Going into Exile at (mystery) Bozrah.
Image by acclaimed Australian photographer Peter Walton.
Click on the image to go to his work at AllPosters.com.
THE
BOZRAH
EXILE
Micah 2:12-13 & Rev. 12
An essay by Gavin Finley MD
endtimepilgrim.org - 2006
The ancient carol ' O Come Emmanuel
sung by
Susan Osborn is available on iTunes.
It will play for 1.5 minutes.
THE FLIGHT TO BOZRAH
AND THE BOZRAH EXILE
The Apostle John in the Book of Revelation
tells us that in the latter days God's covenant
people, (in this passage characterized as the
woman of Revelation 12), will be in a measure of travail or tribulation.
(Moses' prophecy also concurs with this.)
The woman will be given the wings of a great eagle
and she will fly off to "her place", a wilderness place of exile for a period of
three and a half years. (Rev. 12:14)
Eight verses earlier in the same chapter the Apostle John is given the same period of time, the exile and nurturing of the woman, in terms of
1260 days. (Rev. 12:6) This gives us a 'Rosetta stone' of sorts for
Biblical or prophetic time. This final
3.5 years, 42 months, or 1260 days of this age is measured out for us in very precise terms by the Holy Spirit in
seven different Bible verses.
The Bozrah exile embodies a magnificent promise.
God's covenant people, many of them mothers and children, will be given a partial reprieve from the
Great Tribulation at the end of this age.
They will be given the means to fly off to a place "away from the face of the dragon".
This is a promise of God. We can be 100% sure that this coming great exodus and regathering of God's covenant people
will happen.
The prophet Micah in Mic. 2:12-13 brings us 'the rest of the story'.
He tells us where God's covenant people are fleeing to in this epic end time drama.
God says He will gather all His covenant people at a secret mystery place
the Bible identifies as 'Bozrah'.
Micah 2
Hebrew Names Version of World English Bible
12. I will surely assemble, Ya`akov, (Jacob), all of you;
I will surely gather the remnant of Yisra'el, (Israel);
I will put them together as the sheep of Botzrah,
As a flock in the midst of their pasture;
They will throng with people.
This is the epic end-time migration of people we might call the "Bozrah Exile".
Bozrah was an ancient city, (now a ruin), belonging to
the Edomites the godless children of Esau.
This is an awesome prophecy, and one that few Bible teachers know about or
feel free to speak about.
And so this redemptive and inspiring story of that epic end-time retreat from the face of the Dragon
arranged by God for His covenant people in the
final 3.5 years of this age still remains untold.
So there at a mysterious place the Bible calls "Bozrah" the people Micah calls "Jacob" will gather.
"Jacob" is a precursor spiritual state before God's covenant people become "Israel", prince with God.
God through Micah says "I will gather all of you"! So this company of people, the Congregation/Church God loves will be huge,
probably numbering in the hundreds of millions. We are talking here of people from all around the world
regathered from all twelve tribes of Israel.
This stupendous exile will include those who have been regathered and "called out" of the
'lost 10 tribes of Israel'.
This is that Greater Israel spoken of by our Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:12-13 as the
'Commonwealth of Israel'.
They will be "called out" to become God's final "ekklesia", His Congregation/Church/Synagogue.
All of them, and the bulk of them 666 rejectors, will be regathered.
We know that God's covenant people in their unrefined form as Jacob
will be refined at last to become Israel.
And yes, this will be a time of trial and a refining to be sure. But this is is not a grievous thing at all for those who are being
called out and are responding to YHVH-God by grace through faith in His Holy Word.
They will be spiritually preserved under the guidance and comfort of God's Holy Spirit.
And there at Bozrah, in that mystery place yet unknown, all of God's covenant people will be sheltered,
fed, and nurtured. Mystery Bozrah will be the place where a lot of Biblical and spiritual discussion will be going on.
It will be a massive epic Apocalyptic camp meeting of Biblical proportions, and a very noisy one at that.
The prophet Micah said of regathered Jacob,
"They will make great noise by reason of the multitude of people". (Micah 2:12-13)
How long will this exile last?
John the Revelator tells us precisely, to the very day.
This time period for the exile is set for the
final 3.5 years of this age. The Holy Spirit measures out this final 3.5 years of the age for us
in very precise terms in
seven different Bible verses.
The Bible refers to this final regathering of His covenant people using the word "Jacob".
And so we know this includes the regathering of all 12 tribes of Greater
'Commonwealth of Israel' in their unrefined state.
(See
Eph.2:11-13)
Our apostle Paul speaks of the Commonwealth, (or citizenship), of Israel as those who are called out of heathen gentile wickedness
and come under the blood of Christ. Christians in the West are not told about this for fear of the secular princes of the West.
All of Jacob will be sequestered there at Bozrah. We must assume that this company of people includes multitudes of women and children.
