June 30, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’” (Zechariah 2.3-5)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

The messenger and the message: God is listening. I would hope that in these verses we might hear a “don’t think too small” message. With the hope of restoration, the “measuring man” appears to “stretch out a line over Jerusalem.” (1.16) In 2.1, that very man appears with the surveyor’s line to stretch it out over the land on which Jerusalem has been built. This particular time for rebuilding and replanting over and against tearing down and uprooting has happened numerous times. Archaeologists have dug through the many “hills,” let’s call them foundations for a lack of a better conceptual descriptor, of Jerusalem. They date back to at least the time of Melchizedek and I wonder if there is not something which precedes even that? Regardless of the past, we are told in Revelation 17 concerning a city of “seven hills,” or seven mountains. Many have given that description to Babylon within the context of the Revelation. It is based on the fact that Babylon is the name of the city spoken against in the Revelation to John. However, it doesn’t necessarily refer to the Mesopotamian city which we know of today. It does, however, speak to the mindset of the nature, character of spirit of such a city which has set itself against God and becomes the hub of contention inviting the whole world into rebellion. Just for our information, there are other “cities” built on seven hills, tels, mounds, mountains or foundations (your choice of interpretation.) For example, there is Rome, Paris, London, Washington D.C. and Beijing. Undoubtedly there are others. It doesn’t matter near as much which city has seven hills or foundations representing a building and rebuilding but what is the nature, character and spirit of its inhabitants and its leadership toward God. And notice it is only capital cities that I have mentioned save one which I have not. Let me name it now: Jerusalem. How many times will this city be built and rebuilt? How many times has it been torn down, burned and leveled by the enemy because of the faithlessness of its people and its leadership? How many times will it survive an external and internal exile in its ebb and flow to receive God’s forgiveness and blessing to “new life”? I dare say, it will only be one more time? The rebuilding in the days of Zechariah was not the last! But, could it have been?

What happens in chapter 2.4 is significant to this question? We should find it interesting that there are two departures in 2.3: that of the “measuring man” and that of the first “messenger.” With the departure of the messenger, we can assume is that of the other horsemen, too. Their purpose has been fulfilled and they are at liberty to return to their heavenly posts. However, before the first messenger leaves there is a second to bring in further instruction or clarification. Just for the sake of argument, let’s remember that I suggested the first messenger was the “spiritual Christ” who came from Heaven to speak to Zechariah. He is the “judge and redeemer” image and voice of God to the prophet and thus the prophet to the people. Zechariah, in this sense, is not only the prophet following his lineage, but a disciple of the first messenger. Do you get a feel for the foreshadowing of things to come? Consider when Jesus sent out His disciples two by two, whether there 12 or seventy matters not. The fact is that Jesus sent the disciples out to “preach the good news and to discern the state of the nation.” What was their report? We could speak of it from a performance standpoint, which is what they did. But without the need there would be no performance to report. Looking at it from the “need” perspective we hear of sicknesses, diseases, demons, possessions, despair and a lack of peace under the general guise of the leadership which said “all is at peace.” Whether it was Rome’s Pax Romana, entitlement with tribute, or the Temple’s “Tithe and Offering,” the purchasing of hope and healing or staving off condemnation, doesn’t matter. The truth is that while it might be said by some “there is peace,” it was obvious the opposite was predominantly true. The voice of the “lost of Israel” is what God heard most. The level of accountability was upon their shepherds who did more to scatter into the wilderness as scape goats than to “seek and save those who were lost.”

Now we see that as the first messenger and the messenger man depart, one to Heaven and one to the “hill on which Jerusalem” was built many times, a second enters the scene. After a brief consultation, a new direction is given. It is one of clarification of intention. Don’t we all need such a redirection in our intentions and understanding of the implementation of our purpose. The messenger man ordered by the first thought too small. It didn’t mean it was a bad purpose to measure length and width to determine rebuilding as it had been built before. The Temple and Jerusalem was like a diadem, a jeweled crown to reflect the glory of God into all the world. But, as we considered last week, the glory of God was more like a “bug zapper” which attracted the whole world into only to be made welcome with a “Jewish” qualifier. That is, in order to be a people of God you had to be strictly Jewish. In order to be strictly Jewish one had to be circumcised and “dieted,” clothed and inducted, and finally acclimated and transformed to be “Jewish.” The greatest problem with that line of thinking was “to which tribe would they be ascribed.” The drawing together was more the bringing back the “lost of Israel.” Those who were lost were still Jews by heritage and lineage but who had intermarried and been carried off, or “carried away,” but other nations and their beliefs and social systems. Gentiles were still not allowed only tolerated if they behaved like the Jews: eat the right food and pay your taxes. What was the correction of direction?

Verse 5 speaks to this without confusion: “God said, ‘ I myself will be a wall of fire around it and I will be the glory within.” Such a fiery presence can be nothing other than the full spiritual presence of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We see that manifestation on the Day of Pentecost when, as Jesus requested from the cross, the Spirit He surrendered into God’s safekeeping would be poured out on those who would believe. Indeed, this second sending out of the disciples, then called apostles after that day, was in “spirit and in truth.” They went out to the four corners of the world not to take inventory of the “state of the realm” but to declare what that state would be that makes for peace, authentic peace. Jerusalem, as the hub of activity, was not to attract all people to it to be coalesced but into one. Rather, it was the sending out of the glory of God being surrounded by His spirit and truth to “seek and save the lost.” From this point forward, Zechariah will be shown “how it will be” in that day and in that place…if only. Mighty ones of God, that “if only” is only a matter of time before it comes to pass. The fire of God, His Holy Spirit, will move across the face of the earth to judge and reconcile all peoples. The defining “line” will be a belief in Jesus as the Christ and the desire to follow Him all the days of our lives which are left. It is from here that we will move forward.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.