Read Deuteronomy 9 and 10. Focus on Deuteronomy 9:4 through 6 and 10:12 through 19. Before Israel receives the land, Moses removes a flattering explanation. The people must not say that their own righteousness secured it. He recalls their stubbornness and the golden calf. Their future rests on God's covenant faithfulness, not a record of moral superiority. Chapter 10 then describes the God they are to serve. He is great, mighty, and impartial. He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the stranger, giving food and clothing. His people are commanded to love the stranger too, remembering their own experience in Egypt. The movement is important. Remembering our failures should not produce only private embarrassment. Remembering our vulnerability should affect how we treat someone vulnerable now. Humility before God has a neighboring person in view. Once we know how a place works, we can forget how much knowledge belonging requires. We understand the parking, the forms, the unspoken rules, and the names everyone uses. Someone new encounters a series of small uncertainties that familiar people no longer notice. Imagine entering a building where every sign assumes you already know which office you need. You ask a question and receive an abbreviation instead of a direction. Nobody intends to be hostile, yet the experience leaves you feeling that the place was designed for people other than you. A person who remembers being new can change that experience. Plain language, a full explanation, and an offered direction can make an unfamiliar setting more usable. These acts require little drama and some willingness to interrupt our own smooth routine. The biblical stranger is not merely a person with a different personality. The term concerns someone living outside their ancestral community, often without its protections. The command reaches material needs and fair treatment. A pleasant greeting alone would not fulfill everything Moses describes. Our circumstances differ, but the memory can still become practical. Where do newcomers lack information, access, or an advocate? What do established members receive automatically that others must repeatedly request? Is there a modest change that would make the arrangement less dependent on knowing an insider? We must also resist turning our own earlier hardship into a reason to make others struggle. “I figured it out” does not mean someone else's confusion is a necessary education. Having been helped, or having needed help we did not receive, can make us more attentive now. God's people are to remember Egypt in a way that changes the welcome they offer. Let your history teach care. The place you now understand can become easier for another person because you have not forgotten what it felt like to stand outside its familiar circle. Put It into Practice Replace one unexplained abbreviation, assumption, or insider procedure with a clear explanation. Offer it before someone has to risk embarrassment by asking again.

What do you now find obvious that a newcomer has no reasonable way to know?

Impartial God, keep belonging from making me forget the experience of being a stranger. Use my history to deepen practical care. Help me offer information, fairness, and welcome without making another person feel small for needing them. Amen.