Should We Accept Immigrants Who Comply With US Culture & Customs (& Deport Those Who Don’t)?

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(14a) <Cain said,> “Today You (God) are driving me from the land…”, (16) So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.’ (Genesis 4:14a, 16); ‘Surely, Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.’ (Psalm 5:12)

In Genesis 4 we find two brothers, Abel and Cain, who came up with differing ways to provide sacrifices to the Lord.  Cain had made his offering a vegetation sacrifice; a portion of the harvest Cain gave to the Lord.  Abel had made his offering an animal sacrifice, a portion of the flock Abel gave to the Lord.  God preferred Abel’s sacrifice as it was a demonstration of giving up an ultimate gift, a life, to the Lord – a demonstration that our Lord Jesus would provide for us on the cross.  Cain, being upset his offering was not preferred, killed Abel.  God, likely in the form of Jesus or God Manifested, banished Cain from the land of ‘greater Eden’ (remembering Adam & Eve were banished from Eden for the Original Sin, disobedience to God) to the ‘Land of Nod’.

God used deportation for Cain, and earlier his parents from the Garden of Eden, due to them not conforming to His overarching rule, ‘Don’t Sin’, which breaks the Greatest Commandment, ‘Love God’.   In looking at Cain’s reaction, we see Cain, when confronted by God, was unrepentant over killing Abel, distraught only that God was sending him out.  When Cain could not conform to God’s law, God deported Cain out of the land He cultivated for His people to flourish. 

We see this again with the nation of Israel in Jeremiah’s time; God provided the land of Canaan for the Israelites for His people to flourish, but when they turned away from God, He deported (exiled) the Israelites to Babylon, bringing them back only after the unrepentant generation had passed.    (One could say God did a preemptive deportation when He allowed the Israelites to wander in the Wilderness for 40 years prior to allowing them into the Promised Land.)

God favors and prefers people who worship Him and follow Him in Righteousness; we see this throughout the Bible, such as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and David.  None of these men were perfect, but unlike Cain they were repentant in what they did wrong.  God allowed Abraham to reside in Canaan; and Jacob became the father of the twelve sons who would become the tribes of Israel, and David would become the King of the lineage that Jesus would be aligned to, to reign forever in His Kingdom.  The people who accept Christ as Savior will be His eternal subjects in His Kingdom.  Those who accept Christ agree to conform to His standards, His rules, His ways.  This includes immigrants, we who are Gentiles, who agree to conform to Him and become grafted into His family tree, the Jews.

We see in the world today immigrants who have come into other nations, some legally and other who have not.  In either case, the immigrant who tries to integrate and accept the basic customs of the nation they now reside in find, for the most part, acceptance as they conform to the customs of their new home.  Those who do not conform, who bring customs unlike those in their host nation and refuse to change, are likely not be accepted.  We should not accept those who do not conform, but we should try to provide education and opportunities to encourage and bring around conformity to the culture and customs of the host nations willing to accept migrants from other places. 

In the example of God in the case of Cain, it is proper to deport those who do not conform, to remove them (in a Righteous and caring manner) from our presence.  This is done individually and without prejudice, only based on behavior and actions.  God, in deporting Cain, showed him love; though He deported Cain from the Eden region, He ensured Cain would not be murdered and allowed Cain to marry and to have children.  If we deport people from the US due to cultural incompatibility or due to breaking the law, we must do so with the utmost respect to showing them God’s love.