Petra:
Israel’s City of Refuge
Way of
Salvation for Jews in the Last
Days
by Greg Alston
August 2021
“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch
over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of
trouble, Such as never
was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time
your people shall be
delivered - everyone who is found written in the book.”
-
Daniel 12:1-4
Israel Forever
Psalm
89:3,4 says, “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn
to my servant
David; Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your
throne to all
generations.” This
is an irrevocable
promise made by God Himself.
And it
refers to DNA Jews; in particular, Israelis who occupy Eretz
Israel. God has a
plan for Nation Israel which will
run parallel to His plan for His Bride, which is the Church. BOTH entities will
co-exist for eternity.
This
truth is reiterated in Isaiah
45:17; 66:22 and Joel 3:20.
Israel WILL
remain for all of eternity.
It has NOT
been replaced by the Church.
Demographics
There are
15 million Jews in the world
today; seven million in the land of Israel, seven million in
the United States
and one million in other countries.
Since the
establishment of Israel on
May 14, 1948, Jews from every corner of the world have been
returning to their
homeland, by the hand of God.
This is in
fulfillment of many biblical prophecies. Amos 9:14 documents: “I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
they shall build
the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant
vineyards and drink wine
from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from
them.” And
Jeremiah 30:3, “For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
‘that I will bring
back from captivity My people Israel and Judah, says the
Lord. ‘And I
will cause them to return to the land
that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’” Corroborating
these scriptures are Isaiah
60:4 and Ezekiel 37:21-28 (please read).
In 1948,
600,000 Jews from 120 countries,
speaking 83 different languages, returned to the land of
Israel. Aliyah
(meaning “going up”/return to the
land) continued in the ensuing years, with a notable uptick in
the 1980’s and
1990’s. One
million Russian Jews
returned – only 100,000 remain in Russia today.
And, via Operation Moses and Operation Solomon,
virtually all Ethiopian
Jews (14,400) returned to the land.
These are the progeny of King Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba (known as
the Falasha).
Perpetual
Persecution
“And all the people
answered and said, ‘His blood
be on us and on our children.’”
– Matthew 27:25
The
foregoing declaration brought
immediate and ongoing persecution upon the children of Israel. Jerusalem and the
Temple were leveled in 70
AD and many atrocities have been brought upon Jews worldwide
for the past 2,000
years.
“Now these are the
words that the Lord spoke
concerning Israel and Judah.
‘For thus
says the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,
and not of
peace. Ask now,
and see, whether a man
is ever in labor with child?
So why do I
see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in
labor, and all faces
turned pale? Alas!
For that day is
great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of
Jacob’s trouble…’”
- Jeremiah
30:4-7
In the
near future, this persecution
will abate for a short period of time.
Jesus said in John 5:43 that in that day, the Jewish
people will put
their trust in an individual who comes in peace and offers
them security
(Daniel 8:23,24). He
confirms a covenant
with Israel; then breaks it mid-way through the agreed time
(Daniel 9:27). The
result is that two-thirds of the people (nearly
5 million souls) perish in less than 3 ½ years (Zechariah
13:8). The result
is: “And it shall come to pass in that day that the
remnant of Israel, and
such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again
depend on him who
defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of
Israel, in
truth. The
remnant will return, the
remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God” (Isaiah 20:20,21).
Revelation 12
Revealed
Revelation
12 is widely misunderstood,
even by conservative scholars. This particularly pertains to
the first five
verses of that chapter. It
is important
to understand that the events of Revelation 12 take place
under the seventh
trumpet, which is well into the Tribulation Week. Daniel 8:13,14
indicates that it is almost
mid-trib and Revelation 12:6 says it is mid-trib. Why do I
ascribe Daniel’s
vision as indicating almost mid-trib?
Because of verse 14 (another scripture which is widely
abused and
misapplied). The
word for “day” in
Daniel 8:14, literally translated, is “evening and mornings,”
referring to the
two daily offerings (see Daniel 9:21).
So, it’s not 2,300 24-hour days – it’s 2,300 morning
and evening
sacrifices, which equals 1,150 days, or 110 days short of 3 ½
years. This
shortening of days is what Jesus was
referring to in Matthew 24:22.
