Zechariah’s Third Vision: City Without Walls) Series

We are becoming familiar with the book of Zechariah. For most Christians, it is a closed book. But God is opening this word to us because it is so relevant to world events today and to our personal journey in God.

Today we enter Zechariah’s third vision recorded in chapter 2. The vision, as a whole, is a word of encouragement to all God’s people throughout the ages. It is first a word to the Jews in Zechariah’s day. However, its total fulfillment for the nation of Israel occurs in the last days. And the promises in this vision apply to us as children of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:7). We will consider all three applications in our study today.

Within this vision are four messages:

1) Verses 3-5 contains a message addressed to the man with a measuring line in his hand.

2) Verses 6-9 relays a message directed toward the Jews remaining in Babylon.

3) Verses 10-12 is a message promising blessing to all God’s people.

4) Verse 13 is a message to all of humanity.

These messages are all interrelated and are understood together. But it is easier to analyze them individually as they appear in the vision. Once we understand the details better we can then comprehend the flow of whole vision.

I. The message addressed to the MAN WITH A MEASURING LINE in his hand is in VERSES 3-5:

“Then I raised my eyes and looked.” The NIV says, Then I looked up. . . .” That phrase is used to introduce the new vision. Are you looking up? That’s where the encouragement is. We look around at the world, and we see a lot of discouraging trends. But when we look up—when we turn our eyes toward the Lord, we are encouraged by what we see. There is encouragement in an upward look].

“Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 So I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And he said to me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.’ 3 And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, 4 who said to him, ‘Run, speak to this young man, saying: 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. 5 For I,' says the Lord, 'will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’”i

The SCENE in verses 1-2 begins with “a man with a measuring line in his hand.”

It is possible that this man is angelic. But Zechariah is probably seeing a man like himself. In fact, this man is representative of Zechariah’s thinking and the way all those in Jerusalem were thinking at the time.ii The question in their minds was this: What is going to happen to Jerusalem? And in that context, what is going to happen to us? How large will Jerusalem be when God fulfills the promises given in Haggai 2?iii

The measuring line in this context was an instrument used in Zechariah’s day for surveying the land. The man is proceeding to measure the future Jerusalem so the ancient property lines can be reestablished for the full reoccupation of Jerusalem.iv This vision explains more fully the revelation given in the first vision, Zechariah 1:16: “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘And a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.’”v

Zechariah 2:3 introduces two angels in the scene. “The angel who talked with me” is the interpreting angel we encountered in the first vision.vi As he was leaving, another angel met him on the way with a directive: “Run, tell that young man. . .” There is an intensity, an urgency, perhaps excitement, in the activity: “Run, don’t walk!

Who is this second angel? He has more authority than the interpreting angel for we see him commanding the interpreting angel to run with the message. Additionally, he is the one who speaks the oracle of God. You may recall that the angel with the answers in the first vision was the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ. That terminology is not used in this vision the way it was in Zechariah 1:11, but the narrative here points to the preincarnate Christ as the second angel in this vision.vii

Who is the “young man” in Zechariah 2:4 who is to receive the message? Eugene Merrill thinks the “young man” is Zechariah.viii However, the urgency in the command to “run and tell” is to stop the surveyor from proceeding with an unnecessary task. The “young man” in verse 4 is the “man with the measuring line.”ix