The red mountains of Edom
JPost: What was the route of the ancient road connecting the Kingdom of Judea to the neighboring nation of Edom as described in the Bible? Recent research by a group of Israeli scholars has shed new light on the issue.
“I had been working in the southern Judean Desert on a different road connecting Arad and Jordan in the Early Bronze Age,” said Ben-Gurion University of the Negev archaeologist Dr. Eli Cohen-Sasson, the lead author of the study on the Edom road recently published in the academic journal Palestine Exploration Quarterly.
Another important element to consider is that the site was located at a very strategic position that gave a unique opportunity to monitor the surroundings: “This shows us that ancient Judeans had a very good understanding of the topography of their territory.” Read More …
Opinion: The archaeological period of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph) is known as the Middle Bronze age, and it would include Jacob and Esau (who is Edom, Gen. 36:1).
Is it safe to assume that when Esau left his brother Jacob and moved his family and herds to Mount Seir he traveled this same route? And if so, can we also assume that when Esau’s tribes were defeated by the Nabateans around 600 BC and made their way to Judea, they also traveled these roads? Is so, this discovery is astounding on several Biblical prophecies.
Could it be that in Matthew 24:15-16 when Jesus instructed the Jews who are in Judea during the tribulation that when they see the abomination of desolation, Antichrist standing in the temple, to flee to those same mountains by the same route?
And before Jesus returns, we learn from Habakkuk 3:3 that He comes from Teman, the capital of Edom …
And the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise. Hab.3:3
And that at the end of the tribulation, the “Holy One” from Mount Paran (a reference to the place where God moved from the Mt. Sinai mountains where the Israelites could see His glory from a distance) will also travel that route?
So why is Jesus’ first stop in ancient Edom? Because the enemies of His chosen ones are there and they cannot enter the Kingdom Age.
Isaiah 63:1-3 confirms:
Who is this who comes from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah,
This One who is glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—
“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
2 Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?
3 “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.”
Before His triumphant return in Shekinah glory, the enemies of God must be eliminated. That their blood stains Jesus’ robe is foretold again in Revelation 19:11-13:
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
