Deeper Commentary
Zechariah Chapter 2
Zechariah 2:1 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand- To measure is a double symbol, of measuring unto destruction (as in Rev. 11), and also measuring to build up. According to the response of God's people, so His purpose with Jerusalem would be of either destruction or redemption. The "man with a measuring line" is the Angel of Zech. 1:16; cp. Ez. 40:3; 47:3; Rev. 21:15-17.
If the measuring is taken as judgment, as in Rev. 11:1; Mt. 7:12; 1 Cor. 4:21, then we have an Angel beginning to prepare judgements on Jerusalem, but in :3 being interrupted by another Angel who describes God's plan to restore Jerusalem, and quickly correcting the impression made on Zechariah by the first Angel. There, the angel is told to run back and tell Zechariah that "Jerusalem shall yet be inhabited". We see here the conflict between God's judgment and His grace, reflected in the situation amongst the Angels in the court of Heaven; and His mercy rejoices against judgment.
Ezekiel’s temple prophecies begin with a man / Angel with a measuring reed, measuring Jerusalem and the temple. This recurs here, where the Angel again measures the temple and then promises that Yahweh will be a protecting wall of fire around the city, meaning that the Jews should fearlessly return from Babylon (2:5-10). There follows a description of God’s Kingdom on earth, with God Himself dwelling in Zion and all nations converting to Him. Yet the Jews returned with fear from Babylon- or some of them did. And they fussed so much about building a wall to protect them, in studied disregard of God’s promise here. God helped them build the wall- He was still so keen to work with them. And He later encouraged them that “I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth [s.w. used about Judah’s return from captivity, Ezra 2:1; 6:21]: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more” (Zech. 9:7,8).
Zechariah 2:2 Then I asked, Where are you going? He said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length- As noted on :1, measuring is a double symbol- measuring in judgment, and in upbuilding. Jerusalem was being measured as it was; the idea here may be that God was assessing the spiritual condition of Jerusalem, and if they were indeed repentant, then the city would be built up into the capital of the restored Kingdom of God in Israel. Ultimately, God's desire to push through His Kingdom purpose with Israel at this time didn't work out. But these prophecies shall come ultimately true, when the new Jerusalem is built and the Angel then finds the length, breadth and height to be "equal" (Rev. 21:15-17).
Zechariah 2:3 Behold, the angel who talked with me went forth, and
another angel went out to meet him- See on Is. 37:36. As explained
on :1, the Angel measuring Jerusalem for judgment is as it were
interrupted by another, who is told to run back and tell Zechariah that in
fact Jerusalem will be reinstated by God, even though Judah were lacking
in their spiritual dimensions.
Zechariah 2:4 And said to him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it- As explained on :1, the 'running' [back] was in jubilation at the good news; Jerusalem had been measured, and although spiritually wanting [as Haggai and Malachi make clear], yet by grace it would be built up and the promised conditions of the restored Kingdom would come about. This was by grace alone. The fact the exiles refused to respond was indeed tragic. We note that Zechariah was a "young man"; God so often uses youth in His service. The language of blessing here is that of Ez. 36:4; these things could have come to pass if Judah had truly accepted the new deal offered them in the new covenant. But they didn't, and so such prophecies are delayed in fulfilment until the last days. “Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded”. They were happier to settle outside of Jerusalem and concentrate on building up their own farms in the villages and small towns of Judah, rather than sense the importance of Zion. Nehemiah 11:1-3 suggests that so few wanted to live in Jerusalem because of the persecution there, that they had to draw lots to get at least a tenth of the total population to live there- in what should have been the capital. If more had returned from Babylon, if more had lived in Jerusalem, then Yahweh would have been a wall of fire to them, and then the Kingdom conditions described in the rest of Zechariah 2 would have come about. Although the restoration prophecies speak as if the increase of Zion’s population was to be unconditional, Ez. 36:37 implies that this would only happen if they prayed for it: “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock”. But they got on with building their own homes and farms outside Jerusalem, they blessed those who had the courage to live in Zion itself, but didn’t earnestly pray for the fulfilment of the prophecies. They figured that the time for their fulfilment hadn’t come, as Haggai laments; instead of praying for their fulfilment.
The Jews were asked to leave Babylon so that Jerusalem would have an "abundance of peoples", in language evidently appropriate to the Messianic Kingdom. And yet they for the most part remained in Babylon, and thus showed they didn't want to do their part in making that prophecy of the Kingdom come true in their experience.
