What does it mean that God "will be a wall of fire" around Jerusalem (Zechariah 2:5)?

Two things are contained in this glowing prediction — the fact and character of Jerusalem's future prosperity; and its source and means of preservation. The time of this prosperity is plainly indicated from its character. Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls; a population that should increase and break out on every side beyond all restraining limits; and the cattle should share in this illimitable blessing — a prosperity which loudly speaks of full earthly blessing under the peaceful sway of Emmanuel. Isaiah, dwelling upon the same period, says, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left." (Isaiah 54:2-3.) But the secret of all is found in the next verse. Jehovah Himself will be a wall of fire round about her; a sure protection therefore from her foes, and will also be the glory in the midst of her. It is always so. Jehovah's presence has ever been the source of all blessing for His earthly people, just as the Lord's presence is now in the midst of those who are gathered unto His name. And while His presence is the source of blessing, it is also protection; the wall of fire and the glory are ever connected. (Compare Exodus 14:24-25; Isaiah 4:5.)

Two angels are mentioned in verse 3, the angel who talked with Zechariah and another angel who instructs the first to run to tell “this young man” (Zechariah) that “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.” This can only be future, for Jerusalem has never yet been so free from danger as to require no “walls,” no protection from marauding enemies. It looks forward beyond the day of “Jacob's trouble,” the great tribulation, to the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus. The size of Jerusalem will be greatly increased, as “towns” include not only many people, but domestic animals.

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 to receive the Messiah whom they had before despised and rejected. In simple, unquestioning faith they then will depend on the proven faithfulness of their blessed Redeemer who cannot fail them. Their walls, gates and bars will go (Ezek. 38:10-11): the Lord alone will defend them. This should be a clear, ringing testimony to the Church of God today, for we have too often resorted to the help of creatures and of organizations for our protection and help in bearing a witness for Christ before the world. Can we not as fully depend on the Lord alone as Israel will do when once they have received Him?

"Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I, says Jehovah, will be to her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." It is very evident that nothing that has yet been at all meets the terms of the prophecy. We look onward to the day when the multitude of her inhabitants will break all bounds; and, instead of vassalage under Persian or Greek or Roman masters, they will have Jehovah Himself their fortress and wall of defence.

In the next place comes the call to all that remain: the restoration of the Jews will be then complete. "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, says Jehovah: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, says Jehovah." This refers to the previous dispersions of Israel. "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus says Jehovah of hosts; After the glory has he sent me to the nations which spoiled you." Nothing can be more distinct. How any with the smallest attention to scripture, not to say spiritual judgment, can mistake the scope or nature of this prophecy, or think that this has been fulfilled, it is difficult to understand. Observe the words "after the glory:" consequently no blessing before Christ came could possibly accomplish Zechariah's words. More than this; when Christ presented Himself, so far from then accomplishing these words, there was a further sin and a fresh dispersion. Thus the dealings of God after the first advent and the crucifixion put the accomplishment of this prophecy farther off than ever and brought in fresh grounds for a new punishment of Israel, not as yet the fulfilment of the prophecy. This will be "after the glory." Christ must first appear in glory. "For thus says Jehovah of hosts; After the glory has he sent me to the nations which spoiled you; for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts has sent me." Consequently there is a song of joy even now raised in anticipation of the fulfilment of glory for the people of Israel. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee." What Jehovah did when He brought them out of Egypt will be accomplished and much more. "I will dwell in the midst of thee."

