The immigration debate is everywhere in the news these days, especially during the past few weeks as there is a massive migration of people heading through central America toward the U.S. border just in time for November elections. And where most of the current debate in our day focuses on the issue of how hospitable or welcoming a particular nation should be toward migrants, in Genesis 46 and 47 we see the issue from a different perspective. For as we pick up in verse 5, we find the people of God, Abraham’s offspring, travelling en mass from the land of Canaan toward the border of Egypt. Now, as we noted two Sundays ago, this was no light decision on their part. Famine had initially forced them to seek aid in Egypt, and as God had miraculously preserved them through one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, they had been invited by Pharaoh the settle in the land. However, even with that invitation, Israel paused to seek the Lord’s will in their migration, as it meant leaving the land of promise to sojourn in a land of idolatry. God meets Israel at the southern border of Canaan and assures him:

Gen. 46:1   So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

And thus the caravan moved forward into the land of Egypt, where they would sojourn for hundreds of years. And therefore the question lingering over these chapters is, “How is Israel to live during the time of their sojourn?” Here we find two principles for sojourners. The first is:

Having been called to be a holy nation, God’s people must with intention preserve their distinctiveness during their sojourn in a land of idolatry.