The body of the "Man-child" company will be born during this very same time period.
The Great Tribulation period coincides with the travail of the woman and here at Bozrah we see her in her place of confinement.
It is her birthing chamber even as the body of Man-Child company is about to be born at the First Resurrection.
The sacred Head of the Man-child company was born 2,000 years earlier at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, on
the morrow after the sabbath of
Passover right on Resurrection Sunday on the Hebrew
Feast of Firstfruits.
Jesus our Messiah at His first coming was the Firstfruits from the dead even as the Head of the Man-Child was crowning and the birth began.
The following Body of the Man-child company will be born as well. They are the key players on the stage of holy history during this climactic time.
They will bring in the final 5th seal witness at the end of the age.
They will
finish the race on behalf of all of God's saints from both sides of Calvary.
It is true that many of the saints will die in the witness during those times.
But they will be the ones given prominence in the Resurrection of the righteous dead
which immediately precedes the Rapture at the end of the age. (See
Revelation 20:4-6, and
1Thes. 4:15-17, and also
1Cor. 15:51-53)
But
the woman with the crown of 12 stars, though under great trial and travail, will be in confinement
during this time before the Man-child is born at the
Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture.
She will be taken off into exile at this "Bozrah" place during the entire period of regathering, refining, and restoration of Israel.
The prophet Jeremiah said that this would be the time of "Jacob's Trouble".
We know from cross referencing of Holy Scripture in the
Olivet Discourse) that Jesus called this period of time following the abomination of desolation, the
Great Tribulation'.
EZEKIEL 20:33-38: A CROSS-REFERENCING SCRIPTURE
DESCRIBING A PLACE CALLED THE WILDERNESS OF THE PEOPLES
There is another intriguing Scripture passage in Ezekiel which appears to be another cross-reference
to the mystery Bozrah scripture
of Micah 2:12-13 and also cross-reference to the twin passages describing the exile of the woman
in Revelation 12:6 and 12:14.
This passage in Ezekiel 20 contains some definite clues as to why God will be gathering
His people in the latter days. This is a big story yet never spoken about in Churches or on Christian television.
This gathering of people from out of the nations must be an epic end-time gathering of enormous proportions.
Here below is that passage.
Ezekiel 20:33-38 (KJV)
33 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm,
and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34 And I will bring you out from the people,
and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand,
and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people,
and there will I plead with you face to face.
36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt,
so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.
37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod,
and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:
38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me:
I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn,
and they shall not enter into the land of Israel:
and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
BIBLICAL TIME. 3.5 YEARS = 1260 DAYS
THE TIME LOCK ON THE TRIBULATION PERIOD,
AND A "ROSETTA STONE" FOR THE BIBLICAL YEAR.
The time period of this
Bozrah exile,
during which
'the woman' of Revelation 12 is nurtured
is very precisely stated in Holy Scripture.
(See this video.)
To help ensure there is not any confusion about this,
God has seen fit to state the time period for us twice in Revelation 12.
In this same passage He gives us the time period for the flight and exile of His covenant people
using two different time units. This is absolutely amazing!
If our God, the Holy One of Israel took that extra effort to tell us twice what He intends to do at the end of the age
then shouldn't we pay attention?
God forbid that we continue to neglect this telling scripture and put a block on this very reassuring message of God's
lovingkindness to His own during their latter day
time of trial and tribulation.
God is very definite about this.
He says, "I will gather ALL of you, Jacob".
Biblical Christians know that when the Seed of Abraham, (the indwelling Christ Himself), comes into their hearts and lives
and takes up residence they become a "new creature". See
2Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15.
We also know that our identity in Christ brings us into the 'Commonwealth of Israel'. (See
Ephesians.2:11-13)
So through the blood of Christ we become intimately identified with the Seed of Abraham.
So all that being understood,
we as Christian believers should not try to pretend that this passage in Micah referring to "Jacob" is
"just for the Jews", or "not for us", or "irrelevant to us as Christians in 'the Church' ".
These scriptures are for us!
And they are important!
THE FLIGHT OF THE WOMAN, (GOD'S COVENANT PEOPLE),
DURING THE TRIBULATION, THE FINAL 3.5 YEARS OF THIS
AGE, SEEN IN JOHN'S VISION OF REVELATION CHAPTER 12.
Art used by permission of Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Visit her'Revelation Illustrated' website.
In Revelation 12:6 we are told that 'the woman'
will be given "the wings of a great eagle" and that she will fly off to a place of safety
where she can be nourished/fed for
1260 days.
Eight verses late, in Revelation 12:14, we are given the very same information.
The message is restated again. But this time it is given in terms of different time units.
The time period for the exile of the woman is given in this verse as
a "time, times, and half a time", or a period of three and a half years.