Jerusalem could have been a city without walls, with God's protection (2:4-6). But Israel lacked faith, and therefore God came down to their lower level and allowed them to build a wall, and worked with them in this. The exercise of building that wall was a display of great faith and zeal on Nehemiah's part; yet in fact the work he did was a result of Israel's limiting God by their lack of faith, even though Nehemiah himself had faith. Indeed the whole failure of Israel became "riches for the world." (Rom.11:12) Nothing is ultimately wasted or lost. Nothing can be done against the Truth (2 Cor. 13:8).
So the Jews built a wall and appointed human guards over them (Neh. 4:15,22), even though Yahweh Himself had promised to be their wall and their guard (Zech. 2:4,5). And Zech. 12:8 had repeated it: “In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David”. But they didn’t want to believe it, as they cowered in fear from those who “came to fight against Jerusalem” (Zech. 4:8), whom Zechariah prophesied would be destroyed by Yahweh. And yet He graciously worked with them in their plan to build a physical wall, just as He worked through their desire for human kingship and a physical temple in earlier days, even though it was not His ideal intention.
Zechariah 2:5 For I’, says Yahweh, ‘will
be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst
of her- This is the situation foreseen in Ez. 48, where God's
presence and glory would be in Zion because the cherubim which had
departed in Ez. 1 would return there. Ezra had recognised this promise,
that God would be a wall to them (Ezra 9:9). Note how this prophecy is
introduced by an Angel with a measuring reed measuring out the rebuilt
Zion (Zech. 2:1), just as we have in Ezekiel 40. But Judah disbelieved the
promise of a Divine wall of fire, and insisted on building a physical wall
to protect them; and the record in Nehemiah has plenty of reference to
their setting up of bars and gates in their fear (Neh. 3:3,6,13-15). By
doing so they disallowed the fulfilment of Ez. 38:11, and thereby
precluded what was prophesied as subsequently following. If they had
trusted Him and paid their tithes, their cattle would have multiplied, and
the Scythian tribes would have come down to seek to take them, as Ez.
38:12,13 foretold. But as it happened, their cattle were diseased and
their agriculture not blessed because of their dilatory attention to
Yahweh’s house that lay waste (Haggai 1:11). So therefore there was no
invasion, and no victory against the nations, and no Kingdom established
at that time.
The reference to fire has reference to the Angels' part in the restoration
and protection of Zion. As the Angel had been a pillar of protecting fire to Israel previously, He would be to them instead of a physical wall as they started rebuilding Jerusalem amidst great opposition, with no physical wall to protect them.
The Angelic language continues: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts (Angels)... I will come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee" (2:8,10
AV)- i.e. the Angel and the associated shekinah glory would physically return to Jerusalem. The primary fulfilment of this was in the return from Babylon- the Angel led them back across the deserts, physically moving with them, to enter Jerusalem;
as foreseen in the cherubim visions of Ezekiel. This would explain the restoration from Babylon in terms of the wilderness journey and the Angel's guidance of them then- because this very same Angel was involved in leading them through a different wilderness, back to Israel.
Joshua didn’t live up to the conditional prophecies made about him in Zechariah. Ezra and Nehemiah seem to have taken over the priestly and kingly work of Joshua and Zerubbabel respectively. Nehemiah’s record concludes on the negative note that Judah had forsaken Zion (Neh. 13:11)- even though God promised to come and dwell in the midst of Zion! Nobody wanted to live in Jerusalem because of the persecution there; the Levites even went and lived outside it where they had “fields”, because they weren’t given their tithes (Neh. 13:10). Lots had to be drawn to get people to live there (Neh. 11:1). It became a ghost town, when it should have been inhabited as a town without walls for the multitudes of returned exiles joyfully dwelling there (:5). It was God’s intention that ten men (a reference to Israelites of the ten tribes?) would take hold of the skirts of a Jew (i.e. one of Judah) and come with him to worship in the new temple (Zech. 8:23). But in fact the opposite happened. So few wanted to live in Jerusalem, that the rulers had to cast lots to force one in ten Jews to go and live in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:1). And the ten tribes didn’t really unite with Judah, but went off and got lost in the Gentile world.
