Hasn't Something Like This Happened Before?

Thousands of men, women and children are fleeing corrupt,
violent and gang-ridden Central American nations.

"The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children." 

- Exodus 12:37

This week we are witnessing an unprecedented migration of people fleeing for their lives from one of the poorest and most violence-ridden countries in the world, Honduras. I can't help thinking of similarities between their plight and that of the Israelites deprived of their freedom and in fear of their future under Egyptian Pharaohs many years ago.

In this case the 'Pharaoh' is a corrupt and drug-infested government of a nation that has a higher poverty rate than that of Haiti. Teen age girls and boys are in particular danger of being raped and pressured to cooperate with drug cartels, with precious little protection from Honduran police. Unemployment is at a record high, and wages for those who are working are among the lowest in the world. 

But this isn't a case of people simply looking for better economic opportunity. Most of these migrants' very lives are in danger.

On our side of the border we have a choice. Will we work with our neighbors to the south to help provide reasonable protection and better opportunities for them, and by investing in "cities of refuge" on both sides of the border? Or will be like the Philistines in the biblical story who do everything we can to keep them from 'invading' the very part of our West we once invaded and conquered as Mexican-held territory?

Historically, God has always been on the side of needy refugees rather than on the side of world powers who have shunned them.

Here's one historical perspective https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-mass-migration-65935?fbclid=IwAR3nqmw4bXO2LyqQsIpojBpFaI5MQnGx15ht8Y1W2eKB7pBt1uoQEnvSgxw