The statement of His dwelling among His people regularly follows that of their redemption; as we see in Exodus 15, Exodus 29 and many other passages. When the redemption was figurative, He dwelt after a visible sort in their midst. When true and eternal redemption shall have been by faith applied to Israel, then will be His true and everlasting dwelling in the midst of His people; but this is "after the glory." "And many nations shall be joined to Jehovah in that day." There we find clearly the circumstances of the millennial glory. We see how repeated is the testimony to this inestimable privilege of Zion, as indeed it goes out to all mankind. It seems astonishing how any student of scripture could point to the sojourn of the Son of God before redemption in the land of Judea. The similarity of the language to Zechariah 9:9 compels to no such conclusion, because this prophecy was fulfilled in the presentation of the King, not at all in His action or the consequences of His advent described immediately afterwards. The rejection of the King postponed the complete fulfilment. His coming will take up the broken thread and perfect the web of divine purposes. The comparison therefore with the latter chapter really compels to the inference that both await the public reign of Christ over the land. "And I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts has sent me to thee. And Jehovah shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before Jehovah: for he is raised up out of his habitation." The age to come will be characterised not by some believing and others not (Mark 16:16, Acts 28:24), but by universal homage under the kingdom of Jehovah and the Christ, when judgments on the nations after the manifestation of the divine glory have broken the pride of man.

The angel who had talked with Zechariah was met by another angel. He brings the message to Zechariah, who is addressed as "this young man." The coming restoration and enlargement of Jerusalem is announced. The city is to be inhabited as villages, which denotes the peace and safety which Jerusalem will enjoy in the day of her true restoration. It will be the temptation for the enemy, Gog and Magog, to invade the land. (See Ezek. 38, and 39.) The invasion of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 is after the millennium; the one in Ezekiel is in the beginning of the millennium [i.e., end of the tribulation. Ed.]. Then Zechariah hears in the message that the Lord will be Himself a wall of fire unto Jerusalem; He will be the glory in the midst of her. Glory and defence are combined, they always go together (Isa. 4). This was not the case in the restored Jerusalem after the captivity. It is altogether future. What a glory it will be when every eye sees Him, when His visible glory will be once more established in the land, from which its knowledge spreads over the earth till it covers all, like the waters cover the deep! (Habakkuk 2:14). Then they are summoned to return from the land of the North. Millions of Jews are living and suffering in the great land of the north, Russia. In that day they will return to the old homeland. They will escape out of the clutches of Babylon, the final Babylon. He calls the believing remnant the "apple of His eye." He will guard and keep them.

In chapter 2 the blessing of Israel at the second coming of the Lord is foretold, when "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her" (Zech. 2:4-5). 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.

When the Lord came the first time He was rejected, and leaving this world, He returned to the Father; but, at His second coming, He will dwell in the midst of His people Israel, and because of this He says, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee … and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me unto thee" (Zech. 2:10-11). Israel will then know the Lord as dwelling among them, and also that He was the Sent One of the Father.

At the time of this vision, the city Jerusalem lay in ruins, its walls torn down; only the foundations of the temple had been laid. Yet the angel said: “I’m going to measure Jerusalem”! “And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth; and another angel went forth to meet him, and said to him. Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein” (v. 3-4). The future Jerusalem will reach far beyond anything it has ever been, and therefore it will be much larger than the city the returned exiles rebuilt. It will overflow with people and cattle dwelling in it (Jet 33:7-13). The measuring line of an angel will be needed to establish its dimensions. A lot must happen before things are that far. This future city is not the city of Nehemiah, nor the Jerusalem that rejected its Messiah and King, nor even the Jerusalem in which the Jews will dwell after their return to Palestine when they will become the people of the antichrist. The walls of Jerusalem during the reign of the antichrist will not protect the city when the nations will come to besiege and plunder it in the last days.

But a day will come in which the Lord will appear in Israel as the true King. Then Jerusalem will call its walls Salvation, and its gates Praise (Isa. 60:18), or, as it is put here, “I, says Jehovah, I will be to her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” (v. 5).