Zechariah 2:6 Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north’, says Yahweh- By Zechariah's time there had already been ample opportunity for the people to return from captivity. But most remained there. A greater return was required for the restoration prophecies to come true, but that depended upon whether they wished to quit their idolatry and comfortable life which arose especially after the history of Esther. Fleeing is the word so often used of fleeing into a city of refuge(Num. 35 etc.). The implication would be that indeed Judah had sinned in the land of the north, but they were to flee to Zion as the ultimate city of refuge, protected by a wall of Divine fire. "Come!" translates the word usually used for "woe" or "alas". The idea was that if they remained in the land of the north, they were under threat for their lives. But when Babylon fell, the Jews prospered under Cyrus [consider how the Jews came to popularity at the end of Esther]; so much so that he eagerly encouraged them to return to their homeland. The threat was therefore of spiritual death; that was the danger, and it came true for them. Thus Jer. 51:6 urges flight from Babylon "and deliver every man his soul" (Jer. 50:6).
‘For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky’, says Yahweh- Zech. 1:21 made it clear that it was the Angelically controlled "horns" who had scattered Judah. Again God assures His people that it was He who had done this; all that had happened to them had been under His direct control, and was all part of His wider purpose in preparing them for the wonders of the restored Kingdom of God on earth. The "four winds" connect with the four horns; and God makes His Angels spirits or winds (Ps. 104:4). The number four recalls the four living creatures of the cherubim Angels.
Zechariah 2:7 ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of
Babylon’- As
noted on :6, the need to "escape" was not from literal extermination, but
from spiritual death there. “Come out from among them and be separate” (2
Cor. 6:17) is picking up this language (also of Is. 48:20; 52:11; Jer.
50:8) concerning the return of the exiles from Babylon. The edict of Cyrus
for the Jews to return to the land is in a sense pointing forward to God’s
command to us to leave the spirit of Babylon, the Gentile world, and go up
to do His work. The returned exiles are us. Those who left Babylon did so
of their own freewill (Ezra 7:13), and yet providential events stirred up
their spirits to do this (Ezra 1:5); and the way was prepared in
miraculous way. And so it is for us, in our exodus from this world and
from the flesh. In spiritual terms, Judah in Babylon were as captives in
the prison cell, waiting to be released and return to their land,
according to Isaiah’s images. And these pictures are picked up and applied
to all who know the redemption and restoration of Christ.
"The daughter of Babylon" is contrasted with "the daughter of Zion". 'The daughter of' means having the characteristics and spirit of the father or mother. The daughter of Zion, identifying with Zion, could not dwell with the daughters of Babylon- unless she had become a daughter of Babylon herself. The fact most of the exiles chose to remain in captivity speaks sadly so much of their sense of identity.
Zechariah 2:8 For thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘For honour He has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye- The GNB is closest to the correct sense here: "Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me. So the LORD Almighty sent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people". Verse 9 then becomes Zechariah's message to the Gentiles, which presumably he actually took to them. As explained on Zech. 1:2, God's great anger with Judah was less than His anger against those who had plundered them. Even in their suffering and punishment, God's people were still the apple of His eye. "The apple of His eye" speaks not only of God's extreme sensitivity toward His people; this phrase was a Hebraism for a man's wife. Who would a man be more angry with? His wife because she cheated on him repeatedly and is exposed; or a bunch of hoods who rape her after her infidelity has been exposed? The man who truly loved his wife would be more angry with the rapists, and so it was with God.
Isaiah had prophesied that God would not rest until Zion be
restored. Watchmen would be set upon Zion’s walls who would give Him no
rest until the walls be rebuilt (Is. 62:1,6,7). At this time, Zion was
felt by God to be the “apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8). This prophesy
started to be fulfilled straight after the Babylonian invasion when
Jeremiah urged the desolated people to pray: “O wall of the daughter of
Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest;
let not the apple of thine eye cease” (Lam. 2:18). The prayerful remnant
were to
give themselves no rest; and thus was fulfilled the prophecy that
God would have no rest. Sincere prayer according to God’s will
would have meant that there was a strange mutuality between the Father and those who
prayed to Him. Both He and they would consider Zion to be the apple of their
eye; and thus the prayers would ultimately be answered and Zion was restored.
Zechariah 2:9 For, behold, I will shake My hand over them- An idiom for direct Divine action.
