With the coming Exodus that help people move from areas endangered by the earthquakes and tsunamis of 2029, there is going to be a mass migration of people from endangered zones to refuge zones. In general, there are three main groups of people: those who migrate pre-Exodus, those who migrate during the Exodus, and those who survived and migrate post-Exodus. Through time, God will reveal more and more the destinies of countries and of people. Everyone would have to flow with God’s perfect Will for their lives. It is good to examine migration patterns in the Bible so that we can learn and benefit from those who have followed God in moving countries, cities or places.
One of the earliest migrations took place during Noah’s time when he had to travel away from most of the general population of humans in order to build the ark which God commanded him to build (Genesis 6:13). The Bible does not record this physical move but the size of the Ark required that he move to another place away from all the general population. There was a migration that took place after Noah’s flood before the Tower of Babel, with many families settling into various lands (Genesis 10:31). After the Tower of Babel, humanity was scattered across the whole earth and give birth to many of the nations with their various languages and tongues.
The call of Abraham involved a call to migrate out from his homeland of Ur (Mesopotamia) into the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3). In the promise land, the Lord brought about circumstances where he had to fulfil the literal command to be separate from all of his family, the last of whom was Lot. When Lot separated from him, the Lord commanded him to walk through the length and breath of the land (Genesis 13:14-17). Abraham did so building altars everywhere he went (Genesis 12:7-9; 13:18). Eventually, Abraham settled in Mamre, north of the historic city of Hebron, where God spoke to him about Isaac (Genesis 13:18; 18:1). There could be many reasons why Abraham chose to settle here, and amongst the many would be that it was here that God spoke to him at 99 years and he changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Hebron was a very spiritual significant place for Abraham. Could it be that the geography city of which one finally lives, could be linked into one’s spiritual experiences and also of prophetic future significance? Sarah, his wife died in Hebron and it was also the place of Abraham’s burial (Genesis 23:2, 19; 25:7-10).
Beersheba was Isaac’s birth place and his early home (Genesis 21:14, 30-34). It was from Beersheba that Isaac and Abraham travelled from towards Mount Moriah, and then returned to live there (Genesis 22:18). Beersheba was Isaac’s home when he lived with his parents. After Isaac married, he lived in Beer Laihoairoi where his two sons, Jacob and Esau, were born. During the famine in Isaac’s time, God forbid him from going to Egypt so he went to live with the Philistines in Gerar (Genesis 26:1-6). It is interesting to note that God specifically told him to dwell in the land and He will bless him (Genesis 26:3). Could it be possible that sometimes people are in the wrong geographical place (like an allegorical Egypt where God forbid them to go) and God couldn’t bless them? In both, Abraham’s life and in Isaac, they had to be in a specific land (especially during famine) for God to bring about His blessings upon them.
In the Philistine land, Isaac had to go to various towns before he found peace to prosper. He went through Esek (strife), Sitnah (hatred) and finally settled in Rehoboth (plenty) (Genesis 26:19-22). After his sojourn in the Philistine land, Isaac returned to Beersheba where he built an altar to the Lord (Genesis 26:23-25). He spent most of his life in Beersheba and towards his last days, he lived in Hebron (Genesis 35:27-29). Analysing Isaac’s life, we can see that the geographical place, Beersheba, he chose to live in was directed by the Lord. It was also where he had his spiritual experience and where he also built an altar to the Lord. It was Isaac who actually named the city Beersheba (Genesis 26:32). No wonder the city of Beersheba is significant in Isaac’s life.