Be that
as it may, we are clearly at
mid-trib in Revelation 12.
This of
course nullifies the presumption that the child of Revelation
12:3,4 is
Jesus. Jesus was
born more than 2,000
years before the events of Revelation 12 even take place! Asserting that the
child is referring to
Jesus requires that the Scripture be spiritualized, which
usually does violence
to God’s Word. Literal
interpretation
MUST be applied whenever possible, and here it is possible. Jesus was born of
one individual, His mother
Mary. This child,
however, is brought
forth by a company of individuals – Israel (Genesis 37:9,10). So the product of
that birth must also be a
company of individuals. This Man-Child was born a full grown
man – Jesus was
born a baby in Bethlehem.
I submit
that company is none other than the
144,000 Messianic Jews of Revelation 7:4.
Revelation 2:26,27 says that Jesus is not the only one
who rules the
nations. This
ruling entity was caught
up to heaven at mid-trib, just as the Scripture says
(Revelation 12:14; 14:1-3).
After her
child is caught up, the woman
Israel is supernaturally transported to a place of safety in
the wilderness
(Jeremiah 31:2). Enraged
that his
attempt to kill the woman is thwarted, the dragon, who is
Satan (12:4), returns
to Jerusalem and annihilates two-thirds of the Jewish
population over the next
3 ½ years (Revelation 12:14-17, Zechariah 13:8).
Sanctuary in
Petra
As we saw
in Revelation 12, God
delivers Israel from the jaws of the dragon into a place of
refuge in the
wilderness. Numerous
scriptures tell us
that place is to the southeast of Jerusalem, roughly 100
miles, in Edom. To
be specific, they will be taken to the
rock city of Petra (Sela in Hebrew) which is just outside the
ancient capitol
of Edom, i.e. Bozrah, today’s Busaira (meaning “sheepfold” or
“enclosure”). It
is located in modern Jordan, 40 miles
south of Busaira/Bozrah, just south of Mt. Seir. God will protect His
sheep in that place for
3 ½ years:
“Send the lamb to the ruler of the
land, from Sela (Petra in Greek) to
the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion. For it shall be
as a wandering bird thrown
out of the nest; so shall be the daughters of Moab at the
fords of the
Arnon. ‘Take
counsel, execute judgment;
make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
hide the outcasts, do
not betray him who escapes.
Let My
outcasts dwell with you, O Moab; Be a shelter to them from
the face of the
spoiler. For
that devastator is at an end. Devastation
ceases, the oppressors are
consumed out of the land.
In mercy the
throne will be established; and One (from the family of
David) will sit on it
in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking
justice and hastening
righteousness.’”
-
Isaiah 16:1-5 (see
also Psalm 108:10-13)
The foregoing scripture is one of dual
fulfillment. It
applied to the then judgment upon prideful
Moab, with a future fulfillment at the time of the end
(Jeremiah 30:24) –
during the Tribulation Week.
Isaiah
26:19-21 puts things in clear context and chronological order:
1) the
Firstfruits/Pre-Trib Resurrection-Rapture (verse 19); 2)
Israel’s shelter in
the wilderness during the last half of the Tribulation (verse
20) and 3) the
second coming of Christ in judgment (verse 21).
Israel’s sheltering in the last 3 ½ years is further
supported by Isaiah
33:16 and Jeremiah 31:2, “The people who
survived the sword found grace in the wilderness – Israel,
when I went to give
him rest.”
This end-time sanctuary in Petra/Sela is
not for all of Israel – it is
for true Israel, a remnant (John 8:37-39, Romans 9:6-8).
“And it shall come to pass in that day
that the remnant of Israel, and
such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never
again depend on him who
defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One
of Israel, in
truth. The
remnant will return, the
remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For
though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea,
yet a remnant of them
will return; the destruction decreed shall overflow with
righteousness, for the
Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst
of all the land.”
-
Isaiah 10:20-23
Concerning this remnant; is it permissible
to postulate the number of
those who constitute it?
As I was
meditating on this, I was reminded of Judges 7:3ff where God
reduced Gideon’s
army from 32,000 down to 300 men. The
army was reduced down to 1% of the original number. As stated above,
there are 7 million Jews
living in Eretz Israel. One-percent
of
that amount is 70,000.
