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Mid-Week with Christ
March 11, 2020

When a Foreigner Comes

1 Kings 8:41-50

41 “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake 42 (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43 hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. 44 “If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause. 46 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, 47 yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’... 49 then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause 50 and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

Prayer for the Day

Oh Lord, when foreigners come to our land, use us to bring them to Your house. And when they come and pray, hear them, that the whole world may honor and fear Your name. Amen.

The Old Testament is replete with discussion and laws about “the foreigner.” Today’s reading from 1 Kings is but one of many. Solomon, the king who ruled during the peak of Israel’s power, dedicates a temple to the God who liberated his people from Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land. In that dedication, he pleads for the non-Israelite living in the land that the Lord might also hear his prayers. Why would he make that request? “In order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you.”

In times past, foreign missions was about sending missionaries from here to there. Increasingly, however, foreign missions is about reaching people from over there through our churches here. In Montreal, for example, our formerly Slovak congregation now has members from almost every continent worshipping our Lord in three different languages (and speaking many others). We are bringing in a deaconess who can help us do “foreign missions” without leaving our neighborhood. We pray for the tens of thousands of immigrants on our doorsteps that, through us, they might pray in our Lord’s house and come to know the name of Jesus.

It can be scary inviting new people into your home. Our cat gets nervous whenever someone comes whom she hasn’t met. But this is the way enemies become brothers and sisters. Solomon is worried less about border security in this prayer than he is about those outside Israel coming to know and honor Israel’s God – our God. They are sinners, true, but so are we – for there is no one who does not sin, native, longtime resident, or newly arrived foreigner. All of us need Jesus and his salvation won at the cross. Let Solomon’s prayer be ours as well.

Copyright © 2020 Mission to Quebec and the Caribbean, All rights reserved.

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