Four: Immeasurable Jerusalem (The Third Vision) - Zech 2:1-13
- Sep 28, 2024
- 8 min read
Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 I asked, ‘Where are you going?’
He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.’
3 While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”
6 ‘Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,’ declares the Lord.
7 ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!’ 8 For this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you – for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye – 9 I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. [Or says after the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you – for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye – 9 ‘I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them.’] Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.
10 ‘Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the Lord. 11 ‘Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. 12 The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.’
Migration is hardly ever out of the news. Desperate people risk their lives crossing the English Channel in small boats in the hope of a better life in the UK. Successive Home Secretaries have proposed a range of options to deter them – from detention and expulsion to identity cards and patrol boats, and even removal to Rwanda for processing – but it appears to be hard to find a workable, legal and humane solution. On the other hand, if the UK were to throw its borders open to all, would the country’s infrastructure be able to cope with the influx? How would our new citizens be schooled and find medical treatment? What jobs would they do? And, crucially, where would they all live?
The context in Zechariah’s day was rather different. Jerusalem was a city ready to receive as many returning exiles as possible, and the evidence is that there were none too many willing to return. In this third vision Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand marking out the extent of the city. Then an angel runs to tell him off. “There’s no point making measurements so that city walls can be built. There will be so many people and so much livestock no wall will be big enough!” What about protection, then? Unwalled cities were easy prey for enemies to attack. God declares that he will see to that personally. “I myself will be a wall of fire around it… and I will be its glory within” (v5).
Many Christians think straightaway of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem in which God dwells, in Rev 21:1-3. We’re reminded too of our interim dwelling, the Church, with Jesus the cornerstone, and all of us being built together as living stones (1 Peter 2:4-6). Zechariah is assuring us of God’s protection (the wall of fire) and presence (the glory within).
The vision of v1-5 segues into an ‘oracle’ in v6-13, which fleshes out the vision a little, and perhaps the preceding two visions as well. It includes the promise that “many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you…” No wonder the man with the measuring line was told to go home! The city is going to be filled with migrants, whose nations are joined with the Lord. Earlier prophets had envisioned ‘aliens’ from other countries joining Israel in their ones and twos (for instance Is 56:3-8) but it’s Zechariah who throws open the borders to entire nations.
There are a couple of places in this passage where it’s unclear who is speaking or being spoken about. The first is in v4. It’s likely that the ‘young man’ is the poor surveyor who has been wasting his time with a measuring tape. But it’s possible that it refers to Zechariah himself. In that case the ‘angel who was speaking with me’ is the surveyor. The Hebrew of v3 is ambiguous, in that both angels literally ‘came out’ and it’s left to the translator to decide and then explain what’s going on.
The second place is v8. The rendering in earlier editions of the NIV – “After he has honoured me and sent me” – has been replaced in later ones by “After the Glorious One has sent me”. Both translations are possible, as are “After ‘Glory’ sent me” or “In pursuit of glory he sent me.” God is speaking, but no-one sends God anywhere. So is the ‘me’ an angel of vengeance acting on God’s behalf (which would make sense of ‘raise my hand against them’ in v9) or Zechariah the prophet (which would make sense of ‘Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me’ in v9, repeated in v11)? Or does the speaker change mid-verse? Or are God’s messengers – prophet and angel – so in tune that they can speak for each other? Or is this in fact the pre-incarnate Christ speaking, as Richard Phillips believes (pp57-58)? Confusing, isn’t it?
Now, when interpreting the Old Testament, it’s important not to jump straight from its time into ours and draw false conclusions. Otherwise, we’d stop eating shellfish, cease from wearing poly-cotton shirts and start stoning adulterers. It’s equally important not to ignore the Old Testament and declare it irrelevant. Sidney Greidanus’s book ‘Preaching Christ from the Old Testament’ is really helpful here. The Old Testament speaks powerfully in its own right of God and of our relationships with him and each other, and deserves to be studied on that basis. But there’s more. Its every page, while needing to be read and understood in its own context, points forward to Jesus, who is the interpretative key. He came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it. Once we see how the Old Testament passage relates to Jesus, we who are in Christ can find our place in it too.
So, the ever-expanding unwalled Jerusalem of Zechariah 2 points to Jesus reconstituting Israel around himself, welcoming believing Jews and Gentiles into a new family, worshipping and living for almighty God. This is the God who ‘is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9). Every day the new Jerusalem gains new citizens. Every day is a day closer to the Day when there will be “a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev 7: 9).
Does this help the Home Secretary define contemporary immigration policy? Not much – except perhaps to guard against a narrow nationalism in view of the saved human race’s multinational destiny. (Many Christians would point to other Scriptures, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, to assist in framing such policies, but that’s beyond the scope of this blog).
Let’s go back to Zechariah and the verses we haven’t touched on yet. God is inviting his scattered people home from exile to live in Jerusalem under his protection. In fact, it’s more than an invitation – he’s warning them to escape from their current places of residence (v7), for judgement is coming on their former captors (v9).
In v7 the Lord speaks to those who live in Daughter Babylon. Now this is an anachronism – something displaced in time – as Babylon had been taken over by the Persian Empire by the time Zechariah was writing. The same sort of thing happens in 9:10-13 and 10:6-7 with their talk of Joseph, Ephraim and Judah. These were tribal divisions in the time of the kings, with Joseph’s son Ephraim often standing for the northern kingdom Israel and Judah giving its name to the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom was exiled by the Assyrians well over a century before Judah was carried off to Babylon and seems to have disappeared from history. The Jews – the people of Judah – were the ones who came back. So why does Zechariah use these old-fashioned names? Is he quoting from much earlier writing? Is he lining himself up with Isaiah, Amos and the other prophets of those days? Or is he being deliberately ‘out of time’ to give his message a more universal relevance?
God’s tender care for his people is spoken of in v8 and v12. “Whoever touches you touches the apple (pupil) of his eye” (v8). If you harm God’s people, you’re poking God in the eye![1] And “the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land” (v12). When Joshua brought the newly formed nation into the Holy Land way back when, he allotted portions for each of the tribes – this was their inheritance from God. The Levites, as the priests and Temple servants, had no such allotment – they were provided for in other ways – and it was said that the Lord was their portion. But here in v12 it’s the other way round – God will inherit Judah (and presumably all God’s people) as his portion. God is so delighted in us that he is content to have us as his inheritance! Years later St Paul wrote of “the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Eph 1:18).
One Israelite’s contentment in the portion of land he’d been allotted is expressed in Ps 16: 6:
“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
For my curacy I was ‘apportioned’ a parish with an extremely good training incumbent on the leafy extremities of south London. As I cycled across the North Downs between home and church I would often murmur to myself, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places!”
If we’ve ever found other Christians slightly annoying – if we’ve been tempted to skip attending church and watch online when we could get there in person – if we’re drawn to a private spirituality that avoids the need to worship with others – well, who can blame us? Even Jesus cried out in exasperation, “How long shall I put up with you?” (Mark 9:19). But we should think of that ever-expanding city. Think of God’s delight in his whole people whom he thinks of as his inheritance. Think too – dare I say it? – of how annoying we probably are to some others. There’s no I in TEAM. And neither is there one in JERUSALEM. But there is an US right in the middle.
[1] P J Scalise, p215
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