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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 2 A
Man With A Measuring Line (ch. 2:1 - 13) Verse 1 begins Zechariah’s third vision.
It states that he sees a man with a “measuring line”, much
like we saw in chapter 1 verse 16. In verse 2 Zechariah asks the man with the measuring
line where he is going. You
might want to note that this time Zechariah doesn’t ask the explaining
angel the question, but the man in the vision. The man explains that he is on his way to Jerusalem
to measure how long and how wide the city is In verses 3 and 4 the angel that had been explaining
the visions to Zechariah actually moves into the vision himself towards
the man with the measuring line. At
this point another angel comes and speaks to the angel who has been
explaining the visions. The
second angel tells the original angel to run to the man with the
measuring line and tell him that In verse 5 God Himself steps into the vision and
states that He will at some future point be a wall of fire around Jerusalem
and He will be the glory within the holy city.
We’ll now stop and analyze the vision so far.
Most scholars believe that the man with the measuring line is
Jesus, and the vision speaks of His return to earth, and more
specifically, His return to In Rev. 11:1 and 2 John was given a measuring rod to
measure the altar. In Rev.
21:15 and angel measures the New Jerusalem.
Many people suggest that such measuring sticks suggest a
completion of the construction of something, whether the temple or the
New Jerusalem. The At this point it’s interesting to note what Ezekiel
38:11 says. It uses similar
wording. It speaks of
nations invading In verse 6 God says to the Jews, “come,
come! Flee from the
land of the north for I have scattered you…”
The Jews have been scattered more than once in their history
The last time they were scattered was in 70 AD when In verse 7 God tells His people to escape the
“Daughter of Babylon”. This
is obviously not Babylon itself, but the daughter of Babylon, a
descendant of Babylon, possibly the Revised Roman Empire that Futurist
believe will be the last great world power.
So it’s not necessary to think that the Daughter of
Babylon is a revised Babylonian state, although it might be, thus we
have a difference between Futurist to what or who this daughter is. I need to quote from verse 8 because it’s a little
confusing. It says, “after
he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have
plundered you…” The
question needs to be asked, “who is the ‘he’, ‘me’, and
‘you’ in this phrase?” I
believe the word “he” is in reference to God.
The word “me” is in reference to “Jesus”.
Then “you”, is in reference to the Jews.
With this in mind I repeat this verse using the proper names as
stated above. It now reads,
“after God has honoured Jesus and has sent Jesus against the nations
that have plundered you the Jews…”
This interpretation fits into the scenario seen in Revelation. Also in verse 8 we see that Concerning the phrase “apple of God’s eye”;
This has nothing to do with an apple.
It’s an idiom that means the centre of an eye.
Therefore when speaking of Israel as being the “apple of His
eye”, that means the centre of God’s eye is on Israel, or, God is
very focused on the nation of Israel.
Verse 9 tells us how God will plunder the enemies of Israel. He says that He will raise
their slaves up and they will defeat them.
The book of Revelation
from a Futurist standpoint speaks of the Revised Roman Empire.
But it also speaks of a revolt among some of the nations under
the authority of this last day empire.
This might well be what is spoken of here. Verse 9 says that , “then you will know that the
Lord Almighty has sent me”. If
we continue to follow the above reasoning that the word “me” refers
to Jesus, we can read the verse in this fashion.
“Then you, Israel
will know that God has sent me, Jesus.”
This makes perfect se In verse 10 God tells Israel
to shout and be glad because
He is coming and will live among them.
What does this mean? If
we continue on the approach that we have been taking, that is, a literal
approach that God is speaking to Israel, then this means that at some
future point to when these words were spoken God Himself will come to
Israel and live among them. Now
some spiritualize this to mean that He will come by His Spirit and live
among His people, which took place at Pentecost.
To a degree there is some truth in this. Yet to take the Bible as literal as possible, I
believe God is saying exactly what He is saying.
There will be a day, that has not yet come, when God, and I
believe God in Jesus, will return to In verse 11 God says that at that time, or, in the
thousand years of Jesus’ rule, many nations will be joined with Him
and become His people. Spiritually
speaking, this too has happened, beginning at Pentecost, but in the
thousand years of peace, the book of Revelation speaks of Jesus ruling,
and His people ruling with Him. Who
will they rule. They will
rule over the rest of the nations that will be joined to God as seen in
this verse. Before I go on I’d like to mention something since
I mentioned Pentecost in the last paragraph.
Often times prophecy has a double or even triple fulfillment.
Some prophecies were fulfilled at the cross, or at Pentecost yet
have a secondary fulfillment at the end of the age with the appearing of
Jesus on earth. One reason
for this is that the Also in verse 11 we see that at that day, the Jews
will finally know and understand that Jesus is their Messiah, that God
has sent Him to them. In verse 12 we see that God will inherit His portion
of the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. God promised Abraham a
certain portion of land. That
promise will come to pass. That
portion of the middle east is set apart from the rest of the world as
God’s. Even though the whole world belongs to God, there will be a
portion of this earth that is specifically set aside in a special way
for Him. At that point in time This chapter ends in verse 13.
God says to “be still all of mankind because He has roused
Himself from His holy dwelling”. I
believe these words speak of a time when this age is over. The final
battle has taken place and Jesus is sitting as ruler of the earth in Jerusalem. At that point the call
will go out from the throne of God for all mankind to be silent in holy
respect, fear, and a divine sense of awesomeness.
How long this will last, I don’t know, but this will be the
most memorable moment of silence mankind has ever known.
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