#7-ZECHARIAH’S 4TH PROPHECY: MEASURING JERUSALEM – PART 7

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT THE SAME AS THE RECORDING.

ZECHARIAH’S 4TH PROPHECY: MEASURING JERUSALEM

This is Zechariah’s 4th vision. He had 8 visions on the same night; 9 total visions from chapters 1 through 6. The theme of this 4th vision is still YHVH’s protection of the Jews while they were building the temple. But this vision has an underlying focus on justice.

THE MEASURING LINE

Zechariah 2:1  I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

The Hebrew words for “measuring line” are ‘middah chebel’ (Strong’s H4060 and H2256). ‘Middah’ means “to measure”, and ‘chebel’ means “rope”, which English translators translate as “line”. ‘Chebel’ can also be a noose, depending on the context.

I will also give you the word in Greek because we will be studying the difference between the “measuring line” here and the “measuring rod” in Revelation 11:1. Revelation is written in Greek, so we must compare the two Greek texts.

The Greek Septuagint for Zechariah 2:1 only has one word: “measuring”, ‘schoinion’ (Strong’s G4979). There is no other word used for “line”. ‘Schoinion’ also means “rope”.

The Greek word, ‘diamerismos’ (Strong’s G1267) is used in verse 2 to indicate measuring with the ‘schoinion’, rope. ‘Diamerismos’ translates to English as “dimension”.

In a little bit, we study what is happening here with what John was told to do in Revelation 11 but, for now, let’s stick with verse 1.

This man in verse 1 was a different entity than pre-incarnate Yeshua, YHVH of Hosts, who appeared on the back of the red horse in the ravine, or shady place, of the Kidron Valley in chapter 1 verse 8. We know this because verse 4 has YHVH of Hosts still speaking to a “young man” which is Zechariah himself. Pre-incarnate Yeshua is still on the red horse and the man going into the city to measure it.

Zechariah 2:2  Then I [Zechariah] asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”

Jerusalem was being measured because YHVH was reestablishing His justice system in Jerusalem. Remember, the Law goes forth from Zion and YHVH’s Word from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2).

I need to leave the reestablishment of the Law aside so I can define “Zion”. The definition of “Zion” is the same as any nation on earth calls itself by its capital. “Washington DC” is the capital of the US and it is also used in reference, as a metaphor, to the people of the United States. “London” is the capital of Britain but this word can also be used as a metaphor to reference the British people. “Zion” refers to Jerusalem, the capital of YHVH’s city, and the people, the 13 tribes. Not 4 tribes. Thirteen tribes. Always remember that the Israelis are the physical remnants of the 13 tribes. They also are not part of Zion, even though they are touting “Zionism”, because they are no longer in covenant with YHVH since they killed Him on the Cross.

I have to put a disclaimer here because first, I do not hate the Jews, Period. Second, there are Messianic Jews in the modern UN-created STATE of Israel that profess faith in Yeshua and walk in His commandments. Those folks are in covenant with YHVH through Yeshua. And since we are in the Book of Zechariah, we also have the promise that the people who are the modern UN-created STATE of Israel will come to know Yeshua after the Gog-Magog war. So, in that the texts and my comments on the spiritual condition of the Jews is mostly negative, just know that YHVH is going to bring them back. They will repent , accept Yeshua (Zechariah 12:10) and enter His Kingdom.

Continue to keep in mind that Zechariah 2:1-2 has to do with YHVH reestablishing His justice system in the city.

Now, back to the measuring line so we can define it. The measuring line is the measure of justice and righteousness because Isaiah told us so.

Isaiah 28:17  I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

YHVH’s measuring line in Isaiah and Zechariah reminds us of Revelation 11:1-2 where the temple was measured by John.

THE MEASURING ROD

Revelation 11:1  A reed like a rod was given to me [John]. Someone said, “Rise, and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it.

John was not given a Hebrew ‘chebel’ or Greek ‘schoinion’ rope. What’s the difference? The difference is in the context of the measurement. The “measuring line” is “justice” but the “rod” is judgement. The measuring line establishes a righteous Kingdom. The rod separates the rebels from the righteous.

Ezekiel 20:37  “I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

The measuring rod which was given to John was for the purpose of determining who was righteous as they worshiped before the altar and who were rebels.

“Go see, John, what is the measure of holiness and righteousness in that place and in those people who worship?”

During the ingathering, YHVH’s people will pass under the rod. We will be judged according to His standard of righteousness (Ezekiel 20:33-38). After everyone is passed under the rod of judgement, the rebels will be purged.

Ezekiel 20:38  I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”

So, the measuring line is the “justice line”, the line that you can go up to but not over because, if you go over it, then you have sinned, you have created injustice. The “rod” is the measurement of judgement; what will the sentence be for the sin and rebellion. The “rod” reveals righteousness or rebellion.

