Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 148 (The Geography of Wrath Part One) for week of 23 March, 2025

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