This is our "Rosetta stone" for prophetic time. It tells us in no uncertain terms
what a 'year' means when the Ancient of Days
dispenses His holy time to us in prophecies that come down to us from the courts of heaven.
This is a clincher for Bible prophecy students as they co-relate the prophecies in Daniel
and in the Book of Revelation.
It "locks in" the time period of the latter half of the
70th Week of Daniel. The time period is given in two time units, those being days and
biblical years.
1260 divided by 3.5 = 360.
So the number of days in a biblical or prophetic year
when a timed prophecy is issued from the courts of heaven is no longer in question. It is
360 days.
God's covenant people in the end-time drama are showcased in scripture in several ways.
Jesus calls them
'the Elect' (singular) in the
Olivet Discourse.
In Genesis and in Revelation 12 we also see them pictured as
'the woman'.
They are also called the Commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2:11-13.
They are called 'Jacob' in Micah 2:12-13.
The prophet Micah states that they will be gathered in exile "as the sheep of Bozrah". (Mic. 12:12-13)
Why is this
flight to Bozrah necessary?
The Apostle John gives us the reason.
The 'woman'/Israel/the Church is being pursued by the dragon.
She is given the wings of a great eagle.
And so she flees to pre-ordained a place of safety. (Rev.12:6)
There at "her place" she will be protected and spiritually nourished/fed. (See
Rev.12:6 & 12:14)
This exile lasts for a period of three and a half biblical years. (See Rev.12:14)
The time is also given as
1260 days. (See
Rev.12:6)
This time of Jacob's Gathering we see in
Micah 2:12-13 must surely be related to the great 666 rejection by God's covenant people which brings them into
what the prophet Jeremiah called
Jacob's trouble.
This is also referenced in Holy Scripture as the time of
the travail of the woman, again, another reference to God's covenant people from both houses of Israel.
This epic period of time occurs during reign of the 666 Beast phase Antichrist when he is
possessed by the
Beast Demon of the Abyss and is revealed midway through the final seven years of this age as the Beast of 666.
So this time of Great Tribulation occurs during the latter half of the 70th Week (or 70th seven), of Daniel 9:24-27.
See this chart of the future 70th Week of Daniel.
Jacob's gathering or the gathering of the remnant of Israel mentioned by the prophet Micah
is the very same time period of 'Jacob's trouble'.
And yes, the Church and Western Christendom are very much connected to Israel through the blood of Messiah.
So contrary to what we have been told, Christian believers are in the loop.
The blood of Christ brings them into the
Commonwealth of Israel or the Citizenship of Israel.
Western Christians will be heavily involved in this epic latter day history.
See this short video.
Because while this epic exodus of Go'ds 666 rejecting covenant people is taking place
some group of saints at some time must eventually
go up before the kings and rulers and bring in the 5th seal end-time witness.
Some group of runners must finish the race on behalf of all the saints who have gone before them.
If American and Western Christians are not prepared to consider this then
they will have missed out on a great adventure and a divine romance in their God.
And the God of Israel will
raise up witnesses from another quarter.
He will turn away from the contractor-grade carnal Christians of the West and rely on the
higher grade blood covenant witness of faithful Chinese, Indonesian, Egyptian and a host of other Christian believers to do the job.
The end-time witness of the saints will not be a cakewalk.
The Valley of Decision will bring the days that try men's souls.
The prophet Jeremiah brings us both the somber news and the glorious news.
He tells us in one passage of Scripture.
Jeremiah 30
7. "Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it.
And it is the time of Jacob's Trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.
We see a 3.5 Biblical year, 42 Biblical month, 1260 day period.
It is the exact same time period of the trampling of Jerusalem,
(See Rev.11:2).
It is the exact same time period ministry of the two witnesses, (See
Rev. 11:3),
It is the exact same time period of the reign of the 666 Beast phase Antichrist. (See
Daniel 12:6-7, Revelation 13:3-5.)
How did God's covenant people, the Jewish and Christian people get into this jam?
We know that the God of Israel is not capricious but righteous in all that He allows to happen.
Apparently 'the woman' before coming into her glory has been wanton, even as
Gomer.
Moses gave a
warning to God's people about this.
He told of the misbehavior of His people in the "latter days".
Moses prophesied that this waywardness in Jacob would come to some sort of a climactic head.
So did Jesus. (John 5:43)
God's covenant people have an humanistic inclination to take up with
worldly lovers.
So here we see 'the woman', Israel, God's covenant people, in her final dalliance.
It will be her final and cataclysmic mistake.
She has made covenant with a
false messiah.
She will give him her land and her sovereign power leaving herself with nothing.
In the manner of Esau she has sold her birthright for a mess of pottage.
Of course there are consequences to this.
She is now in a world of trouble.
But, all is not lost.
Something else of great wonder is happening.
And it is happening right inside the Tribulation period.
A great drama is unfolding during last half of the last seven years of this age.
