The Future Glory of Jerusalem
Zechariah 2:1-13
We come to the second Chapter of Zechariah tonight and the subject on hand is the future glory of the city of Jerusalem. God has a marvelous exciting unbelievable plan for the city of Jerusalem. It is the special city.
If time would permit, we could see in almost every book of the Old Testament something significant about the city of Jerusalem. The Psalms, especially, are full of references to the psalmist love for the city, and the Jews hunger and longing to be there.
In the prophets the message is repeated time and time again that God has chosen the city and given it to His people, and how they’ll return someday.
In Zechariah Chapter 2 the vision is to tell them this wonderful news about Jerusalem. They're in a situation of terrible degradation, humiliation, and sadness. The wall of their city is smashed. Their once glorious place is in rubble. All that they had known of the golden age of Solomon is gone. They are helpless, they are impotent, they are huddled a small and insignificant minority wondering how they will defend themselves. They had been threatened by their enemies and cease to rebuilt their city. They are cowering in fear that it's all over.
And Zechariah comes with this third vision and gives them the message that God yet has a marvelous future for Jerusalem.
And what He's really saying to them is go ahead and build it and commit yourself to building it because you're not dealing with a passing fancy, you're dealing with an eternal city. I mean he's saying you're going to win in the end so you might as well give it everything you've got right now. Your work isn't going to perish. You're a part of an eternal plan.
You remember that the first vision of the rider on the red horse predicted hope for downtrodden Israel. The second vision presented of the horns and the smiths presented the fact that the nations that had triumphed over Israel would be crushed. And now the third vision says your hope will be realized when the nations are crushed and Jerusalem is glorified.
There are six parts to this vision.
First of all
1. The Design Proposed
Now watch verse 1. "I lifted up mine eyes again," remember what we said last time about that? After each vision on this one night and he got eight of them, he would drop his head in meditation and prayer and then he would lift his eyes again perhaps at the prodding of interpreter angel who helps him to understand each vision and he would see another one.
Now he looks up in his vision he sees a man and the man has in his hand a measuring line. If you want the simplest definition of that a tape measure, a builder's line.
Back in Chapter 1 verse 16, we saw this. He says, "A line will be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. In other words when the city is going to be rebuilt somebody's going to measure the dimensions of the new city and here is that vision right here, and he sees a guy with a tape measure, and he's a surveyor, and he's laying out the city.
Now we could talk a little about who he is, who is that man? Who was the rider on the red horse? the angel of the Lord or Christ. Who is the final one of the hammerers who crushed the final kingdom? Christ. Very possible that the man with the tape measure is Christ. I can't be dogmatic about that and so I don't want you to think that that's an absolute conclusion, but I kind of lean that way on the basis of Ezekiel 40.
Now a similar scene is found in Ezekiel's experience and he sees this man and there's little question there that it is Christ, that it is the Messiah, that it is the Son of God, and so it is very possible that here in Zechariah's vision it could be the same, although we wouldn't want to say absolutely. But I would say this: it is definitely true that the one who will rebuild the city and the kingdom will definitely be Christ. He's the one. So, perhaps it's Christ.
Well Zechariah doesn't waste any time in asking what the surveyor is doing.
verse 2
Now he's going to measure the city. Now the question immediately arises here to any interpreter what city is he measuring? Is he measuring the actual city of that time?
Well that would be a little difficult because there was no city. It was a rubble. There was no wall and it wasn't until about 80 years later in 444 B.C. that Nehemiah actually got the walls built and this is somewhere around 519 or 20 B.C. so it wouldn't be much to measure.
Also keep in mind that all of the other visions have a prophetic element. So it seems best to see it in the future. And my conclusion, and we'll see how this is supported as we go, you can trust me for it now, is that he is laying out the dimensions of the future Jerusalem, the ultimate Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the kingdom.
And that in some way accounts for the bewilderment of Zechariah in this situation. It is apparent that Zechariah can't figure out what he's doing and it could be due to the fact that if he were measuring out whatever were the dimensions it would have been very obvious to Zechariah, but apparently he is measuring something that is so vast and so large that it is beyond anything Zechariah can currently relate to. And so he's bewildered.
