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Today: [Zecheriah 2] God’s Wall of Fire Around Us. In Zec. 2 the prophet sees an angel going to measure the city of Jerusalem. A second angel stops him and declares that the city of Jerusalem will be a city without walls, surrounded by the fire of God around her and the glory of God in the midst of her. This speaks of who God is in us as His people and the promise not only of divine protection, but also of a baptism of fire yet to be revealed whereby we experience in our bodies the immortality promised in Christ.
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[Zec 2:1-13 KJV] 1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what [is] the breadth thereof, and what [is] the length thereof. 3 And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, 4 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited [as] towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: 5 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. 6 Ho, ho, [come forth], and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD. 7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest [with] the daughter of Babylon. 8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. 9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me. 10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. 11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. 12 And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. 13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
There are three prophecies in chapter 1 of Zecheriah beginning with a reminder to the returnees to Jerusalem not to repeat the sins of their fathers who were led into Babylonians captivity. The second prophecy in the chapter is that of a rider on a red horse standing in a grove of myrtle trees speaking of the blessings ahead for the people of God if they will commit themselves wholeheartedly to the work of rebuilding the temple. The third and final prophecy is that of four spiritual carpenters sent by God to destroy the four horns that had scattered the nation of Judah. These four horns were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Persia. They not only represent ancient empires, they also represent spiritual principles that the book of Revelation declares are at work presently in the earth, working against the people of God and the agenda of the kingdom.
In chapter 2 Zecheriah opens his eyes and sees a man with a measuring line in the fourth vision of the book bearing his name. He asks the man where he is going and the man (angel) answers that he is going to measure the city of Jerusalem. As Zecheriah looks on a second angel intervenes and tells the first angel not to measure the city for it will be inhabited without walls of protection round about it, because (v. 5) God Himself will be a wall of fire round about it and will be the glory in the midst of it. At this point what is being said applies directly to the New Testament understanding that Jesus established when He called Himself the temple of God:
[Jhn 2:19-21 KJV] 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
We know that the glory of God rested upon Jesus, and in Matt. 17:2 we see the fulfillment of Zech. 2:5 when He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, literally clothed (covered) in holy fire just as Zecheriah prophesied. This has implications for the believer as well as Paul preached in 1 Cor. 13:16 that we are the temple, and the fact that in eternity no physical temple is seen according to Rev. 21:22 because God Himself and the resurrected Christ are the temple of the eternities. Will we be transfigured as Christ? Matt. 3:11 and Luke 3:16 affirm that believers would not only be baptized in water, and in the Holy Ghost but would one day be baptized in fire. Theologians relegate this to the persecution of the church in the end times, but the pattern does not hold up under scrutiny. If water baptism is connected with the New Birth, and Holy Spirit baptism is likewise a personal spiritual experience, likewise the baptism of fire will also be a personal spiritual experience appropriated by faith just as salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are in like fashion.
In verse 7 the prophet calls the people of God out of the empire of Babylon. This call is echoed in the book of Revelation:
[Rev 18:4 KJV] 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
The fulfillment of this verse is not about coming out of a natural Babylon, but a spiritual Babylon that the saints would find themselves in the last days. What is Babylon? In Gen. 6 it was a concerted effort by many peoples to build a tower by which they would study the stars in hopes they would use that knowledge to ascend into the heavens themselves, on their own initiative and by their own wisdom and strength. Think of this. It is about an effort to ascend to immortality by their own works. This is a very common theme in Christian belief systems. Whatever Babylon is in the present day it is something God’s people are found in, because Rev. 18 tells them to come out. How will we know we have come out? When we are delivered of a performance based mentality regarding our relationship to God and when we have come to the place that we understand it is not what we know or what we do that places us in right relationship to God, but rather our proximity and relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and dependency not on ourselves or our doctrine but upon the work of the Cross to secure us in life now and in eternity.
In v. 10 the proclamation is that God will live in the midst of us as the city of God and the people of God. This is the message that Paul taught in Col. 1:27 regarding Christ in you as the Hope of Glory. This was the central truth of all of Paul’s teachings. God is a wall of fire around you and a glory in the midst of you in the person of the indwelling Christ. We not only want to believe in this we want to experience it as a spiritual reality that transforms our lives and establishes our testimony.
What of natural Israel, Judah and Jerusalem? Doesn’t all this actually apply only to the Jews and not to the New Testament church? As long as you see God doing something in the church which is the substance, natural Israel which is the shadow will reflect that reality. The substance doesn’t follow the shadow, the shadow follows the substance. The church Paul taught is the substance, natural Israel is the shadow. Many object that comparing these truths with things God is doing in Christianity amounts to replacement theology. How can the substance replace the shadow? It cannot. However neither can anything be true of the shadow that does not reflect the character of the substance. No scripture of prophecy therefore can be an either / or application to either the church or natural Israel. It can only be both with the church reflecting the substance of God’s glory and natural Israel casting a prophetic shadow of spiritual realities available to you and I.
