ZECHARIAH: GOD’S PRESENT DIRECTIVES AND FUTURE HOPE

IV: God’s Promise To Restore And Bless Jerusalem

(Zechariah 2:1-13)

I. Introduction

A. Zechariah along with Haggai called the returning Hebrews back to rebuilding the temple, and he gave God’s directives and future hope. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, “Introduction to the Book of Zechariah,” p. 1310)

B. Zechariah 2:1-13 presents the third vision that deals with the restoration of Jerusalem in Zechariah’s day and even more so in the future Millennial Kingdom. (Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah, 1974, p. 43) As with all the Old Testament prophets, Zechariah did not know of the Church era that came between his time and the Kingdom.

C. This third vision presents a Surveyor who goes out to measure Jerusalem, implying the expansion of the city, and it provides a simple but encouraging hope for the returned Hebrew exiles who were struggling to rebuild a completely ruined city. We study the vision for our insight and application (as follows):

II. God’s Promise To Restore And Bless Jerusalem, Zechariah 2:1-13.

A. Since the theme of the first seven visions of Zechariah predict God’s punishment of Israel’s Gentile oppressors and the restoration of Jerusalem as ultimately viewed in God’s end-time dealings with the nations and Israel, and since the first two visions predicted God’s anger at and His punishment of Israel’s Gentile oppressors, the third vision of a surveyor of Jerusalem anticipates Jerusalem’s and Israel’s restoration, Zechariah 2:1-2.

B. Zechariah saw a man with a measuring line in his hand, he was obviously a surveyor bent on preparing for the construction of some entity, Zechariah 2:1. The entity to be measured is Jerusalem, both its width and length, and an angel was going out to meet this man, that “man” apparently being the Angel of the Lord, the Preincarnate Christ Who is also identified as a “man” in Zechariah 6:12. (Zechariah 2:2; Ibid., p. 44-45)

C. A sense of intensity and excitement is provided by the Preincarnate Christ Who directed the angel to run and speak to the young man Zechariah, telling him that Jerusalem would be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and livestock in it, Zechariah 2:3-4. This symbolism meant that Jerusalem would not need walls since she would be protected by the Lord, for He would be a wall of protective fire all around her, and that He would be the glory within her, Zechariah 2:5. These predictions clearly anticipate the Millennial glory of Jerusalem when Christ is ruling in the city, what is still to be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom.

D. God then called His people Israel to come forth, to flee from the land of the north, a reference to Babylon since travelers from that city would head northwest from Babylon to the headwaters of the Euphrates River before turning south to enter Israel from the north, Ibid., p. 48; Zechariah 2:6-7. This prophecy fit Zechariah’s era since Babylon fell two years after this prophecy (Ibid.), and the fulfillment of the “age-end destruction of both ecclesiastical Babylon (Rev. 17) and political and commercial Babylon (Rev. 18) of the Satanic world system” will occur shortly before Christ’s Second Coming to the earth, Ibid.

E. The emphatic phrase “after the glory” in Zechariah 2:8a refers to “the ministry of Messiah in which He vindicates and demonstrates the glory of God,” both in His first advent and “particularly as He will punish Israel’s enemies and deliver and establish His own people in kingdom blessing,” Ibid., p. 49. The Messiah would severely punish Israel’s Gentile oppressors, for they who touched His people touched the “apple” of God’s eye, a figurative reference to the pupil of His eye! (Zechariah 2:8b; Ibid.)

F. Zechariah 2:9 then predicts the Angel of the Lord’s punishment of Israel’s oppressors so that these oppressors will become the objects from which the spoils of war are seized by those who had served them, namely, spoils of war to their former slaves, the people of Israel themselves! (Ibid., p. 50-51) This event is similar to Israel’s spoiling her former slave masters the Egyptians in her past Exodus from Egypt, cf. Exodus 12:35-36!

G. Consequently, Zechariah 2:10-13 predicts how the earth will be prepared for God’s full Kingdom blessings: To Jerusalem’s joy, Messiah will come and dwell in her midst (v. 10), many nations will join themselves to the Messiah and become His people so that Israel will know that God had sent Him to her (v. 11), God will then publicly identify closely with His people (v. 12) so that the entire world will be called to be silent before the Lord Who has aroused Himself from His holy habitation to make His great presence known! (v. 13)

Lesson: To encourage the returning Hebrew exiles to keep rebuilding the temple, God gave Zechariah a vision of a Surveyor to predict Jerusalem’s great reconstruction, renewal, and blessing in God’s Millennial Kingdom glory.

Application: (1) For encouragement, may we look beyond our present trials in doing God’s assignment to realize the great eternal glory involved in it. (2) May we flee from today’s “Babylon,” worldliness, and live for the Lord.