And they will be a spoil to those who served them-
Zechariah 2:10 Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the middle of you’, says Yahweh- God had already returned to Zion by grace even though they had not returned to Him (Zech. 1:3; see on Zech. 1:16), and yet He promises a far greater 'return' if His people rejoice at that prospect and repent. He did the same in Zech. 1:3: "‘Return to me’, says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you’". God's glory would have dwelt not only in the temple but in the whole city of Jerusalem, according to Isaiah's prophecies. But there is no evidence that the shekinah glory ever actually returned to the rebuilt temple let alone was visibly present over the whole rebuilt city of Jerusalem.
Baruch 1:12 records the exiles praying “that we may
live long under the protective shadow of [the] king of Babylon”. This is
in sad contrast to Daniel’s prophecies that the sheltering tree of Babylon
was to be cut down! There ought to have been an urgency about the need to
flee from Babylon. Zech. 2:10 speaks of the need to "flee" and "escape"-
the language of crisis. And the call "Ho!" means quite literally "Hey!!".
The urgency to flee was spiritual rather than physical- for there's no
evidence that when Babylon fell to the Persians, the Jews were punished.
Indeed they appear [from Esther] to have prospered even more. Hence the
urgent appeal was to flee from the spiritual crisis which they faced in
Babylon. And yet they didn't perceive the danger, just as so many today
don't. For the call to leave Babylon is applied in New Testament passages
like 2 Cor. 6 to our call to leave the world in which we live. The urgency
of 'fleeing' from Babylon was understood by Nehemiah, when he referred to
those who had returned to the land as those who has "escaped" from Babylon
(Neh. 1:2)- even though they had returned with every blessing from the
authorities. He perceived as few did the vital danger of remaining in the
soft life of Babylon. Ezra likewise had referred to the Jews in Babylon as
those "in bondage... bondmen" (Ezra 9:9)- when historical records, as well
as the book of Esther and the fact Nehemiah the Jew was the king's
cupbearer, show that the Jews were very far from being servants in
Babylonian society. Yet Ezra perceived the spiritual poverty and
servanthood of remaining in that affluent society.
Zechariah 2:11 Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the middle of you- The Divine intention was that the Gentile nations in the land would be joined to Yahweh in repentance along with the repentant Jews. But instead, the Jews copied the pagan ways of those nations (as latter Isaiah, Ezra and Nehemiah demonstrate), and became arrogantly exclusive of them personally. And so the fulfilment of this prophecy was precluded by the behaviour of the exiles, and it has been rescheduled to the last days. That Yahweh Himself would dwell in the rebuilt temple is stressed here in Zechariah; it would be the fulfilment of Ez. 48:35, that the name of the rebuilt Zion would be "Yahweh is there". But Judah didn't build the temple according to the preceding specifications in Ez. 40-48; and so Yahweh's intimate presence was not found there.
The implication is that many nations as well as Judah would join themselves to Yahweh. Jer. 50:4,5 had described the possibility after the fall of Babylon: "In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God. They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned towards it saying, Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten". But Israel and Judah did not then reunite, they did not accept the new covenant offered. The Gentiles' envisaged 'joining themselves to Yahweh' is that spoken of in Is. 56:6, where it is stated that this would involve their keeping the sabbath. Sabbath keeping is now not required for those in Christ; we are therefore reading of a situation envisaged as happening at the time of the restoration which never actually came about. It was a scenario also envisaged in Is. 14:1: "For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob". But instead, Hezekiah joined himself with the spirit of Babylon, rather than the other way around.
And you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you- The implication would be that the Jews viewed this young man (:4) Zechariah sceptically, perhaps disliking his message of union with God on an equal footing to Gentiles. But he would be vindicated when the Kingdom prophecies were fulfilled, with the implication being that his generation would live to see this joining of the Gentiles to Yahweh and His presence in a restored Zion. All these things were rescheduled and reapplied to Jew and Gentile being joined together in Christ under the new covenant, to come to literal fulfilment at His second coming.
Zechariah 2:12 Yahweh will inherit Judah as His portion- The
allusion is to Dt. 32:8,9, where Israel are God's personal portion and
inheritance: "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel. For Yahweh’s portion is
His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance". The metaphor reflects
how intimate is His relationship with them, and how passionate His hope
for them. Despite the other nations being joined to Him (:11), Judah would
still be His special portion.
In the holy land- The idea is that the land would be made holy, cleansed by God's forgiveness; not that it is holy of itself.
And will again choose Jerusalem
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