Israel will be Glorified

Zechariah 2:1-13

Future Glory!

Zechariah 2:1-13, 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.’ ” 6 “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,” says the Lord. 7 “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.” 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. 9 For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me.

10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”

The vision is to tell them this wonderful news about Jerusalem. They were in a situation of terrible degradation, humiliation and sadness.

• The wall of their city is smashed.
• Their once glorious place is in rubble.
• All that they had known of the golden age of Solomon was gone.
• They are helpless.
• They are impotent.
• They are an insignificant minority, wondering how they will defend themselves.
• They have been threatened by their enemies and cease to rebuild their city.
• They are cowering in fear that it’s all over.

Zechariah comes with this third vision and gives them the message that God yet has a marvelous future for Jerusalem.

Go ahead and build it and commit yourself to building it because you are going to win in the end. So, you might as well give it everything you have got right now. Your work isn’t going to perish. You are a part of an eternal plan.

• The first vision of the rider on the red horse predicted hope for downtrodden Israel.
• The second vision presented, of the horns and the smiths, presented the fact that the nations who had triumphed over Israel would be crushed.
• The third vision says, “Your hope will be realized when the nations are crushed, and Jerusalem is glorified.” 1. The design proposed.

Six parts to this vision. V 1, Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. After each vision on this one night and we have got eight of them Zechariah would drop his head in meditation and prayer.

Then he would lift his eyes again, perhaps at the prodding of interpreter angel who helps him to understand each vision, and he would see another one. As he looks up, in his vision, he can see what is unseeable.

He can see what is imperceptible. He is given eyes of a supernatural character to see imagery God wants him to see. He sees a man and in his hand a measuring line. A tape measure, a builder’s line.

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.” ’

When the city is going to be rebuilt, somebody is going to measure the dimensions of the new city. Here in this vision, he sees a person with a tape measure, and he was a surveyor laying out the city.

Who is this man?

Who was the rider on the red horse? The Angel of the Lord or Christ. Who is the final one of the hammerers that crushed the final kingdom? Very possible that the man with the tape measure is Christ. I kind of lean that way on the basis of Ezekiel 40.

Ezekiel 40:2-3, In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the

south was something like the structure of a city. 3 He took me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. He had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gateway.

A similar scene is Ezekiel’s experience. He sees this Man that is none other than Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. In Zechariah’s vision, it could be the same, although we wouldn’t want to say absolutely. It is definitely true that the one who will rebuild the city in the kingdom will definitely be Christ.

Zechariah doesn’t waste any time in asking what the surveyor is doing. V 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.” He talked to the surveyor while he was going to measure the city.

What city is he measuring? Is he measuring the actual city of that time? There was no city.

All of it was rubble. There was no wall, and it wasn’t until about 80 years later, in 444 B.C. that Nehemiah got the walls built. This happened somewhere around 519 or 520 B.C. So, it wouldn’t be much to measure. Because all the other visions have a prophetic element, it seems best to see it in the future.

He is laying out the dimensions of the future Jerusalem, the ultimate Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of the kingdom. 2. The destined plan. V 3, And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, The interpreter angel who appears all the time in Zechariah going out.

No doubt Zechariah can’t figure out what was going on, and so the interpreter angel moves into the scene. As interpreter angel goes about to find the answer. and another angel was coming out to meet him,

We have the man in the scene and Zechariah, and in the middle, we have these two angels who all of a sudden begin to converse. V 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.

The other angel said to interpreter angel. Interpreter angel, you go back and tell Zechariah this message.

What is the message? ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. You go tell him that the reason he can’t figure it out is because it will be so vast that it will be as if there is a city without walls.

If you were to visit Jerusalem, you would realize that from one wall of Jerusalem to the other wall is about a ten-minute walk right across the middle. Apparently, he is bewildered because of the vastness of it, and so the angel sent from God to give to interpreter angel a message.

Tell him it is going to be so huge it will be like a town without a wall so it will be so large.

Imagine what a comfort this was when Zechariah preached this to a bunch of people huddled in the Hinnom Valley, wondering if they would ever even get a wall. The prophet says, “I have a message from God, and the message is that someday Jerusalem will be so big it will be like a city without a wall. It will be inhabited. For the multitude of men and cattle in it.”

What they were beginning to do, Haggai had got them started building a temple. Zechariah was encouraging him, “Build that temple.” What good does it do to build a temple if you don’t have any walls to protect it? We got to build the walls first.

