It’s Friday and my day is once again dedicated to God’s Word in the context of today.
My focus for today’s Blog is on the opposing views of white South Africans leaving South Africa for security and safety in other countries, particularly given President Trumps generous offer of asylum with an accelerated path to citizenship.
The post is a long one as I delve deeply into Biblical examples and principles on whether or not a covenant with God allows one to leave the land of the covenant. My conclusions are Bible based but, as with everything including the spiritual, you are encouraged to further your own research and reach your own conclusions.
Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria, South Africa (Source: SA Game Lodges)
Centuries ago, our ancestors prayed for God's grace as they left behind the injustices in their European homelands to forge new lives in a strange land. Today, we too face injustices, threats and endangerment. The recent question of whether we should stay or go is what is on my mind.
White South African farmers, particularly Afrikaners, have a deeply historical and spiritual connection to the land. Some link themselves historically to the covenant with God This covenant, The Day of the Vow has been consecrated to God since December 16, 1838, when Voortrekkers promised God that they would honour Him if He granted victory at the Battle of Blood River.
This has fostered a belief among some that their presence in South Africa is divinely ordained, a “sacrosanct” calling to stay, If I may. As we face 140 plus race-based laws and land expropriation without compensation, there seems to be no one to turn to and nowhere to go. President Trump’s asylum offer can be viewed as either a blessing or a curse - leave and accept refuge or stay and trust God’s plan.
One does not break a covenant with God, this is true. However, may I throw a bit of a Biblical curved ball into the mix?
God has relocated His people when their remaining in the land became untenable, whether due to famine, oppression, or even the consequences of sin. The South African situation, where government policies are threatening lives and livelihoods, could be seen as a modern parallel where staying risks not only ruin but even death.
Have there been Biblical examples where there was a covenant to stay in a land, yet the people were moved by God Himself?
Yes indeed. Here are some linked instances where a commitment to a land, whether by covenant, promise, or divine instruction, is reversed or redirected by God’s will.
Genesis 17:8 (KJV)
8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
This was God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants. They were all, including Isaac and Jacob, covered by that promise.
Genesis 37
I have not included the text for Genesis 37 because the entire chapter is relevant and deals with the sale of Joseph by his brothers and his exile to Egypt. This can be viewed as a broken covenant to Joseph who should have lived his life in Canaan. There is no explicit vow that Joseph should remain in Canaan, but his belonging to the land of Canaan was tied to God’s promise to Abraham.
Genesis 45:5-8 (KJV)
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
If there was any doubt that God moves His people for His reason, this is a good example of prior planning in which God, by relocating Joseph, moved someone central to the covenant elsewhere, to position him to later save his family during famine. God’s planning is always in the best interest of His people for His greater purpose.
Jacob’s family was well settled in Canaan, living as stewards of God’s covenant land. Yet, during a severe famine, God spoke to Jacob in a vision at Beersheba.
Genesis 46:1- 4 (KJV)
1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
Here’s an important context to bear in mind. Despite the covenant of Canaan being the land of their father, Abraham, God led Jacob and his family to relocate to Egypt for their very survival. He also promised them growth as a nation. Exodus shows us God’s permanence and how God’s plans are generational. He knew that His people needed to move out of the land of their covenant but, although they did not know this at the time, the move to Egypt was only temporary (a long temporary to be sure but, temporary nevertheless) and, in God’s eyes, it was not abandonment of the land covenant but a relocation for spiritual and physical health and wellbeing.
God moved His people away from the promised land temporarily for their good and to further His larger plan. The covenant was linked to Canaan as the promised land, but God’s love and purpose superseded and still supersedes geography, relocating His people when remaining in Canaan would have meant deprivation, starvation and certain death.
These examples show God redirected His people despite their being established in a certain location. The covenant’s essence, that of a relationship with God, remained intact, even when the land shifted beneath their feet and God needed them to relocate.
I urge my fellow South Africans to once more earnestly seek God's voice and be led by it.
God guides His people to where He desires them to be. I believe that we are living in God's time for our people again. I believe that God has drawn His line in the sand and said, “So far and no further!”
For those of us who trust God implicitly and believe in His absolute sovereignty, He controls our world and the people in it.
Proverbs 3:5-6
1 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
2 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Psalm 24
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it
The Bible gives us many instances of God moving people from one place to another to accomplish His purposes. In Genesis 11, God moves Abraham and his family. In Genesis 37, God moves Joseph to Egypt and then in Genesis 46, moves Jacob’s whole family to Egypt. In Joshua 1, God moves His people into the Promised Land. At the end of 2 Kings we see God moving Judah to Babylon. In Nehemiah, God begins to move the people back to their land.
I honestly believe that when one enters into a covenant with God, it is more of a spiritual covenant than merely a covenant over a specific section of physical land. The Bible consistently prioritises the heart of the covenant (faithfulness to God) over geography.
Hebrews 11:13-16 (KJV)
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
These verses describe Abraham’s covenant as a heavenly homeland, not just Canaan. If we have to be honest with ourselves, the Afrikaners’ covenant is with God Himself. As God is universal and not geographically limited, the covenant can travel with them, whether to the US or elsewhere.
In each Biblical case, relocation was an act of preservation or redemption. President Trump’s offer could be viewed as a practical deliverance, akin to Joseph’s role in Egypt, not a betrayal of faith.
A counterpoint and reflection on everything that I’ve considered above is that those insisting on staying may possibly argue that enduring hardship is part of covenant faithfulness, like Israel’s persistence under Egyptian slavery before the Exodus. They could see leaving the land as abandoning God’s call, especially if they equate South Africa with their “Promised Land.” I understand this viewpoint. Yet, the Biblical record suggests God does not always require that His people live in suffering. He often provides a way out and uses relocation to fulfil His purposes.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
God understands and may even orchestrate relocation as this aligns with His character as a loving shepherd who guides His flock (Psalm 23).
The core of the covenant is not the soil but the soul.
If the farmers’ situation mirrors exile or famine-like conditions, history shows God isn’t bound by their vow to stay if He deems change of location is the better option.
God’s love and provision is perfectly encapsulated in the following verses.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (KJV)
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
My family, as with many Afrikaans families, has been a part of South Africa for centuries. Some were even Voortrekker leaders. They, together with other strong, God-fearing Christians arrived in the Cape and Natal, often with nothing. They forged paths through wilderness and over mountains and, in the process, created a country from an untamed and often hostile terrain.
I am now in the process of emigrating so my view is slanted towards living in safety within an infrastructure which is functional. I do, however, understand why other people are loath to leave Die Vaderland. God Bless us all.
Credit: Contextual research by Grok AI
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