Zechariah 007 – The City of God’s Habitation

The City of God’s Habitation
By Dr. Andy Woods

I think brother Jim mentioned the conference I’m going to. I think I’m speaking on Friday sometime and I think there’s livestreaming. I think you can find it on a website called thehiddenday.com, something like that and I am supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be back on Sunday so, those of you that were hoping that I wasn’t going to be here, your hopes were too high, and I think I’m supposed to be on Frank Speech tonight, you guys ever watched Frank Speech? frankspeech.com? That’s the Mike Lindell channel. So, I think I’m supposed to be on there this evening around 8:30 if you are interested in that, but some of you by the end of the study will just be sick of me so you won’t want to watch any of that maybe, I don’t know.
Well, let’s open our bibles to the book of Zechariah chapter 2, and verse 5 (Zech 2:5). We’re in that second section of the book of Zechariah dealing with eight night visions and we had just finished studying last time verses 18 through 21 (Zech 1:18-21), the four horns and the four craftsmen, where there was a horn, an oppressor of God’s people, and then God would raise up a craftsman who would judge the horn for going too far on their discipline.

So, the first horn was Babylon, only to be overthrown by Persia. First horn Babylon, first craftsman Persia, then Persia became a horn and Persia would be overthrown by Greece, and then Greece would become a horn only to be overthrown by Rome, and we know that Rome in its revived sense will be overthrown by God’s messianic kingdom.
So, I forgot to.. in the haste last time getting through all of that.. I forgot to give you this quote by Feinberg, which I found very, very good.

Charles L. Feinberg -God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 42-43)
“Several features are noteworthy in this vision: (1) God takes account of everyone that lifts his hand against Israel; (2) He has complete knowledge of the dejected condition of His people and the extent of their injury; and (3) He has already provided the punishment for every foe of His chosen ones. As a definite matter of history three of the empires or kingdoms symbolized by the horns already know of the visitation of God upon them.”

He says: Several features are noteworthy in this vision: (1) God takes account of everyone that lifts his hand against Israel; (2) He has complete knowledge of the dejected condition of His people and the extent of their injury… so you might be here tonight feeling dejected and injured thinking God doesn’t know what’s going on in your life, well, apparently he does… and (3) He has already provided the punishment for every foe of His chosen ones. As a definite matter of history three of these empires… note those three empires would be Babylon, Persia and Greece… As a definite matter of history three of these empires or kingdoms symbolized by the horns already know of the visitation of God upon them. So, this idea of God judging Israel’s oppressors has already happened three times. So I enjoyed that quote very much because it shows us that God really is in control of human history, Amen? (4:13)
So, I wanted to give you that and then last time we moved into the third night vision. These are eight night visions that Zechariah receives on a single night, he had all of these visions, all eight of them. So, we’ve studied the first vision which is the rider and horses amongst the myrtle trees, we’ve studied the second one, the four horns and four craftsmen and now we are looking at the third one, which is the man with the measuring line.

So, each of these visions has a specific meaning and the one we are looking at here is God’s future blessing on restored Israel.
So the first vision, the rider amongst the myrtle trees dealt with God’s anger against the nations and eventual blessing on restored Israel. The second one, the four horns and the four craftsmen dealt with God’s judgement on the nations that afflict Israel, and now we’re looking at the surveyor with the measuring line and it deals with God’s future blessing on Israel.

3. The Man with the Measuring Line – (Zech 2:1-13)
I. Vision (Zech 2:1-2)
II. Jerusalem’s restoration (Zech 2:3-5)
III. Exiles to return (Zech 2:6-7)
IV. God and the nations (Zech 2:8-9)
V. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10-12)
VI. Concluding exhortation (Zech 2:13)

So, you remember, it started off here with a vision,

I. Vision – (Zech 2:1-2)
A. Vision (Zech 1:1)
B. Question (Zech 1:2a)
C. Answer (Zech 1:2b)

there’s the vision verse 1, a question: What is this? verse 2 and an answer verse 2, and it’s this man that basically goes out with.. in this vision… this measuring line to measure the nation of Israel and why is he measuring Israel and specifically the city of Jerusalem? Because God’s intention for the city of Jerusalem is so big, the only concern is going to be: is the city big enough to contain God’s blessings? So, what you get here is a tremendous description of restored Jerusalem leading right into the millennial kingdom and you could imagine what this meant to the beleaguered returnees who were struggling to rebuild their little temple and now they are getting a vision concerning the great purpose God has in store for the city and the temple and that would motivate them in the present to get busy with the work of God.
So, we have the vision verses 1 and 2 and then we get a description, verses 3 through 5 of Jerusalem’s restoration,

