I recently heard the following assertion: Many of the major figures in the Bible were immigrants. This struck me as odd. I’d never heard it stated this way, so I had to think about it. Naturally, hearing the term immigrant brought to mind my heritage.
Midnight Reflections
The above thoughts whirled through my mind during a recent bout of insomnia. After tossing and turning in bed for an hour, I went to our living room to read my Bible and pray. For some reason, I began thanking God for my mom and dad. I thought of how they had left their native Colombia to settle in Southern California. They started from scratch in a country where they had no immediate family and barely spoke the language. Their courage became all the more remarkable to me when I thought about the fact that they didn’t have college degrees or connections that might open doors for them. They learned, adapted, worked hard, and persevered amid adversity. Over 50 years later, they stand as a success story in achieving the American dream.
“I Come from a Long Line of Leavers”1
As I ruminated on my parents’ tenacity and strength, I thought of Bible characters who experienced similar realities within their historical context. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that many of our spiritual forebearers were indeed immigrants in one sense or another.
- Some were refugees forced to leave their homes because of disobedience: Adam and Eve as they were expelled from the Garden, Moses after he murders the Egyptian and flees to Midian (where he names his firstborn Gershom, which sounds like “immigrant”), and the nation of Israel during the exile in Babylon.
- Others were resettled by no fault of their own: Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego in Babylon, as well as the prophet Ezekiel.
- Still others chose to leave their native land seeking security and prosperity: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with his 12 sons in Egypt, Naomi and Elimelech in Moab, and Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in Egypt.
- God appointed yet another group to leave their native soil to accomplish his purposes: Abraham from Ur, Noah in the flood, the remnant born in exile returning to the Promised Land, and those scattered due to persecution in the book of Acts.
Most importantly, who else exemplifies this reality but the Son of God? Our Saviour left his throne on high to settle in a strange land. He surrendered his rights, comfort, and glory. He entered his new home via a virgin’s womb. What’s more, as a toddler, our Lord sought asylum in neighbouring Egypt as a deadly king unleashed his wrath upon Bethlehem. Jesus grew up far away from his heavenly home and from his Father, with whom he communed from a distance through prayer. He endured homesickness, loneliness, and isolation by no fault of his own. He chose to become one of us and live like us to save us.
Immigration as a Theme of Biblical Theology
If we traced this theme throughout the history of redemption, we would find that immigrants hold a special place in God’s heart. When he called the sons of Jacob out of Egypt and made them into a nation, he codified how his chosen people were to treat immigrants. Almost immediately following his giving of the 10 Commandments, the LORD issues the following decree: “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 22:21).
Lost in Translation
Something can get lost in translation when we read the term sojourner. After all, when was the last time you used that word in a sentence? Other translations render it stranger, newcomer, settler, foreigner, or alien. If we list these words on their own, their primary definitions vary:
- Sojourner: a temporary resident.
- Stranger: a person with whom one has had no personal acquaintance.
- Newcomer: a person or thing that has recently arrived.
- Settler: a person who settles in a new country or area.
- Foreigner: a person not native to or naturalized in the country or jurisdiction under consideration.
- Alien: a creature from outer space; extraterrestrial.
I believe that each of these lacks nuance and clarity and that is why, in modern parlance, immigrant best captures the term’s meaning.
“Love Him as Yourself”
Regardless of the term we use, one thing is clear: God’s people were to treat immigrants with compassion precisely because when they were immigrants in Egypt, they bore Pharaoh’s heavy boot of oppression on their backs. They were never to forget the humiliation and degradation their ancestors endured. What’s more, beyond this negative command in Exodos 22:21 to not oppress, Leviticus 19:33-34 expands this injunction positively:
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Along with widows and orphans, immigrants held a special place in God’s heart. Scripture often grouped these three together, as they represented the most vulnerable among God’s people, as in Deuteronomy 10:18,
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
And just how does God feed these needy ones? Through the generosity of his people! The Law commands that farmers leave grain in their fields for the immigrant, the widow, and the orphan to glean (Dt. 24:19-20) and curses anyone who perverts justice towards the same (Dt. 27:19). Beyond the Pentateuch, the Psalms and the prophets call God’s people back to this essential element of covenant faithfulness and warn of the judgment that will befall the nation for oppressing the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner.2
Exiles on This Earth
If we move to the New Testament, we discover a further development of this theme. Hebrews 11:13 describes the patriarchs in the following way:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Hebrews 11 describes a host of saints throughout redemptive history in similar terms, concluding that they all died while awaiting what was promised (Hb 11:39), namely their eternal country. Thus, we learn that even the sons and daughters of Israel who dwelt in the promised land still awaited a better home, having understood that they were sojourners in this world.
The New Testament builds on this theme. Consider Peter’s words to scattered believers across the empire:
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Pt 2:11)
Or think of Paul’s to the church at Philippi, the Roman city that granted its inhabitants the prestigious title of Roman citizen.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ph. 3:20).
Finally, in John 17:16, speaking of his disciples, Jesus says,
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Conclusion: Posture Over Politics
Am I advocating for open borders in the U.S. or Canada? By no means. Should we vet who comes into our country? Absolutely! While this is a deeply divisive political issue, my desire is not to inflame but to inform. I leave the policymaking to the experts. As a Bible teacher, my job is to shed light on what Scripture teaches and invite believers to live in light of Christ’s commands. I propose a posture of Christ-like love toward “the least of these.” This world is not our home. We await a better one in which justice and righteousness will reign. In the meantime, let’s live out the ethics of the kingdom as those who were once oppressed under the boot of our enemy the devil. We are all immigrants.
[1] This is a line from a Caedmon’s Call song, which alludes to this theme found throughout Scripture.
[2] Ps 68:5; Ps 82:3-4; Ps 94:6; Ps 146:9; Is 1:17; Is 1:23; Jer 7:6; Ez 22:7; Zec 7:10; Mal 3:5. Some of these texts use the terms poor or oppressed interchangeably to refer to immigrants.