The
woman is in travail and in pain to be delivered.
She is also being being threatened by the dragon empowering the 666 Antichrist.
Let us pause to take in the big picture here.
The Head of the Man-child has already been born.
He has already been resurrected to glory.
Jesus was the
firstfruits from the dead. (1Cor. 15:20)
He rose from the dead and ascended to His Father nearly 2,000 years ago.
The Body of the Man-child is next to be born.
And all who are Christ's will be born into the glory as well. (1Cor. 15:23)
The Man-child is sacrificed in the drama of the 5th seal. (Rev.6:9-11)
Here the 'final witness' of the saints is brought before the courts of heaven.
John sees this great company gathering before the throne of God. (Rev. 12:5)
When it is complete God the Father will give the Word to wrap things up. (Rev. 16:1)
After the 5th seal and the 'final witness' of the saints comes the 6th seal. (Rev.6:12-13)
The heavens open and the sign of the Son of Man is seen in heaven. (Mat.24:30)
And the returning Messiah goes out to judge and to plead with the nations.
Then comes the final Day of Reckoning, the final
'Day of Atonement'.
Immediately after the sun sets of that last day the
Day of the Lord opens up and the great harvest of the end time is reaped. (Rev.14:14-20)
Meanwhile,
the woman of Revelation 12 is in great travail.
At the end of her confinement, (and the word "confinement" is a midwifery term"),
she is being delivered of the Man-child. (Rev.12:1-2)
She has been given the wings of a great eagle.
Remember, we have seen the covenant people of the God of Israel carried "on eagles wings" before.
This was the poetic Biblical description of the exodus of Israel out of Egypt 3500 years ago.
Now we hear the woman is given the wings of a great eagle.
This mass airlift of people will be on a global operation carried out on a massive scale.
It will be the most awesome stupendous airlift of people this world has ever seen.
Can we guess which nation or group of nations might be involved here?
Which nation or nations have the lion's share of the aircraft of the world?
To find out click the start button on the video below.
The woman of Revelation 12,
also referenced in Micah both as as regathered "Jacob" and "the remnant of Israel",
flees "into the wilderness" "away from the face of the dragon".
(See
Rev.12:6 and Rev. 12:14.)
God, once again, is showing His great mercy in deliverance.
And a certain country or group of countries is aiding the woman, the remnant of Israel, as she flies from the face of the
Dragon. The flight of the woman has been fully provided for.
She has been given the wings of a great eagle.
Of course others may have other ideas and another agenda.
But the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John writes in the pages of Holy Scripture quite clearly
that the woman is on her way to "her place", a mystery place.
And that place, wherever that geographical place turns out to be, is "away from the face of the dragon".
There, at "her place" the woman will be "fed" and "nourished".
For how long? Our Apostle Paul tells ustwice.
The exile of the woman will be for the last 3.5 years, (or 1260 days), of this age.
That final gathering place is identified in Micah 2:12-13 with the name 'Bozrah'.
Bozrah means
'sheepfold'. And this is our first major clue.
God's covenant people will be regathered out of their worldwide dispersions and out of the Diaspora and
penned up together in this mystery Bozrah place, the sheepfold of the Almighty.
Here is our next big clue.
In former times Bozrah was a pastoral city of Edom.
It belonged to the
children of Esau.
THE PLACE OF THE EXILE IS GIVEN IN MICAH 2:12-13 AS BOZRAH.
IT IS NOT PETRA. PETRA WOULD NOT ACCOMMODATE MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE.
FOR THOSE FLEEING JERUSALEM A REFUGE THERE WOULD BE A FATAL CHOICE.
WITH TODAY'S METHODS OF WARFARE PETRA WOULD BE A DEATH TRAP.
The name of the place of exile of then woman is given to us
in scripture. It is Bozrah. And that is where the "Breaker" will
come to deliver her at the end of the age.
The place of refuge will not be Petra. There are no
scripture passages that mention or allude to Petra. None!
So why the switch from Bozrah to Petra?
Why hide the Bozrah scriptures with a troglodyte fable about Israel
in the Tribulation finding shelter in Petra? Petra has never been able
to accommodate more than 1,000 people.
Clearly it is not big enough to shelter and supply food and other supplies
for tens or hundreds of millions of people for
three and a half years.
Petra is an unlikely, even impossible place, for an exile of the magnitude we see in Micah 2.
Nor would it provide safe haven for the
population of Judah and Jerusalem in the Armageddon scenario at the very end of the age.
If we are considering a refuge for Israel in the Armageddon siege then
we need to be brought up to date. Yes, in past times Petra was a retreat.
The narrow passes into Petra were easily defended by men with bows and arrows and swords.
But in these days of modern warfare the situation is far different.
The modern government of Israel would never
lead their people to Petra in Jordan for shelter. That deep gorge back in the days
of the Edomite marauders was a good hide-out for a few hundred people.