And so we see the design proposed as the man with the tape measure lays out the future city. That leads us to the second element in the vision what I call
2. The Destined Plan.
The design that's being proposed is then clarified in the destined plan.
In the midst of Zechariah's bewilderment, watch what happens: verses 3 and 4
"And behold the angel who talked with me," and that's the interpreter angel who appears all the time in the early part of Zechariah, "Went forth," and what happened here is no doubt Zechariah can't figure out what's going on and so the interpreter angel moves into the scene perhaps ostensibly to check with the man on what he's doing. And as the interpreter angel goes about to find the answer it says at the end of verse 3, "Another angel went out to meet him." And so over here you have the man in the scene, and over here you have Zechariah, and in the middle you have these two angels who all of a sudden begin to converse.
So another angel went out to meet him and said to him, that is the other angel said to interpreter angel, that is the best way to see this. The other angel stops interpreter angel as he proceeds to get information from the man he sees in his vision and he says to him, "Run and speak to this young man."
In other words he says interpreter angel you go back and tell Zechariah this message. Go back and tell the young man this message and this is the message: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited like towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle in it."
Stop right there. You go tell him that the reason he can't figure it out is because it will be so vast that it will be as if there is a city without walls.
Now when you think about a walled city, I don't know what you think about, but they tell me if walk from one wall of Jerusalem to the other wall is about a ten-minute walk right across the middle. I mean when they walled off a city it wasn't much.
And apparently he is bewildered because of the vastness of it and so the angel sent from God to give interpreter angel a message says tell him it going to be so huge it'll be like town without a wall it'll be so large.
Imagine what a comfort this was when Zechariah preached this to a bunch of people huddled in the Hennin valley wondering if they'd ever even get a wall. The prophet says, "I have a message from God and the message from God is that someday Jerusalem will be so big it'll be like a city without a wall. It'll be inhabited.
Look what it says, "For the multitude of men and cattle in it." And you know what they were beginning to do, Haggai had got them started building the temple, and Zechariah was encouraging them to build that temple, build that temple. And I know there were some pragmatic Jews who were running around saying look you guys, you must me nuts. What good does it do to build a temple if you don't have any walls to protect it? We got to build the walls first. We should be building the wall not the temple. We won't have any temple.
In fact back in Haggai 1:2, it says, "The people say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."
In other words the popular opinion was this is ridiculous to build a temple without a wall. And so Zechariah says you keep on building the temple. It's more important that you get God in perspective and make sure He's defending you than that you have a wall and no temple. Take care of the spiritual priority is what he's saying.
And so it's a tremendous encouragement for them to hear the message from the angel is that Jerusalem will have so many people it'll overflow its boundaries and it'll be like a city without a wall. Jerusalem will rise to final glory. It will not be ultimately destroyed. Don't worry about building your temple. God will be your wall.
Look at verse 5. "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto it a wall." I will be the wall. Trust me. Someday Jerusalem will be a city that is inhabited like an open rural country without walls. Literally the verb in the Hebrew means to exceed limits, to overflow its bounds, to spread or expand and the millennial Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the king, the Jerusalem yet when Jesus returns will be so big and so populated with people and animals that it will go way past its walls, it will spread all over the place and God will be its wall.
Satan can read the Bible, right? Now the anti-Christ when he gets here he'll know that, so you know what he does? The first thing he does in the tribulation, according to Revelation 6, apparently is make a treaty with Israel of peace and Ezekiel 38 says that during the tribulation Israel is dwelling in un-walled villages.
You know why? It seems to me apparent that they think that this anti-Christ must be our deliverer. He must be our prince of peace. See him in Revelation 6 riding a white horse conquering? No doubt they think he's the deliverer and they believe his false peace and they let down their security and they haven't committed themselves to God yet.
There hasn't been any purging or any salvation or any cleansing and they're having a great time in their un-walled villages and read Ezekiel 38 it's just at that point that the army of the north comes down and begins to wipe them out. It's that false security. That is not the fulfillment of this prophecy, not at all.
Now some people say well this prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Nehemiah's building the wall. That can't be true either.