3. The Man with the Measuring Line – (Zech 2:1-13)
I. Vision (Zech 2:1-2)
II. Jerusalem’s restoration (Zech 2:3-5)
III. Exiles to return (Zech 2:6-7)
IV. God and the nations (Zech 2:8-9)
V. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10-12)
VI. Concluding exhortation (Zech 2:13)

and we see a conversation between two angels verse 3,

II. Jerusalem’s Restoration – (Zech 2:3-5)
A. Angelic conversation (Zech 2:3)
B. Jerusalem’s repopulation (Zech 2:4)
C. Jerusalem’s protection (Zech 2:5)

and this angelic conversation answers Zechariah’s question: Where is this man going with the measuring line? and verse 4 you get a description of how Jerusalem is going to become repopulated, and as you go down verse 5, what you discover is Jerusalem is not only going to be repopulated but she is going to be protected. Now verse 4, she’s going to become so populous that it’s going to be pointless to have a wall. So, the issue here is, uhm, if she doesn’t have a wall because of her prosperity and repopulation, then how is the city going to be protected? and God says: Don’t worry about that, I’m going to be a wall for the city of Jerusalem. So, look at what he says there in verse 5: ‘For I,’ declares the LORD, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be glory in her midst.’ So, I’m reminded of Psalm 127, verse 1 (Psa 127:1) which says: Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. So, you can have the greatest security system in the world and if God is not standing guard over your house or your church or your nation, you know, you are basically investing in a security system for no real reason. So, Jerusalem is going to become so prosperous and she’s going to become so populated that having a wall is going to limit her prosperity and God says: That’s not a problem for the city because I’m going to stand guard over the city of Jerusalem. I will be a wall to her and not just any wall but I’ll be a wall of fire… and you move on to verses 6 and 7 (Zech 2:6,7) where now we get a description of the exiles returning in this vision to the city of Jerusalem and take a look at verse 6 (Zech 2:6) if you could and as these exiles are returning he starts to talk about a worldwide return of the Jews to their land, verse 6, and he talks about how the return from Babylon is just kind of a down payment on that. (9:49)
The return from Babylon was a big deal, okay? After 70 years they came back, but that’s just small potatoes compared to what’s coming. So, notice verse 6, as he’s describing this future worldwide return and this future worldwide return is a pretty dominant theme in the book of Zechariah. In fact, when you think about it, it’s a pretty dominant theme in all the Old Testament prophets. Every single Old Testament prophet and the only exception I know of is Jonah. Other than Jonah, all 17 minus 1, 16 remaining prophets other than Jonah, every single one of them speaks of a worldwide return, Israel regathered from the four corners of the earth and brought back into their own land. Every single prophet mentions that a lot and yet, how many Christians in their churches hear any sermons on that subject? It’s almost like we talk about anything and everything other than what God is talking about, and God in the prophets is emphasizing this worldwide return. So, there it is in verse 6 (Zech 2:6), he says: “Ho there! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have dispersed you as the four winds of the heavens,” declares the LORD. So, this is not just simply a description of the return from Babylon because of the word “north”. See the word “north” there in verse 6? When God brought the nation, the southern kingdom, Judah back from Babylon, he did not bring them back from the north as this map indicates, he brought them back from the east.

