Longing For The Presence Of God Zechariah 2:1-13

Zechariah 2:1 NKJV

Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

Longing for the Presence of God

Zechariah 2:1-13

The scars of abandonment were still visible, the wounds still fresh. Many of Zechariah’s contemporaries were old enough to remember the exile firsthand.

For all that the exile represented for the people of God, nothing was more traumatic than the sense that God had possibly abandoned them. The sense is captured with intensity in the book of Lamentations.

The writer laments that the Lord seems to have afflicted, rejected, and even disowned his people (Lam. 1:5, 15; 2:7; 5:20; cf. Isa. 54:7).

Likewise, the Lord himself declared through Jeremiah, “I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies” (Jer. 12:7 esv; see also Jer. 7:29).

It would only be natural for the people to wonder whether God would remain aloof or whether he would reestablish his presence among them now that the exile was over.

Would he once again dwell in Jerusalem? If they did rebuild the temple, would he return? And if he did, what might they expect from his renewed presence among them?

The third night vision, designed to answer these questions, follows naturally from the first two. The first night vision concluded with three oracles from the Lord, in which the Lord declared that he would do two things.

First, he would bring judgment upon the nations, and second, he would restore Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah (Zech. 1:14–17).

The second night vision (1:18–21) then developed the first theme, that of God’s anger and assured judgment upon the nations.

Now, the third night vision (2:1–13) picks up and develops the second theme in the oracles, that the Lord will return to Jerusalem with tender mercies, choosing her again and stretching out a measuring line over the city.

The vision of the man with a measuring line in his hand falls into two parts. The first part is the vision proper (2:1–5); the second part is an oracle (2:6–13).1

1 Bryan R. Gregory, Longing for God in an Age of Discouragement: The Gospel according to Zechariah, ed. Tremper Longman III, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010), 60–61.

A Populated and Protected City (2:1-5)

The remnant that had returned to Judah was concerned about rebuilding the temple and restoring the city and the nation, but their work was extremely difficult.

In this vision, God assured His people that He planned future glory and honor for them and their city when He Himself would come to dwell with them.

Anticipation (vv. 1–5). If a total stranger came into my house and began to measure the windows for curtains and the floor for carpeting, I’d probably ask him to leave.

After all, you measure property that belongs to you, over which you have authority. When the prophet saw a man measuring Jerusalem, it was evidence that Jerusalem was God’s city and that one day He would claim it and restore it in glory.1

1 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Heroic, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: ChariotVictor Pub., 1997), 92–93.

Beginning a vision with this image would naturally arouse expectations of reconstruction, especially for a city still lacking walls and with only the early stages of temple construction finished.

But the man with the measuring line receives some surprising instructions.

Apparently the man is already on the move because Zechariah asks him, “Where are you going?” He replies, “To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide and how long it should be” (v. 2).

As in the previous two visions, the ‘angel who was speaking with me’ appears. He goes out and encounters a second angel and says, “Run and tell this to the man: ‘Jerusalem will be like a city without walls because of a multitude of people and cattle in it’ ” (v. 4).

The first angel seems excited and urgent since his command begins with consecutive imperatives (literally, “Run! Tell!”).4

He wants the man holding the measuring line to abort his preconstruction surveying for the rebuilding of the walls since Jerusalem is to be a city without walls.

Rather surprisingly, the angel seems excited about the prospect of a Jerusalem without walls. Normally this would be a city’s disgrace, but in this vision it is the source of glory because of its overflowing numbers of people and cattle. Ezekiel said this:

Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt.… Thus says the Lord God:

This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people.

Then they will know that I am the Lord. (Ezek. 36:33, 37–38 esv)

The vision, then, has taken something normally dishonorable and transformed it into something wonderful and full of hope.

It might be asked how this vision fits with the Lord’s oracle in 1:16 in which he declares that a measuring line would be stretched out over Jerusalem.

Why would he now stop the man with the measuring line who only seems to be following through on the previously given oracle? Barry Webb explains that

[The revelation of verses 3–4 is given to] enable [the man] to understand the will of God more fully. God is more committed to the protection and future prosperity of Jerusalem than he himself can ever be.