The deep and narrow entrance into the rock city
was a good redoubt. But nowadays Petra would never qualify as a retreat.
To put any population in there in these days of modern weapons would seal their doom.
Petra would be a deathtrap.
And why? Because one big air burst fuel bomb down in that deep gorge would turn the whole canyon into an inferno.
All the oxygen would be sucked out, just as we saw in the terrible firestorms of Hamburg and Dresden.
The people in there would be incinerated or perish in their caves of suffocation.
That would be the end of all the people in there.
And with a chemical bomb the situation would be just as deadly.
The gas would flow down the gorge and just sit there. a chemical gas attack in a gorge would kill the whole population.
In the modern era of napalm and devilish chemical bombs a retreat to Petra would be absolutely suicidal.
The gorge would soon become a fiery furnace and a valley of death.
The supposed "refuge" would soon be a place of charred corpses.
No one would survive.
So what is going on here with this "retreat to Petra" fable?
Why do we continue to hear our Bibles teachers bring forth this improbable, even impossible, "Petra" story?
And why has the much bigger Bozrah story we see in Micah 2:12-13 and Revelation 12:6 and 12:14 been hidden from the Church?
Why have the Bozrah scriptures been "cloaked" by this unscriptural and fanciful "flight to Petra" story?
Why did this Petra story get floated anyway? We keep hearing a lot about Petra whenever the Bozrah sheepfold issue is raised.
But precious little in the way of a faithful plain reading exegesis of the Holy Scriptures as they pertain
to this critically important prophecy of end-time Bozrah.
Why the smokescreen? Why the misinformation?
And why make up a Petra story when the word "Petra" is not even in the Bible?
Just what is this little conflict in the
information war all about? What is the agenda behind the disinformation here?
That, dear saints, is what we shall be looking into as we proceed onwards in this article.
THE PLACE IS BOZRAH, NOT PETRA.
THE REAL STORY IS THE FLIGHT OF THE WOMAN, GOD'S ELECT,
TO A PLACE OF EXILE AND NURTURING DURING THE TRIBULATION.
THE BIBLE CALLS THIS PLACE BOZRAH AND IT IS PROBABLY A FARAWAY GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION.
BUT WHAT DO WE HEAR FROM OUR BIBLE TEACHERS?
THE BOZRAH STORY IS BEING SWITCHED OUT. IT IS COVERED OVER BY A FALSE STORY
ABOUT A SUPPOSED ESCAPE TO PETRA. THEY SAY THAT THE BOZRAH EXILE STORY IS REALLY A PETRA ESCAPE STORY
AND THAT IT INVOLVES THE ESCAPE OF THE POPULATION OF JERUSALEM DURING
THE EARTHQUAKE THAT SPLITS THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
AT THE VERY END OF THE AGE. BUT THIS BELITTLES THE EPIC GRANDEUR
OF THE BOZRAH EXILE AND THE
BOZRAH DELIVERANCE.
The Bozrah story tells of a magnificent deliverance of God's people
at the end of the age. It involves the exile in Bozrah of the
covenant people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And it refers to the return of Messiah at Bozrah as a Deliverer.
The scriptures
point to Bozrah as a place where the Elect are held
during the time of "Jacob's trouble". They are held captive
under the jurisdiction of the wild, untamed, and Godless children of Esau.
The
Edomites are still with us today.
An epic future time, the
70th Week of Daniel, will see them rise up just as Jacob prophesied. (Gen.27:39-40)
They will be given dominion over God's covenant people. Micah sees the second coming
of Messiah and the conclusion to the drama.
He sees the Shepherd of Israel entering His sheepfold in the hours before dawn.
Out there at Bozrah He becomes "the Breaker".
This wonderful Bozrah Deliverance prophecy is hidden.
It is "cloaked" by the powers that be. A Bozrah deliverance presupposes
a Bozrah exile. We are looking here at an incarceration of God's covenant
people in the last 3.5 years of the age.
This may be cross-referenced by John the Beloved as the flight of the
woman of Revelation 12.
This is very disturbing to some Christian believers.
The rulers are well aware of past Church history.
They probably fear that this information, (should it get out),
may trigger societal disruptions by carnal Christians.
And so at this point in time the entire Bozrah drama is under a religious
smokescreen involving a so-called flight of latter day Judah in Israel to
a supposed place of refuge in Petra.
And so the real story of the Bozrah Exile is still an untold story.
Here below is the scripture in Micah that tells of the Bozrah
exile and the
Bozrah deliverance.
This scripture is in the Old Testament. So its prophetic significance
for the Church in the end time drama is missed.
For reasons of political correctness this passage in Micah 2:12-13
is not addressed by today's teachers of Bible prophecy.