Jacob, Isaac’s son, lived and grew up in Beersheba, where he deceived his brother, Esau, and the strife developed between them. He was told to flee to PadanAram, to the city of Haran, where his uncle, Laban, lived when Esau wanted to kill him (Genesis 28:1-2). On his way there, he slept a night at Bethel, where he met the Lord and received a vision (Genesis 28:10-17). Jacob named the place, Bethel, and anointed an altar to the Lord from the stone upon which he slept (Genesis 28:18-22). We should not be surprised that in his future, Bethel became the place where he was to live and be blessed by God. Jacob went to Haran to live with his uncle for 14 years, where he married and have children. His escape from Laban brought him through significant towns, which he renamed: Mizpah where he had a treaty with Laban, Mahanaim where a host of angels comforted him, Peniel where he wrestled all night and had his new name, Israel (Genesis 31:49; 32:2, 30). Upon returning and reconciling with his brother, Esau, he built a house in Succoth and lived there (Genesis 33:17). He also purchased a piece of land in Shechem and made for himself a dwelling place in the land of Canaan (Genesis 33:18-20). He built an altar to the Lord is Shechem and called it El Elohe Israel (God, God of Israel). Troubles came upon his family between them and the Canaanites in the land. After these troubles, God spoke and told him to go to Bethel to dwell there and build an altar to the Lord (Genesis 35:1). This was when there was a revival in Jacob’s family as they removed all the idols from their household and went to live in Bethel (Genesis 35:2-7). It was in Bethel that God appeared again to Jacob and blessed him, confirming his name as Israel (Genesis 35:9-15).
It seems obvious that Bethel would have been the centre of Jacob’s life but it took an appearance of God to him after much troubles in other cities, that brought Jacob to accept that he was always to geographical live in Bethel at least for some time there, with space for his family to grow. Towards the end of his life, when most of his children were grown, he moved down to Hebron to live (Genesis 37:14). So three generations, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, lived in Hebron towards the end of their lives. Bethel and Hebron are significant cities in which Jacob lived. From our analysis so far, it seems that sometimes in line with destinies or spiritual experiences in our lives, God requires us to live in places which He chose for us. It is important to hear God and be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as to where we should live, especially when our lives belong to Him and all that we do are of prophetic significance to the work of God’s Will.
The story of Joseph is almost like a story of “forced” or “necessitated” migration. Joseph was sold by his brothers and ended up in Egypt the rest of his life (Genesis 37:28). It was through him that God fulfil the prophecy that He will allow the descendants of Abraham to go into a country, which is not theirs and where they are strangers, and where they will be afflicted for four generations before He redeems them (Genesis 15:12-16). The prophecy of a migration of Abraham’s descendants into Egypt took place without anyone involved knowing that they were playing a role design by God to bring about the fulfilment of His spoken word to Abraham. Altogether about seventy people of the family of Jacob went into Egypt (Genesis 46:27). Joseph, led unknowingly by the Spirit, chose the land of Goshen for them to live in (Genesis 45:10; 46:34). This migration was predicted by God and a part of His plan. The children of Israel had a warm reception and welcome to Egypt but later on became oppressed and enslaved by the Egyptians. All these was part of the plan of God, in the nursing years of the multiplication of Israel as a people, being readied to be made into a nation in God’s fullness of time. Joseph who was used by God to bring all Israel to migrate to Egypt, believed in the prophecy and asked that his bones be taken out when the Israelites came out of Egypt (Genesis 50:24-26). This part of the story of migration shows that sometimes it is God’s perfect Will to be in a place for a period of time, even a few generations. In the end, this planet earth is only a temporary home and each individual and each family must discover where God wants them to live geographically. The choice of place and the timing involved must also be ordained by God and coordinated by God to fulfil His ultimate plan for each city, country and place.
The biggest story of migration in the Bible is, of course, the story of the Exodus. About nearly three million men, women and children came out of Egypt seeking a new country and home to live in. There was also a requirement that it took place in the fullness of time and that the place to which they were to settle in be revealed to them. Two elements: where to go and when to go are big considerations for every individual. To the Israelites during the Exodus, God prepared the leadership structure all ready to manage this great migration and revealed supernaturally to His people through signs and wonders to unite them in this great move. Such will also be present in the biggest modern Exodus that we will be experiencing in the near future before the year 2029. God took His people through ten tests to prepare them for nationhood (Numbers 14:22). Unfortunately, despite God’s manifest presence and supernatural works amongst them, they failed each and every test, except for those like Joshua and Caleb. The Israelites ended up forty years in the wilderness when it was supposed to be only about a year (the time it took to build the Tabernacle of Moses). Could it be that when we have not learn the lessons from a particular place, which for the Israelites was the wilderness, that there could be a delay in the move to the promise land of Canaan? May this not be so with anyone. May God have mercy and help each one to always move forward spiritually and physically into God’s perfect Will for each life.