So, the fact that he says north indicates a geographical movement beyond Zechariah’s day and then you notice verse 6 (Zech 2:6) it says “the four winds”, the four points of the compass, the four corners of the earth, you know, as a figure of speech, and so that is speaking of a worldwide return which has never been fulfilled in history concerning the Babylonian captivity, which was not a worldwide return. The return from Babylon after 70 years was just a return from one locality. (12:29)
So, we know that about 40 years after the time of Christ, Rome came as an act of discipline upon the nation of Israel and pushed the Jews into 2000 years of what is called “the diaspora”, which is a Greek term meaning “the dispersion” and they literary went into every nation, these Jews did, and most of the nations they went into, you know, abused them, mistreated them and that’s where the Jews started to finally get the idea that we need our own country, because everywhere we go we get persecuted. Probably the only exception would be here in the United States, and I think that is probably one of the reasons that God has blessed the United States as he has, because it’s been a refuge for the Jewish people. Most of the places they’ve gone, they’ve gone into, you know, terrible persecution. So, that’s why the Jews are very good, by the way, with money. They’re actually the butt of jokes, you know, they’re greedy, they’re really good with money, they’re good at deals, they’re good at finances, we use a lot of, you know, kind of antisemitic type of statements when we refer to Jewish miserliness, you know, someone is cheating you on a deal, we say: Don’t Jew me down, you know, those kind of remarks and the truth of the matter is: Yeah, the Jews are very good with money but there’s a reason for it. If you’re pushed into a worldwide dispersion and you can’t get a job and you run into signs at the store window which say: Jews need not to apply, okay? You’ll get very good with your existing money pretty quick. You get pretty savvy with investments and things of that nature. So, there’s a reason why the Jewish people are actually very skilled with money and it has to do with this diaspora.
So, Zechariah predicts they’d be pushed into the diaspora and then God would sovereignly recycle them back into their own homeland from all around the world, and you get that from the fact that they’re coming from the north and they are coming from the four winds of the heavens. So, there’s many other prophets that speak of this, you’ll see it mentioned in the book of Isaiah chapter 11, verses 11 and 12 (Isa 11:11-12) for it says: Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain… and look at all of the places they’ve gone into… From Assyria, from Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea And He will lift up a standard to the nations And will assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will regather the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth. Obviously “four corners of the earth” is a figure of speech. I know there are people out there, they keep writing on our YouTube channel that the earth is flat. The earth is not flat, the earth is a globe. It’s a ball and people that argue that, you know, I don’t have any time for them, to be frank with you. You know, they think that the Bible teaches this flat earth idea, and they try to argue it from passages like this which talk about the four corners of the earth, you know, that’s just, all that is, it’s language from man’s perspective. It’s like saying the sun rises and the sun sets. We all know that the sun is stationary and it’s the earth that revolves around the sun, so, we don’t wake up in the morning and say, instead of: Oh! What a lovely sunrise! We don’t say: Well, what a lovely earth rotation!, right? It’s just a figure of speech, it’s language used from man’s perspective and the Bible does that. So, all these people that want to fight over whether the earth is flat, you guys just go and do that on someone else’s YouTube channel. We here at Sugar Land Bible Church really don’t have any time for you because we’ve got more important things to do. Can I get an Amen on that, by the way? Alright, thank you. (17:22)
So, this is talking about a regathering from all over the world. You’ll see the same thing in Isaiah 27, verse 13 (Isa 27:13), it says: It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. So, again, they’re scattered everywhere and they are coming back into their homeland to worship the Lord in Jerusalem and this is going to happen, we believe, on the Feast of Trumpets in Matthew 24, verse 31 (Matt 24:21) where Jesus says, in the Olivet discourse: He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect… that’s Israel… from the four winds… that’s the language here in Zechariah 2, verse 5 (Zech 2:5)… from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Now everybody thinks: Well, this must be talking about the rapture and this has absolutely nothing to do with the rapture. The rapture, people think it’s going to take place on the Feast of Trumpets and they connect it with this verse here which talks about a regathering with a trumpet, and so they think that’s talking about the rapture. This is not talking about the rapture, this is talking about the Lord regathering his people at the end of the 7 year tribulation period. Not only does this verse not talk about a harpazo catching up, which is what the rapture of the church is. Not only does this verse not talk about the harpazo, but it also does not talk about the resurrection. The rapture is the point in time in which the church age believer receives the resurrected body. So, the two things to understand about the rapture are: (1) A harpazo, and (2) A resurrection. This verse talks about none of those. It leaves out the two most important ingredients concerning the rapture. So, what is this? This is a regathering that the Lord is going to do at the end of the seven year tribulation period for the Jewish people that have been scattered into the four corners of the earth. He is going to recycle them back into their own land and the rapture of the church will have already happened, 7 or more years before this even takes place. So, if you think that the rapture has to happen on the Feast of Trumpets, I would challenge you and encourage you to come this Sunday, to Sunday School. In our rapture study, as we are trying to do a Q & A and I’m going to show you that the rapture of the church has absolutely nothing to do with Israel’s feast cycle. (20:20)
God can do the rapture anytime the Bible says, it doesn’t have to fit Israel’s calendar because God has separate programs for the church and Israel. They are separate programs and so we’ll try to get into that, if you are confused on that, we’ll try to get into that this Sunday. So we’ve got a future worldwide regathering of Israel from the four corners of the earth, and the return from Babylon, which Zechariah’s generation was just experiencing the first fruits of, is sort of a down payment. So, if God has the ability, first of all, to take His own people out of the Egyptian bondage and bring them back into their land, if he has the ability to take His own people out of Babylonian captivity and bring them back into their land. In other words, if there’s been two re-gatherings already, then it’s really not that hard, is it? for God to do it a third time. It’s just this time, when God does it, He is going to bring them back from all over the earth because they’ve gone into the four corners of the earth through the diaspora. So, the historic return from Babylon is just sort of a down payment of greater things and you see that in verse 7 (Zech 2:7), it says: Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon. So, verse 6 (Zech 2:6) is a worldwide gathering, verse 7 is a local re-gathering which Zechariah’s generation was experiencing, and we know that when the nation of Israel came back in Zechariah’s day from the 70 year captivity, they did so in three waves.

