Sing aloud and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.
This chapter speaks to people living in ruins. It promises a Jerusalem too full for walls, and God Himself as her defence. Verse 10 turns that promise into a call to sing. Who is the "I" who says He is coming, and when does He arrive?
The promise of verse 10 stands at the end of a chain of visions. Each link leads to the same arrival.
The man with the measuring line (v. 1) gives the answer. He is going to "measure Jerusalem," that is, take possession of it. The angel's message states powerfully that one day so large a multitude will live in Jerusalem that it can have no walls, except for the wall of fire which is Jehovah Himself (vv. 4, 5)… Jehovah Himself will come (v. 10) and dwell in their midst (vv. 10, 11). He appears as if He had already started His "journey" (v. 13), the journey that would bring Him to them… What a full answer to every heart troubled about the ruins of Zion!
The promise is not mainly about the city. It is about who lives in it.
The Lord left Zion and rejected the holy city as His dwelling place because of His people's sins (Ezekiel 9, 10). So His return would mark their restoration to His favour, and would complete all His purposes of blessing towards "the mountain of His holiness"… Notice again that the source of all blessing for God's people lies in His dwelling in their midst. From the very first this was the sign that they were His redeemed people (Exodus 25:8), and that they had found favour in His sight (Exodus 33:16). In the same way, having His tabernacle with men is the distinctive blessedness of the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness will dwell (Rev. 21).
Nothing in Israel's history since the exile matches these words. The present age does not look like this either.
Jehovah has never yet dwelt in Zion, inheriting Judah as His portion, with many nations "joined to the Lord". But that day will yet come to pass. At the present time God is not joining nations to Himself. He is visiting them, "to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Read against the Gospels, the verse marks off one arrival from another.
When the Lord came the first time, He was rejected. He left this world and returned to the Father. But at His second coming He will dwell in the midst of His people Israel. Because of this He says, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst… and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you" (Zech. 2:10-11).
The song is addressed to a people worn down by long trouble, and the singer's reason is a Person taking His place among them.
This same Lord of hosts would come and dwell in the midst of her. He would take the place of central importance. That would bring the greatest rejoicing to a people long depressed and troubled.
The call to sing comes long before the promise arrives.
Prophecy often treats a prediction as fulfilled the moment it is spoken. So the prophet calls Zion to sing and rejoice… He teaches that our springs of energy and gladness are found in the revelation of God's accomplished purposes.
Verse 8 calls the speaker the Lord of hosts, and here He says the Lord of hosts sent Him.
The Lord would shake His hand over the nations, and they would become a spoil to Israel, who had so long served them (v. 9). This great reversal would assure them that the Lord of hosts had sent the Lord Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. He is Himself called "the Lord of hosts" in verse 8. How clear is the truth of the deity of Christ in this declaration from the Lord of hosts that "the Lord of hosts has sent Me."
The next verse widens the song beyond Jerusalem. Who joins the Lord in that day?
The singing times have come (Zeph. 3). Zion rejoices for He dwells in their midst (Isa. 12). Then the nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day. They do not join the Church, for the true Church is in glory. They will be joined to Israel in the kingdom… Now is the time when God is silent. The flesh speaks now, for it is man's day. But our God will come, and He will not keep silent.
- Coming. The "I" who speaks is Jehovah, announcing His own arrival. He speaks as though already on the journey.
- Dwelling. His presence in the midst is the source of all blessing. It marked His redeemed people at the tabernacle, and it crowns the new heavens and the new earth.
- Singing. Zion sings before the promise arrives, because the One coming takes the central place among a people long depressed and troubled.
- Widening. From that centre the blessing spreads. Nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day, and be joined to Israel in the kingdom.
- Waiting. None of this has happened yet; the promise belongs to His appearing, when the God who is silent now will speak.
And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be unto me for a people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
This promise looks far past Zechariah's own day: whole nations belong to God, and God Himself lives among His people. Two questions press: when does this happen, and who is the "me" that the LORD of hosts has sent?
Israel's return from exile never looked like this. The writers quoted here all place the fulfilment in the future. One of them sets the verse against what God is doing now:
The LORD has never yet dwelt in Zion, inheriting Judah as His portion, with many nations "joined to the Lord". But that day will still come. At the present time God is not joining nations to Himself. He is visiting them, "to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Three verses earlier the LORD speaks of sending His messenger "after his glory". That phrase rules out any earlier fulfilment:
Notice the words "after the glory". So no blessing before Christ came could ever fulfil Zechariah's words. There is more. When Christ presented Himself, that did not fulfil these words. Instead came further sin and a fresh scattering of Israel. So God's dealings after the first coming and the crucifixion pushed this prophecy farther off than ever. They brought fresh grounds for a new punishment of Israel, not yet the fulfilment of the prophecy. This will be "after the glory." Christ must first appear in glory.
The nations that plundered Jerusalem end up joined to the LORD. They even receive the name that belonged to Israel — God's own people:
When God delivers Israel, He will defeat the nations. But in matchless grace He will also bless many nations by joining them to the Lord, and He will call them too His people.
The nations do not know it, but their blessing waits on Israel's restoration:
Isaiah speaks of the same time, when the glory of the Lord has risen on Zion: "And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isa. 60:3). The nations are waiting and longing for this time without knowing it (see Haggai 2:7). They do not know that their blessing depends on the restoration of the despised race of Israel. Yet it is so. As soon as the LORD has returned to Zion, judged His enemies and founded His kingdom, the nations will come to the scene of His power and glory. They will count it their highest honour to be enrolled among His people.
The same promise stands in the verse before, word for word. The repeat itself is the point:
Then the promise is repeated: "I will dwell in your midst." The repeat gives His people's faith a double security, and an unchangeable guarantee that God will carry it out.
There is an order behind it. God settles among His people only after He redeems them:
Scripture speaks of His dwelling among His people right after it speaks of their redemption. We see this in Exodus 15, Exodus 29 and many other passages. When the redemption was only a picture, He dwelt among them in a visible way. When Israel receives true and eternal redemption by faith, then He will dwell among His people truly and for ever. But this is "after the glory."
The One who promises to dwell among them also says the LORD of hosts sent Him. The verse holds both together:
This work would be so plainly divine that the word comes again: "You shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you." He is both the Sender and the Sent One! Israel will recognise that Christ is God, and that will be a marvellous joy to their hearts.
What Israel failed to see at the first coming, they will know then. His rejection is not the end of the story:
When the Lord came the first time, people rejected Him. He left this world and returned to the Father. But at His second coming He will dwell among His people Israel… Israel will then know the Lord as living among them, and know that the Father had sent Him.
- Glory first. God dwells among His people only "after the glory". Christ must appear in glory first.
- Redemption first. God settles among His people only after He redeems them. Exodus shows the pattern, and Israel's future will follow it.
- Grace reaches out. Today God takes from the nations a people for His name. In that day He joins whole nations to Himself and calls them His people — matchless grace, not their merit.
- The promise doubled. God says "I will dwell in your midst" twice in two verses. The repeat gives faith a double security and an unchangeable guarantee.
- Then they will know. The One sent is also the One who sends. Israel will recognise that Christ is God, and that will be the joy of that day.