As immigration rates rise across the globe, many from other Central and South American countries come to Nicaragua for refuge. Our pastoral training and immigration assistance managers have teamed up to provide specific trainings for pastors in cities nearby Nicaraguan borders. These trainings help them understand the basic legal framework and provide tools to help those in crisis. The following is just one piece of the trainings to share how immigration showed up even in the Bible and look for guidance on how to respond. 

The Patriarchy:

The story of Abraham, one of the fathers of the faith, is full of migrations, which was the lifestyle of a nomad. What’s interesting is how it’s related as obeying God’s call.

It starts when Abraham migrates from Haran to Canaan because of the Lord’s command. “The Lord had said to Abraham, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.'” (Genesis 12:1) He had already previously migrated to Haran from Ur of the Chaldeans (Genesis 11:31).

God asks Abraham to leave his family and immigrate to Canaan. So he goes to Bethel, a place in Canaan, but later moved on toward the Negev (Genesis 12:9). From there he was forced to move to Egypt due to a famine (Genesis 12:10). After some time in Egypt, Abraham returns to the Negev and then again to Bethel (Genesis 13:1, 3). Later on, he moves to Hebron (Genesis 13:18), following God’s command to inhabitant all places in Canaan. Genesis 20:1 says that Abraham lived as a stranger in Gerar. Then in Genesis 21:34, we see that Abraham lives for many years in the land of the Philistines.

In Hebron, his wife Sarah dies, and because he was a stranger, did not have any land to bury her (Genesis 23:4); so he buys a small piece of land in the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah. He would also be buried there, next to his wife, after he died. Abraham never forgot his roots. Before dying, he made his servant promise that he would go to Padan-Aram, where his extended family lived, to look for a wife for his son (Genesis 24).

Another similar story is found in this same patriarchy with Jacob and his son Joseph, who was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. Joseph’s family is forced to go to Egypt for food and find Joseph in a position of power. This is where the liberation story connects with the migrations mentioned above.

Protecting the Foreigner is a Command

The Old Testament brings about an abundant doctrine around migration and people who are immigrants. Alongside the orphans and widows, immigrants help complete the trifecta of those that are considered the most marginalized in the times of Israel. For them, God commands dignity, respect, and special attention.

• “My father was a wandering Aramean…” (Deuteronomy 25:6)
• “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)
• Do not oppress them (Leviticus 19:34)
• Do not exploit them (Deuteronomy 23:16)
• “Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice…” (Deuteronomy 24:17)
• “Cursed are those who deny foreigners their rights” (Deuteronomy 27)
• Love the foreigners, for you were once foreigners in Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19)
• “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34)

The Exiled

Books and Biblical texts allude to the experience of submission the Israelites experienced under the foreigners they were residing with. During the period of Judges, six times they were forced to be submissive to other people. Then after the times of the Kings, the Israelites were oppressed by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and the Romans.

However, it is the experience of exile that makes the deepest mark on life and faith. It means being displaced by force, many times by a military, to a strange place, a place far from your own land. The Psalms and other texts remember the bitterness of being captured in Babylon. It was a humiliating experience. Psalm 137 reflects the faith crisis that took place of those deported to Babylon and the nostalgia of Jerusalem, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (v. 1).

Tiglath-Pilesar, king of Assyria, initiates the strategy of displacing people to avoid rebellions and strengthen his power. Tiglath-Pilesar’s son was succeeded as king by Sargon II, and when he took over the city of Samaria, moved many people (including the Israelites) to Mesopotamia (2Kings 17:6, 18:11) and in the same way took people from Mesopotamia to inhabit the land he had conquered (2 Kings 17:24). This mixing of populations would results in discrimination problems within the same population for centuries, including in the time of the Romans.

Babylon was another kingdom that practiced deportation. The Babylonian exile under Nebuchadnezzar lasted 59 years. the Bible has several accounts of the deportations from Judah to Babylon. The royalty, aristocrats, upper class, and even part of the middle class (2 Kings 24:12-17, Jeremiah 39:8-10) were exiled while the poor remained in Juday. According to the prophet Ezekiel, there were people exiled in Tel Aviv, next to the Kebar River (Ezekiel 3:15), the most abandoned and desolate lands. Others believe there were some located in other more accessible lands. The most likely is that there were migrants in both places.

Because we see the exiles narrated in laments, it means the invasions and oppressions must have been atrocious. Jerusalem was burned, the temple destroyed, the walls torn down, and thousands of people, adults and children, killed. Those that remained entered exile with these horrible memories.

New Testament Passages about Immigration:

1. Jesus was born outside of his family’s land. Luke 2:1-7 “In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria). And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”
2. Jesus flees his land. Matthew 2:13-15 “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod…”
3. Welcoming the foreigner is welcoming God. Matthew 25:34-40 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you h hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”
4. Acts 10:28 “He said to them, ‘You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.'”
5. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
6. The Church is born out of Pentecost. Colossians 3:11 “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”