Nor do they receive all the promises of lost Israel's restoration in the latter days
as prophecy that might affect them as well as the regathering and restoration of the Jewish House of Judah.
When YHVH-God says "I will regather and assemble All of You" He means just that!
He means that He will gather and restore all 12 tribes of Israel!
Micah 2
Hebrew Names Version of World English Bible
12. I will surely assemble, Ya`akov, all of you;
I will surely gather the remnant of Yisra'el;
I will put them together as the sheep of Botzrah,
As a flock in the midst of their pasture;
They will throng with people.
13. He who breaks open the way goes up before them.
They break through the gate, and go out.
And their king passes on before them,
With the LORD at their head."
Micah 2
King James Version
12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee;
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah,
As the flock in the midst of their fold:
they shall make great noise
by reason of the multitude of men.
13. The breaker is come up before them:
they have broken up,
and have passed through the gate,
and are gone out by it:
and their king shall pass before them,
and the LORD on the head of them.
-Mic. 2:12-13 KJV
The image above shows a stone sheepfold of the type seen in biblical times.
Here the sheep would be confined by their shepherd
during the hours of darkness in a place of protection.
As the dawn approached the shepherd
would come into the sheepfold among His sheep. They would
gather around the shepherd as he prepared to open a way for them
to be delivered from the stone enclosure. As he opened a way out for them
they would crowd up alongside him pushing against the gateway
with a lot of force.
When the breakthrough came the whole flock would pour
out of the sheepfold through the breach together with the Messiah
as "the Breaker" going before them.
They would follow on the heels of the Shepherd
as he led them out to find pasture. This is the magnificent
pastoral picture of the "man-child company" breaking forth
into holy history at the end of the age.
This will change the destiny of heaven and earth.
The stars and angelic rulerships fall. And here on earth
Messiah brings in His Millennial Kingdom. He will minister and rule
for a thousand years.
This detailed picture of the deliverance of the elect
by Messiah (and not the church) at the
second advent is given to us in Micah chapter 2. This
drama of the Bozrah Exile and
Bozrah deliverance is laid out for us quite clearly and in detail.
The Bozrah deliverance is a
thrilling element of the Second Coming of Christ.
He is the Anointed One and our coming Messiah.
The Micah 2 scripture shows the connection
of the Second Coming of Christ
to Bozrah, (an Edomite domain), very well.
We also see The Bozrah deliverance
laid out for us in spectacular fashion in
Isaiah 63.
This is the judgment side to the Second Coming of Christ.
God is obviously telling us something here in these Bozrah scriptures.
Each of them clearly relate
to the return of Messiah.
BOZRAH, NOT PETRA.
THE "FLIGHT TO PETRA" IS BASED ON HUMAN SPECULATION. THERE ARE NO REFERENCES TO PETRA IN THE BIBLE.
BUT THERE ARE MANY BOZRAH SCRIPTURES.
Unfortunately we do not get this story of the Bozrah Exile.
Instead we get a "cover story" involving a supposed 'flight to Petra'.
If evangelicals are going to present a story of a flight to Petra
in the time of the Great Tribulation then where are the scriptures to support such an notion?
The short answer is this.
There are none!
THE SPLITTING OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES AT THE SECOND COMING,
AND THE FLIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM TO AZAL
Evangelical teachers who want to put a news blackout on this wonderful story
of the Bozrah Exile and the eventual
Bozrah deliverance
do a bait and switch. The obfuscate and "cloak" the Bozrah prophecy.
They throw in a substitute story about a supposed flight to Petra
in the time of Armageddon and the second coming.
They present the idea that Petra, an ancient city in Jordan
would be a nice place of refuge
for refugees coming out of Jerusalem during the big earthquake.
This is the one that splits the Mount of Olives
at the very end of this age.
But it doesn't fit. There is no time for a prolonged exile here.
Well there will certainly be an epic earthquake that
splits the Mount of Olives. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem will flee.
But where will they flee to?
Are they really going to be Petra?
This "flight to Petra" notion is embedded in the evangelical family.
Books have been written on it. And Biblical Christians bring it up quite often.
It is brought up in relation to the trials of the Jewish people
in Jerusalem at the end of the age and their flight out of the city of Jerusalem.
But where did this idea of a "flight to Petra" in Jordan come from?
The scripture passage they present to support this is in Zechariah 14.
ZECHARIAH 14
1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.
5
Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
Thus the Lord my God will come,
And all the saints with You.*
THE ESCAPE FROM THE EARTHQUAKE BY THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM.
WHEN THE MOUNT OF OLIVES IS SPLIT THEY EVACUATE TO NEARBY AZAL.
As we can see, there is no mention of Bozrah or Petra at all in this passage.
This is a flight of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the city during an earthquake.
That earthquake is the "big one" and it splits the Mount of Olives.
