Messiah returns in wrath and in deliverance.
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THE
BOZRAH
DELIVERANCE.
MICAH 2:12-13
Art used by permission of
Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992
Visit her
'Revelation Illustrated' website.
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The ancient carol ' O Come Emmanuel' is a song of advent.
Might this be the first advent? Or the second?
The carol is sung by Susan Osborn.
It is available on iTunes and will play for 1.5 minutes.
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Micah 2
King James Version
The Exile
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.
The Deliverance
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 word 'Breaker' capitalized by GWF
since there are no capitals in the original Hebrew
we are surely looking here at the coming Messiah.)
SUMMARY:
The Bible paints a picture of a magnificent deliverance
at the end of the age. It involves the returning Messiah and the covenant people of
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The scriptures
point to Bozrah as a place where the Elect are held in exile.
In the time of "Jacob's trouble" they are held
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 propecy of the Bozrah Deliverance is there in our Bibles.
But it remains hidden.
It is "cloaked" by the powers that be. A Bozrah deliverance
would be problematical for the western church to address since it suggests
a preceding
Bozrah exile. This would also have presupposed a
'flight to Bozrah' by God's covenant people
in an epic airlift.
It would be a great and awesome migration of Biblical proportions.
Such an incarceration or sheltering of God's covenant
people would be in the last 3.5 years of the age.
Do we have a cross reference to this that might give us some further infornmation?
Indeed we do.
The dramas involving Bozrah may be referenced in the message in Revelation 12
given to us by John the Beloved.
We see the endtime flight of the
woman of Revelation 12.
The suggestion of an exile of Christian believers in the final seven years of this age
would be very disturbing for many Christian believers.
The rulers are well aware of this.
They also remember those stormy periods of past Church history.
They probably fear that this Bozrah information, (should it get out),
may trigger a repeat of these sort of societal disruptions.
Their fears are probably well founded.
Carnal Christians have cause considerable trouble in the past.
And they certainly could do so again in the turbulent times up ahead.
And so at this point in time the entire Bozrah drama is hidden
It is "cloaked" and under a religious
smokescreen. The 'flight of the woman' to
a place of refuge in Bozrah has been re-engineered.
In its place we have have a cover story
which is the 'flight of the Jews to Petra' fable.
So the end time dramas of the saints at Bozrah anf the return of Messiah
to Bozrah remains an untold story.
THE SHEEPFOLD OF BOZRAH,
THE IMPLIED EXILE OF THE WOMAN OF ISRAEL AT BOZRAH.
AND THE END TIME DELIVERANCE OF THE ELECT
Going into Exile at Bozrah.
Image by acclaimed Australian photographer Peter Walton.
Click on the image above to go to the web-page article.
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The Bozrah deliverance is a story of great wonder.
And yet it has not been spoken about.
Christian Bible teachers are not expounding on this good news
of the end time. And we are not hearing about it from the pulpit
or Christian television.
The Bozrah deliverance is truly extraordinary.
It is the climax of a series of events that some
Christian and Jewish Bible students believe will
occur at the end of this age. Bozrah is the scene of a spectacular
break-out and deliverance of God's Elect.
God's covenant people are in some place of exile
or incarceration. This epic 'break out' at Bozrah is prophesied to occur at Christ's
second coming. This is the Day of the Lord and it
follows immediately after the final wrap-up
Day of Atonement.
After the judgement of the wicked and the deliverance of the Elect Messiah will
judge the nations.
Then He will establish up His
Millennial Kingdom.
The details of these events at Bozrah can be pieced together
from key passages in the Old Testament prophets of Isaiah (63) and Micah (2:12-13).
To understand the Bozrah deliverance some background
information from the Bible is necessary.
An understanding of the meaning of the word
'Bozrah' is very helpful here. 'Bozrah' means 'sheepfold'.
Bozrah was a pastoral city of Edom east of the Dead Sea.
The Edomite sovereignty over Bozrah is a very important issue. Because the
children of Esau are prominent players in the end time drama.
And so the name and character of Bozrah still belongs to Edom.
Esau was the brother of the patriarch Jacob.
One was godly and good at heart, even if he was somewhat of a trickster.
The other brother, Esau was untamed and ungodly.
The Bozrah deliverance is the climax to the story of these two brothers.
The two sons of Isaac
began wrestling within their mother
Rebekah's womb. When she enquired of God as to
the cause of this awful wrestling within her
she was told that her twins
would become two nations.
JACOB AND ESAU HAVE WRESTLED WITH EACH OTHER FROM THE BEGINNING.
THE STRUGGLE COMES TO ITS EPIC CONCLUSION AT THE END OF THE AGE.
Jacob and Esau were two brothers.
They became two nations. They have been wrestling
with each other for approximately 4,000 years. Apparently
this wrestling will stop.
