For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Zech 2:1-5

1 Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

3 While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him 4 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. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’

A. Find Out

1. Who did Zechariah next see? v.1
2. What did he ask of him? v.2a
3. What did the man reply? v.2b
4. Who then came? v.3
5. What did he say Zechariah should be told? v.4
6. What did the Lord say He would be? v.5

B. Think:

1. What was the goal, do you think, of verses 1 & 2?
2. What was signified about Jerusalem’s future?
3. How would it be protected?

C. Comment:

The Lord’s intention to rebuild Jerusalem has already been declared in Chapter 1 where He had declared, “the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,”  (v.16) and therefore v.1 comes as no surprise where we are shown a surveyor going out, presumably to measure the remains of the city (v.2) that had been destroyed at least four decades earlier, again presumably in preparation the city to be rebuilt. He had also in 1:16a spoken  about rebuilding the Temple, the project which the present builders are engaged in.

It is also as if different angels are involved in bringing different ‘news bulletins’ and so as the present angel is about to depart (v.3a) another arrives with an extended piece of news (v.4) that must encourage the builders that their present project is just part of the greater project to rebuild the entire city but it is going to be so big and so prosperous with so many people that it will not be able to have limiting walls. (v.4)

But then, just in case that might make the people fearful about becoming vulnerable to their enemies, the Lord adds a further reassuring picture: He himself will be like a wall of fire surrounding the city (implying to ward off enemies), but more than that, He Himself will obviously dwell there in the city and His glory will be seen in it (v.5).

Now we must assume that this picture is a temporary holding measure until the stone walls are rebuilt for, of course, a number of years later Nehemiah was to be moved to come and bring about their rebuilding. 

D. Application:

1. Learn to see the ongoing flow and growth of God’s prophetic word.
2. Recognize that prophecy tends, first of all, to be a ‘now’ word.

Zech 2:6-13

6 “Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the Lord, “for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,” declares the Lord. 7 “Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!” 

8 For this is what the Lord Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye— 9 I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.

10 “Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. 11 “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. 12 The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

A. Find Out

1. What does He call them to do from where? v.6
2. What does He call them and tell them to do? v,7
3. Against who has the angel been sent? v.8
4. What will the Lord do? v.9
5. What does the Lord twice say He will do? v.10,11
6. What again does He say He will do? v.12
7. What does He tell the world to do and why? v.13

B. Think:

1. Bearing in mind the historical context, who must verses 6 & 7 be addressed to?
2. Putting aside unclear identities,  what is the main thrust of the warning of verses 8 & 9?
3. How would you summarise the thrust of verses 10 to 13?

C. Comment:

The second part of the chapter falls into three sections. The first calls for those still in Babylon to come and join them in Jerusalem (v.6,7), the second warns that God’s judgement is coming on Babylon (v.8,9) and hence the calls for any Israelites still there to get out, and the third part reiterates what the Lord said in v.5, that He will come and dwell with them (v.10,11). However the proclamation is of such magnitude that we may be left wondering if this refers to the End Times when many people from across the world will turn to the Lord, or it may possibly be a reference to the coming Messiah.

There is slight confusion in v.8 as to who is speaking to who, but the Message version resolves it with, “God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the One of Glory who sent me on my mission, commenting on the godless nations who stripped you and left you homeless…” i.e. it is God Himself who speaks to and through Zechariah who then passes on the warnings of judgment against Babylon and any other nations who joined them in plundering Israel when the Temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed. It is thus a call to Israelites from the north, still in Babylon, to get out quick and a reassurance to the builders in Jerusalem, that there will be no going backwards in history so they are now safe in Jerusalem.

D. Application:

1. Sometimes timing in prophecies may be difficult to understand.
2. Faith perseveres.