One element of the Second Coming is Jesus' return at the Mount of Olives. He is the One who at His Second Coming causes the earthquake!
In this prophecy all the prophecies involving Edom there is no mention at all of the city of Petra.
And there is no mention of Petra in any other part of the Bible for that matter.
But here is a clear message of a flight out of Jerusalem that will end up in a nearby city.
That city is not way down in Jordan. It is in fact quite close to Jerusalem.
It is the city of Azal.
This "flight to Azal" happens at the very end of the age at the second coming of Christ.
The "flight to Azal" we see in the passage above is a short distance evacuation of Jerusalem.
The "flight to Azal" involves flight from an earthquake.
It occurs over a matter of hours and days.
It is not a prolonged exile over a period of years.
The passage gives no mention of a prolonged Tribulation refuge way down in Petra in Jordan.
This "flight to Azal" will not satisfy the prophecy of the 'flight of the woman' in Rev. 12:6 & 12:14.
Nor will not satisfy the scripture of the
Bozrah exile and the
Bozrah deliverance we see in Micah 2:12-13.
The so called "flight to Petra" is a hoax.
It is a doctrine without any scriptural foundation whatsoever.
The 'Azal evacuation' scripture in Zechariah has been used to build up this Petra fable.
Then this "flight to Petra" and "refuge in Petra" fantasy is used in a "cover up".
The Petra refuge fable becomes a "cover story" for the real and solid prophecy of the Bozrah Exile.
Because we know that God will be gathering all
And we know that Messiah will be paying a visit to Bozrah at His Second Coming. (Isa. 63)
A RELIGIOUS SMOKESCREEN OVER THE BOZRAH EXILE.
AND A "CLOAKING" OF THE BOZRAH DELIVERANCE.
Now we come to the next question. Why has this crucial
information regarding the Bozrah exile and subsequent deliverance of God's elect
from Edomite incarceration at Bozrah at the end of the age been "cloaked"?
Why are we getting this Petra disinformation? What are the powers trying to do here?
Just what is their agenda?
Why have the Bozrah scriptures and the Revelation 12 scripture
been omitted from teachings on end-time themes?
The Bozrah exile is a story of a rescue to a place of sanctuary during the great Tribulation is it not?
The Bozrah deliverance one of the most exciting and inspiring passages in the Bible.
The Bozrah drama has obviously been put under a religious smokescreen by the religious powers. Why?
Isn't the Bozrah story some exceedingly good and encouraging news?
So why haven't we heard this before?
Well it seems that when it comes to the question of the Great Tribulation
Christian Bible teachers do not want to have to tell the Church
they might be involved in any sort of exile.
Even if it is outlined in the Bible in Micah 2:12-13 and in Revelation 12:6 and 12:14
they will studiously omit any reference to it as an end time scripture involving the Church.
These dramas of the end-time, according to them, are
are not for the Church. They are "for the Jews".
They tell us that this Great Tribulation, is the time of "Jacob's trouble".
Therefore, according to them, the Great Tribulation will be a time of
trial and tribulation for the Jews and the Jews only.
But is this true?
Is there any scriptural proof that the Church will not be here
during the
70th Week?
Bible teachers know that the returning Messiah will deliver the inhabitants of Jerusalem
when He comes back and His feet touch the Mount of Olives.
When Jesus returns
The Jewish nation and Jerusalem will be delivered
from the end-time siege by the surrounding nations
at Armageddon. - Zech.12:7-13:1
Christians know all about the deliverance of Israel at the Battle of Armageddon.
But is this all there is to the Second Coming of Christ?
Just what will the returning Christ be doing when He comes to Bozrah?
What Christians do not know is that
at His Second Coming Christ will come
in vengeance bringing wrath upon His enemies at Bozrah.
(Isa.63)
He will also deliver His saints
at the same place, (or places),
named in scripture as Bozrah.
This is the awesome and magnificent
Bozrah Deliverance.
Bozrah means "sheepfold". And it is a place under the end time sovereignty of Edom.
These are two very valuable clues to the Bozrah story as it relates to the climax of this age.
Bozrah is part and parcel of the end time drama.
The exile to sanctuary in Bozrah and these deliverance actions by Messiah at Bozrah
have not been taught by Bible prophecy teachers.
But they are all part of the mosaic of this magnificent return of Messiah.
Because He is coming back!
And He will deliver and then glorify all His covenant people both in Israel and out in the nations.
All this drama and adventure will be capped off at the
Resurrection-Rapture at the end of the age.
The "cloaking" of this information about the Bozrah Exile is probably done with good intentions.
It has been hidden from the Church at large. And it has been kept from them
for their own good. The western Church is still immature.
Even we as evangelicals are still a carnal, manipulative, and potentially violent people.
So we probably did not deserve to know this Bozrah story.
But with this prophecy we are given hope.
We don't need to be angry and violent.
