Category: Weekly Torah Portion Reading

The Geography
of Wrath

The grapes of wrath are perhaps one of the most terrifying passages in Scripture:

Who is this who comes from Edom,

??With dyed garments from Botzrah,

??This One who is glorious in His apparel,

??Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—

?“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

?Why is Your apparel red,

??And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

?“I have trodden the winepress alone,

??And from the peoples no one was with Me.

??For I have trodden them in My anger,

??And trampled them in My fury;

??Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,

??And I have stained all My robes.

For the day of vengeance is in My heart,

??And the year of My redeemed has come.” (Is 63:1-4)

Why would Yeshua come from Edom and Botzrah?

Out of many reasons (because of Edom’s modern identity), one Torah prophecy-template is that it retraces part of the route of the exodus from Egypt and the southern journeys to the Promised Land. Yeshua went to the wilderness to be tested in his first coming, and he overcame in forty days of testing what the Israelites took forty years to do.

The difference in the Greater Exodus is that the slaves in exile will come from many nations, not just Egypt. It is the geography of Edom that ties it all together, for it is an ancient commercial intersection of the world. In the Shabbat livestream, we’ll look at maps to help decipher the prophecy, but we’ll do the best we can here in the newsletter with words.

Edom and Israel present in conflict in the geography of the South. The region is separated by the north/south running Great Rift Valley in which two great tectonic plate continually rub against one another and move the earth. In his appearance on the Mount of Olives, Yeshua’s feet cause a great earthquake right along this valley from Jerusalem all the way to the Red Sea in the South.

In times of Israel’s spiritual awakening, Israel/Judah controlled the South from Tamar (Ovot/Oboth) all the way to Etzion-Geber (Eilat). It is a vital trade route between East and West, North and South, from ancient times.

In times of Judah’s apostasy, Edom controlled it, often in trade treaties with powers such as (first) Egypt, then Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Their relatives are the mighty merchants the Nabateans, who controlled trade over the land of the South much as the Phoenicians controlled maritime trade.

Esau/Edom was a “man of the field,” controlled by the nefesh, or soul, the beast nature. The most cunning beast of the field is the serpent (land) or his counterpart in the water, the crocodile. These two, the serpent and beast, are in league in the Revelation, and will be judged together, the authority of the serpent wielded by the beast. For a review of these principles, see “A Concise History of the Beast” on YouTube, Workbook Four: The Scarlet Harlot and the Crimson Thread, and Workbook Two: The Seven Abominations of the Wicked Lamp.

When Yeshua comes from Edom, the perfect man has subdued both the scarlet beast and his source authority, the serpent. His march is a way of “splitting the sea” in the sight of all nations to make a way of salvation for his exiles and the nations:

“When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations…”(Ezek 39:27)

The Jewish sages parse the verses of the Exodus that describe the splitting of the waters of the Reed Sea to imply that the waters of every nation were split at exactly the same time so that the miracle could be viewed by all nations (another lesson!).

From even before the time of the Exodus, Egypt the serpent and Edom the beast collaborated in harvesting copper [nechoshet] from the South. The Hebrew word for serpent is nachash, sharing a root with copper, which is plentiful in the South. The copper serpent in the wilderness reminded the Israelites of the real disease from which they needed healing: soul sickness.

If you’ve seen pictures of the Arava in the South, you’ve noticed how similar the red rock is at Timna to Petra (Sela). The South, or Arava, is where “The King’s Highway,” the Spice Route, and other travel routes intersected. Over the centuries they connected the Far East with the ports of the Great Sea (Mediterranean) and Egypt in the West, Assyria and Babylon in the North, and the Arabian kingdoms of the South. In other words, they were coveted, conquered, and controlled in turn by:

Egypt the Crocodile Serpent

Assyria, who is not counted as a “beast” kingdom because it never conquered Jerusalem, was assimilated into the provinces of the first beast kingdom

Babylon the Lion

Medo-Persia the Bear

Greece the Leopard

Rome the Conglomerate Monster spread over the earth.

Recently, the American president expressed a desire to open an overland route from the Red Sea through Israel to the Mediterranean for trade. It was used thus when Egypt began overcharging to use the Suez a few years ago and before the Houthis choked off the sea route. The South is still an important area to world trade.