In researching this paper, I found that
the number of people who could
be housed in Petra is all over the map. The estimates range
from 20,000 to over
1,000,000. So
70,000 is definitely in
the ballpark. 7
million Jews in the land
at mid-trib: 70,000 believing Jews flee on the wings of angels
to the rock city
of Petra in southern Jordan and 6,930,000 unbelieving Jews
remain in Israel,
the majority residing in or around Jerusalem.
Two-thirds (more than 4.5 million) of those are
slaughtered in the final
months of the Tribulation Week (Zechariah 13:8, Deuteronomy
31:29).
Eretz Israel vs. the World
Satan, in his wrath, and other God-hating
armies of the world, will be
assembling in the Valley of Megiddo (Revelation 16:16),
Jerusalem (Isaiah
10:32) and southern Jordan (Jeremiah 49:22) in their effort to
eradicate the
Jew from the face of the earth.
At the
end of the Tribulation Week, assaults will be occurring at
these three military
fronts.
In recent years, some have asserted that
when Christ returns, He will
first go to Bozrah/Petra to deliver His people from the armies
of Edom. I hold
to the traditional view that Christ
will return to earth and first plant His feet on the Mt. of
Olives in Jerusalem
(Acts 1:11): “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against
those nations, as He
fights in the day of battle.
And in that
day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which
faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in
two, from east to west…” (Zechariah 14:3,4). It
is entirely possible
that He would then go to release the 70,000 in Petra and
return again to
Jerusalem, where the question of Isaiah 63:1 comes into play,
“Who is this who comes
from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah…?”
He then
treads the winepress of Almighty God, outside the city
(Jerusalem). The
blood flows for 184 miles, which is the
approximate distance between Megiddo to the North and
Petra/Sela to the South
(Revelation 14:17-20).
Megiddo is 60 miles north of Jerusalem,
about one mile north of the
ancient city of Taanach (Judges 5:19).
The armies of the east and other international forces
bivouac in this
area (Revelation 16:12-16), while the armies of Antichrist
camp one mile north
of Jerusalem at the city of Nob (Isaiah 10:24-34). 100 miles southeast
of Jerusalem is Bozrah,
where the Lord destroys the armies of Edom (Amos 1:11,12). More detailed
information on this last days’
conflict may be found in Isaiah 34 and Ezekiel 35.
Israel RULES Forever
At the start of this study, it was pointed
out that God has a plan for
Israel which endures forever.
At this
juncture, I wish to emphasize that the centerpiece of this
plan is Israel ruling
over the nations for eternity.
“And I will make him my firstborn, the
highest of the kings of the earth. My mercy I will
keep for him forever and my
covenant shall stand firm with him. His
seed also I will make to endure forever and his throne as
the days of heaven.”
-
Psalm 89:27-29
“Many people shall come and say,
‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will
teach us His ways, and
we shall walk in His paths.’
For out of
Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem.’”
- Isaiah 2:3 (see also Zechariah 8:23)
God’s plan for Israel definitely includes
rulership over the nations
(Revelation 5:10; 21:24-26).
As God’s
earthly people, Israel will rule on earth from earthly
Jerusalem (Ezekiel
48:30-40). The
Church, God’s heavenly
people, will rule with Christ from the heavenly Jerusalem
(Revelation 3:20,21;
21:9ff). Other
salient scriptures
include 2 Samuel 7:10,16 and 1 Kings 9:5.
New Jerusalem
I subscribe to Clarence Larkin’s rendition
of New Jerusalem, above.
It is four-square at its base, but not cube
shaped. What is
mandatory is that the
height be the same as the length, breadth and depth, i.e., the
distance of each
side. New
Jerusalem is described as
being a mountain in Hebrews 12:22 and a mountain is not in the
shape of a
cube.
Furthermore, let’s take a closer look at
the dimensions of the Holy
City:
“The City was laid out in a perfect
square. He
measured the City with the measuring
stick: 12,000
stadia, its length, width
and height all equal.”