But (and here is the point) that security and prosperity will not be achieved by man-made walls, or indeed by any human activity at all, but by the promised presence of God.…

In other words, now is not the time to be rebuilding the walls. The priority at present is to rebuild the temple (as the following visions will confirm), and God himself will defend the city while that work goes ahead.

The Lord declares that he will be an encircling wall of fire for Jerusalem as well as the glory inside it (v. 5).

The image is probably an allusion to the royal Persian city, Pasargadae, which was built by Cyrus and was later the site of his tomb. Instead of walls, the city was outfitted with fire altars inside and outside it, symbolizing the presence of the god Ahura Mazda.

The image is adopted and transformed to speak of a day when Jerusalem would not need walls for protection because the Lord would be there with his presence. Inside Jerusalem, his presence will fill the city with glory.

The Lord’s glory had withdrawn from Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction (Ezek. 10:18–19; 11:22–24). But, Ezekiel had promised that when God began restoring the nation, his glory would return (Ezek. 43:4; 44:4).

Now, after years of waiting, the Lord is returning to Jerusalem and will once again fill it with glory. It will once again become a place of surpassing sanctity and honor.

With this new understanding, two reasons for the absence of walls emerge.

First, walls are counterproductive because of the swelling of the population. When the Lord repopulates Jerusalem with his people and their livestock during the postexilic period, they will overflow the boundaries of the city.

Second, walls are unnecessary because of the Lord’s presence. When the Lord is among his people, they cease to be vulnerable; he is their safety and protection.

A Magnetic City

Admonition (Zech. 2:6–9).

The Lord admonished the Jews yet in Babylon to leave the city and join the remnant in Jerusalem. Why remain in the comfort and security of a pagan society when they were desperately needed in their own land?

The day would come when Babylon, now under Persian rule, would be judged for her sins and those who served her would plunder her. Get out while there is still opportunity!

This admonition didn’t imply that every Jew who remained in Babylon was out of the will of God.

Just as God sent Joseph to Egypt to prepare the way for his family, so He had people like Esther and Mordecai, Daniel and his friends, and Nehemiah, in places of authority in pagan cities where they could do the work He planned for them to do.

The Lord was summoning the Jews who were putting comfort, vocation, and security ahead of doing God’s work in their own sacred city. (See Isa. 48:20 and 52:11; Jer. 50:8 and 51:6, 9, 45; 2 Cor. 6:14–18; and Rev. 18:4.)

The Jews are very precious to God; He called them “the apple [pupil] of His eye” (Zech. 2:8; Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8).

The pupil is the tiny opening in the iris that lets in the light, and this is a very delicate and important area of that vital organ. Hence, anything dear and precious is like the pupil of the eye.

The reason for this command is that the Lord is turning the tables on the Babylonians (vv. 8–9). In treating Judah harshly, they have acted violently toward the Lord himself (they have poked him in the most sensitive part of the eye).

Though they were once powerful, exiling many people as spoil and plundering their lands, now the Lord has brought about events such that their land has been plundered, and their people are becoming the spoil (that is, of the Persians). This is a divine reversal

Because of the Lord’s retribution, they have gone from the top of the ladder to the bottom. In contrast to the securely protected Jerusalem, Babylon had become vulnerable to disaster.

So, compelled by the glory of the Lord, Zechariah is sent to declare that there is no reason for Jews to continue staying in a land whose national “stock” is plummeting.

Messiah is still speaking when He says, “He [God the Father] sent Me after glory” (Zech. 2:8, nkjv), that is, “to bring Him glory.”

The whole purpose of Christ’s life on earth, His ministry, and His death and resurrection was to bring glory to God (John 1:14; 12:23, 28; 17:4); and part of that glory will involve the future restoration of Israel in the kingdom when He reigns on earth (Isa. 61:3–11).

Acclamation (Zech. 2:10–13).

Promises like these ought to make God’s people “sing and rejoice” (“shout and be glad,” niv). Their Messiah will come and dwell with them, just as the glory of God had dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple.

