Tonight’s word of the week is a Hebrew term found throughout the Old Testament; the word ‘sojourner.’

‘Sojourner’ isn’t a word we use very much. We often translate it as ‘pilgrim’ or ‘stranger,’ but like so many Biblical words we lose much of the richness and description that God intended when He wrote His great love letter to us.

I know that when I think of a pilgrim I automatically picture passengers on the Mayflower with big hats with buckles on the front. When I hear the word ‘stranger’ I automatically have this negative association of danger and hostility.

But as we read in the Old Testament we will encounter the words ‘sojourn’ or ‘sojourner’ 190 times.

Though the obvious connotation is of traveling and migrating, there is a deeper use of the word hidden throughout the Scriptures.

There are 3 Hebrew words that we translate as ‘sojourner.’ (Phonetically) Goor, Gare and Toshawb. As you might guess, goor and gare are very closely related, taken from the same root word. They are the 2 words for ‘sojourner’ used most often in the Old Testament. Their definitions are very similar in 2 ways, first, they both speak of being a stranger, of dwelling somewhere only for a time, of being a foreigner in another land. The interesting thing is that they also speak of stirring up strife, of quarreling, of being afraid, of dreading, of lacking rights and of being outside of the people of God.

We see this type of sojourner mentioned in Ruth chapter 1 verse 1:

Ruth 1:1 – Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

This man was a sojourner in Moab and had a reason to fear and a reason to dread. He was traveling alone in a foreign land where the people did not walk with God. There he and his family would have no protection, no rights and would be at the mercy of the people around them.

Psalm 5:4 – For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil sojourn with You.

The Psalmist understood the terrors of sojourning apart from God:

Psalm 120:5 – Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

So what about those other times we come across the word sojourner? What about when the Lord said:

Leviticus 25:23 – The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

Here we find a different Hebrew word, still speak of traveling, still speaking of alienation, but this time with a much different connotation. Of the 190 times we read the word ‘sojourn’ in the Bible, 13 of them are the word we see here in Leviticus, the word Toshawb.

Toshawb comes from a completely different root word than the other 2 words we’ve looked at. It comes from the root word Yashab, which means to dwell, to remain, to sit, to abide, to be set, to have one’s abode. It can even mean to marry!

190 times God speaks in His word of sojourners, pilgrims, people traveling throughout the world and throughout life. 13 of those times He reminds us that we can choose which path to walk on. We can walk with Him, in a blissful marriage of rest and security, or we can walk alone in fear among our enemies. We can choose to take the pilgrimage less traveled, or we can take the broad road like the man who traveled to Moab or the Psalmist who dwelt in Kedar.

We can walk as a Toshawb sojourner with the promise of an eternal inheritance, or we can walk as a Guwr (Goor) sojourner with much strife and quarrel, with dread and only a temporary dwelling. Every road has bumps, every trip has setbacks, every journey has difficulties. One sojourn leads to an eternal marriage. The others lead to Moab, to Kedar, to Sodom, to Gomorrah. God lets us choose which road we take. Let’s choose the path He made for us, let’s sojourn with Him, so that one day we will arrive at His marriage table.