and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein;
Zechariah watches a man go out with a measuring line to measure a half-ruined Jerusalem. Before the measuring begins, a second angel sends the first running back to the prophet with news of a city too crowded for walls.
The word goes to a young man, not to the elders. One writer draws out what that says about serving God early.
The elderly and the elders have their place in the sphere of divine interests. But this word is, "Run, say to that young man." It is a wonderful thing to take up divine interests with energy and exercise while we are young! God would have us growing up in these things. He would have us interested in the divine circle from the very moment we are born into it spiritually.
Commentators differ over who this young man is.
It is the prophet Zechariah, and we learn this personal detail about him in passing. Some take the words to mean only a servant, whatever his age, but that seems unnatural to me.
Verse 4 explains why the man of verse 1 is measuring.
Measuring here comes before taking possession for blessing. It is an action directed by God just before He comes in once more to re-establish His dwelling place and to own His people. It is so in Zechariah. Jerusalem had been trodden down by the Gentiles and made desolate for her sins, as she still is today. But the eye and the heart of God were always on her.
The state of the city raised a real question.
Will God take an interest in a city that largely consists of "stones,... dust" (Ps. 102:14) and ruins? 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 confirms it. One day so great a multitude will live in Jerusalem that it can have no walls — except the wall of fire, which is Jehovah Himself.
The reason for the open, unwalled settlements is sheer numbers. The promise takes in the livestock too.
The population would increase and break out on every side, beyond every limit that could hold it in. The cattle would share in this boundless blessing. Such prosperity speaks loudly of full blessing on earth under the peaceful rule of Immanuel.
A city without walls has no enemy left to fear. That test dates the prophecy.
This can only be future. Jerusalem has never yet been so free from danger that she needed no "walls," no protection from raiding enemies. It looks beyond the day of "Jacob's trouble," the great tribulation, to the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus. The size of Jerusalem will be greatly increased, since "villages" include not only many people, but domestic animals.
So which Jerusalem is this? Not any that has stood so far.
This future city is not the city of Nehemiah. It is not the Jerusalem that rejected its Messiah and King. It is not even the Jerusalem where the Jews will live after their return to Palestine, when they will become the people of the antichrist.
What replaces the missing walls is not better engineering but a change of ruler.
We look ahead to the day when the multitude of her inhabitants will break all bounds. Then, instead of living under Persian or Greek or Roman masters, they will have Jehovah Himself as their fortress and wall of defence.
The people who first heard this still had to live in the ruins.
In her present ruin, Jerusalem could attract the people of God only if they saw her with the eyes of faith, from the viewpoint of her future glory. Going to Jerusalem meant leaving everything else. That took a decision which faith alone could give and hope alone could sustain.
God's own method with discouraged people is worth noticing.
The Lord saw the hearts of His people — their fears, their lack of faith, their despair — and He sent them the blessed encouragement of the future. He unveiled before their eyes the glory of Messiah's presence. We would do well to heed this divine method. The cure for all discouragement over the weakness and confusion of the church today lies in looking at the future. That is where we draw our strength and hope.
- Ruins measured. The measuring line is not a damage report but a claim of ownership. God surveys Jerusalem just before He takes possession of her.
- Message rushed. The news is urgent: an angel must run with it, and it goes to a young man rather than to the elders.
- Multitude overflowing. The city has no walls because it has no room for them: people and livestock press out beyond every limit.
- Protection replaced. The city loses its stone walls and gains God Himself, the fortress and defence of an open city.
- Fulfilment future. No Jerusalem yet has matched this — not Nehemiah's, not the one that rejected its Messiah. It waits for the reign of Christ. Until then, faith holds it by hope.
and I, saith Jehovah, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
Zechariah sees this vision in a wrecked city, where the walls were down and the temple foundations were only just laid. Into that ruin an angel runs with a promise of safety outside and glory inside — and it is God Himself, not a wall of stone.
The measuring line of chapter 2 runs over a city with almost nothing left to measure:
At the time of this vision, the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins and its walls were torn down. Only the foundations of the temple had been laid. Yet the angel said: "I'm going to measure Jerusalem"! ... The future Jerusalem will reach far beyond anything it has ever been. So it will be much larger than the city the returned exiles rebuilt. It will overflow with people and cattle dwelling in it. ... This future city is not the city of Nehemiah, nor the Jerusalem that rejected its Messiah and King.
Verse 4 promises a city that lives without walls. Verse 5 explains why that is safe: a better defender takes their place.
Walls will be unnecessary, for the Lord Himself will be a wall of fire encircling the city as well as being "the glory in her midst." This will be true when Israel is finally broken down in repentance and faith, and receives the Messiah they had despised and rejected. Then they will depend in simple, unquestioning faith on their blessed Redeemer. He has proved faithful and cannot fail them. Their walls, gates and bars will go (Ezek. 38:10-11): the Lord alone will defend them.
The verse joins two promises. God's nearness blesses His people, and the same nearness shields them.
But the secret of it all is found in the next verse. The Lord Himself will be a wall of fire all around her. That is a sure protection from her foes. He will also be the glory in the midst of her. It is always so. The Lord's presence has always been the source of all blessing for His earthly people. In the same way, His presence is now among those who are gathered to His name. His presence is the source of blessing, and it is also protection. The wall of fire and the glory always go together (compare Exodus 14:24-25; Isaiah 4:5).
Commentators are agreed that the words outrun anything Jerusalem has yet known. The returned exiles lived under one foreign master after another; the promise describes the opposite.
Nothing so far has met the terms of this prophecy at all. We look on to the day when the crowds who live in her will break all bounds. Instead of being subjects of Persian or Greek or Roman masters, they will have Jehovah Himself as their fortress and wall of defence.
And it will not stop at the city:
Glory and defence were not combined in the restored Jerusalem after the captivity. It is altogether future. What a glory it will be when every eye sees Him! His visible glory will be set up in the land once more. From there the knowledge of it will spread over the earth till it covers all, as the waters cover the deep (Habakkuk 2:14).
"The glory in her midst" is not only a shining cloud like the one that filled the first temple. Writers connect it with the coming of Christ Himself.
Then it will not simply be, as in the first temple, the presence of the glory, but the Lord Himself with them in Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
That day is also the day Israel recognises Him, like the disciple Thomas:
Messiah will be known by her then. She will have returned to Him. Like Thomas, they will own Him as their Lord and their God when they see Him.
The message runs to "this young man," and it lands on a small, weak community:
Nehemiah did build the wall later, but that wall could be broken down, and in the end it was broken down again. God in all His glory, and in all His majesty, is committed to its protection. In Nehemiah chapter 11 we see that the people had to cast lots, so that one in every ten should go and live in Jerusalem. They were few and they were feeble. Yet God said in effect, I will take care of you. ... Always remember that the outer walls were there to preserve the glory of God inside.
- Ruin measured. God gives this promise to a city with its walls torn down. The Jerusalem He measures out is far larger than anything the exiles rebuilt.
- Walls replaced. Gates and bars go, because the Lord alone becomes the defence. Safety rests on His faithfulness, not on stone.
- Fire and glory together. Protection outside and glory inside are one gift. Both are His presence, and you never get one without the other.
- Still ahead. Nothing since the captivity has matched these terms. The fulfilment waits for the day His glory is seen in the land and its knowledge fills the earth.
- A Person. The glory in her midst is the Lord Himself with them, and His people will own Him at last, as Thomas did when he saw Him.