Lux Lucet

When discussing immigration, the conversation usually revolves around immigrant rights.  Rarely is the subject of immigrant responsibilites ever broached.  But what do the Scriptures say?  Do immigrants have responsibilites?  If so, what are they?  To help answer these questions, let’s consider the example of Ruth, one of the clearest examples of immigration in the Bible.

Elimelech and Naomi were a Hebrew couple, natives of Bethlehem, who had fled from Israel to escape a famine then gripping the land.  Along with their two sons, they settled in the neighboring land of Moab.  AFter their arrival Elimelech died, leaving Naomi and her two sons, both of whom married Moabite women.  After about ten years, both the sons died as well, leaving Naomi alone with her two daughters-in-law.   When Naomi set out to return to Israel, she urged her daughters-in-law to return to their people.  One, Orpah, did so.  But the other, Ruth, upon being prodded to return to Moab , answered Naomi,

Entreat me not to leave you, or 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)

The sum of this passage is that Ruth declares her intention to immigrate to Israel.  She is not planning to sojourn in the land, or go there on a short visit and then return to Moab, but rather she emegrates from Moab with the expressed aim of becoming and Israelite.  Very often in discussing immigration, those who use Scripture point to the Bible’s instructions regarding sojourners and strangers in the land, but these passages do not bear directly on immigration.  But the case of Ruth clearly does.  What can we learn about immigration from this passage?

While declaring her intention to immigrate, Ruth takes a threefold oath of loyalty.  She declares her loyalty to Naomi, “wherever you go, I will go,” to the nation of Israel, “your people [shall be] my people,” and to God, “and your God, my God.”  She even invokes God as a witness to her promises, using the familiar oath, “The LORD do so to me, and more also.”  In short, Ruth was not a social revolutionary who sought to impose Moabite language and religion on the people of  Israel all in the name of cultural diversity, but rather she clearly expressed her desire to adopt the ways of the Israelites and become one of them.

From this short study, we see that while the Bible recognizes the right of people to immigrate, neither Naomi nor anyone else questioned the legality of Ruth’s immigration, it also imposes certain responsibilities on immigrants.  Those who argue that immigrants have a right to impose their ways and their costs on the people of their adopted land are not arguing as Christians, but as cultural Marxists and socialists.