Immigrants in the Bible show up again and again in God’s story. Abraham left his homeland at God’s call. Joseph was carried to Egypt and became a blessing to the nations. Ruth left Moab and became part of Jesus’ family line. Daniel served faithfully in Babylon. Their stories show that God works powerfully through people far from home, and they remind every follower of Jesus that we are “foreigners and exiles” in this world too.
Abraham: Called to Leave Home
God’s plan to bless the world began with a move. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1). Abraham spent the rest of his life as a stranger in a land that wasn’t yet his.
Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Abraham’s faith was lived out as a foreigner. He trusted God with a future he couldn’t see.
Joseph: A Blessing in a Foreign Land
Joseph didn’t choose to move. His brothers sold him, and he ended up as a slave in Egypt. Yet God raised him up to lead the nation and save many lives during a famine, including his own family. Looking back, Joseph told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God often uses people far from home to bless the places they land.
Ruth: Welcomed Into God’s Family
Ruth was a Moabite widow who chose to go with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Israel: “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). In Bethlehem, a landowner named Boaz noticed her hard work and kindness.
Ruth 2:10-12 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
Boaz followed God’s law by letting the poor and foreigners glean in his fields, and he went beyond it with generosity. Ruth became his wife, the great-grandmother of King David, and an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). An immigrant woman is part of the Messiah’s family tree.
Daniel: Faithful in Exile
Daniel was taken to Babylon as a young man and trained to serve a foreign king (Daniel 1:3-4). He learned the language and served the government with excellence, yet he never compromised his faith. God had told the exiles, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). Daniel shows how to be a blessing in a new land without losing your identity in God.
We Are Foreigners Too
God reminded Israel to treat foreigners well because they knew what it felt like: “You yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). The New Testament applies that identity to every believer.
1 Peter 2:11-12 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
In Christ, we’re citizens of heaven living for a while in this world. And the good news is that Jesus has made outsiders insiders: “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Ephesians 2:19). That truth should shape how we see immigrants around us, whatever our views on policy.
The Takeaway
Abraham, Joseph, Ruth, and Daniel show that God works powerfully through immigrants. Their stories call us to faithfulness wherever we live and remind us that every believer is a foreigner and exile who has been welcomed into God’s family.
