The adversaries being disposed of, the vision of chapter 2 carries the predictions a further step forward. That God should send a man with a line in his hand, wherewith to measure Jerusalem, indicated that the city was still an object of His attention and interest. The Jews that surrounded Zechariah might be pleased with the progress of their rebuilding operations, and inclined to be complacent about it, but they were to know that God had far more wonderful things in view, as the angel proceeds to explain.
A day is to come when Jerusalem would need no wall, such as the people would soon be building, for Jehovah Himself would be as a wall of fire round about and, even more wonderful, be Himself “the glory in the midst of her.” Multitudes will be within her in that day, for there will be a great exodus from the lands of their scattering and particularly from “the land of the north,” as is revealed in verses 6-9. This migration will take place, as verse 8 indicates, “after the glory” has been revealed and established. So that again we have to say that the prophecy goes far beyond anything that has yet transpired and looks on to the time of the end.
This is made yet more plain as we read the four verses that close this chapter. Never yet has Jehovah been dwelling in Zion, and 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 unto Himself, but rather He is visiting them, “to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:1414Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14)).
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