The first wave is found in Ezra 1 through 6 (Ezra 1-6), that’s Zechariah’s group that he is prophesying to, but then there was to come a second wave coming back that’s described in Ezra 7 through 10 (Ezra 7-10), and that was yet future from Zechariah’s perspective, and then the third re-gathering from Babylon was to take place in the days of Nehemiah. (22:52)
So, the first re-gathering happened, the first wave or first group came back from Babylon to rebuild the temple, the second group came back from Babylon to adorn the temple and reform the people, and the third group came back to ultimately rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem. So, Zechariah’s point is: Look, you already see God bringing us back from captivity in Babylon in the first wave. So, if Ezra 1 through 6 (Ezra 1-6) is happening, then Ezra 7 through 10 (Ezra 7-10) is going to happen, and the book of Nehemiah is going to happen and if God can recycle his people back from Babylon into their land just like He recycled them back from Egypt into their land in the much earlier historical book of Joshua, then how hard is it to believe that verse 6 is going to happen as well? God is going to recycle His people from all over the earth, the diaspora, and bring them back into their land in the end times, and the land and the city will prosper.
You’ll notice this expression here “the daughter of Babylon”, why is she called the daughter of Babylon? Why is Israel’s captor called the daughter of Babylon? Because the mother Babylon is the Tower of Babel. From the Tower of Babel, all the way back in the book of Genesis, false religions spread everywhere, because there was only one language, and the sin that was happening at the Tower of Babel spread into all cultures. We’ve talked about it on Sunday mornings, but that’s the mother-child cult, and that spread into Assyria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. it’s just the names were changed, you know, from place to place.

So, that’s why, this Babylon here, neo-Babylonia, where the nation of Israel went into captivity for 70 years, that’s why she’s just a daughter of the system. She didn’t originate the system, she absorbed the system. The mother of the system is the Tower of Babel so that maybe why Zechariah refers to neo-Babylonia that the nation was coming back from after 70 years as daughter, the daughter Babylon, and then in this vision of the man with the measuring line you go down to verses 8 and 9 and you start to see God’s dealings with the nations, and as God deals with the nations, he talks here about God’s punishment of the nations, verse 8, and how Israel is going to be elevated over the nations that are oppressing her in verse 9. So look at verse 8 (Zech 2:8), this is very interesting. It says: For thus says the LORD of hosts, After glory He has sent me against the nations which have plundered you… So, God is going to punish the nations that have punished Israel. God is going to plunder the nations that have plundered Israel, and that is an outworking of what God said would happen all the way back in the book of Genesis chapter 12, verse 3 (Gen 12:3) where God told the Patriarch Abraham: The one who curses you I will curse, and in the process, God says something very interesting at the end of verse 8 (Zech 2:8): …for he who touches you.. the you is Israel… he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. So, apple of one’s eye refers to the pupil and that becomes sort of a fitting name for Israel because just as the pupil is the light to the body, light enters the body through the pupil of the eye, God has designed Israel in such a way that spiritual light would come to the whole world through tiny Israel. Isaiah 42, and verse 6 (Isa 42:6) calls little Israel a light to the nations. Isaiah 49, verse 6 (Isa 49:6), God says of Israel: You are a light of the nations so that my salvation might reach to the end of the earth. (28:04)
So, God has designed the whole world to be blessed through tiny Israel and so all of the blessings that we are enjoying today in the year 2021, the Bible, our Messiah, all of these blessings that we have, we would have none of them had God not sovereignly worked through the tiny nation of Israel to get those blessings to us because every author of the Bible was Jewish and Jesus, the last time I checked, was very Jewish, right? He wasn’t even a Southern Baptist. Jesus was, he was Hebrew to the core. So, had God not decided to work through Israel, we would have no Scripture and we would have no Messiah. We would have absolutely nothing as gentile Christians.
Now, take a look very carefully at verse 8 (Zech 2:8) again, it says: For thus says the LORD of hosts, After glory has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. A lot of people I think misinterpret this to mean, you touch your own eye, not God’s eye, but your own eye. In other words, if you touch Israel you damage yourself by touching your own eye. Charles Feinberg in his commentary on Zechariah disagrees with this.

Charles L. Feinberg -God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 49-50)
“Though several MSS. have this reading, the better supported reading is ‘eno. Those who contend for the first, claim that the alteration was made that the text might be referred to the apple of a man’s eye; that is, whoever touches Israel, touches the apple of his own eye, doing himself irreparable damage.”
“In our opinion Deuteronomy 32:10 will allow no such interpretation, nor is it the most forceful here. True, that a man’s touching of the pupil of his own eye will bring him injury in a most sensitive part, how much more is this true if he touch the apple of God’s eye?”

He says: Though several manuscripts have the reading, the better supported reading is.. and he gives the Hebrew word… Those who contend for the first, claim that the alteration was made that the text might be referred to the apple of a man’s eye; that is, whoever touches Israel, touches the apple… or the pupil… of his own eye, doing irreparable damage to himself. Feinberg says, that’s not what it means. He says: In our opinion Deuteronomy 32, verse 10 (Deut 32:10) will allow no such interpretation… Deuteronomy 32, verse 10, of God it says: He guarded him as the pupil of his eye. So the apple, or the pupil, is not talking about one’s own eye as is commonly taught, it’s talking about God’s eye. So Feinberg says: In our opinion, Deuteronomy 32, verse 10 will allow no such interpretation nor is it the most forceful here. True, that a man’s touching of the pupil of his own eye will bring injury in a most sensitive part of the body, but how much more is this true if he touches the apple of God’s eye? So the pupil here, is the pupil in God’s eye and what he is saying here, if Feinberg is right and I agree with him, that when you come against Israel, it’s like taking your finger and sticking it into God’s eyeball and daring him to do something about it. It’s basically what you are doing. If you come against Israel unjustly, it’s almost like you’re deliberately provoking God, you’re deliberately agitating God and you are daring him to act. (31:51)
So that’s why these nations that’ve been described in this book, that have gone too far in disciplining Israel, that’s why God is going to deal with those nations as we saw in the prior vision with the four horns and the four craftsmen. He has to deal with it because it’s almost like they’ve taken their finger and rammed it into God’s metaphorical eyeball in the most sensitive part of God’s anatomy. So, this is very, very powerful language, and then you go to verse 9 and not only is God going to punish the nations that have persecuted or mistreated Israel, but God is going to take little Israel and He is going to elevate them over all these nations one day.

