ZECHARIAH 2
In a further vision Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand, to whom he says, “Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, to measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof”, verses 1 and 2. The result of the work of the “craftsmen” seen in the vision is that it becomes possible to take definite account of Jerusalem as it is in the mind of God. The whole breadth and length of God’s thoughts as to His assembly come into view. The man with the [p. 87] measuring line has the whole area before him, and with special reference to the city having four sides, which suggests universality. If God returns to Jerusalem with mercies it is to a Jerusalem with measurements; that is, to a Jerusalem which answers to His own thoughts. No spiritual person could think that the Christian profession today answers to the mind of the Lord, or to the teaching of His apostles. Outwardly things are, indeed, in a ruined state, as they were in Zechariah’s time, but if God comes in in mercy it is to call attention to things as they are in His mind. The constructive work today proceeds on the line of the divine plan. If we have not the thought of things being according to divine measurement we shall be aimless, and there will be little really done that is constructive. We shall, more or less, contribute to the ruin.
The man with the measuring line directs our thoughts to what is before God, and suggests that He means to give effect to it in a practical way. The full accomplishment of the prophecy of this chapter will be the setting up of Jerusalem in the earth as the city of God’s choice. This was set before the remnant to cheer them in a day of small things. They were to have before them the wide expanse of what God would do for Jerusalem in a coming day of glory. This was to be a stimulus and strength for them in a day of much weakness. There had been what corresponds with this in our day. God has brought before His saints the whole breadth and length of what is in His mind as to the assembly, and He has done so in order that it might be worked out constructively; that is, in a concrete and practical way. God’s Jerusalem today has been brought about as the result of the death of Christ. It was prophesied by Caiaphas that “Jesus was going to die for the nation” and, it is added, “not for the nation only, but that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad”, John 11:51, 52. This gathering together into one of the children of God is the Jerusalem which God chooses and loves today. Then the Son of God as the Shepherd has said, “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold: these also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd”, John 10: 16. What a contrast is this to the many folds of Christendom! But that this is the divine thought no believer could question for a moment. Then as to the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God may call”,
[p. 88] Acts 2: 39. The reception of the same divine gift by all those called of God constitutes such a unity as was never known on earth before. Even as we read in 1 Corinthians 12: 13, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink into one Spirit”. All who are in Christ are “one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”, Romans 12: 5. Indeed, no thought of different parties or opinions could be introduced into that region of which Scripture speaks as “in Christ”, and “in Christ Jesus”. Nothing inconsistent with “the truth” can have any footing in the assembly of God, for that assembly is “the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Timothy 3: 15.
If we put these thoughts together, and of course many other Scriptures might be added, we shall get some idea of what answers now to the city Jerusalem as seen in Zechariah. In God’s way of mercy and blessing and by a revival of His precious truth in the ministry of the word, and in the intelligent affections of His saints, He has returned, by causing His people to return, to His original thoughts. The breadth and length of His grace and counsel in Christ have been measured for us so that we might apprehend them, and live in them, and walk together as in the practical power of them. We see in the scripture before us that Jerusalem was not only to be measured, but it was to be inhabited. “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein”, verse 4. God does not intend the truth of the assembly merely to be contemplated in the abstract; He would have it to be taken up and worked out practically, for it does not appear in any way as a testimony save as living persons walk in it together. God is bringing His people in these last days to inhabit Jerusalem. When we commit ourselves to walk together with our brethren in the truth of what is in God’s mind for all His saints we become pleasurable to Him, and we come in a special way under His protection. “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”, verse 5. If we commit ourselves wholly to what is of God He will assuredly protect us. The assembly of God, “which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, is not less precious to Him than Jerusalem. It is the true Jerusalem today, and God is the glory in the midst of it. There is no such glory as God in the midst of His saints. Would that we were more expectant of realising it whenever we [p. 89] come together! Of course, it can only be in holy conditions. But where Christ is treasured in every heart, and all are enjoying the liberty which is in Christ Jesus, and refusing any place to the flesh, there is nothing to interfere with the glory of God’s presence being known in the midst of His assembly. Those who hold in faith and love to God’s thoughts concerning Christ and the assembly will be protected by God as “a wall of fire round about”. There is much in the Christian profession that is not worth protecting, for it savours of man, and not of God. The question is raised with us all as to whether we are of value to God as bound up in our affections with what is precious in His sight. A few saints walking together in truth and love will find that God is unto them “a wall of fire round about”. This was perhaps never more needed than it is today.
