13 All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
14 And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord; as ye do, so he shall do.
“The word ‘ger’ goes back to a nomadic life, and it denotes a man of another tribe or district who, coming to sojourn in a place where he was not strengthened by the presence of his own kin, put himself under the protection of a clan or a powerful tribal chief”. ~WR Smith
Israel regarded ITSELF was a ‘ger’ both before it moved to Egypt, while the Patriarchs were living in Canaan, and during its time in Egypt. That is, they were protected strangers, resident aliens, in Canaan and in Egypt because it wasn’t their land.
Even after they possessed the Promised Land they didn’t own it, no one does, it was and still is Yehoveh’s land, and Israelites are essentially leaseholders. By ancient tradition, gerim (plural of ger) could not own property. So, the Israelites WELL understood what God meant, that they were gerim with Him: they would NEVER be able to sell their property, because they could never OWN it in the first place.
Leviticus 25:23: “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.”
Therefore, gerim {translated in English as Goyim} had to either be employed as workers on someone else’s land, or as craftsmen with trades. Often they were wards of the state: that is, they were under the authority of the tribe, but they also received a kind of welfare to survive.
It is here that many people may be a bit confused as they have the misunderstanding of the definition of Goyim. Goyim in its simplest form means nations. The word we do not encounter in the modern day church is Ammim. Ammim means ‘my people’ and Paul uses this word extensively in his explanation of the Olive Tree.
15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation {Ammim}, and also for the stranger {Goyim} that sojourneth with you, an ordinance forever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.
16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
18 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land whither I bring you, (some 38 years into the future.)
19 Then it shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto the Lord.
20 Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering: as ye do the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.
21 Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the Lord an heave offering in your generations.
22 And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments, which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses,
23 Even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations;
Ephesians 2:8-22 “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift, not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”
“So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.
For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, He made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers {Goyim}, but fellow citizens with the saints {Ammim}, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.”
We don’t become fleshly citizens of earthly Israel, we become spiritual citizens, along with our fellow Israelite Believers, in Spiritual Israel. And, this is all by means of the covenants God created WITH Israel.
Just as an immigrant to the USA must go through a swearing-in ceremony to vow allegiance to the United States Constitution and to abide by its tenants, so must a foreigner to Israel vow allegiance to the Constitution of Israel, which are the Biblical Covenants God made with Israel. The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants because that’s what Paul is referring to here.
THIS IS ADOPTION INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD! AMEN AND HALLELUJAH!
Berean Breadcrumbs 
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