What the Bible Says about Accepting Refugees?

In the past few years wars and famine have brought tremendous ruin to Middle Eastern and African countries which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people leaving their homes and looking for survival in Western countries.

Their journeys are often fought with peril and death and many are unable to leave their countries because of hardships or blocked avenues.

Several years ago, I worked with African refugees from different countries. They left starvation, death, and human corpses littering the rivers they drank from. One boy in our group was kidnapped from his village and made a slave in another part of his country. After fellow slaves tried unsuccessfully to escape, they were caught and their heels were cut so that the would never be able to walk again. The boy was smarter and waited for a better time, escaped, hugged the top of a box car of a train, and made it to freedom. Shortly after he was shipped to the U.S. as an orphan.

There were many such stories among the Africans, many of which were kept securely within the memories of those who experienced them.

Before Israel became a nation, when they were only a small group of nomads and people who lived outside of their group were not trusted. Because of this distrust, the nomads kept to themselves and usually married within the family. Both Abraham and his son Isaac were so paranoid about outsiders that they told city dwellers that their wives were sisters. They believed that outsiders would kill them for their wives, and rather than facing an imaginary death, they contrived a plan to pass their wives off as sisters. This worked very well for Abraham as he walked away with a load of money, servants, and goods, just to leave Egypt where he humiliated Pharaoh through his trickery.

Years later he duped the king of Gerar who was appalled at Abraham for being so xenophobic in assuming that because he wasn't family to Abraham he was immoral. Abraham assumed that the outsider would be evil and do evil things, but in fact, Abraham's trickery was downright wrong and the king of Gerar who had been tricked let Abraham know it.

As Israel grew into a nation they faced many new challenges with outsiders. They were first welcomed by Egypt, but as they became more numerous, they became Egyptian slaves. Nevertheless, after finding freedom, Israel got its own land and faced a new challenge with outsiders. As different countries faced famine, people came into Israel for survival. And as Israel faced famine, many Israelis left for other countries looking for food. Besides this, intermarriage with outsiders was not uncommon.

While all of this took place, many people were fearful and hateful of outsiders. Xenophobia flooded the land from time to time, and some individuals never let their prejudices go.

Before Israel had their own land, before they developed a strong identity beyond being mere slaves, Moses left them certain laws about how to deal with outsiders. While many of those laws stated that foreigners were to live under the rules of Israel, other laws demanded that the people respect, take care of, and treat foreigners as equals.

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the  foreigner. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:10).

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:34).


People don't really change. We have prejudice an hatred today and there was prejudice and hatred in the ancient world. The laws of Israel were written to address issues of xenophobia. The laws of the Bible written years ago fit for today as well.