Ezekiel describes the new city and temple in Ezekiel 40–48, and closes his book by naming the glorious new city “Jehovah Shammah,” which means “the Lord is there” (48:35).

In that day, many Gentiles will trust in the Lord (vs. 11)and be joined with Israel in the glorious kingdom over which Messiah will reign (Isa. 2:1–5; 19:23–25; 60:1–3; Zech. 8:20–23).

What better security can the people of God have than God himself? If he is present, there is no need for walls. If he is absent, nothing will be an adequate defense against enemies.

In the first two night visions, the Lord’s attitude toward the nations was singular. He was angry with them and promised coming judgment for their oppression, cruelty, and arrogance.

Yet, here, a new aspect is introduced. In the coming eschatological day (“in that day” is the typical prophetic formula for the eschatological day of the Lord), many nations will join themselves to the Lord, such that the Lord will call them “my people” (v. 11).

For the Lord to call the nations “my people” involves bringing them into a covenant relationship with him, just as he would do with Israel in the promised new covenant (Jer. 31:33; 32:37–38).

Likewise, the nations will stream into Jerusalem, as the Jews had done when returning from Babylon, and they too will know the Lord (as in Pss. 22:27–28; 67:1–7).

Zechariah 2:12 is the only place in Scripture where Palestine is called “the holy land.” That designation is often used today, but it really doesn’t apply.

The land will not be holy until Messiah cleanses the people and the land when He returns to reign (3:9). A fountain will be opened to wash away sin and uncleanness (13:1), and then the Jews shall be called “the holy people” (Isa. 62:12). That’s something to shout about!

But it’s also something to make the nations of the world pause and consider in awesome silence (Zech. 2:13; Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7). Why?

Because before Messiah comes to reign, He will judge the nations of the earth during that period of time called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7), “the day of the Lord” (Isa. 2:12; 13:6, 9; Joel 1:15; 2:1ff; Zech. 14:1), and “the great tribulation” (Matt. 24:21; Rev. 6–19).

It will be a time of intense suffering when the nations will receive their just sentence for their inhumanity and ungodliness.

When the Lord has “roused Himself from His holy dwelling” (Zech. 2:13, niv), the nations of the world will experience divine wrath; and there will be no escape.

As you review these three night visions, you learn that God watches the nations and knows what they are doing;

that He judges the nations for their sins, especially for their mistreatment of Israel;

and that there is a glorious future planned for Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, when Messiah will return to cleanse them and restore the glory of God in their midst.

No wonder we’re taught to pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10); for when we pray that prayer, we are praying for the peace of Jerusalem. And there can be no true peace in Jerusalem until the Prince of Peace reigns in glory. He must be present.

How Christ fulfills this Promise

The vision of the man with the measuring line is saturated with reassurances that God would once again be present among his people. Three times the Lord promises that he will come and dwell in their midst (vv. 5, 10, 11).

For the postexilic community, his promise to dwell among them meant that he would change the people from forsaken and abandoned to welcomed and empowered.

He would change the city from pitiable to glorious. He would change the community from vulnerable to protected.

He would change the nation’s barrenness to prosperity. He would change Judah from irrelevant to significant. In other words, God had declared that he would change the world by entering the world.

This promise was kept in the incarnation of his Son. In Jesus Christ, God truly came to be present among his people.

Thus, upon Mary’s conception from the Holy Spirit, the angel of the Lord announced that the Messiah’s name would be Immanuel—which means “God with us.” (Matt. 1:23).

In him, God’s glory entered into our world (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Zech. 2:5). And even when a jealous King Herod unleashed his assaults on the male children of Bethlehem, baby Jesus, God-incarnate, could not be touched.

The presence of God among his people could not be thwarted. Like the Jerusalem of Zechariah’s vision,

Jesus was the embodiment of God’s glorious presence, and though a picture of vulnerability, he was nevertheless unassailable. That is, he was unassailable until the proper time.

In the person of Jesus, God took to himself human flesh that he might walk among us, live beside us, and suffer with us and for us.