It will end with the return of Messiah.
Jacob and Esau grew up together, sons of Isaac and Rebeccah.
The two were quite different in character.
Jacob was a nurturing,
person, a man of the flocks. In his early life he manifested the character
embodied in the name, 'Jacob', which means 'heel grasper', 'trickster', or
'supplanter'. Nevertheless Jacob's place was at the homestead and
he immersed himself in the faith of his fathers.
Esau was different. He was a hunter and a wild man.
He was a free-ranging man and had little time for the home and for the
God of Abraham and Isaac.
Esau took a foreign wife and worshipped foreign gods bringing
his parents and his family much grief.
Jacob had stolen Esau's birthright. He also tricked his brother
out of his blessing. When Esau realized the full implication
of what had happened he went to his father weeping.
Esau asked if there was anything left for him.
Well there was. And this is the big story that has been all but forgotten
by Bible teachers today. Isaac gave
his eldest son a leftover blessing. And it has huge
inplications for the Judeo-Christian peoples as they come into the arena
of the endtime.
Isaac pronounced that Esau would eventually become restless.
Eventually the time would come when Esau's children would rise up
against the peaceful rule of the nurturing children of Jacob.
Esau would break loose of civilized constraints.
He would cast Jacob's yoke (of peaceful submission) from off his neck.
Dear saints, this is an extemely significant prophecy.
God is telling us what will happen in the latter days.
As we look all around us in our society and in the popular culture today
we realize that this is already starting to happen.
There is a wild and angry culture of godlessness abroad.
And it is now expanding and beginning to gain the upper hand.
Is this the resurgent fleshly nature of Esau at work as
we approach the end of this age?
The resurgence of the Edomites in the end-time is an untold story.
We should not be surprised or unduly alarmed about all this.
It actually provides the background for the Bozrah deliverance.
God said that Esau would rise up. And so we must face up to it.
Here is the scriptural account of Isaac's blessing over his eldest son Esau.
GENESIS 27
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
"Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.
40 By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
And it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck."
-Gen.27:39-40
The implication of this prophecy is that Esau will be greatly blessed
in riches and blessings. But that eventually he will run wild.
The wild and brutish sons of Esau,
the Edomites, have not disppeared into history.
They must still be here with us and alongside us if God is going to deal
with them decisively at Bozrah. The children of Esau
will emerge into history in a big way. So much so that Messiah
has to come to a place the Bible calls Bozrah and deal with the Edomites
decisively as history comes to
its climax. This was clearly prophesied by the propohet Isaiah in
that awesome passage of scripture,
Isaiah 63.
The Edomites were always an untamed, predacious, and godless race of people.
The prophecy in Esau's blessing suggests that the children of Esau will
erupt into history. They will break free of constraint as this age comes
to its tumultuous and climactic conclusion. King David also alluded to
this casting loose of the bonds of submission to God's rulership.
He tells us about it in the song he wote in Psalm 2. The prophet Daniel,
in Daniel 11:41 confirms this as well. He indicates that Edom, the children
of Esau, will even escape the control of the coming Antichrist.
THE END-TIME DRAMA, WRATH AND DELIVERANCE, AT BOZRAH.
One important aspect of the Second Coming of Christ is the arrival of
Messiah at a place identified in the Old Testament as Bozrah.
This is a place in the sphere of Edom, the children of Esau.
The name Bozrah means "sheepfold" and this along with its Edomite
connection provides the reason for the return of Messiah to Bozrah.
Messiah is coming in wrath on His enemies and deliverance of His Elect
people. Bible students are beginning to discuss the implications of this
Bible prophecy. Isaiah and Micah both prophesy that the coming Messiah
is coming to judge the wicked and deliver His covenant people at a place
or places identified prophetically as Bozrah.
The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 63 shows the returning Messiah in graphic
prophetic poetry. He is trampling His enemies on the Day of Judgement.
The place of this divine wrath is out at at Bozrah which was the pastoral
territory of Esau's sheepfolds. Apparently a protectorate of Edom known as
Bozrah will be a place of God's judgement at the end of the age.
The returning Messiah will punish the wicked there. It will be similar
to the sort of divine Messianic judgement Zechariah has prophesied will
be carried out against the armies of the nations threatening Jerusalem
from the Valley of Armageddon.
But the Bozrah scriptures tell more than just a story of divine wrath
on God's enemies. Out at Bozrah there will also be a dramatic breakout.
The returning Messiah will deliver His covenant people from incarceration
by Esau. Apparently they will be penned up at a place or places identified
prophetically as Bozrah. The prophet in Micah 2:12-13 identifies the
coming Messiah as "the Breaker". When He returns He acts in mercy and
deliverance. The Shepherd of Israel breaks His people out of Esau's
sheepfold.