God has everything under control, even in the midst of Great Tribulation.
According to Micah and the Apostle John our God will be merciful.
He will nurture and feed His people during the Great Tribulation.
He will take them a place of exile named Bozrah.
Bozrah has some connection to the Edomites we know.
And the children of brother Esau will be in control.
But if God says that the woman of Revelation 12 will be "nurtured"
then some positive things will be going on.
The remnant of all of the 12 tribes of Israel will be there.
Micah says that all of Jacob will be gathered. (Micah 2:12-13).
This will have to include
the remnant of the lost 10 tribes.
And here is some more encouraging news.
Just as in that former seven year famine back in Egypt,
there will be "a famine of the hearing of the Word of God". (Amos 8:11)
God's people will be hungry for spiritual truth.
And the house of Joseph will be feeding them just as our patriarch Joseph did in the former time.
The House of Joseph will be there.
And once again Joseph will be laying out a table for his brethren.
And he will be revealing some mysteries, even in the midst of tears.
All this will happen in the Bozrah Exile.
So is this Bozrah prophecy all bad?
Just what will be happening during the
Tribulation period
out at the sheepfolds of Bozrah?
Quite clearly the Bozrah exile will not just be an incarceration story.
Apparently the Bozrah enclosure is "away from the face of the dragon". So the sheepfold of the Almighty,
as it is sometimes called, will also provide
some degree of shelter, even
nurturing or spiritual nourishment
for the children of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob gathered there in the end-time. Bozrah is in fact a place of relative safety for them.
The God of Israel has them there. And that, strange to say, is where they come to love Him.
We are used to calling our God, "Lord" related to the word, "Baal".
But there, in the Valley of Achor, (or Valley of trouble), is where they come to call Him "Ishi", "Beloved".
MYSTERY BOZRAH, THE SHEEP-PEN OF THE ALMIGHTY!
THE ONES WITHIN THE SHEEPFOLD DECLARE "YOU HOLD ME NOW!"
THEY PRESS IN AGAINST THE SHEPHERD AS HE RETURNS. AND AT THE END
THEY BURST OUT OF THE SHEEPFOLD WITH THE BREAKER AT THEIR HEAD
IN THE GLORIOUS BOZRAH DELIVERANCE!
THE FLIGHT TO BOZRAH AND THE GATHERING OF ALL OF JACOB IN MICAH 2:12-13
AND THE FLIGHT OF THE WOMAN OF REVELATION 12:8 & 12:14.
THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME.
To pick up the rest of the story we shall now go to the apocalypse of John.
In the saga of
'the woman of Revelation 12' we see the story of the flight of the woman,
(a picture of God's covenant people), "away from the face of the dragon".
She is obviously taken off to a place of exile.
And the time of this exile corresponds to the time of the latter half of the 70th Week of Daniel,
the final 3.5 years of this age. This is the time of the Great Tribulation and the trampling of Jerusalem.
Flight to Bozrah.
Image by famous Australian photographer Peter Walton.
Click on the image to go his work at AllPosters.com.
Why is the woman in exile for three and a half years?
As we study the scripture passage in Revelation 12 we see that she is there for two purposes.
1. She is there to be protected. And
2. she is there to be nurtured.
This must mean a spiritual nurturing or nourishment.
She will be physically cared for too it seems.
This prophecy of the woman who takes flight on the wings of an eagle
to a place of nurturing for the exact time period of the Great Tribulation
is clearly telling us a very important part of the story of the end-time.
It parallels
the story of the exile of the children of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob in the end-time at Bozrah. Bozrah is the place, (or places),
where Jacob can be nurtured in the things of God.
This will be happening during the last half of the
70th week,
and during the time of the Great Tribulation.
The Bozrah story cannot be hidden forever.
It will be told eventually.
Bozrah is an important spiritual place in which God will
protect, preserve, refine,
and nurture His people in the end-time drama.
Where will end-time Bozrah be located?
Right now we do not know where Bozrah might be geographically.
It may be many places. Or it may be one place.
It may be one central dumping ground
for Judeo-Christian troublemakers in the latter days.
Oh yes, the Bozrah scriptures do not just refer to "past history".
Nor is Bozrah just an archeological dig on a ruin of an ancient pastoral city
of Esau southeast of the Dead Sea.
For those who are there at this appointed plasce
in the latter days
this will be the place the prophets Isiah and Micah spoke about.
Bozrah will be a very real place under the control of modern day Edomites.
It may well turn out to be a geo-political area far from the promised land.
It may be a modern geo-political area out at the ends of the earth.
The covenant people of God may look up in those days to
find themselves in the place the Old Testament
prophets spoke of over 2700 years ago.
And there, in that place they will find their God.
They will find Him
"...as rivers of water in a dry place,
as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land." (Isa.32:2)
Micah 2
