Immigration and the Bible

You may have noticed some discussion in the news lately about illegal immigration, and how to enforce immigration laws. Is it appropriate to build walls on the border to keep people out? To search for, arrest, and deport illegal immigrants by any means necessary?

Now, I tend not to concern myself much with politics these days, not because I don’t have opinions, but because I don’t believe that politics offers any real or lasting solutions. The only real solution to anyone’s problems is to turn to God, humble oneself before Him, and obey Him. The Bible warns against putting trust in human leaders: “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Psa. 146:3-5).

 So any nation (or individual) that attempts to fix its problems by political means, without turning to God first, is doomed to fail. Such endeavors are pursuing vanity and chasing after the wind, as King Solomon described in the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Nevertheless, some political matters are worth discussing from a Biblical standpoint, and this is one of them. What does the Bible say about illegal immigration? What does it say about enforcing borders and keeping people out, or deporting them back to their own countries after they’ve crossed the border illegally?

Some Basics

Well, there’s much about modern immigration that the Bible doesn’t directly address. It doesn’t forbid strict enforcement of national borders, it doesn’t require lax enforcement, it doesn’t say how many immigrants should be allowed in a country in any given year, and it doesn’t get into deportation policy. Border walls are never addressed in the Bible; people in those days built walls around cities rather than entire countries.

But the Bible does lay out many principles that apply. First is the fact that God divided the peoples at the Tower of Babel and scattered them throughout the earth, as we can read in Genesis 11. We can therefore conclude that it was God’s purpose for the peoples to be separate, not thoroughly mingled together. This implies the necessity of national borders.

And, in fact, the Bible tells us more than once that God established the boundaries of the nations. Deut 32:8 tells us, “When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.” Again, we read, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26).

So national borders are God’s design. It was His purpose for the peoples to each have their own nations and homelands, for them to be distinct and separate from one another. Enforcement of national borders is therefore not wrong; it’s part of God’s design.

This isn’t to say that there should be no immigration from one country to another, though. The Bible often mentions immigration such as this. Let’s take a look at that next.

Types of Immigration

The most common type of immigration mentioned in the Bible is seeking refuge in a foreign country. When faced with famines or persecution, people would often seek refuge in another country, but usually just for a short time before returning to their own land.

When faced with a famine, Abraham and his household temporarily sought refuge in Egypt (Gen. 12:10-20). Isaac and his family stayed in the land of Gerar during another famine, and left afterward (Gen. 26). And, of course, Jacob and his family sought refuge in Egypt during yet another famine, but not for just a short time; they lived there for the rest of their lives. Many years later, their descendants, the Israelites, were enslaved by the Egyptians and lived in bondage for a long time, until God brought them out.

After being driven out by his brothers, Jephthah fled to another land and became captain of a band of raiders (Judg. 11:1-3). Elimelech and Naomi fled to Moab during a famine (Ruth 1:1-5). David fled from King Saul and sought refuge in Moab (1 Sam. 22:3-5). Later, he went and dwelt with the Philistines instead (1 Sam. 27). Some of David and Solomon’s political enemies fled to Egypt and sought refuge there (1 Kings 11:14-22; 1 Kings 11:40). Elijah the prophet fled from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and sought refuge in Zarephath, a city of Sidon (1 Kings 17:8-18:1). And, of course, Joseph and Mary, with their infant son Jesus Christ, fled to Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of King Herod (Mat. 2:13-21).

All these are just a few examples. But, as you can see, nearly all examples of seeking refuge in a foreign land were short-lived, until the trouble had passed. Then, the people returned to their own land.

Although fewer, there are also examples of permanently immigrating to another land. Ruth the Moabitess, for instance, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, returned with her mother-in-law to the land of Israel, married Boaz, and became an ancestor of both King David and of Jesus Christ. The Kenites, descendants of Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, settled among the tribe of Judah (Judg. 1:16). Ittai the Gittite and his soldiers, Philistines from Gath, chose to follow King David and demonstrated unwavering loyalty (2 Sam. 15:18-22; 18:2). Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian official serving under King Zedekiah of Judah, lived in Jerusalem until its fall and chose to put his faith in God, faith which God rewarded (Jer. 38:7-12; 39:16-18).

