In Verse 16 we have been told that the measuring line would
once more be over Jerusalem. Once more Jerusalem would figure in God’s plans.
The city had been left desolate, there was no sign that it would be part of
God’s plan ever again, yet He declared that it would. Today we do well to
beware of theologies that declare that Israel no longer has a place in God’s
plan. We need to understand that the basis for Israel being part of God’s plan
is not what we see, not how we with our puny minds interpret history and
current events, but the everlasting promise of God.
Now we see a different aspect of this. Zechariah sees a man
with a measuring line. He asks him where he is going and he says that he is
going to measure out Jerusalem. But then one of the angels tells another angel
to go and stop the man, for Jerusalem would be a city without walls. God was
doing a new thing, He was not merely restoring the old. Just as it is essential
that we see that Jerusalem is still part of God’s plan, it is equally essential
that we see that this is part of God’s ongoing plan, it is no mere return to
the past.
The same applies to our own lives. Things happen to us and
we feel desolate. Then God starts to work again, so often we expect just a
return to what things were once like. But God is going forward.
So the city would be a city without walls because of the
numbers of people and livestock. Now we might think this would make it
vulnerable, for a wall was there to define limits, and to provide protection.
God Himself would be a wall of fire around it, a wall of protection.
Now remember the historical situation. The people were being
urged to rebuild, yet the wall had not
been completed, in fact it was a bit of a ruin. So this vision had immediate
practical consequences for them.
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