Bozrah is apparently a place of exile. Bible students are not constrained
to believe that Bozrah at the end of days has to necessarily be located
in the same geographical area of the ruins of ancient city of Bozrah
southeast of the Dead Sea. From the apocalyptic nature of the Bozrah
passages in Isaiah 63 and Micah 2 it seems clear that the place will
appear on some map in the latter days. But just where is a subject for
speculation. The Bozrah Isaiah and Micah saw will certainly be controlled
by the Edomites of the Endtimes. The same wild hustling children of Esau
will be on the scene and giving the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
grief just as they did in former times.
Isaiah sees the returning Messiah dealing with them. He will crush them
in a military sort of way as described in
Isaiah 63. The prophet Micah
picks up the dramatic rescue element to the Bozrah story.
He shows Messiah in His deliverance role.
He has allowed His remnant covenant people to
be penned up in Esau's sheepfold. He has done this for their
protection and their nurturing. (See the article on
'The Woman and the Dragon of Revelation 12.
Messiah is no absentee God.
Here at the end of the age we see Him returning to those of
His people who are in exile under Edomite dominion at Bozrah.
The dawn of a new day is approaching. The returning Christ/Messiah enters
the sheepfold as "the Breaker". His sheep are
pressing in all around Him. He then makes His way to
the wall of the sheepfold and breaks
open a Way or a gate.
For a short moment the Messiah as the Breaker is the Door of
the sheepfold. He breaks His people out of Esau's enclosure in the same
manner as a shepherd opens a stone sheepfold at dawn.
Then He leads his sheep out into a new day.
These are the pastoral elements to the story of the
magnificent Bozrah deliverance.
The picture is very clear in the Hebrew poetry. It is a glorious element
of the Second Coming of Christ as Messiah and as 'The Breaker'.
Here below is the scripture.
But this scripture is in the Old Testament. So its prophetic significance
is missed.
It is rarely mentioned by today's teachers of Bible prophecy.
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. This is the same picture spoken of by Matthew
in that difficult and problematic verse in Matthew 11:12.
"The Kingdom of God suffers (allows) violence
and the violent (are pressing in to) take it by force."
(Mat.11:12)
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 "manchild 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 is laid out for us quite clearly and in detail.
Note well
that it is the Second Coming of Christ which brings the breakthrough here.
He and He alone is "the Breaker".
No churchman will get Messiah's glory here even if he claims
some super-anointed status in the charismatic "five-fold ministry"
and pretends to be up to the task of bringing in the
Kingdom Now.
Neither today's "apostolic/prophetic",
or the Papal/Jesuit Catholic leaderships
cannot fit the bill here.
Nor can today's
political Puritan leaders
or political Ecumenical leaders bring in the final breakthrough.
None of these religious champions can lay claim to be our Deliverer.
Jesus Christ/Yeshua Hamashiach is our Saviour and our Redeemer.
He is also our future
Deliverer.
The scriptures declare unequivocally that there is
one and only one intermediary
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
1 TIMOTHY 2
5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, ...."
He and He alone is "the man".
No one else is capable of filling His shoes.
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 judgement 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.
Why has this crucial
information regarding the deliverance of God's elect
from Edomite incarceration at the end of the age
been omitted from teachings on end-time themes?
Is this not some exceedingly good and encouraging news?
Why haven't we heard this before?
The Old Testament is absolutely full of inspiring Millennial poetry.
God's holy Word is in concert together bringing us different elements
of the same message of the Second Coming of Christ.
There will be a great turnaround at the end of the age.
This is exceedingly good news. It is dramatic and inspiring beyond measure.
Yet many Christians have not heard this before.
Why might this be?
Well it seems that Christian leaders today prefer to keep the emphasis
on "The Church". They are the "New Testament people".
These dark dramas of the end-time are "for the Jews".
This is "Jacob's trouble". It will be trouble for the Jews and the Jews only
we have been told.
But is this entirely true?
Here are the facts of holy scripture.
God will surely deliver His hard pressed people from
out of captivity at the end of this age.
He will come in the clouds and this is well known
by evangelicals today in the rapture context.
They also know that He will also deliver our Jewish brethren
when He comes at the Mount of Olives.
When Jesus returns
He will deliver the Jewish nation
from the end-time siege by the surrounding nations
at Jerusalem. - Zech.12:7-13:1 Christians know about Armageddon.
Is this all there is to the Second Coming of Christ?
Is there more?
What Christians do not know is that
at His Second Coming Christ will also come
in vengeance upon His enemies and He will deliver His saints
at a place, (or places), known as Bozrah.
All of this is part and parcel of the
Resurrection-Rapture seen at the end of the age.