We should be building the wall, not the temple. We won’t have any temple.

Haggai 1:2, “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.”

The popular opinion was, “This is ridiculous to build a temple without a wall.”

Zechariah says, “You keep on building the temple. It is more important that you get God in perspective and make sure he is defending you that you have a wall and no temple.” Take care of spiritual priorities. A tremendous encouragement for them to hear the message from the angel is that Jerusalem will have so many people. It will overflow its boundaries. It will be like a city without a wall.

Jerusalem will rise to its final glory. It will not be ultimately destroyed. Don’t worry about building your temple. God will be your wall. V 5, For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’

Someday Jerusalem will be a city inhabited like an open, rural country without walls. The millennial Jerusalem the King Jesus returns, will be so big and so populated with people and animals that it will go way past its walls. It will spread all over the place, and God will be its wall.

Satan can read the Bible. Now, the Antichrist, when he gets here, he will know that.

Do you know what he does?

The first thing he does in the tribulation, according to Revelation 6, apparently is make a treaty with Israel of peace. Ezekiel 38 says that during the tribulation, Israel is dwelling in unwalled villages. They will think that this Antichrist must be our Deliverer. He must be our Prince of Peace.

In Revelation 6 riding a white horse, conquering.

• No doubt they think he is the Deliverer.
• They believe in his false peace.
• They let down their security.
• They haven’t committed themselves to God yet.
• There hasn’t been any purging or any salvation or any cleansing.
• They are having a great time in their unwalled villages.

While they are at this point the army of the north comes down and begins to wipe them out. (Ezekiel 38) It is that false security. That is not the fulfillment of this prophecy at all. Some may say that this prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Nehemiah’s building the wall. That can’t be true either.

This could never be fulfilled in the time of Nehemiah, because the population was so far from filling the city in the time of Nehemiah that they had to cast lots. So, it couldn’t have been fulfilled, Impossible.

Nehemiah 11:1-2, Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities. 2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.

They had to compel people to live there. It never did overflow its bounds then. But someday it will. This is clearly millennial. The prophet was either speaking about something that was happening to them, or soon after, or something that was yet to be fulfilled ultimately in the glory of the coming of Messiah, not Jerusalem in 1948 or something.

We are perhaps seeing the beginnings of some things that will be fulfilled in the tribulation and in the kingdom. This must be a millennial fulfillment. Jerusalem in the millennial will overflow.

Isaiah 49:19-20, “For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, ‘The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.’ In the millennium there is not enough space that people will be willing to get out.

The city will begin to spill over in the kingdom. In the kingdom people will increase in having children. It will get too crowded there.

Isaiah 44:26, Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places;

The promise in the kingdom, the city will be inhabited. The city will be built.

Jeremiah 30:18-19, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places; The city shall be built upon its own mound, And the palace shall remain according to its own plan. 19 Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving And the voice of those who make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. In other words, great population growth.

Jeremiah 31:24, And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flock. What’s interesting about it is that Zechariah said the multitude of people and cattle. Isaiah says it will be filled with people. Jeremiah says that it will be filled with people and animals. Normally, the animals would graze outside. But the city will spread all over the place. The animals and the people will all live together. Now we live in 2024 we don’t have a problem with that. But those people wouldn’t have understood that in that day, because they knew nothing but walled cities.

Jeremiah 31:38-39, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. Enlarging the cities to all these points.

Jeremiah 33:10-13, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place—of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast”—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the

bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever”— and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord. 12 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who counts them,’ says the Lord.

Hosea 1:10, “Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ Tremendous revival resulting in a tremendous growth among the populace of Israel.

Zechariah 8:4-5, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Old men and old women shall again sit In the streets of Jerusalem, Each one with his staff in his hand Because of great age. 5 The streets of the city Shall be full of boys and girls Playing in its streets.’

It will be a place of safety. Safe for kids, safe for old people.

3. The divine Protector. V 5, For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ A wall of fire and glory in the midst. Reminds of Exodus chapter 13.

Exodus 13:21-22, And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

The glory of God dwelling among the people of Israel. During the day the cloud appeared, and the glory of God dwelt and entered the Holy of the Holies in the tabernacle and dwelt in the midst of the land of Israel. When they were to move, it went up into the sky, and at night it was a pillar of fire. This is the same God, the same Shekinah, the same glorious God who says, “I will be your wall. I will be in you, dwelling in My presence. Don’t worry about any protection. I will be your wall.”