When the time was right, Jesus dropped his defenses and allowed the assaults to come.

He had said that he was the true temple, the true dwelling place of God on earth (John 2:19–22).

He had declared that the physical temple had become corrupt and the city had become a center of apostasy (Mark 13:1–37). He backed up these claims with dramatic action, driving out the money changers and turning over tables (Matt. 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46).

His point was obvious: he was the locus of God’s indwelling presence on earth; the Jerusalem Temple wasn’t any more.

He was the means through which God’s kingdom would come; a politically empowered Judah wasn’t. He was the source of renewal; the establishment wasn’t.

Sufficiently infuriated, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders of the people began plotting to kill him.

As they carried out their plans, he allowed himself to be bound and dragged into an exile far greater than those of Israel’s history.

When he walked out of Jerusalem, it was not to go to Babylon or Assyria, but to Calvary. Though it was a much shorter walk, it left him so much farther away.

Though there were people all around, he was never so lonely. And in that darkest of hours, the most hellish part was the abandonment of God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34).

But with the resurrection, the presence of God among us is renewed and sealed forever. When the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples in Galilee at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, his last words conclude with the promise,

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20 esv). Even upon his ascension, when he would have to leave them, he had told them that he would send another, the Holy Spirit, which he did at Pentecost (John 16:7; Acts 2).

Poured out on Jesus’ followers, the Holy Spirit binds them together, indwelling them. Thus, the church becomes the temple of God and the dwelling place of God on earth (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19–20; Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Pet. 2:4–5).

Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, his people incarnate God’s presence in the world, working as ambassadors on his behalf and seeking to transform it with the gospel (2 Cor. 5:11–21).

As a community, the church becomes an outpost of the new creation and a picture to the world of what a people should be like when God dwells among them (Col. 3:1–17).

But more than just what should be, the church points to what will be (Heb. 13:14).

The church, as a community of the new creation, should give the world a foretaste of its destiny.

“God’s creation reaches its eschatological fulfillment when it becomes the scene of God’s immediate presence. This, in the last resort, is what is ‘new’ about the new creation. It is the old creation filled with God’s presence.”

In Revelation, we are promised that such a day is coming when the world will be thus filled. The New Jerusalem will descend from heaven and a loud voice will call out from the throne,

“ ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God … for the old order of things has passed away.’

He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ ” (Rev. 21:3–5 niv).

On that day, there will be no need for a temple in the Holy City because the Lord Almighty and the Lamb will be its temple.

And just as Zechariah said would happen, nations will gather there and the glory and honor of them will be brought into it. The glory of God in her midst will shine so brightly that its gates will remain perpetually open without fear of attack (Rev. 21:22–27; cf. Zech. 2:11).

What would it mean for the church to live as a foretaste of the new creation, to embody for the world the presence of God in her midst, to point the world to her glorious destiny when she will be filled with God’s immediate presence?

What would it mean for us as individuals to “incarnate” the presence of God to those around us and into the institutions we serve and the callings we fulfill? N. T. Wright sums it up well:

We need Christian people to work as healers: as healing judges and prison staff, as healing teachers and administrators, as healing shopkeepers and bankers, as healing musicians and artists, as healing writers and scientists, as healing diplomats and politicians. We need people who will hold on to Christ firmly with one hand and reach out with the other, with wit and skill and cheerfulness, with compassion and sorrow and tenderness, to the places where our world is in pain. We need people who will use all their god-given [sic] skills … to analyze where things have gone wrong, to come to the place of pain, and to hold over the wound the only medicine which will really heal, which is the love of Christ made incarnate once more, the strange love of God turned into your flesh and mine, your smile and mine, your tears and mine … your joy and mine.

God had promised through Zechariah that he would change the world by entering it, and his promise hasn’t changed.

He began changing things when he entered the world through Christ; he will permanently transform the world when the New Jerusalem descends and soaks this “old” creation with his immediate and concrete presence; and he continues to change the world by entering it now.

How does he enter our world today? He enters through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the church.

He enters through his followers who “make Christ incarnate once more.” Through us he transforms the world, and that is when we see his glory!