What is the source of our peace? Messiah Yeshua said, “My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives I leave with you.” If He is the Word (John 1:14), then it’s the Word of Elohim that brings peace to us. What can cause the Word not to take root in the soil of our...
The Geography of Wrath Part Two
Before the LORD Destroyed Sodom
Last week, we looked at The Geography of Wrath, a preface to this lesson on the danger of the last watch of the night.
“Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.” (Ge 13:10)
When Lot “lifted up his eyes,” he saw prophetically. Before their destruction, the five cities of the valley enjoyed an Edenic-like climate and prosperity, yet the prophetic phrase “lifted up his eyes” predicts a restoration of that area, which sits in the Arava.
Revelation predicts a great miracles of the two witnesses, which helps us to understand “Sodom and Egypt”:
“And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.” (Re 11:8)
What Sodom and Egypt have in common is that those who were saved and set on a path of righteousness (Lot and the Israelites in the wilderness) looked back at what at enslaved them as more to be desired than the Garden of Eden, the authentic Promised Land, that lay before them if they would walk in their salvation.
When the bodies of the two witnesses are caught up from Jerusalem, it is a witness to be understood as a last warning to believers who, in those last days, continue to cling to the cargoes of Babylon, who persist in begging to go “by way of Zoar to Egypt” instead of repenting and returning to the righteous walk of salvation epitomized by Avraham. The night is far spent by then.
The commercial success of the five cities lured Lot in. The deception was that its fruitfulness “like the Garden” was to be desired over the fruitfulness of the stars promised to Avraham. Lot’s wife preferred the deception of luxury with wickedness over the promise of good gifts from above.The Midrash concerning Sodom details how travelers were lured in, then maimed or killed and their goods confiscated.
“When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.’” (Ge 19:15)
The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. (Ge 19:24-28)
Before Adonai destroyed Sodom, he sent warning of the wrath to come. Lot was aware of the blessings promised to Avraham, but he was also aware of the righteous life required for such eternal blessings. Lot chose precarious salvation over a life of obedience and teaching his children after him:
“For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” (Ge 18:19)
Lot was troubled by the wickedness of Sodom, but not enough to forfeit living in it: “and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men…” (2 Pe 2:7) It took the wrath of Adonai to remove him, not to abundant life, but bare salvation.
“Insignificance” is the meaning of the small city Zoar in which Lot requested to live, and so was his contribution to the Kingdom of Adonai compared to Avraham. Avraham viewed the valley of Sodom and saw the smoke of the cities ascending like the smoke of a furnace. Sodom’s is the fate of those who choose an easier life in the midst of wickedness, which they desire more than single-minded righteousness. They do not have the sense to even be aware of righteousness walking among them that might delay the wrath of Adonai upon them.
Just as the wicked among the Israelites in the wilderness believed Moses had taken them FROM a land flowing with milk and honey to a place of wrath, so the wicked repeatedly get it wrong. Just because the comforts and luxuries of Egypt and Sodom are “like” the Garden of Eden doesn’t mean it IS Eden. “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)
Likewise, the Israelites in the wilderness were given free food every morning, clothes and shoes never needed mending, and there was little to do but learn Torah. Nevertheless, many craved the foods and relative ease of farming life in Egypt (Dt 11:10) in spite of the horrors of its slavery. Perhaps this is why Zoar is described as “on the way to Egypt.” It describes those who have tasted the goodness of Adonai, yet the sensualities of the world taste better, and they are still enslaved to them even after their salvation:
“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” (He 6:5-6)
The smoke of the great furnace portends either great salvation and sealing in the Ruach HaKodesh or great wrath. There are two views of the “smoke of a great furnace.” In the first, the smoke of Mount Sinai accompanying the Presence of Adonai and His Word is a marvel to those who agree to walk in it:
Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. (Ex 19:18)
In the second, the smoke of the great furnace accompanies the wrath of Adonai upon the wicked:
He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. (Re 9:2)
Avraham was in no danger of the smoke of Sodom; Lot was in grave danger.
Avraham walked after Adonai and His righteousness; Lot was merely vexed by the lack of righteousness, but not enough to devote his life to pursuing righteousness.
What Lot pursued was only “like the Garden of Eden.” Its grass always looks greener than the obedience required to pursue righteousness, but in the end, it is destroyed and overturned with wrath. The last watch of the night is a time of great danger to Lots of people who are believers, yet firmly attached to the comforts of a nominally and unenthusiastic righteous life.
The last watch of the night is a last opportunity to flee such false security. It is the last opportunity to flee the people whose wicked agenda vexes the righteous Holy Spirit within. If one waits until the morning’s dawn to flee, he flees with nothing. Only the deeds of the righteous can follow them into the eternal Kingdom of Messiah, for those are the only eternally true and fit deeds.
The overturn of the cities of Sodom likely took place at Passover, for Lot baked unleavened bread for the angel of wrath. Avraham and Sarah had received a message of new birth and laughter, for they were looking for the coming of travelers with whom to share a meal so they could “make souls” for the Kingdom (Ge 12:5). Lot’s concern was simply for the safety of the angels through the night watches. He was not looking to leave Sodom before the morning dawned. Perhaps the miracle is that he agreed to leave at all after the last watch of the night.
May we all view the coming Wrath of the Lamb like Avraham.
From above and far away.
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Pointing to Nisan 1, 2025 (Mar, 30th) through Nisan 10, 2025 (April 8th)! (Originally posted November 2024) PART 2 – World event timeline related to Revelation timeline. Agenda 2030, WEF, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, US NDAA 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, Beneficial Ownership Information. Ezekiel’s “wheels within wheels” moving straight forward in four directions toward the end of this age! Could there be a chiastic structure (forward timeline mirrored backwards with the emphasis of both pointing to the middle) to the Revelation timeline as it relates to current world events especially since the year 2019 and pointing to something significant coming around Passover 2025?
Meaning of Passover Video link: https://youtu.be/9OA8TdVj5Ds
Study of Refiner's Fire Video Link Below: https://youtu.be/efQxvCyEu_s
Video link below: https://youtu.be/cooE4KaRPfk
God wrote a message in our bodies, watch and see what it is. Video link: href="https://youtu.be/DvBnRuXaAho">https://youtu.be/DvBnRuXaAho
“Our peace comes from our expectation of the future, our understanding of the past and our embracing of what He has given us today.” What could bring any more peace to our hearts and minds than knowing how all this is ultimately going to end? Not just end, but...
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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DEAD CENTER COMING UP MARCH 30TH (NISAN 1)! PART 1 – World event timeline related to Revelation timeline. Agenda 2030, WEF, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, US NDAA 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, Beneficial Ownership Information. Ezekiel’s “wheels within wheels” moving straight forward in four directions toward the end of this age! Could there be a chiastic structure (forward timeline mirrored backwards with the emphasis of both pointing to the middle) to the Revelation timeline as it relates to current world events especially since the year 2019 and pointing to something significant coming around Passover 2025?
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