The glorious Millennium of Messiah will follow this end-time deliverance
precisely as the scriptures have laid out for us.
1 "Even the wilderness will rejoice in those days.
The desert will blossom with flowers.
2 Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon,
as lovely as Mount Carmel's pastures and the plain of Sharon.
There the LORD will display his glory, the splendor of our God.
3 With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,
and encourage those who have weak knees.
4 Say to those who are afraid,
"Be strong, and do not fear,
for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
He is coming to save you." -Isa 35:1-4
At this point, here is the question we need to ask ourselves.
Are the Edomites, those godless children of Esau still with us today?
Were they scattered into the nations as the Jewish nation was in the Diaspora?
And if they are going to coalesce and regroup into some sort of a power force
in the rich nations of the earth and dominate the nurturing people of Jacob
just what role are they going to play in the endtime drama?
Here is what the scriptures are telling us.
The Edomites, it seems, are still with us.
They are all around us; fellow citizens in our nations.
Indeed they are very prominent
players at the end of the age.
Even the Antichrist will not conquer them or rule over them
during the regime of the 666 system. (Dan. 11:41)
Apparently he will not even bother to
mess with them during the Great Tribulation,
those final 3.5 years
of this age. He will allow them to do what Edomites do.
Esau will rise up in the endtime and achieve mastery
over his brother Jacob just as Isaac prophesied.
This is the hidden information being kept from the saints.
The "cloaking" of this information 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.
We are still a carnal and potentially violent people).
According to Micah God will allow the exile and incarceration of His covenant
people Jacob.
Is this all bad?
Just what will be happening during the
Tribulation period
out at the sheepfolds of Bozrah?
Is it possible that the Bozrah exile will not just be an incarceration story?
Might the Bozrah enclosure also provide
some degree of shelter and even
nurturing or spiritual nourishment
for the children of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in the end-time? Is Bozrah in fact a place of relative safety,
"away from the face of the dragon"?
To pick up 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 in exile. And she is there for two purposes.
She is there to be protected. And she is there to be nurtured.
This must mean a spiritual nurturing or nourishment.
John in this prophecy of the woman who takes flight on the wings of an eagle
to a place of nurturing
is clearly telling us a story of the end-time that parallels
the story of the exile of the children of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob in end-time Bozrah. Bozrah is the place, (or places),
where Jacob can be nurtured in the things of God.
This is happening during the last half of the
70th week,
and during the time of the Great Tribulation.
The Bozrah story apparently involves a gathering
of the Elect. The covenant people of God
are being gathered from out of the Judeo-Christian people
and the nations during the latter half of the 70th week.
Jacob is wrestling with God once again,
just as he did back in the times of the patriachs.
The Bozrah story of the end-time
is a dynamic yet untold story.
It is a story of
incarceration, nurturing, and a glorious deliverance at the end.
It is played out on earth before angels and men
during the final 3.5 years of this age. See the article on
'The Woman of Revelation 12'
This would be during during the
time of "Jacob's trouble". (Jer.30:7)
Jeremiah clearly tells us that he will be saved out of it.
The Bozrah deliverance, as we can see, is too awesome a story
for our modern church
and our carnal Christian people to handle.
Out of the crucible of Bozrah the silver (of redemption)
and the gold
of glory will be refined.
God will refine His people "in the furnace of affliction/tribulation".
(Isa.48:10) In the following verse He tells us why it must be this way.
It is to bring God's people into a place of holiness where they will
no longer pollute God's Holy Name.
Even
Moses told the covenant people of God that this
would happen to them. He said quite clearly
that they would go into tribulation
in the latter days.
DEUTERONOMY 4
29 .....if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God,
thou shalt find him,
if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
30 When thou art in tribulation,
and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days,
if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;)
He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee,
nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them."
The prophet Zechariah tells us the same story.
ZECHARIAH 13
13:9
And I will bring the third part through the fire,
and will refine them as silver is refined,
and will try them as gold is tried:
they shall call on my name,
and I will hear them:
I will say, It is my people:
and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
Our Apostle Paul fills in the story in Romans 11.
"And so all Israel will be saved". (Rom. 11:26)
The very same story of a climactic deliverance and a break-out
from a sheepfold is told in the constellations of the stars.
The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and
here His glory is in deliverance.
The magnificent story is told in the constellation of the
'Lesser Sheepfold'
or the 'Little Dipper'.
Click on the image to the right to go to the article
on the "Lesser Sheepfold" which outlines the connection
of the Lesser Sheepfold to the story
of the Bozrah deliverance.
Yes, the Bozrah story will be told eventually.
Because it 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.
Oh yes, Bozrah is not just "past history".
Nor is it 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)
Some more devotional articles on apocalyptic Biblical themes
for the enquiring Christian.
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