In the live of Moses, the leader of the Exodus, we see a pattern which we can learn from. It was definitely God’s perfect Will for Moses to be in the wilderness to wait on God for the fullness of time. The circumstances in which he ended up in the wilderness were not pleasant and seem more out of need and necessity (Exodus 2:11-15). Moses spent 40 years in Egypt and 40 years in the wilderness. Then his last 40 years leading God’s people. None of us dare to say that all this was not God’s will, rather it fits into the perfect Will of God for Moses. His time in Egypt growing up with the princess as his adopted mother was a part of God’s perfect plan for training him. His time in the wilderness was definitely important and a part of God’s perfect plan to train and prepare Moses for his calling. What we can learn of Moses’ migration from Egypt to the wilderness and then back to service of God, is that there is a time period for each person to be living in particular circumstances and places for a period of time. Who determines the period of time? God, of course. What is required of each period of time? Lessons on life learned, spiritual lessons acquired, character changes completed, revelation from God received.
While in Egypt, being nursed by his own mother and being privileged to be a prince in Egypt, Moses discovered his calling and destiny (Acts 7:23-25). Moses had actually already given up the life of a prince when he was visiting his own people the Israelites (Hebrews 11:24-27). At some point, he must have discovered his special calling and wanted to find a way to fulfil it. His method was wrong but his heart must have been right for the Bible to write glowingly of him in the book of Hebrews. Moses took forty years, challenged by a life of luxury, to finally forsake luxury for his calling (Hebrews 11:24-25). This was not an easy decision as it involves giving up a lot of things. In essence it involves giving up the world to pursue the calling of God. Whatever temptations, trials and challenges God had arranged for him, being brought up in the best of Egypt, he passed the test of saying ‘No’ to all worldly things and was deemed worthy for God to work out the next stage of his life. Everyone of us are born into families and circumstances and towns and countries which in total present the temptations, trials and challenges for which we must endure and still find our true spiritual calling and predestination of why we exist on earth. Far too many get caught up in the busyness of this world and never realized their divine calling and predestination. For those who do, God begins His next stage of training.
Sometimes in God’s next stage of training, it involves a change of fellowship, family, community, city or country. For Abraham, he had to leave home and country. For Moses, he also had to leave home and country. Though the circumstances were not perfect, partly of his own doing, Moses was finally at the place where God could work upon him in the wilderness. All his basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and companionship was met as Moses married into Jethro’s household. He had a good job and it provided for him. It looked like his old life was gone forever. Perhaps even his knowledge of his divine calling and destiny might have faded through forty years of wilderness. But God is faithful who will never let us do anything but His perfect Will. Moses calling was inaugurated in the fullness of time by the appearance of the angel in the burning bush, and thus begin his new last lease of forty years of ministry in the Lord. His forty years in the wilderness was important and necessary. Moses had become more humble and this character was important in leading the most powerful migrations in the Bible with one of the most powerful demonstrations of God in the Bible. The time in the wilderness was what truly equipped him to be used mightily by God. Imagine a proud Moses straight from 40 years of Egypt into power, without humility of 40 years wilderness. It would have been disastrous. Even after forty years in the wilderness, there were still sparks of anger that were uncalled for which cause Moses to miss entering the land of Canaan. Imagine if those sparks of anger were a regular feature. Overall, the Bible calls Moses the meekest man alive during his generation (Numbers 12:3). It took 40 years of wilderness to give him that important character.
As we end this first part of examining migration in the Bible, we learn that there is a geographical place for all of us to be in. And sometimes we are called into several geographical places for each season of our lives. We must be faithful to go where God tells us to go. And we must also be faithful to learn what God wants us to learn in each place. Knowing that where we fail to learn and fail the test in each place, the timeline might change for us. But where we succeed by the grace of God, we always walk in God’s perfect Will and can show forth His glory through our lives. May God’s perfect Will always be done in each and everyone of our lives. Amen.