Do you know why that laid it out so small to begin with? It was more than they needed. They couldn’t fill it up then. So it couldn't have been fulfilled then, impossible. In fact if you were to check out Nehemiah 11:1-2, you would find that supported there. They had to compel people to live there. It never did overflow its bounds then, but someday it will.
This is clearly millennial. And I don't think that it's fair in dealing with prophecy to try to find any old thing in any old time in history that seems to fit the situation. The prophet was either speaking about something that was happening then or soon after or something that was yet to be fulfilled ultimately in the glory of the coming of Messiah, not American in 2010 or Jerusalem in 1948 or something. I think we have to be careful about that.
We are perhaps seeing the beginnings of some things that will be fulfilled in the tribulation and in the kingdom. Let's be careful that we allow kingdom prophecy to be reserved for the kingdom and not find soon fulfillments of things that are not yet really fulfilled.
So it seems that this has to be a millennial fulfillment. Jerusalem in the millennium will overflow. It will be crowded.
That is seen in Isaiah consistently in the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea)
Notice here in Zechariah 8 a similar message.
It'll be a place of safety, safe for kids, safe for old people. It won't be like Los Angeles today or New York or Chicago. So the design is proposed and the destined plan is clarified.
That brings us to the third point in Zechariah's vision,
3. The Divine Protector
This may be the best part of all.
Verse 5
I love this because this ties in historically. Notice this: a wall of fire and the glory in the midst. What does that remind you of? It reminds me of Exodus 13, and the glory of God dwelling among the people of Israel.
During the day the cloud appeared and the glory of God dwelt and came down and entered the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and dwelt in the midst of the land of Israel and then when they were to move it went up into the sky. And at night it was a pillar of fire.
This is the same God, the same Shekinah, the same glorious God who says, "I will be your wall, I will be in you dwelling in My presence, don't worry about any protection, don't worry about a physical wall, I'll be your wall." Isn't that great? It's going to be a wonderful world for Israel, for all those who inhabit that wonderful city.
God has been a flaming wall.
The day is coming, believe it or not, when the city of Jerusalem will never need any defense because it will be what Ezekiel calls it in 48:35, It will be Jehovah-Shammah, the name of the city will be Jehovah-Shammah. That means the Lord is there. And as the shepherd in the field would light a fire to keep the marauding wolf from coming to get his sheep so the Lord will be the fire to protect His nation Israel. The Shekinah will return, Ichabod will be reversed, the glory that departed will come back in the great final kingdom when the Messiah comes.
God returns to Israel, a wonderful, wonderful truth. So we see the glorious plan and then we see the wonderful delivering protecting God.
Let's look at the fourth point. This glorious reality that God will dwell there means
4. The Delivered People
Verse 6-7
He wants to get their attention so He says, "Flee from the land of the north." What was the land of the north? Babylon. This is directed at the captives, who are still in Babylon. And God is saying look there's a great day coming for Jerusalem.
You'd better get out of the world's system, you'd better get away from Babylon before you're totally engulfed in the system itself and you'd better get back to the land.
According to II Kings 17:6, the Jews in the exile were scattered over an area from the Gozan River, which was two hundred miles west of Nineveh, clear to Media, which was three hundred miles east. Some of them were in Moab, some of them were in Ammon, some of them were in Egypt, and some of them were in Needum. They were all over the place, and he's saying all of you come back. There's a glorious future here. There's a wonderful future here. Come back and re-identify with the city of God. Come back from those nations that will lead you into idolatry.
I can't resist a footnote here, I taste an element of the future in this too, because there's going to come a day in the tribulation when God's going to give the same message. He's going to say to people come out from Babylon, because if you read Revelation 17, and Revelation 18, you will read that the final world system is called what, Babylon. The final world system is Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.
And as the world consummates it's final amalgamation, its final world system, God's going to call Israel out of Babylon in the future. Don't be a part of the world system, he's saying to these people. This city has an eternal future and some day He's going to call His people from out of Babylon yet to come in the time of the tribulation. Jerusalem will be restored. Come back, identify with the city of God.
And, of course, the reason to flee Babylon now and in the future is the fifth point, and that is
5. The Destroyed Powers
God is going to destroy them.