But does the Bible put any restrictions on immigration? It does, in fact! Let’s look at that next.

Who Can Immigrate?

God required everyone in Israel, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners living among them, to abide by His laws. He didn’t permit them to bring their own gods and religions; He didn’t endorse freedom of religion in that sense. Good and evil cannot peacefully coexist.

God commanded that there be no idolaters in the land of Israel, regardless of their ancestry: “Also you shall say to them: ‘Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer it to the LORD, that man shall be cut off from among his people’” (Lev. 17:8-9). Again, “He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed” (Ex. 22:20).

Many times in the Bible, we read this phrase, or some variation of it: “You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 24:22). Accordingly, God commanded, through Moses, that everyone who dwelt in Israel — regardless of age, sex, or ethnicity — be instructed in His laws:

10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 

11 “when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 

12 “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 

13 “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” (Deut. 31:10-13.)

If someone knew that living in Israel meant worshiping Israel’s God, and chose to do so, then that person was welcome. Rahab and her family were spared from Jericho’s destruction and welcomed into Israel because they had faith in God: “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31).

When she chose to accompany her mother-in-law Naomi back to the land of Israel, Ruth knew and understood that she was trading her old way of life for a new one: “But Ruth said: ‘Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17).

Thus, God restricted immigration primarily by faith rather than by ethnicity. As we saw earlier, God showed mercy and favor to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, who served under the last king of Judah, and spared him from Jerusalem’s destruction. Moses himself had married an Ethiopian woman (Num. 12:1). We’ve also seen that there were Philistines, Kenites, Canaanites, Moabites, and others who lived in Israel. God’s requirement for all was simply that they serve Him.

So any nation which purports to follow the God of Israel should not mingle with heathens or permit them to permanently dwell within its borders. If the United States were truly a righteous and Godly nation — which it isn’t and never has been — then it would never have permitted Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, practitioners of voodoo, etc. to settle in its land. It would only accept those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). But I digress.

The story of Ruth also illustrates another important point: those who immigrated to the nation of Israel had to assimilate! “Your people shall be my people” (Ruth 1:17). Immigrants would be treated as Israelites, but they also had to become Israelites. When foreign pagans intermarried with the Jews who returned from exile, Nehemiah expressed his rage, not merely that they were pagans, but also that they couldn’t even speak the language of Judah:

23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 

24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people. 

25 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. 

26 “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin. 

27 “Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?” (Neh. 13:23-27.)

Remember, God originally separated the peoples by language. And when God sent His apostles out to other nations, they spoke to those people in their own language, beginning on the very day He poured out His Spirit on them (Acts 2:4-12). It stands to reason, then, that those who immigrate to another country should learn and adopt that country’s language.

Justice and… Equality??

God commanded that those who wished to serve Him and become Israelites be treated justly and fairly. In time, the Egyptians had oppressed the Israelites and treated them harshly; the Israelites were not to do likewise to sojourners in their land.

In Ex. 23:9, we read, “Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” And again, “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34).

Nevertheless, distinctions remained between immigrants/sojourners and most native-born Israelites. God legislated justice; He did not legislate equality.

To all Israelites who entered the Promised Land — including those who, like Caleb the Kenizzite, weren’t Israelites by blood — God gave property allotments. This land was to be passed down to their sons after them, generation after generation. God told Moses,

8 “And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.

9 ‘If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.

10 ‘If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers.

11 ‘And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the relative closest to him in his family, and he shall possess it.’” And it shall be to the children of Israel a statute of judgment, just as the LORD commanded Moses. (Num. 27:8-11.)

This land couldn’t be sold permanently to anyone outside the family. God said, “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me” (Lev. 25:23). If someone wished to sell his land, anyone could buy it, but in the year of Jubilee, it would return to him or to his family: “In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession” (Lev. 25:13).

But God didn’t give inheritances to later immigrants/sojourners. If they wished to live among the Israelites, they could live in the cities or hire themselves out as servants. In this way, they were similar to the Levites, of whom God said, “among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance” (Num. 18:23).

