Zechariah 2:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Zechariah 2:1

Comments

In Zechariah 1:16 the prophet is told that ‘a line [a surveyor’s line] shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem’, and now this third vision extends that earlier imagery. He sees a man sent to measure Jerusalem. We might think of this man as a surveyor, and part of a surveyor’s work is to measure the building site in preparation for a design and the development of a construction plan. But the measurement in mind here, as the following verses will show, has more to do with assessing the size of the city once the construction work is complete. The purpose of the vision is to tell us how extensive the city is. He is measuring Jerusalem ‘to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof’. He is measuring it as an inhabited city ‘without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein’. This vision is about how greatly God is going to bless the church of God, ‘Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all’, and it would tell us very little to measure the extent of the plot of land on which the city will be constructed if the work had not yet begun. What must be measured is the city of Jerusalem after God has done his great work of expansion. He alone knows how great the church will be at the end of time.In this case the line is stretched forth over Jerusalem, because it is not just a single house but the whole city that is to be constructed. So Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line, and he might once again be a representation of the pre-incarnate Son of God ruling all affairs. What is being constructed by Judah is the literal city of Jerusalem, but what is being constructed in the vision is the spiritual Jerusalem. The physical city is being used as a symbol for the heavenly Jerusalem. We know this because the language in this vision immediately departs from the literal and includes elements that go beyond any actual city on earth. The same verses make this clear: it will be a city without boundaries because of its immense size – ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein’ (Zechariah 2:4); lacking physical walls, it will have walls that are supernatural in nature – ‘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’ (Zechariah 2:5); and God himself will come and dwell in it (2:10).Zechariah asks where the man with the measuring line is going, and he is told that he is going to find the dimensions of Jerusalem, to see its breadth and length. This vision is given for the great encouragement of the spiritual remnant in Judah at the time, and for believers today. Christ will build his church and it will be of vast dimensions. Let the returnees in Judah not be troubled that what they are building is smaller than what was there before, and that the glory is fading. What is coming in the time of Christ is far more glorious than anything that came before; Zechariah is looking forward to the gospel age. We live in the period of world history when God is doing his greatest work. We no longer live in the time of types and symbols, but the blessings we receive are real spiritual blessings, which will have an eternal effect.

Application

Questions

Are we abusing Scripture to interpret the prophets in this way? It would be a shame for any interpreter to try to force the language into a literal mould when Scripture is deliberately using terms which defy physical interpretation. We must allow the prophet the use of this type of image, and not be children in the way we read it. The prophets certainly do speak of literal future events, both in their own lifetimes and beyond, and we should assume a literal interpretation by default. But they also speak of events that are spiritual in nature and which rely on a correspondence between the earthly and the heavenly. They use the language of the Old Testament to describe the realities of the New Testament. This is the way God teaches us; he alone can teach in this way. Only God is able to create concrete types and symbols which foreshadow future spiritual realities. Only he can so superintend history that the way events fell out for Israel and Judah, reflect parallel events in the kingdom of heaven. Only he could know the future, and only he could design a fitting symbol for what lies in the future. This is the genius of divine instruction. The two kingdoms are of such different natures, and yet there are obvious correspondences between them. With the prophets of the Old Testament it is usually not hard to see the point at which they move to the spiritual, but we must not stubbornly hold on to a physical interpretation beyond the point where this is feasible. We must allow God to teach us in this way and not feel we are treading on unsafe ground by understanding prophecy in this way. In the case of Zechariah most of his prophecy is using the symbolic language of prophecy.

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Zechariah 2:1 Commentary and Bible Study