Zechariah 2

When God speaks of someone with a measuring line measuring a city like Jerusalem, it can be used in two ways. It could be that He is sending someone into the city to do the work of demolition. It is also possible that He is measuring for rebuilding. The first is a vision of impending judgment, and the second is message of mercy. In this case, the vision is a merciful one. God has good plans for Jerusalem.

Anytime the prophets speak about the Lord's good plans for Jerusalem, we are right to wonder whether He is referring primarily to Old Covenant Jerusalem, or is He using the name "Jerusalem" to talk about His city, either the church during the gospel age, or the New Jerusalem that descends from heaven at the return of Christ. With so many of the restoration prophecies of the Old Testament, there is more than one level of fulfillment in the prophetic Word. Jerusalem in Judea will be inhabited again as people come back from exile. However, throughout the period of preparation for the New Covenant and beyond, this city will largely be under the control of outside powers. Though there will be many of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob there, a bigger fulfillment of what Jerusalem is all about will take place as people from many nations place their hope in Jesus Christ, believe the promise of the resurrection, repent, and receive baptism as they become a part of the New Testament church. This reality of the church will have its greatest fulfillment with the revealing of the sons of God at the return of Christ. Then the most delightful "Jerusalem" will be wonderfully inhabited with the fullness of the Lord's protection for His beloved people, and He Himself will be the glory in our midst.

In the days of Zechariah, it was certainly time for part of that fulfillment as people came back to the Promised Land from far-off places like Babylon. However, Babylon herself was already overtaken by the Medes. The name "Babylon" was already being used to talk about the powers of the world that would be overthrown by the resurrection force of the glory of the Kingdom of God. That coming kingdom is the Zion of our greatest desire, the place of perfect safety in the perfected land of the kingdom of God. When people put their trust in Christ now, they escape from their attachment to the world, that city of destruction, and are enrolled in the celestial city where Christ is King.

God has His eye on His beloved people. The nations may seem to have the upper hand even in our day. Yet the Lord of Hosts speaks here of another Lord that He has sent to judge the nations and to protect the people. As in Psalm 110 where we have the Lord speaking to the Lord, God must be speaking here of the Lord Messiah sent forth by the Lord God of Hosts, and of the united determination of the Father and the Son to do good to the Lord's beloved elect and to judge those who would trouble His people.

God continues to speak in this way in the remaining verses in this chapter. The Lord is talking about the Lord in such away that we have two that are agreeing as One, and they are both known by the name of Lord. Yahweh comes and will dwell in our midst, and then speaks of many nations as joined to Yahweh, who appears to be a different party somehow. We have both the Lord who sends, and the Lord who is sent. This complexity makes perfect sense to us only in the coming of Christ, who says in His own day, "Before Abraham was, I AM."

While this may be very difficult for us to understand even today, imagine how hard it would have been to sort out in the day of Zechariah. As with so many other passages in the Old Testament, the Lord has given us a message that would have been quite a puzzle in the era when it was written, yet many centuries later, when the King had come and after He died on a cross and rose again, then people would see in these ancient texts veiled gifts of God, now fully revealed in the light of the glory of Jesus Christ.

All of this causes us to give glory to the Triune God. It is ours to place our hands over our mouths in holy fear, and then to rejoice with loud praise according to God's own command of His people. He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling, the Jerusalem above, and He is coming with a mighty host in order to fulfill all of His bountiful promises to His people. We can receive these words of assurance as something more than just ancient expressions of divine care to the Jews in the 6th century before Christ. These words are for us today, we Jews and Gentiles, who have come to Jesus Christ as our everlasting refuge, and who are being kept for the eternal city of God.