IV. God and the Nations (Zech 2:8-9)
A. God’s punishment of the nations (Zech 2:8)
B. Israel’s elevation (Zech 2:9)

And look at verse 9 (Zech 2:9), He says: For behold, I wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me. So, these nations think they’re plundering Israel. Nebuchadnezzar, when he destroyed the temple and got the expensive chalices and vessels, and those kind of things from the temple, and took the gold from the temple, I mean, he thought he was enriching himself, he thought he was the plunderer, but God says: The time is going to come in human history when the plunderers themselves will be plundered by Israel. When these nations thought that they were plundering Israel, God says the exact opposite is going to happen, Israel is going to plunder you. (33:40)
So, this is speaking here of the elevation of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom. When somebody says in their theology: Oh! I believe in a future for Israel, you hear people say that a lot. You try to figure out where they are at theologically and members of our missions committee might want to understand this, because we constantly evaluate people whether they’re going to receive support from SLBC based on their theology. When someone says: I believe in a future for Israel, they’re underselling what the Bible says. The Bible does not promote a future for Israel. What it promotes is Israel is the future, you see the difference? Saying: God has a future for Israel is one thing. It’s an entirely different matter and I think this is what Zechariah is communicating that Israel is the future. That’s the bright theology. Israel is the future, she doesn’t have a future, there is no future for any of us without the prosperity and elevation of Israel. This is what we call pre-eminence. Israel, in the Millennial Kingdom it’s going to be the cat’s meow, for she is not just one little nation amongst others. Other people look at Israel in the Millennial Kingdom as she’s just like Canada or Japan or the Virgin Islands, she’s there, you know, but she’s really not that important. I mean, what a marginalization about what the Bible teaches. Israel is actually going to be pre-eminent in the sense that she is going to be elevated over the nations.
So, watch John Piper here very carefully, he pays lip service to Israel and then in the process of paying lip service to Israel’s future, he undersells what the Bible teaches about Israel’s future.

John Piper – John Piper, cited in Paul R. Wilkinson, Israel Betrayed: Volume 2: The Rise of Christian Palestinianism (San Antonio, TX: Ariel, 2018), 331-32.
“[God] has a saving purpose for Israel. All Israel will someday turn to the Lord Christ as a group. This is my deep understanding in belief of Romans 11. The broken off branches will be grafted in one day to the people of God, the bride of Christ, His church.”

John Piper says: God has a.. not the… God has a saving purpose for Israel. All Israel will someday turn to the Lord Christ as a group. This is my deep understanding in belief of Romans 11. The broken off branches will be grafted in one day to the people of God, the bride of Christ… are you watching this carefully?… His church. So Piper, he confuses people into thinking that John Piper supports what the Bible teaches about Israel because he thinks there’s a bunch of Jews that are going to get saved and become members of the church and your average Christian reads that and says: Oh, Piper’s just fine. He believes in a future for Israel. Nothing to see here folks, move right along, but I love the response from my friend Paul Wilkinson.

Paul Wilkinson – John Piper, cited in Paul R. Wilkinson, Israel Betrayed: Volume 2: The Rise of Christian Palestinianism (San Antonio, TX: Ariel, 2018), 332.
“On the basis of this kind of statement, many in the church are being misled into believing that Piper stands with Israel, but he does not. What Piper said is not what Paul taught. Israel’s destiny as a nation is not one of spiritual incorporation into the church, which is the classic Reformed, Calvinistic teaching. The church comprises individual Jews and Gentiles, not ‘Israel,’ which is a distinct national entity. The appointed destiny for Israel is for her to remain a nation in the sight of God and in the midst of all the nations, for as long as God’s ‘fixed order’ of creation endures (Jer. 31:36).”

