The City of Refuge (v 12)

Judah will face judgment because of its sin. However, God has not forsaken His people. Today’s passage is a prophecy that gives hope to the people of Israel. It is an extremely difficult passage but let us explore its prophetic meaning in two parts, referring to other passages of Scripture as well. This study will concern the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming of the Messiah.

(1) How many Israelites will be saved in the end times? Verse 12 says, “I will certainly assemble all of you,” and “I will certainly gather the remnant of Israel.” This is Hebrew parallelism. Therefore, “all of you” in the first line and “the remnant of Israel” in the second line refer to the same group. (2) Isaiah 10:21 says, “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.” From this we understand that those who will be saved are the remnant of Israel. (3) Furthermore, Zechariah 13:8-9 prophesies that in the Great Tribulation two-thirds of the Jewish people will perish, and one-third will remain. In other words, the remnant of Israel who will receive salvation refers to the one-third of the Jewish people (the remnant of Israel) who survive the Great Tribulation. (4) The reason that one-third of the Jewish people survive is that they flee to a “place of refuge.” Then where is this place of refuge? In the end times, the Jewish people will flee to the mountains (Matt. 24:16). In Revelation 12:6, that place is described as “the wilderness”: “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.” In Daniel 11:41, it is prophesied that the region east of the Jordan will escape destruction. Furthermore, in Isaiah 33:16, it is described as “the impregnable rock.” (5) Even after examining the above prophecies, the name of the “place of refuge” does not appear. It appears in Micah 2:12: “I will certainly assemble all of you, Jacob, I will certainly gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; like a flock in the midst of its pasture they will be noisy with people.” The place name is “Bozrah.” Unfortunately, many English translations, instead of rendering the name “Bozrah,” they translate the meaning of the name as “in the fold” (the ASV translation retains the name Bozrah). From this verse, we understand that the place to which the people of Israel will flee is “Bozrah.” This is the present-day town of Petra in Jordan. One-third of the Israelites will be saved because they flee to Bozrah. They are the remnant of Israel

We will study next time how the salvation of the remnant of Israel and the Second Coming of the Messiah will take place. The people of Israel experienced the Babylonian exile in the Old Testament time, and in the New Testament time they experienced dispersion throughout the world. Humanly speaking, their situation seems hopeless. However, God has not forsaken the people of Israel. He will surely save them. Before that, we Gentiles have been invited into salvation. What amazing grace this is. Let us praise His holy name.