Now, the Promised Land was quite small and most modern nations are very large by comparison, so it’s fair to argue that these rules of land allotment and inheritance are neither practical nor necessary to implement in modern nations. The important point here is that justice and equality aren’t the same thing. God established justice, not absolute equality.

God also forbade the Israelites from choosing foreigners to rule over them: “When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother” (Deut. 17:14-15).

Now, King David’s great grandmother was Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:17, 22). King Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, was also the son of Naamah the Ammonitess (1 Kings 14:21). There was nothing wrong with this, but there is no example in Scripture of God choosing a first generation immigrant to rule over Israel.

So immigrants in Israel were to be treated fairly and justly, but they weren’t given every opportunity that native Israelites had. Any nation must see to its own citizens before others, just as any man must see to his own family before others. “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Thes. 5:8).

God did see to it that immigrants were properly cared for, though. Let’s look at that quickly.

God’s Welfare System

One thing that draws large numbers of immigrants to western nations is the modern welfare system. Many people come to western nations, not to work hard to better their lives, but to take advantage of government benefits. This would never happen under God’s system, however!

The apostle Paul wrote, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thes. 3:10). And so it is throughout the Bible. God never set up a system to reward lazy people. No one gets paid just for gracing the world with his existence.

Instead, God told the Israelites, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 23:22).

If anyone wanted the produce left behind in the field, he would have to do the work of gathering and preparing it. When Ruth immigrated to Israel with Naomi, no one gave her free handouts. Instead, she worked diligently day after day to gather the gleanings left behind by Boaz’s workers in his fields (Ruth 2).

So God set up a system to ensure that the poor and the immigrants would receive the help they needed, but He expected them to work for it. If they were unwilling to work, then they would go hungry until they changed their minds and decided that they were willing to work. Immigrants to ancient Israel didn’t come with the expectation of getting something for nothing.

But modern nations that don’t live by God’s laws will have problems that could be avoided if they did. And that brings us to the next point.

Cause and Effect of Unrestricted Immigration

For a nation to be overrun by foreigners is counted as a curse in the Bible. It is the result of disobedience to God’s way of life.

In Deuteronomy 28, God warned the Israelites of many curses that would come upon them if they disobeyed Him. One of them was this: “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail” (Deut. 28:43-44).

Quite simply, if the Israelites would rather follow the pagan customs of foreigners than follow God’s way, then God would deliver them up to be oppressed by foreigners. As we read in Isa. 2:6, “For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with eastern ways; they are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners.”

The punishment would begin with foreigners sapping Israel’s strength: “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned. Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it; yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it” (Hos. 7:8-9). And it would end with Israelites losing their own land to foreigners: “Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, and our houses to foreigners” (Lam. 5:2).

So when you see the United States or other nations being overrun by foreigners who speak other languages and refuse to assimilate, then remember the root cause. When you see those same foreigners soaking up government resources, or native citizens being harmed by foreign-born criminals, then remember the root cause. The cause is disobedience to God; these things are the effects of that disobedience.

And when you see these same nations making a concerted effort to address the effect and not the cause — that is, they try harder to counter illegal immigration or enforce assimilation, but refuse to repent and turn to God — then know that they will ultimately fail. No political solutions, apart from God, can actually solve anything.

Concluding Thoughts

God divided the peoples by language and separated them into their own nations. It is He who gave the peoples their distinct homelands, and who predetermined their boundaries. It isn’t wrong for nations to set and enforce immigration policies that defend their distinction and boundaries. But when they flagrantly disobey Him and flaunt their disobedience in His face, He has the right to take those lands away and give them to others.

If any nation wishes to obey and follow the God of Israel, then it will have little tolerance for pagan gods and pagan religions. It will treat immigrants with justice and fairness, provided that they assimilate, speak the language of that nation, and follow the true God. It will encourage them to work and to provide for themselves rather than living off government assistance.

Of course, there are no such nations in the world today. But one day, when Jesus Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom on this earth, then every nation will turn to the true God and obey Him! Those who refuse will be punished and quickly fall in line, as we can read in Zech. 14:16-21. In that day, all the world’s other problems will begin to go away as well, as obedience to God brings about tremendous blessings. May God speed that day!

Thoughts? Additions? Disagreements? Let me know in the comments below!