They are in fact referring to the instance in the bible where the Israelites where directed to camp at Pihohireth instead of continuing north out of Egypt, which was strange direction considering they were already just about out of the land.
i consider this questionable, because I don't see how anyone today would ever need to do anything drastic to survive Armageddon. The direction for what to do is already in the scriptures where Jesus said to,"flee to the mountains." Anything they add on to that is just adding to what he said, as though it's not enough.
But if you consider how much power they really have you can see how this could be dangerous to the world in some ways. If they directed all witnesses to quit their jobs, or leave their countries, how much of a blow is that to the work force? I wonder if they have enough people to blackmail the world economy or maybe just bring about a recession just by extracting all witnesses from the economy. There are various ways, I'm sure, they can affect the world just because the have so many hearts and minds under their control.