12.6.1. Sheep in Bozrah

I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of the fold [בָּצְרָה [bāṣ^erâ] ], like a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make a loud noise because of so many people. The one who breaks open will come up before them; they will break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it; their king will pass before them, with the LORD at their head. (Mic. Mic. 2:12-13) [emphasis added]

The LORD will “gather” from their worldwide, age-long Diaspora the elect “remnant,” which will survive “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. Jer. 30:5-7), the Great Tribulation (Rev. Rev. 8:1+-Rev. 20:3+), preceding the establishment of the Kingdom over Israel (Rev. Rev. 20:4-6+; Acts Acts 1:7). . . . The saved remnant will be the nucleus of the millennial Kingdom. The LORD declared, I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah (a region in Edom well known as a sheep-raising center). . . . They (the returning remnant of Israel) will follow “the breaker,” the Messiah, who will break through and open the way, going up before them. They, following Him, will break through the gate and go out from their captivity to glorious freedom.¹⁰

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. (John John 10:1-5)

These references to Edom and Bozrah are indicators that at the Second Coming, God has business to take care of in Edom. That business involves the defense of his sheep, the Jewish remnant represented by the woman who flees the dragon. See Campaign of Armageddon.

Notes

¹ Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995), Rev. 12:14.

² Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), Isa. 15:4.

³ [Ibid., Isa. 16:1.] “Selah is generally supposed to be the same as Petra, which in Greek signifies a rock, the celebrated capital of Arabia Petraea.”—Jerome Smith, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992), 2K. 14:7.

⁴ “The passage [Dan. Dan. 11:41] states that while Antichrist will conquer the whole world, there nations will escape his domination: Edom, Moab, and Ammon. All three of these ancient nations currently comprise the single modern kingdom of Jordan.”—Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of Messiah, rev ed. (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2003), 297.

⁵ Image courtesy of the Perry-Casta?eda Library Map Collection, University of Texas at Austin. [www.lib.utexas.edu/maps]

⁶ Ulrich Hart and H?bner, “Bozrah in Edom,” in David Noel Freeman, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996, c1992), 1:774.

⁷ Unger, Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, Hab. 3:3-7.

⁸ Ibid., Ps. 60:9.

⁹ Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of Messiah, 296-297.

¹⁰ Unger, Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, Mic. 2:12-13.