Someone asked that question on Facebook, and here is the awesome response by Nicholas Perez.
“Country” is a confusing word, because it is foreign to the Bible. When we impose our contemporary concept of “nation state” on the Bible, we are bound to get confused, because “nations” in the Bible were people united by a common god, and Israel was united by it’s being being governed by the law of the one, true God. Nation states as we know them today are united by a common government, which is why I do not identify as an American. I am a Christian, and I am ruled by God’s law. True, I am commanded to submit to the pagan rulers set over me, but only until their evil rule is overthrown, and righteousness is established.
The reason I bring that up first is that I would not want to confuse a “nation,” as we know them today, with a Biblical nation.
In order to speak without confusion, we would not ask ourselves whether a pagan “nation” like Israel or the USA ought to have open borders. That is like asking, “Should a homosexual man stop cheating on his husband?” The question is nonsense, because homosexuality is evil, and their “marriage” is illegitimate, null, and void. The same is true of nation states as we know them. Their very existence is illegitimate, null, and void. To ask whether or not an illegitimate entity should not violate the right of travel of free people is a nonsense question, and a redundancy when worded accurately. What the homosexual in the analogy really needs is to repent and submit to God’s law. Once he does that, EVERYTHING will change.
The same is true of Israel and the US. Everything must change, and once they submit to God, they will not only open up their borders. They will cease to be nation states, for there is no such thing as a Biblical nation state (in the sense that we know them).
Perhaps a better and more direct way to answer your question is if you were asking it this way, “Did the Biblical nation of Israel have open borders, even though they were surrounded by their enemies?” The simple answer is, yes. It did.