Isn’t that great? It is going to be a wonderful world for Israel, for all those who inhabit that wonderful city. God has been a flaming wall.

2 Kings 6:15-17, And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God had his angelic wall of fire protecting His prophet and his servant. God can make a wall of protection around and in, and that’s exactly what He will do in the future for Israel.

Isaiah 60:18-19, Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders; But you shall call your walls Salvation, And your gates Praise. 19 “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory. 20 Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the Lord will be your everlasting light, And the days of your

mourning shall be ended. 21 Also your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified. God will be there with His glory. The Lord is there. What more defense would you need?

As the shepherd in the field would light a fire to keep the predatory wolf from coming to get his sheep, so the Lord will be the fire to protect His nation, Israel.

• The Shekinah will return.
• Ichabod will be reversed.

The glory that departed will come back in the great final kingdom when the Messiah comes.

Ezekiel 43:1-7, Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the

God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. 3 It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw—like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the

east. 5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 6 Then I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. 7 And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.

God returns to Israel. A wonderful truth. So, we see the glorious plan, and then we see the wonderful delivering, protecting God. 4. The delivered people. V 6, “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,”

says the Lord. He wants to get their attention. He says, “Flee from the land of the north.”

What was the land of the north? Babylon. This is directed at the captives who are still in Babylon.

God is saying that there is a great day coming for Jerusalem. You better get out of the world system. You better get away from Babylon before you are totally engulfed in the system itself. Get back to the land. From Jerusalem, everything is north because it’s the only way out of the city.

• All the conquerors had come from the north.
• Nebuchadnezzar came from the north.
• Even in 70 A.D., Titus Vespasian came from the north.
• Everybody who ever entered the city as an enemy came from the north because is the only access.

The north was the enemy Babylon. The future of Jerusalem is secure. Come back now. V 7, “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.” Get out of there. Return.

2 Kings 17:6, In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

The Jews in the exile were scattered over an area from the Gozan River, which was 200 miles west of Nineveh, clear to Medea, which was 300 miles east.

• Some of them were in Moab.
• Some of them were in Amman.
• Some of them were in Egypt.
• Some of them were in Edom.

They were all over the place. God is saying, “All of you come back. There is a glorious future here. Come back and re-identify with the city of God. Come back from those nations that will lead you into idolatry.” Even in the tribulation when God’s going to give the same message to say to people, “Come out from Babylon.”

Revelation 17 &18, we will find that the final world system is called Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots. As the world consummates its final amalgamation, it’s final world system, God’s going to call Israel out of Babylon in the future.

“Don’t be a part of the world system” God is saying to these people, “this city has an eternal future.” Someday He is going to call His people from out of Babylon yet

to come in the time of the tribulation. Jerusalem will be restored. Come and identify with the city of God. 5. Destroyed powers. Of course, the reason to flee Babylon, both now and in the future is the destroyed powers. Because God’s going to destroy them.

V 8,, For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.

Who sends the Lord of Hosts? V 9, For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me.

Who sends the Lord of Hosts? The Lord of Hosts sends the Lord of Hosts.  If you reject the New Testament, you have a problem with that.  If you accept the New Testament, you don’t have a problem with that. The Lord of Hosts the Father sends the Lord of Hosts the Son.

He is the one who comes to deliver His people. He is the one who comes to conquer the nations.

He is after glory. He is after glory. Everything is done for glory for God. The nations are judged that God may be glorified. He says, the second person of the Trinity, the Saviour, the Messiah, is sent by the first person of the Trinity, the Father, in order that He may judge the nations to bring glory to God because God too long has been looked down on because His people have been downtrodden.

God says that in the end, when I exalt My people, then the world will know that I am God. We know that the humiliation of Israel by the nations must be avenged by the one who is dishonored in their dejected condition. It is bad image or picture for God now to claim be the God of Israel and has been through history. But the day is coming when God will seek the glory.

God is going to seek it by the sending of His Son, the Messiah. I will shake My hand on them, and they will be a spoil to their servants. It is going to reverse everything. The losers are going to be the winners.

The reason I Am going to judge the nations is because of what they have done with My people. For he that touches you touches the apples of His eye. “The apple of His eye.” According to the Hebrew words, the apple of your eye is the pupil or the eyeball.

