Immigration & Displacement

Immigration & Displacement

Leaving home - by choice or by force - means starting over in an unfamiliar place, often facing suspicion instead of welcome. Scripture's laws and stories return again and again to the stranger and the sojourner: Israel was commanded to remember its own history as foreigners, Ruth was a Moabite immigrant who became King David's great-grandmother, and Jesus himself was a refugee as a child.

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Category
Hardship
Passages
5 key scriptures

Key Chapters

Leviticus 19 Laws of Holiness 5 min read The Law commands Israel to treat the foreigner among them as a native, rooted in... Deuteronomy 10 New Tablets of Stone 4 min read God's own love for the stranger is given as the reason Israel is commanded to lo... Ruth 2 Ruth Meets Boaz 5 min read Boaz's blessing on Ruth, a foreign widow who came to trust under the wings of th... Hebrews 11 The Hall of Faith 6 min read The heroes of faith described as strangers and pilgrims seeking a better country... Matthew 2 The Visit of the Wise Men 4 min read Jesus, Mary, and Joseph flee as refugees to Egypt to escape Herod's violence - t...

Key Passages

The Stranger Shall Be as One Born Among You

Leviticus 19:33-34

The Law commands Israel to treat the foreigner among them as a native, rooted in the memory of their own experience as strangers in Egypt.

A33nd if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.

34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Love Ye Therefore the Stranger

Deuteronomy 10:19

God's own love for the stranger is given as the reason Israel is commanded to love foreigners as well.

L19ove ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Ruth, a Moabite in Israel

Ruth 2:10-12

Boaz's blessing on Ruth, a foreign widow who came to trust under the wings of the God of Israel, honors an immigrant's courage directly.

T10hen she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. 12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Strangers and Pilgrims

Hebrews 11:13-16

The heroes of faith described as strangers and pilgrims seeking a better country reframes displacement as part of a larger, God-seen journey.

T13hese all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

The Flight to Egypt

Matthew 2:13-14

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph flee as refugees to Egypt to escape Herod's violence - the Messiah's own family knew displacement firsthand.

A13nd when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:

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