Zechariah sees a man with the measuring line in his hand. "Then said I, Whither goest thou? and he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." When this prophecy was given, the building of the walls of Jerusalem had not begun; it was the temple which was in view for the moment, but Zechariah is allowed to see this man who tells him that he is about to measure the city Jerusalem, "to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." The idea in the measuring is, of course, that he was taking account of it. And God assured the prophet, and no doubt it was to be fully seen at a later date, that He was interested in every detail of that city, the breadth and the length; that city in its entirety was coming into remembrance before God. And God has His eye upon the whole sphere today, He has the measure of every one of us, from whatever locality we may have come, He has the measure of us all. If He was interested in the divine territory as seen in the earthly Jerusalem in that day, we may be assured that He is just as interested in the heavenly character of divine territory to which we belong today. But in Zechariah we see the length and the breadth of the earthly city coming into remembrance before God. Faithful hearts were moving in relation to God in His interests, and God would assure them by the prophetic word that there was not one inch of that territory which was not under His eye.

Then we read, "The angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man." The aged and the elders have their place in the sphere of divine interests, but this word is, "Run, speak to this young man." Beloved it is a blessed thing to take up divine interests in energy and in exercise in our youth! God would have us to be growing up in these things, interested in the divine circle from the very moment we are spiritually born into that circle. "Run," he says, "speak to this young man, saying Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein; for I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." Is it not worth while labouring in relation to a city like that? Nehemiah thought it was, and how God encouraged him in relation to it. He certainly did build the wall in his day later, but that wall could be broken down, and it was eventually 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 in order that one in every ten should go and inhabit Jerusalem, but few though they were, feeble though they were, God said in effect, I will take care of you, "For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about." That would be in relation to the attack of the enemy, and all that might come in. Moreover He says, "And will be the glory in the midst of her." Oh! to have this confidence of heart, this confidence in God, that He will preserve that which is dear to Him however feeble it may be, and at the same time attract us to Himself, displaying Himself to us as the God of glory. "For I, saith the LORD, will be the glory in the midst of her." Let us ever remember that the walls externally were to preserve the glory of God internally; and if we speak of recovery in measure today, let us never forget that the reason God does support those who wish to go on in devotion to Himself, is that His glory might be revered and appreciated, and that those who belong to Him might answer to it as found here for His pleasure.

"Thou hast a little strength." It is not the way of God to produce great strength at a time of general ruin. At the era of the return from the Babylonish captivity, the Lord wrought in great grace. There was no outward power; on the contrary, they were so apparently contemptible, that it was the taunt of their enemies that a fox could jump over their wall. But we find the same sort of spirit as in Philadelphia. They build no fortification to keep out the Samaritans; the Lord was a wall of fire round about them; but the first thing they erect is an altar to Him. The Lord was the first object of their hearts. If He was their wall, they could afford to wait before building another. There was no such thing as the angel smiting the first-born, no miracle wrought on their behalf, not a word about plagues on their enemies; but "my Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not." Whenever Israel were afraid of their adversaries, they had no strength; but in looking to the Lord they forgot enemies.

The presence of God should ever have been their shield and buckler. No weapon formed against them could prosper. But, then, the divine presence was only to be enjoyed by an obedient people. Jehovah could not sanction by His presence disobedience or wickedness. The uncircumcised nations around might depend upon their prowess and their military resources. Israel had only the arm of Jehovah to depend upon, and that arm could never be stretched forth to shield unholiness or disobedience. Their strength was to walk with God in a spirit of dependence and obedience. So long as they walked thus, there was a wall of fire round about them, to protect them from every enemy and every evil.

The building of the wall was then the great object before him. The house of the Lord had already been built, but it stood in a desolated place, the walls of which were broken down and its gates consumed by fire. The day had not come then, nor has it come yet, when 'the Lord will be to her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her' (Zech. 2:5), so a wall was needed that the city might again be seen as the place where God had set His name, and His house might, in this typical way, be separated from the defilements of the surrounding world. From the time that God said to Abram, 'Get thee out …' (Gen. 12:1), separation to Himself has always been God's mind for His people. Since the rejection of Christ this has come to light with increased emphasis, so that we now read, 'the friendship of the world is enmity with God' (James 4:4).