- Revelation 21:16-18
Revelation 21:16-18 is hotly debated
concerning its meaning and has a
plethora of translations, depending on which Bible you’re
reading. I am
persuaded by the Authorized Version (KJV
Textus Receptus), which DOES NOT say “each side” is 12,000
furlongs (1,380
miles). The most
natural, literal way to
interpret verse 16 is that the City itself is 1,380 miles around. That
equates to 345
miles for each side – not the 1,400-1,500 miles that is often
alleged. It just
so happens that the land mass of the
Holy Land closely approximates the size of New Jerusalem when
using the 1,380
miles as circumference.
Earthly Jerusalem is described in Ezekiel
48:35, which also measures
Jerusalem by circumference.
Measure New
Jerusalem by the same method Ezekiel measured Earthly
Jerusalem in Ezekiel
48:30-35; different measurements, but same methodology.
Lastly, New Jerusalem does not rest upon
the earth. Otherwise
it would crush the eternal Earthly
Jerusalem which lies beneath it.
It hovers
above the city, thereby giving light to the inhabitants of
earth (Revelation
21:23,24). The
kings of the earth (twelve
tribes of Israel) enter into New Jerusalem much the way Jacob
entered heaven by
his heavenly ladder dream in Genesis 28:12.
There, the angels of God ascended and descended from
heaven to
earth. In the
future New Jerusalem,
ambassadors of Israel will ascend and descend from Earthly
Jerusalem to New
Jerusalem, “bringing their glory and honor into it.”
Aliyah Y’all
There are 15 million Jews in the world
today. Of those,
7 million live in Israel and 7
million in the U.S. The
remainder are
scattered in other places around the globe.
For their own safety, the 8 million outside of Israel
need to start
making their way back to the land. The
Mishnah (tractate Ketubot) says:
“Whoever lives in the land of Israel
may be considered to have a God,
but whoever lives outside the land may be regarded as one
who has not God.”
Many prominent Jews in the U.S. are
anti-Zionist; a phenomena that
politician Chuck Schumer, himself a Jew, calls “a form of
anti-Semitism.” Why
is this?
How can a Jew hate his own homeland?
It’s because of the ideological god that they serve –
Ideology trumps
the God of Israel. Such
are not only
anti-Semitic, but apostate as well. They
are sons of Korah, not worthy of the Kingdom of God (Luke
13:22-28).
Such Jews (mostly American Jews) have
followed in the footsteps of Karl
Marx, a former rabbinic Jew who developed a political and
social system that
has become a golden calf to millions of Jews in the United
States. Advocates
include but are not limited to the
following contemporary individuals: Bernie Sanders,
philosopher Noam Chomsky,
Bette Midler, Dustin Hoffman and Roseanne Barr.
Past individuals include Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud
and novelist
Isaac Asimov. Studies
have found that
41% of American Jews are anti-Zionist (Jerusalem Post,
5-11-2021). Such
groups as “Jewish Voice for Peace”
boldly proclaim their anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian positions. This is why the
Antichrist himself may be
Jewish (Daniel 11:37, John 5:43).
Marxist ideology takes on a much more
important role than merely a
“political viewpoint.” This
far-left
socialistic dogma has risen to the level of godhood in these
peoples’
lives. Rather
than support and pray for
the peace of Jerusalem, they favor the Palestinians over the
God-given State of
Israel. Such
homage of Marxist/Humanist
ideals (which is idolatry) will most certainly bring
destruction upon its
adherents (Numbers 16:30-33,49; Matthew 8:12).
“’In an acceptable time I have heard
you, and in the day of salvation I
have helped you.’ Behold,
now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2
Corinthians 6:2).
Salvation is to the Jew first (Romans
1:16). Salvation
for the unregenerate Jew in the
last days will be found in the land of Israel (Zechariah
12:10; 13:1,2) and in
the wilderness of Jordan (Revelation 12:6).
May the Spirit of Grace begin to pour out understanding
upon the 15
million unsaved Jews in the world today!
“Therefore do not fear, O My servant
Jacob, says the Lord, ‘nor be
dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar,
and your seed from
the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall
return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him
afraid. For I am with
you,’ says the Lord, ‘to save you…’”
-
Jeremiah 30:10,11