I have been so blessed by the following passage of scripture lately. Since I cannot get away from it I thought I would share it with you and remind us how near and real our God is!
In the Book of Zechariah, second chapter, we see a promise to Jerusalem that isn’t really just for Jerusalem.
If we look harder we can see a promise for us.
“Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, “Where are you going?”
And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him,who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.
‘For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” Zechariah 2:1-5.
The Man with the measuring line foretells the hope of a rebuilt Jerusalem and a restored people. But here we have a different word used for measuring line than in 1:16, for this angel is measuring and planning out the immeasurable capital of God’s earthly kingdom, instead of the temporary Jewish capital of Jerusalem.
Could that “angel of the Lord” be Jesus Christ Himself? Who else could measure a city without walls and limits?? “I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am, there ye may be also.” So he is not just measuring a “city”, but also speaks of EXPANSION! The capital city of the MILLENIAL kingdom will be larger than our finite minds can comprehend. And the Kingdom of God continues to grow exponentially since Calvary!
Now, when speaking of Jerusalem, it’s again, not the physical space, but those that call it “home”. It cannot be referring to the rebuilding of the walls because that is Nehemiah’s job; he comes along in 446 BC, about 70 years AFTER Zechariah.
Here the vision talks about a city with NO walls. The absence of walls does not signify exposure to danger, but rather the massive increase in numbers of people and animals to be found in the restored city, so that it could not be enclosed within walls. Here, only 50,000 were returning, the majority of them were staying in captivity. So it must be figurative, an allegory, a metaphor. It was SYMBOLIC.
They CANNOT be measured; they CANNOT be counted because they are innumerable!
They are THE CHURCH! Maybe the angel of the Lord was measuring in anticipation of the growth of the Church? Maybe he was measuring to see how much they would have to enlarge even the Heavens themselves to contain The Church!
Side note here: We should never put up barriers that limit our expansion or outreach. Walls confine and God doesn’t want His message to be confined within walls! The life changing message of the Gospel is to go forth into the whole world as the Creator had planned!
And the message is even deeper than that…let’s go on!
Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein… There will be such prosperity and growth for the people of God that Jerusalem will not be able to be walled in any more. “The multitude of people and livestock” will be so many that Jerusalem will be like many villages spreading out across the land without walls.
They were to have prosperity, the angel was measuring to enlarge! But prosperity, without protection?
The literal city was surrounded by mountains, which were walls as well, but even they couldn’t keep the enemy out for always…the enemy could go over the mountain, it could go around the mountain, it could scale a normal wall. But a wall of fire? Not just a wall ON fire but a wall OF fire…continual protection, no one can get through, over, under or around this wall of protection to Jerusalem, the PEOPLE of God… The Church! His presence was all the protection they would need!
“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” Psalm 34:7
Many were called to come “home”, but decided to stay in “captivity”, so to speak. “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. Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!”
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— 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.”
They may have been born in Babylon, definitely spent much time there. Maybe they were more comfortable or had forgotten the promises of God. The things of the past were no longer important to them!
The Lord was calling them to come away, to actually flee, in haste, to come back to Jerusalem. It had been spread all over the world, and we know that wherever the people of God are, there the Church of God is, it is not tied to places! I will dwell in your midst…“And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.” 2:11
He was calling them back and He wasn’t just asking them to dwell there.
John Piper says, “God is never content to just give us the protection of his fire; he will give us the pleasure of his presence.”
And that’s where we are today. We are called to come “home”. To BE the Church. Not to just be “at church”, or “in church” but to literally BE the Church in this last day.
Because it can never be contained in a building. It was never meant to be contained!
We have the Power, the Authority, the Influence, and the God-given Ability to change our world.
Nothing can pass through to us without first passing through Him and His will.
In Him we are safe and secure.
“For safety is not found in the absence of danger,
but in the presence of God.” ~ Diane K Hiltz Chamberlain
He will never call us for something that He would not equip us for and if He is going to give us the protection of His Holy Ghost FIRE then He is also giving us the PLEASURE of His Presence!
He said, “I will be…” That is a promise! A promise from Almighty God.
You know one more thing He mentions there? It’s very possessive. Because our God is a jealous God. But did you notice in the verse I read, the interesting “insert”?
Right in the middle of telling them to flee Babylon He says, “…for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye…”
He says He will plunder those that plundered the people of God. The New Living Translation says it this way, “After a period of glory, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me against the nations who plundered you. For He said, “Anyone who harms you, harms my most precious possession.”
He didn’t forget about them! He not only came back to get them but He says He will take care of anyone who gets in His way or tries to harm the “apple of His eye, His most precious possession”.
He fights for you, He steps in on your behalf. He is FOR you.