Then there is a gracious call to the many who are not dwelling in Jerusalem, who do not really know the liberty which is in Christ Jesus. “Ho, ho! flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah ... . Ho! escape Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon”, verses 6 and 7. At that time the majority of the people of Judah were still in Babylon, just as the majority of God’s people today are still in bondage to a clerical system of things which deprives them of liberty to take up assembly privileges. But they are all called to flee from bondage, and to come to their true place of liberty according to the mercies which God is showing to His people today. Every true saint belongs to Jerusalem, and should be there as to his affections and his associations. What God has done for some of His people He is ready to do for all.
Then there is a remarkable word in verse 8: “For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: After the glory, hath he sent me unto the nations that made you a spoil: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye”. After bringing in the glory to Jerusalem, God will deal with every adverse power. We know that after the assembly is glorified God will judge the corrupt and idolatrous system of Babylon; Revelation 17 and 18. But in reviving the truth as to the assembly, and securing some correspondence with it, even though in a small remnant, God has already, in a spiritual sense, brought in the glory. His having done so makes it more necessary than ever that all that is Babylonish and corrupting should be judged, for we may be sure that Babylon will ever be hostile to Jerusalem, and therefore it will ever be a subject of judgment with God. He is intensely sensitive to anything that touches His Jerusalem, “for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye”. No figure could more strikingly convey how sensitive God is as to anything that touches those who love Him, and who enter collectively into His thoughts. For it must be obvious to us all that Jerusalem refers to what the saints have in common, and what they enjoy together; it refers to what is collective.
So Jehovah says, “Sing aloud and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah”, verse 10. God is securing a place where He can dwell among His people collectively. Do we really believe it? Shall it not be our supreme care to preserve conditions suitable to His dwelling in our midst? We can hardly think of God dwelling in the midst of His saints without there being blessing in the gospel. So He says, “And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be unto me for a people”, verse 11. There is the thought of others joining themselves to God known as dwelling in the midst of Zion. Things come short of God’s thought if there is no extension of the knowledge of Himself to others. I am sure this is an exercise to us all.
“And Jehovah shall inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem”, verse 12. God has chosen to have men for His portion. This is a wondrous thought, and should affect us profoundly. As we open our hearts to His grace and love made known to us in Christ, and as we take in what He has freely given to us, we become His portion, His inheritance. We may be quite sure that there is nothing so delightful to God as those purposes of love in regard to His elect which He has formed in Christ. He is working that they may be so known in human hearts that He gets the praise and worship that are due. It is as all that in which He is made known comes in its blessedness into the hearts of His saints that He gets the glory of it. It comes before Him, not only as known in His own heart, but as known in the hearts of those who compose His assembly. As they take up His thoughts with great delight they become His portion. It will be so eternally.
This section of the book finishes with a call to all flesh to “be silent before Jehovah; for he is risen up out of his holy habitation”, verse 13. If God rises up to give effect to His thoughts and purposes with regard to His assembly He will see the matter through in His own way. Our chief concern should be to be with Him as to what He is doing, and to be available for His work.
[p. 91] It is important to bear in mind that what we have been considering, and what follows in this book, were spoken to a people who had returned from captivity, but who were neglectful of His work. They were dwelling in their own houses while His house lay waste. But He helped them, and re-awakened their energies by bringing before them what He had in His own heart, and what was involved in His returning to Jerusalem with mercies. It was just what was worthy of God in such circumstances. And in our day, notwithstanding all the felt and acknowledged weakness, and the feeble interest which we have in His things, God would remind us that He has risen up to give practical effect to what is in His own mind, so that we may think, not of what we are doing, but of what He is doing, and that we may identify ourselves wholeheartedly with it. Every believer should ask himself, Is God doing anything today with reference to the assembly as it is in His mind? Has He returned to it with mercies? If so, we want to be with Him in what He is doing. However small it may appear to be, if God is doing it, it is really greater than anything else in Christendom. It will be suitable to link on morally with all that is going to be displayed in the heavenly city, just as Jehovah showed in the book we are reading that the revival which was then in progress linked on in His mind with all the future glory of Jerusalem and of His house. It was only by looking at it thus that the work could be taken up in a way that was worthy of God.