Old Testament
Isaiah 16:3-4
3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!
4 Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
New Testament
Matthew 2:13-15
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.”
14 He arose and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt,
15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Isaiah imagines a cry at the border: “Give counsel, grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon.” It is a plea for protection. The fugitive needs shelter. The displaced need somewhere to stand without being hunted.
Matthew tells us that Jesus began his life as a refugee child. Joseph is warned in a dream, and the holy family flees into Egypt. The Son of God is carried across a frontier in the dark, not as a tourist but as one pursued. Before he preached a word, he knew what it was to be unsafe.
Compassion for the displaced is therefore not an optional side interest for Christians. It is proximity to Christ. When we speak about refugees as problems, burdens, waves, or numbers, we risk speaking about the kind of life our Lord himself inhabited. And when we look away from those in flight, we look away from a story God has honoured.
Lord Jesus, make our hearts human. Give shelter to those who are fleeing tonight. Give wisdom to those who govern borders, and give kindness to those who greet strangers. Teach your Church to offer shade: safety, hospitality, advocacy, and prayer that does not grow tired.