Refugees in the Scriptures

In this last general conference Elder Patrick Kearon talked about refugees and the enormous amount of people being forced to flee their homes throughout the world.  He made this important observation for members of the Church: “As a people, we don’t have to look back far in our history to reflect on times when we were refugees, violently driven from homes and farms over and over again….  Their story is our story, not that many years ago” (see here).  As I’ve thought about his talk and other recent messages about refugees, I’ve realized that not only is our recent history full of stories of refugees like the Saints fleeing Missouri in 1838, but some of the greatest personages and peoples of the scriptures were during parts of their lives refugees also.  

If we define a refugee as someone who has to flee their home because of danger to go to a foreign place, I think there are numerous stories of refugees in the scriptures.  Elder Kearon mentioned one: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had to flee Herod for fear that he would slay them, and they traveled all the way to Egypt to escape the persecution.  The Book of Mormon both starts and ends with stories of refugees.  Lehi and his family fled Jerusalem to go into the wilderness in large part because if he had stayed he would have been killed.  We read in the first chapter that the Jews to whom Lehi preached “sought his life, that they might take it away” (1 Nephi 1:20).  Lehi perhaps knew about Urijah, a contemporary prophet who had “prophesied in the name of the Lord” after which “the king sought to put him to death.”  We read that “he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt,” but the king “sent men into Egypt… and they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword” (Jeremiah 26:20-22).  So Lehi had real reason to fear that even fleeing he might still be in danger of being followed and slain because of his preaching, and he and his family spent at least ten years without a place to call home.  At the other end of the book, Moroni spent at least 20 years (probably more) wandering the continent alone.  All his people had been killed and he was left to wonder whether “they will slay me” as the Lamanites hunted the Nephites.  As a true refugee he had no home and not even friends to call on since there were “none that do know the true God” (Mormon 8:3, 10).  There are in fact many other stories of refugees through the Book of Mormon: the people of Mosiah “departed out of the land into the wilderness” with his people before the Lamanites overtook the Nephites (Omni 1:13).  The people of Ammon fled their homes as refugees after the Amalekites did “stir up the Lamanites to anger against their brethren to slay them” and they depended on the great generosity of the Nephites who offered them the land of Jershon to settle in (Alma 27:12).   They soon had the chance to switch places and take in refugees themselves when the righteous in Antionum fled their homes among the Zoramites.  We read that “those who were in favor of the words which had been spoken by Alma and his brethren were cast out of the land; and they were many; and they came over also into the land of Jershon. “  The people of Ammon took them in, and when the Zoramites “sent over unto the people of Ammon desiring them that they should cast out of their land all those who came over from them into their land,” these new converts did not waver in their determination to help the plight of fellow refugees (Alma 35:6, 8)

There are other stories as well that we could turn to in the scriptures to see examples of refugees, such as Abraham or Daniel.  I think what Elder Kearon said about modern day refugees is true for the scriptural examples as well: “Being a refugee may be a defining moment in the lives of those who are refugees, but being a refugee does not define them.”  In none of the scriptural examples that I’ve mentioned do we define these faithful men and woman as refugees when we think of their lives as a whole.  We remember them for their faith in God and their great examples of righteousness.  So likewise we shouldn’t think that the label of “refugee” is a permanent status symbol for their lives and subconsciously look upon them condescendingly; for, according to Elder Kearon, they will go on to contribute in countless ways to society.  For those of us with comfortable homes and more than enough food to eat, we need only ask if the Lord will say to us some day, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in” (Matt. 25:35).