Botzrah was the capital of Edom. It is adjacent to Petra (Sela), the stronghold of the Nabateans. It is thought the Nabateans are the descendants of Nevaiot, the brother-in-law of Esau and son of Ishmael, who grew up in the Wilderness of Paran, the region of Edom.

Sela is Hebrew for “rock,” and the major city was later renamed Petra, a Greek name meaning rock. In ancient times, the ENTIRE REGION of the South from the Arabian peninsula to the Sinai peninsula was referred to as Arabia or Arabi, from the Hebrew root arav, thus, the Arava. Without knowing this, it is easy to mistake modern Saudi Arabia for the “Arabia” of English translations of the Bible.

Botzrah and Sela are very close to one another, and Seir is in the same area. Mount Seir and the Wilderness of Paran generally apply to the area south of these cities. Yeshua’s garments dyed in blood suggest he’s conquered the commercial trade of the beast kingdoms connecting the world.

Yeshua the Messiah will come to bring salvation and the redemption of “human souls” from slavery to the image of the beast whose head was in Babylon comes. He will accomplish this by trampling the nations in his wrath. Sukkot, the Feast of the Nations, is a time of both offering first fruits of the grapes as well as drinking wine to celebrate Adonai’s provision. The return of Yeshua mentions grapes of wrath that will precede the peaceful days of his millennial reign in which the obedient nations will come to worship and obey him.

To represent this wrath upon the world’s commercial systems, Yeshua comes “from Edom.” In the encampment in the wilderness, the Southern three tribes camped under the standard of Reuven, which was the man. The lion was to the East, the eagle to the North, and the ox to the West. Revelation describes this destruction of the commercial system that trafficks in human souls:

“And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble, and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. The fruit you long for has gone from you…” (Re 18:9-13)

”Human lives” is “human souls,” referring to the nefesh, the human soul enslaved to its innate sensuality: appetite, emotion, desire, and intellect…

The deception, or sorcery of the beast Edom, The Red One, is to manipulate human desire, the “fruit you long for,” into believing the cargoes are “good things,” when the truth is that they are instruments of the serpent’s fruits of death. Truly good things come from the Father who makes the disciple into a kind of first fruit to be restored to the Garden, planted along the River of Life to in turn disciple the nations with their fruit and healing leaves of the “Word of Truth.”

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. (Ja 1:13-18)

Yeshua’s arrival from “Edom” with his garments dyed in blood suggests that his “coming” is to destroy the deception of the beast, not just in the South of Israel geographically, but according to what the South symbolizes in the history of world trade and how it augmented the beast kingdoms all the way to its present “toes.”

In the Song of Songs, the Bride invites the Beloved to the Garden, but she does not have the strength to assist Him. As in the crossing of the Reed Sea, she must “stand still and see the Salvation,” just as the nations are standing still, watching, helpless to stop the destruction that will lead to the restoration of human life.

This suggests the template of the first Exodus [and Creation], when Israel cried out for help, then the nations witnessed salvation.

“…For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption has come. I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me.” (Is 63:4-5)

The shoresh, or Hebrew root, of “I looked,” ?????, is used the first three times in Genesis. First in 15:5 to Avraham: “Look at the stars, count them if you’re able, so shall the number of your descendants be.” This is the counting of fruitful descendants, the saved children of Avraham. This is a look forward to prophecy fulfilled for all Israel.

The second two times it is mentioned in the escape of Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom (19:17,26) In v. 26, Lot’s wife “looked” back, and turned to salt. She mourned the luxuries left behind.

How attached are we to the luxuries of the world? When Yeshua comes to lead us away from the nations enslaved to commercialism, will we instead be too attached to our luxuries and conveniences to follow him home whole-heartedly?

“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezek 16:49)

If even those whom he’s saved from Egypt and Sodom can’t let go when the beast system is exposed and destroyed, no wonder Yeshua tramples in anger. In Numbers 16:13, the “Lot’s wives” among the Israelites in the wilderness even complained that Moses had led them FROM a land flowing with milk and honey, not to it.

May we not be frozen in our longing for the world’s riches so that we cannot desire the journey of resurrection with Yeshua. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (He 10:31)

In this podcast, we will take a look at maps of the South that will illustrate the geography of the Messiah’s victory over the Beast.

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