Some years ago the noted US pastor, theologian and writer Tim Keller wrote a book called Generous Justice.
In it, citing Zechariah 7v10-11, he highlights a ‘quartet of the vulnerable’ repeated throughout the Bible – ‘the widow, the fatherless, the immigrant... the poor.’ (He translates the Hebrew word gare as ‘immigrant’ rather than ‘foreigner’ or ‘alien’ as is more common, saying it ‘more accurately conveys to modern readers the meaning of the word.’)
And the immigrant, Tim Keller says, is someone repeatedly highlighted in the Old Testament as one to whom justice is due. Indeed, such justice is not optional. A failure to provide justice towards such vulnerable people is ‘a sin, offensive to God’s splendour [Job 31v23] and deserving of judgment and punishment [Job 31v28],’ he writes.