Because you stuck your finger in My eye. The single most protected part of your body that is exposed is your eye. It is the tenderest. It is the most sensitive. God protects it with bones, protects it with an eyelid, eyebrows, eyelashes, and tear ducts. He protects it. Nothing is more irritating than getting somebody’s finger in your eye.

Very irritating. God is not talking about what we think He is talking about. God is saying that I will judge the nations because they have put their finger in My eye. They have poked Me at My tenderest point. God loves His people.

God identifies with His people. When you poke Israel, you stick your finger in God’s eye. Hurting Israel is something you don’t want to do.

In Matthew 25, where Christ comes and judges the nations, He judges them on the way they treated Israel. Matthew 25. If you have done it unto the least of these My brethren, you have done it to Me.” The design proposed: a new city with great dimensions.

The destined plan: it is going to overflow. The divine Protector: God will be the one wall, and He will be in the middle of it. The delivered people: Israel will be delivered from all their enemies to rejoice in joy. The destroyed powers: God will come in judgment against the nations that have rejected Him and His people.

6. The delightful prospect. V 10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. What else for those Jews huddled in the Valley of Hinnom, hoping something will work for them for a change.

Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be My people.

V 11-13, Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”

Four things to delight in.

• a) God’s presence.

V 10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. Do you want to know one characteristic of that day in Jerusalem? God will be there in personal, actual, physical, visible form in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Great promise. God will be there. Rejoice over God’s presence.

• b) Rejoice over God’s people.

V 11, Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.

Not just Israel and many nations. There is going to be worldwide salvation. Revelation chapter 7. So many Gentiles saved you can’t even number them from every people, tongue, and nation. Worldwide salvation. Israel will be the channel of salvation to the world that God chose them to be in the first place. So, they delight in God’s presence, God’s people.

• c) God’s portion.

V 12, And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. The only place in the Bible where it’s called the holy land. That’s the only time that phrase is ever used.

It has never been the holy land, it isn’t the holy land, but it will be. It will be. That’s the millennial title for Israel. Again He will choose Jerusalem.

• d) God’s power.

V 13, Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!” All you critics, you better be quiet. God is starting to stir. He has raised up.

Psalm 121:4, Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. God’s judgment begins to awaken.

The silence of God is broken in the sixth chapter of Revelation when He begins to crack the seals, take over the earth.

Conclusion

What was most exciting about Jerusalem was not so much what had been done, but what would be done, what was coming for that city. Most of them don’t know that, but God has a marvelous, exciting, and unbelievable plan for the city of Jerusalem.

Psalm 132:13, For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has

desired it for His dwelling place

Often Jerusalem is called Zion because Zion is a prominent mountain on the south edge of the city.

God has chosen that city. His special city, where He did dwell, and where He yet will dwell. The exiles in Babylon, when they had been carried from their beloved city, wrote some songs about it, and they, in looking back at what they had, must have sung with melancholy.

Psalm 137:1-9, By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion. 2 We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it. 3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill! 6 If I do not remember you, Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth— If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy. 7 Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation!” 8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us! 9 Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!

Psalm 102:13-14, You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For the time to favor her, Yes, the set time, has come. 14 For Your servants take pleasure in her stones, And show favor to her dust.

The Jews, throughout history have loved the city. In fact, many Jewish people in America who die have placed in their casket a little receptacle filled with Jerusalem dirt because of the treasure that city is to them. 14 miles west of the Dead Sea, 33 miles east of the Mediterranean, located on a rocky plateau about 2,500 feet above sea level and 3,800 feet above the Dead Sea sits the city of Jerusalem.

It is a naturally fortified city because it is on a plateau. It can be entered only from the north. It had an incredible water supply bubbling up from the Gihon Spring. The mean temperature of the city throughout the year is 17 degrees. It is perfectly situated away from any major roads or any major river or any major sea so that it was never really in the way of all the armies and troops that traveled around.

God chose this wonderful place to be His holy habitation. The city of Jerusalem dominates the Old Testament, and it dominates the New Testament.

Zechariah 9:10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

The marvelous message to Israel. God isn’t finished with them. The glory of Israel is yet to come. There will be a day when Jerusalem is glorious beyond anything we have ever dreamed of. The message of hope would be thrilling to every Jew and to every Christian who holds in his heart a special place for that city because it’s the city where our dear Lord was crucified and rose again.

This is precisely the message that Zechariah delivers to his saddened and humiliated people.