Verse 8
Now watch. Very difficult, but interesting verse. Look what it says in verse 8. This is terrific! "For thus says the Lord of hosts. After the glory hath he sent me."
Now the Lord of hosts says after the glory hath He sent me. Who in the world send the Lord of hosts? That's what I said.
The answer is in verse 9.
Who sends the Lord of hosts? The Lord of hosts sends the Lord of hosts. Say now wait a minute, Jehovah sends Jehovah? If you reject the New Testament you've got a problem with that.
Right? If you accept the New Testament you don't have a problem with that. The Lord of hosts, the Father sends the Lord of hosts the Son. Isn't that great?
And he is the one who comes to deliver His people. He is the one who comes to conquer the nations and he is after glory, he is after glory. Listen everything is done for glory for God. The nations are judged that God may be glorified.
Summing it up he says the second person of the Trinity, the Savior, the Messiah, is sent by the first person of the Trinity, the Father in order that He may judge the nations to bring glory to God because God too long has been looked down on because His people have been downtrodden. And God says in the end when I exalt My people then the world will know that I am God.
Frankly we know that the humiliation of Israel by the nations must be avenged by the one who is dishonored in their dejected condition. Let's face it, it's bad press for God now to claim to be the God of Israel and has been through history, but the day is coming when God will seek the glory and He's going to seek it by the sending of His Son, the Messiah and "I will shake My hand on them and they will be a spoiled to their servants." It's going to reverse everything. The losers are going to be the winners.
And He says the reason I'm going to judge the nations is because of what they've done with my people, for he that touches you touches what, the apple of His eye (verse 8).
Let me tell you what that means:
According to the Hebrew words the apple of your eye is the pupil or the eyeball. What He's saying is because you stuck your finger in My eye. Did you know that the single most protected part of your body that is exposed is your eye? It is the tenderest; it is the most sensitive. God protects it with bones, protects it with the eyelid and eyebrows and eyelashes and tear ducts. And nothing is more irritating than getting somebody's finger in your eye.
And God is not talking about what we think He's talking about. What He's saying is I will judge the nations because they have put their finger in My eye, they have poked Me at My tenderest point. He loves His people and He identifies with His people and when you poke Israel you stick your finger in God's eye.
Hurting Israel is something you don't want to do.
Read Matthew 25 where Christ comes and judges the nations and you will find He judges them on the way they treated Israel. If you've done it unto the least of these my brethren you've done it to Me.
So what do we see? The design proposed, a new city with great dimensions, the destined plan. It's going to overflow. The divine protector: God will be the wall and He will be in the middle of it. The delivered people: Israel will be delivered from all their enemies to rejoice in joy and the destroyed powers: God will come and judgment against the nations that have rejected Him and His people. And the only possible response to that I call
6. The Delightful Prospect.
Verse 10
There are four things to delight in:
1. God's presence, verse 10
You want to know one characteristic of that day in Jerusalem?
God will be there in personal actual physical visible form in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Great promise! God will be there. Rejoice over God's presence.
2. Rejoice over God's people, verse 11
There's going to be worldwide salvation. Read Revelation Chapter 7, so many Gentiles saved you can't even number them, from every people, tongue and nation. Worldwide salvation! And finally Israel will be the channel of salvation to the world that God chose them to be in the first place. So they delight in God's presence, God's people,
3. God's portion, verse 12
That's the only place in the Bible where it's called the Holy Land. That's the only time that phrase is ever used, and I'll hasten to add it's never been the Holy Land, it isn't the Holy Land, but it will be. It will be, that's the millennial title for Israel. And He shall choose Jerusalem and the best way to translate again would be before all is done or at the end.
God's presence, God's people, God's portion, and lastly
4. God's power, verse 13
Hey all you critics, you'd better be quiet. God is starting to stir. He's raised up.
Remember what Psalm 121 said? He who keeps Israel will not, what, slumber or sleep. God's judgment begins to awaken.
The silence of God is broken in the 6th Chapter of Revelation when He begins to crack the seals, take over the earth.
You know what I get excited about? I'm going to be there when all this happens because I'm one of those that can call myself the people of God by faith in Christ. I hope you are. God has marvelous things that are available to all who come to know Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