Paul Wilkinson says, quote: On the basis of this kind of statement, many in the church are being misled into believing that Piper stands with Israel, but he does not. What Piper said is not what Paul taught. Israel’s destiny as a nation is not one of spiritual incorporation into the church, which is the classic Reformed, Calvinistic teaching. The church comprises individual Jews and Gentiles, not ‘Israel,’ which is a distinct national entity. The appointed destiny for Israel is for her to remain in the sight… excuse me.. to remain a nation… an independent nation… in the sight of God and in the midst of the nations, for as long as God’s ‘fixed order’ of creation endures … and there is quoting Jeremiah 31, verse 36 (Jer. 31:36) which says: As long as there’s sun, moon and stars, Israel will always be a nation before me. (38:22)
Israel’s destiny is not just to become part of the church and become another Christian denomination. Israel’s destiny is to stay Israel and ultimately when she comes into faith, she’s going to be elevated over the very gentile nations that are giving her so much trouble. Anything less than that is a marginalization of what the Bible says concerning Israel. I mean, Piper is very slick here because he phrases things as if he believes in a future for Israel but he has marginalized or dramatically undersold what the Bible says about the future for Israel. You have to have in your vocabulary pre-eminence for Israel or you don’t understand God’s purposes for Israel. So, we know that Israel will become pre-eminent again over the nations. The world is going to travel as Zechariah is going to tell us later in this book, chapter 14, verse 16 through 18 (Zech 14:16-18) to Jerusalem to hear the word of the Lord and if they don’t want to go, and there’s going to be groups of people that won’t want to go, then they don’t get any rain for their crops. God immediately deals with it in the 1000 year kingdom. This is not a future for Israel, this is Israel as the future. Isaiah 2, verse 3 (Isa 2:3) says: The word of God is going to go forth in that day, the Millennial Kingdom, from Zion, or Jerusalem, and this is why Satan, when he is released from his abyss at the end of the 1000 year kingdom and is given a chance to attack, Revelation 20, verse 9 (Rev 20:9) says: He gathers his rebel army against the beloved city. Why would Satan do that? Because he knows where the nerve center of the Millennial Kingdom is. So, Satan himself doesn’t even believe John Piper’s theology. Satan himself attacks Jerusalem because that’s where the action is. That’s where Yeshua, Jesus Christ is reigning over the whole world, from Jerusalem. This is not talking about a future for Israel, this is talking about Israel having the future. (41:00)

Robert Thomas – Four Views on the Book of Revelation, page 207.
“At the end of the Millennium that city will be Satan’s prime objective with his rebel army, because Israel will be a leader among the nations.”

Robert Thomas says: At the end of the Millennial Kingdom that city… Jerusalem… will be Satan’s prime objective with his rebel army, because Israel will be a leader among the nations. Now, if you have antisemitic bones in your body, you’ll never be comfortable with this kind of theology. I don’t mean to judge people’s hearts, but the truth of the matter is, this is a stumbling block for a lot of people. They don’t want to believe this. They don’t want to believe that a nation that was a Christ rejecting nation can be restored the way I’m speaking of and so they gravitate away from a dispensational, literal understanding of these prophecies and they move more into replacement theology or reformed theology, replacement theology light as is taught by John Piper and many other people. If I was antisemitic, I would be much more comfortable with other forms of theology than the kind of theology taught at Sugar Land Bible Church for example. I wouldn’t be comfortable with it and that’s sort of an explanation why a lot of people just outright reject it. They don’t believe this could ever happen because it was Israel that turned Christ over to the Romans for execution. I mean, how in the world could God show that level of grace to a Christ rejecting nation and yet, every single Old Testament prophet other than Jonah talks like this, openly. I fact, they go on and on, chapter after chapter, describing this, and then you go down to verses 10 through 12 (Zech 2:10-12) and here is where we learn that God is actually going to inhabit the city of Jerusalem.
3. The Man with the Measuring Line – (Zech 2:1-13)
I. Vision (Zech 2:1-2)
II. Jerusalem’s restoration (Zech 2:3-5)
III. Exiles to return (Zech 2:6-7)
IV. God and the nations (Zech 2:8-9)
V. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10-12)
VI. Concluding exhortation (Zech 2:13)

Did you know, and that’s why entitled this lesson the way I did, a City of God’s Habitation, Jerusalem is the only city where God says: I’m personally going to dwell there. No other city on planet Earth has ever boasted such a claim. So we see that described in verses 10 through 12 and here we see God’s decision that He one day is going to live in the city of Jerusalem. Look at verse 10 (Zech 2:10), what does He say there? He says: Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion… in other words, those of you living in Zion, that are struggling to rebuild the temple and getting push back, you got to break out into praise because of God’s future plans for your meagre efforts in your little city. I’m actually going to dwell there, and then if you look at the second part of verse 10 (Zech 2:10), it says: …and behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD. So, just as the Shekinah glory of God entered the Solomonic temple. (44:32)
You know, my daughter and I, we tried to read a chapter of the Bible every night before bed and we’re currently in the Chronicles’ Books. Finished 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles and we’re reading about 9 chapters where Solomon is, all of this detail is given, where he is rebuilding, he is not rebuilding, he is building the first temple, and it talks there about how fire itself went into that temple, and it talks about how the Shekinah glory of God itself went into that temple, and when you study the book of Ezekiel you learn that the Shekinah glory of God left that temple because of the sins that were taking place in it. They had all of these idolatrous, the priest, the leaders, had all of these idolatrous paintings all over it, and Ezekiel was shown this in a vision and God says to Ezekiel: This is why I’m bringing judgement on the nation because of what they are doing to the temple. The priests who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders were leading the parade in all of this idolatry in the temple. They even brought the mother-child system that I mentioned earlier in Genesis 11 into the temple. She is called in Ezekiel 8, the queen of heaven and so the Shekinah glory of God, just prior to the Babylon captivity departs but then, Ezekiel which is a symmetrical book as you can see here from this chart by my professor Charles Dyer describes the Shekinah glory of God going back into the temple, just like it left, it is going to go right back in, and this will be the fourth temple in the Millennial Kingdom that’s described in Ezekiel 40 through 48 (Eze 40-48). (46:42)

