Faith & Worship
You won’t find the term ‘refugee’ in the Bible. But the Word of God has plenty to say about people called ‘strangers’, ‘sojourners’ or ‘foreigners’, depending on translations, and these were people living among the Jews but from other ethnic groups or, in the case of the sojourner, there temporarily or just passing through.
An example might be found in the book of Ruth, about a widow from the tribe of Moab accompanying her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Israel and to live there with her.
Ruth and Naomi might be considered to be environmental migrants, making the move because of crop failure and acute famine in Moab, arriving with nothing and relying on gleaning leftovers in the field margins of one of Naomi’s distant relatives.
In the bigger Biblical picture, we have the Israelites' journey through the wilderness, led by Moses, and later their forced exile to Babylon, representing examples of displacement.
Ultimately, acknowledging and addressing the doubts and uncertainties that challenge us can result in a stronger connection and better understanding about our relationship with God and the world we live in.
The study is formatted such that each individual study can be printed off on 2 double-sided sheets of A4 for distribution to a group, or distributed by email. If you're using it with more than one group, it would be appreciated if you could consider purchasing one study per group!
The four studies have all you need for a small group discussion, with useful images, plenty of commentary, discussion questions and prayers.
1) God's heart for the stranger
2) God's message in Psalms
3) A call to welcome the stranger
4) Practicle help from the Bible
Now available as a pdf to download
©John Birch · Prayers written by the author may be copied freely for worship. If reproduced elsewhere please acknowledge author/website
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