The Bozrah deliverance is the climax of an extraordinary series of events that some Christian and Jewish Bible students believe will occur at the end of this age. The epic 'break out' at Bozrah is prophesied to occur when Messiah comes to judge the world and to establish His kingdom, the Millennium of Messiah. The details of this climactic deliverance can be pieced together from key passages in the Old Testament prophets of Isaiah and Micah.

To understand the deliverance at Bozrah some background information is necessary. The town of Bozrah was a pastoral city of Edom belonging to the descendants of Esau. It was located in the hill country southeast of the Dead Sea. It was a place of sheepfolds and its name, 'Bozrah' means 'sheepfold'. The Edomite sovereignty of this city is of great prophetic importance. The name, the character, and the meaning of the word 'Bozrah' is linked with Esau. The apocalyptic Old Testament prophecies in the Bible indicate that a territory identifiable as Bozrah will be the scene of an epic deliverance at the close of this age.

Esau was the brother of the patriarch Jacob. The two brothers began wrestling with each other in their mother Rebekah's womb. When Rebekah inquired of God concerning this she was told that two nations were wrestling within her. The descendants of Jacob and Esau have been striving against each other ever since. This struggle between the godly and the ungodly will continue until the climax of this age. The returning Messiah will bring the contest to a close.

The story begins back in the times of the patriarchs. Jacob was a nurturing person, a man of the flocks, the home, and the faith of his fathers. Esau was a man of wrath and anger. He was a hunter and a godless man. He had little time for the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Jacob had taken advantage of Esau's lack of interest in his spiritual inheritance. Because Esau despised his birthright, he sold it to his brother Jacob for some red soup. Hence, Esau was also known as Edom since it means 'red' in the Hebrew language. Further, Jacob had later tricked Esau out of his blessing. When Esau went to his father weeping and asking

The blessing given to Esau and his descendants is found in Genesis chapter 27:38-40.Isaac's blessing over Esau was that he would live by the sword. He would follow his own desires and exert his own self will. And he would revere his own power and his weapons. Eventually he would become restless. He would cast off Jacob's yoke, (the role of peaceful submission and peaceful employment), from off his neck. The prophecy indicates that the descendants of Esau, the Edomites, will kick off all restraint and behave lawlessly. The modern unruly children of Esau will be giving Jacob grief again as history comes to its climax just as they did in former times. Bible students are in substantial agreement that the time of 'Jacob's trouble' mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 30:7 is the prophesied Great Tribulation in the final years of the age.

The Edomites were never caring or nurturing people like the descendants of Jacob. They always were untamed, predacious, and godless. Doeg in the time of King David and the Herods in Roman times showed that the Edomites were angry people capable of great wrath and extreme acts of genocide. The blessing Isaac gave to Esau indicates that His descendants will eventually break free of constraint and erupt into history in spectacular fashion. They will come onto the stage of history as key players as this age comes towards its tumultuous conclusion. King David also alluded to this rebellion at the end of this age in the song he wrote in Psalm 2. He prophesied that there would be a conspiracy in the Gentile nations to cast loose the peaceful bonds of submission to God. There would be people who would rage against the righteous rule of His coming Messiah. The prophet Daniel also provides a valuable clue in Daniel 11:41. He states that Edom, that savage nation who are the descendants of Esau, will take their rebellion to the point that they will even escape the control of the coming Antichrist.

The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 63 shows the returning Messiah at Bozrah. He is bringing His wrath on the wicked. The prophetic poetry is very graphic. Messiah is trampling His enemies at the time of the Last Judgement. This divine wrath at Bozrah as Isaiah describes it is awful beyond words. The returning Messiah will destroy the wicked there. His white garments are splashed with

The Bozrah scriptures tell more than just a story of divine wrath on God's enemies. Out at Bozrah there will also be a deliverance, - a dramatic breakout. The returning Messiah will deliver His covenant people from a place where they have been incarcerated by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. The prophet Micah in Micah 2:12-13 identifies the coming Messiah as "the Breaker". When He returns He acts in deliverance. Micah sees the Shepherd of Israel as He breaks His people out of Esau's sheepfold.

Bozrah is apparently a place of exile. Bible students are not constrained to believe that the Bozrah prophecies are destined to be fulfilled at the same geographical location 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 is clear that prophetic Bozrah will be a place under the jurisdiction of Edomites, the descendants of Esau. Bozrah will be a territory of end-time Esau where a huge number of people can be gathered. The future Bozrah spoken of by Isaiah and Micah will be quite identifiable on the political map of the world as it is drawn up in some future time. Just where this might be is unknown. It is a subject for speculation. But end-time Bozrah will certainly be a large expanse of country and probably in a remote location. It will be overseen by modern day Edomites who will have become very powerful in the End times. The wild hustling children of Esau will be making history. And they will be giving the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob grief just as they have done in former times.

Isaiah sees the returning Messiah dealing with the crisis at Bozrah as it comes to the point that calls for God's divine judgement. The sons of Esau and the wicked will be crushed. This is described in Isaiah 63. The prophet Obadiah also describes the eventual total destruction of the Edomites. But then the prophet Micah picks up the deliverance elements as the Bozrah story comes to its climax.

The passage in Micah 2:12-13 indicates that Bozrah, interpreted prophetically, is the place where God's covenant people, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will be gathered at the end of the age. If Bozrah in former times was a place where sheep were penned up under the control of the sons of Esau then this prophecy in Micah provides a valuable clue as to what will actually be happening to God's Elect at the end of the age. It has been interpreted to mean that Bozrah will be a place where the sheep of God's pasture, even God's covenant people, will be penned up. They will be gathered together in a place of exile and in a geographical location that the prophets have referred to as 'Bozrah'. The name 'Bozrah' indicates that they will be under the dominion and jurisdiction of the modern day descendants of Esau.

This will be the situation as Messiah returns. He is coming in response to the covenant He has with His covenant people, the children of faith, the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are incarcerated there at the 'sheepfold of Bozrah'. The prophets Isaiah saw the returning Messiah coming to Bozrah and bringing His judgement. The prophet Micah saw Him come to Bozrah to bring deliverance. This is an exceedingly important aspect of the Second Coming of Christ as the returning Messiah.

Micah shows Messiah in His deliverance role. He enters the sheepfold. His sheep are pressing in all around Him. Here we see Messiah as the Deliverer. Micah refers to Him as "the Breaker". He breaks open the wall of the sheepfold to make a door. A Way is opened up before them. His sheep are all around Him and pressing into the breach with great force. For a short moment the Messiah is also the Door of the sheepfold. Suddenly the break occurs and the sheep burst out of the sheepfold with their King at the head of them. Messiah breaks His people out of Esau's enclosure in the same manner as a shepherd opens a stone sheepfold to let his sheep out at dawning of a new day. In the prophetic imagery a breakout occurs and God's people are rescued and set free. A new day has just begun. Messiah has dealt with the Edomites. He has broken through their enclosure to liberate His people. He is now in charge of the situation as he leads His people out to green pastures and into the peaceful ministry of His coming Millennium.

This is the magnificent Bozrah deliverance which caps off the saga of Jacob and Esau. The picture is very clear in the Hebrew poetry. It is a glorious deliverance element in the drama of Messiah's return. And yet it is rarely mentioned publicly by today's teachers of Bible prophecy.