So, what do you do if you’re living in Zion? You start rejoicing because that’s God’s plan. That’s what God’s going to do and once this happens, the nations are going to be blessed. So, God is not just blessing Israel for the sake of Israel.
V. God to Inhabit Jerusalem – (Zech 2:10-12)
A. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10)
B. Nations to be blessed (Zech 2:11)
C. God to choose Jerusalem (Zech 2:12)

It’s supposed to have a spill over effect to the rest of the nations and you see that there in verse 11 (Zech 2:11): Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me. So the fate of the nations, the fate of the very nations that are plundering Israel at the time this was written. The fate of those nations is tied to God’s purpose to restore Israel to a place of pre-eminence because once they are restored to a place of pre-eminence the rest of us are going to be a lot better off, amen?

Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 52.
“The chapter reveals so vividly how little the nations of the earth realize how much their blessing depends upon Israel. They do well to take heed lest they fall into the hands of the living God, which is a fearful thing.”

And so Charles Feinberg says: This chapter reveals so vividly how little the nations of the earth realize how much their blessing depends upon Israel. They do well to take heed lest they fall into the hands of the living God, which is a fearful thing. (48:18)
Now, how many of our world leaders, how many of our politicians that meet at these globalist conferences to deal with the Israel problem, how many of them even understand this? The fact that their survival as a nation and their prosperity as a nation totally depends upon Israel’s restoration to pre-eminence one day and then in verse 12 (Zech 2:12) it talks about how God is going to choose Jerusalem again,
V. God to Inhabit Jerusalem – (Zech 2:10-12)
A. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10)
B. Nations to be blessed (Zech 2:11)
C. God to choose Jerusalem (Zech 2:12)

Verse 12: Then the LORD will possess Jerusalem as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Now, when it says He is going to choose them, it doesn’t mean they’re becoming his people again. They always have been His people, they always will be His people because they have an unconditional covenant called the Abrahamic covenant.

So, it’s not saying you’re going to become my people again. What it is saying is I’m going to choose you again, not to be my people but to be blessed and to be a blessing, which was not happening during all these years of disobedience. In fact, God in Ezekiel 16 calls Jerusalem a prostitute, a harlot. In fact, if you want some good Christian pornography, and what I mean by that is very sexually explicit language that you don’t have to watch cable television for, you can read all about it in Ezekiel 16. Read that chapter. I see people in the back saying Oh! Let’s find it right now! No, it’s unbelievable the stuff God says in Ezekiel 16 and then He says it again in Ezekiel 23. I mean, very, very sexually explicit terms concerning how God felt like the jilted lover when Jerusalem went after false Gods and false deities, that’s why He calls her a harlot. When He calls her a harlot, He is not saying you are not my people anymore. If they weren’t his people, God wouldn’t be upset about it right? So, He’s not saying: I’m choosing you to be my people again, what He is saying is: The day will come where I will choose you to be an instrument of blessing rather than an instrument of discipline, you know, that you’re currently experiencing. (51:03)
Isaiah 14, verse 2 (Isa 14:2) says: …The house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors. Israel will plunder the plunderers. Later on in the book of Zechariah chapter 8, verse 23 (Zech 8:23) it says: In those days ten men from all the nations.. gentiles know the words… will grasp the garment of a… Presbyterian.. doesn’t say that… will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. The nations themselves are going to understand that it’s Israel and Jerusalem, that’s the centerpiece of divine activity and so ten men from these nations are going to grab the garments of one Jew and say, we are going with you. Now, John Piper theology knows nothing about what I’m talking about here. This is not dealing with a future for Israel, this is Israel being the future and so, you go to verse 13 and you have a concluding exhortation.
3. The Man with the Measuring Line – (Zech 2:1-13)
I. Vision (Zech 2:1-2)
II. Jerusalem’s restoration (Zech 2:3-5)
III. Exiles to return (Zech 2:6-7)
IV. God and the nations (Zech 2:8-9)
V. God to inhabit Jerusalem (Zech 2:10-12)
VI. Concluding exhortation (Zech 2:13)

