Chapter 2
Third Vision: of a man with a measuring line. Zechariah asks where he's going and he says to measure the length and width of Jerusalem. (There is a lot of measuring in the Bible....2020 - Ezekiel's temple was measured, the Temple in Revelation is measured, this measuring is of the city of Jerusalem. The measuring in all three cases is of a yet future place.). The angel Zech had been talking to goes forward, and is met by another angel who says to tell that "young man", Zechariah, that Jerusalem will be so full it will be as if it has no walls. But God will be to her a wall of fire all around and the glory in her midst. (I am practically paraphrasing every verse. Not my purpose...)
2024 - There was that verse about the city and the camp that I thought was about Jerusalem and Megiddo. Maybe just about the city and the unwalled villages around it? That would move that story to end of the Millennial.
2024 - There is also this reference to fleeing from the north, from the daughter of Babylon. The language in Rev is similar. Also Isaiah.
2026 - You have Jerusalem measured here, as it is measured out in Ezekiel, as it is measured by john in Revelation. And God comes to dwell in it after it meets the specifications. God protects it, though it has no walls here in Zechariah. We might also see it as so overflowing that people are camped or have built outside the walls, and God's protection extends to his own boundary, not dependent or confined to the walls built by men. We see fulfilment of this in Zechariah's day. God protected Jerusalem, underpopulated, inadequately defended, and unwalled, during the rebuilding. And after it was rebuilt it did become a thriving city - not like it was but a well known and thriving city - and many nations came there. So all this happened.
2026 - I think we have to see this as also happening again, more perfectly, more definitely and on a much greater scale, in the Millennial. We have those Revelation verses where the whole world seeks out Jerusalem to settle disputes, and Jerusalem enforces world peach and so on. Not near/far so much as the prophecy convincingly fulfilled now/the prophecy fulfilled in absolute and maximum terms in the future. So far so good.
God's people are urged to flee from the "north", because God will visit his wrath on those who scattered Jerusalem. A near prophecy. Ultimately, the Jews will return home, and God will dwell with them again, and many other nations will join themselves to Israel.
Question is, who is it that says this:
11 And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. [Zec 2:11 ESV]
This almost has to be a reference to Christ as King in the Millennial reign. But where exactly did he begin to speak? Is he the second angel who came forward? Is Jesus here referred to as an angel? Could be. That's how he is referred to when he talks with Abraham as he is on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah.
These phrases are used:
vs 5, I will be a wall of fire
vs 5, I will be the glory in her midst, these could be Jesus speaking.
vs 6, attributed to "declares the Lord". This is God, not Jesus. 2020-This is often the case, and speaks of the Trinitarian nature of God.
vs 6, I have spread you abroad. Still God speaking.
vs 7, not sure.
vs 8, Whomever is speaking is quoting what God said "after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you". So the speaker in this verse is not God. Could this second angel be the avenger toward the overzealous invaders of Israel?
vs 9, God's words to the one speaking. But it ends with "Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me".
I give up...though I think I'm on the right track. I think this is mixing near and far which is always confusing. Near in that Babylon was going to fall and the Jews would be safer at home. Safer in that God is once again with them, keeping their enemies away despite the city's poor condition. Future in that Jesus will come to avenge the Gentile nations who persecute "the apple of his eye" over the centuries, and Jesus himself, after the great battle, will dwell in the restored Jerusalem. Let's leave it at that, and not get hung up on each and every word. The chapter ends this way:
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. [Zec 2:13 ESV]
Which trumpet is it that results in silence in heaven for half an hour, before judgement begins in earnest? Is this a reference to that?
2020-This year, this seems to me to be Jesus talking of his coming triumph in the Millennial. It is he who will protect Jerusalem in that time, he who is on the throne, and he that is high priest. The Jews were spread abroad then and still are, but they will be brought home. Many nations will look to Israel in the Millennial to resolve disputes, to learn wisdom, and so on. Look at vs 12:
12 And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem." [Zec 2:12 ESV] Jerusalem chosen "again". It was chosen, it was cast off, but it will again be chosen. This time perhaps as the capital not of Israel, but of Abraham's seed?
2026 - vs 6 - We see a lot of references to enemies in the north in various places in the Bible. It would be a good study right about here to look at those. As a quick and very partial example, look at these:
2 And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. [Eze 39:2 ESV]
6 After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times. [Dan 11:6 ESV]
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert. [Zep 2:13 ESV]
2026 - All of these:
6 Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the LORD. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the LORD. [Zec 2:6 ESV]
6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country." ... 8 Then he cried to me, "Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country." [Zec 6:6, 8 ESV]