Look at what it says in verse 13 (Zech 2:13) it says three things,
VI. Concluding Exhortation – (Zech 2:13)
A. The need for silence (Zech 2:13a)
B. Divine emotions (Zech 2:13b)
C. Heavenly action forthcoming (Zech 2:13c)

Number 1: Be silent, all flesh. In other words, when you contemplate what God is going to do, the whole world needs to stop talking, and they need to just shut up and listen, and I can’t think of any time in history where the whole world has ever stopped talking. I mean, we are a world of talkers. We are a nation of talkers with talk shows and we talk all the time, and God says: When you contemplate what I’m about to do, the whole world, what it needs to do, all flesh, is to just be quiet and it needs to selah. You know what selah means in Hebrew? It means to consider carefully. That’s why the psalms end with selah. Consider carefully, meditate on it. When I had Doctor Pentecost at Dallas Seminaries, my professor, that’s how he would end his classes. He would say: Selah and I was such a naive student at that time, I don’t even know what he was talking about. What does that mean? Finally, I figured it out, Oh! That’s the Hebrew word used in the psalms for consider carefully. That’s what God is saying here: Selah! this is not a time to talk, this is not a time to contribute to the conversation, this is not a time to post your thoughts on social media, this is a time to just be quiet and to reflect upon everything God’s about to do for Israel.
VI. Concluding Exhortation – (Zech 2:13)
A. The need for silence (Zech 2:13a)
B. Divine emotions (Zech 2:13b)
C. Heavenly action forthcoming (Zech 2:13c)

And then God’s emotions are involved because it says (Zech 2:13): Before the Lord, for He is aroused, meaning God is emotionally invested in what He’s about to do for Israel and He is speaking these things from His holy habitation. So, you have the need for silence verse 13, divine emotions verse 13 and He is going to do it from his holy habitation, meaning heavenly action is forthcoming. (54:51)
VI. Concluding Exhortation – (Zech 2:13)
A. The need for silence (Zech 2:13a)
B. Divine emotions (Zech 2:13b)
C. Heavenly action forthcoming (Zech 2:13c)

It reminds me of Daniel 2, verse 44 (Dan 2:44) when it says: In the days of those kings… What kings? The ten kings confederacy under the antichrist… In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but itself will endure forever. So, it’s a transaction coming from God’s holy habitation to the earth, and this actually is what was offered to Israel in the first century and they turned it down. That’s why John the Baptist says: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why is it called the kingdom of heaven? Because it’s coming from heaven to the earth. That’s what this holy habitation is speaking of. The emotions of God are aroused. He is going to enter human history in the way that it’s described at the second advent and He is going to bring heaven to the earth. You know, in heaven God is not overruled by anybody. Do we understand that? There’s no board that outvotes God. There’s no blue state that outvotes God, okay? in heaven, amen? God gets His way. And the day’s going to come where that Will, which is never challenged, is going to come to this earth. That’s why Jesus says: When you pray, pray in this way, Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven… in other words, that’s the kingdom. So, we’re praying for God’s unchallenged rule which exists in heaven to come to the earth.

Messengers of the Kingdom In Matthew – Toussaint, Behold the King, 18-20

 John the Baptist – Matt 3:2
 Jesus Christ – Matt 4:17
 12 Apostles – Matt 10:5-7
 Seventy – Luke 10:1, 9

That’s what John the Baptist was preaching, as was Jesus and the twelve apostles, and the seventy, and that’s what meant in Daniel 2, verse 44 (Dan 2:44) in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That’s what verse 13 (Zech 2:13) is talking about. God is emotionally invested, it’s coming from His holy habitation and when you understand this, the only thing you can do is be silent and so, you can imagine the impact this would have on the beleaguered exiles returnees as they are seeking the great project of rebuilding the temple. (57:42)
So, that’s the end of the man with the measuring line. Next time, next Wednesday we’re going to do chapter 3 so I would encourage you to read through that before next time to get the most out of it, it’s going to be the cleansing of the high priest Joshua.

I. Eight Night Visions (Zech 1:7‒6:15)
1. Riders & horses among the myrtle trees (Zech 1:7-17)
2. Four horns & four craftsmen (Zech 1:18-21)
3. Man with the measuring line (Zech 2)
4. Cleansing of the High Priest Joshua (Zech 3)
5. Lampstand & olive tree (Zech 4)
6. Flying scroll (Zech 5:1-4)
7. Woman in the basket (Zech 5:5-11)
8. Four chariots (Zech 6:1-8)
9. Conclusion: crowning of Joshua (Zech 6:9-15)

So, look at that, it’s eight o’clock exactly, must be a God thing. So, we’ll let people go, collect their kids, otherwise take off and if anybody wants to stick around for Q&A we can do that.
Oh! actually I can’t stick around, can I? No, I got to go. So we’ll do Q&A after next session. So you just retain your question for next time because we got to take off. So, see you Sunday, God bless you.