John’s measurement of whether the Jewish third temple was righteous or rebellious. It determined Jerusalem not being punished or being punished. Revelation chapters 17 and 18 reveal the punishment of the wicked woman who call themselves the people of the God of Abraham, but lie in the saying of it. Revelation chapter 12 reveals the righteous woman who truly is His bride-to-be.  

WHO WAS JUDGED?

There is another important distinction between Zechariah’s measuring passage and Revelation’s measuring passage. The man with the measuring line in Zechariah 2:2 was measuring only the city. John, in Revelation 11:1-2 was going to measure God’s temple, His altar and the worshipers. The city was left out of his measurement.

Why? The people who were left out of the judgement were the Gentiles whose only crime was trampling God’s city. He did not hold them accountable for that. We shall see that He held the Jewish worshipers at the altar before the temple for that.

The people who will worship at the temple in front of the altar will be only Jews. We know this because verse 1 tells us that there is a temple with an altar which does not yet exist alongside the Muslim Dome of the Rock. The temple and its altar will exist and the Jews will be the worshipers before them. The Gentiles will be kept out, in the city, which is why the Gentiles will be continuing to do what they do now – trampling the city.

But notice that YHVH does not judge them for that. Do you know why? It is because Isaiah 2:3 and Micah 6:4 says the Law goes out of Zion. What is Zion? Jerusalem. Who is Zion? The people. The Jews claim the God of Abraham and we know that the God of Abraham has a Law that went forth from Mount Sinai until David was able to move Mount Sinai’s authority to Jerusalem. Thus, those who call themselves by the God of Abraham also have the duty to have the Law go forth from their mouths and their actions.

Revelation 11:2  Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.

Revelation 11:1 has only the worshipers, the temple and the altar. The “court” is the outer court of the Temple which is also the entire city of Jerusalem. Few people understand this but it is defined this way in Revelation 11:2. There is a “court” (outer court) which is also the city that will be trampled by the Gentiles.

We know the city was the temple’s outer court through historical records. But we also know it because in scripture we read about people who are outside the city taking mikvahs getting ready to enter. They were taking mikvahs to cleanse themselves because no one can enter YHVH’s “courts” defiled. More on this in a minute.  

How did it happen that that the Gentiles trampled YHVH’s city? The Jews failed to keep the city holy by making sure the laws of clean and unclean are observed by everyone who enters the city. Here is where I said I would tell you more about the mikvahs.

In ancient times, the people bathed and were cleansed before entering the city. The southern and western walls have been excavated and what was found was dozens of ritual baths used for mikvahs before anyone entered the city. The Pool of Siloam was one of the biggest mikvah pools and it is outside the city.

Why do people need to mikvah before entering the city? Because the city is the temple’s outer court! And the Jews have allowed the Gentiles to defile the city. This has been going on for hundreds of years but the Jews took the city in 1967. Therein lay their opportunity to cleanse the city and teach those who wanted to enter into it to mikvah before entering. YHVH wants all people to come – Israelites and Gentiles – alike, but He wants them properly cleansed. Gentiles were always welcomed by Him until the second temple Jews started disallowing Gentiles to enter to worship YHVH, which is another no-no because His House is a House of prayer for all people (Isaiah 66:7), but this is for another teaching.

Why didn’t the Jews take this initiative? There is a lot of revenue produced inside the city walls. Requiring Gentile tourists and unclean Jews to go through the public mikvah process would obstruct that flow of traffic and reduce the revenue.

THE CONDITION OF THE COMING THIRD TEMPLE

So what was the condition of the temple when John measured it? He tells us this in the rest of Revelation 11. But also, Revelation 18 tells us who the temple was dedicated to: the Queen of Heaven.

Revelation 18:7  However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’

Who is this?

Revelation 17:4  The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.
Revelation 17:5  And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Revelation 17:6  I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

The other reason the rod will judge the Jews who worship at the third temple is because they won’t even be worshiping YHVH at all!

The Queen of Heaven has been renamed as “Shekhinah” in the Kabbalah. This is a word not found in our Bibles at all! She is the embodiment, according to Kabbalah, of the divine feminine in the so-called godhead.

There were other questions, too. What was the quality of the sacrifices on the altar, John? What was the quality of the hearts of the priests who served there? Throughout the prophets of the Old Testament, there was frequent mention of the blemished animals and the actions of the priests who defied YHVH by doing what they wanted, even performing sun worship, before the altar and between the Holy Place and the altar. “Measure it, John. Find out if My justice and righteousness is upheld there”.

If the third temple is not proper as commanded, righteous and holy, then just know that is the reason the temple will be destroyed. The Jews will think they can cardon off their little section for their temple and they can mikvah before going there and everything will be OK.

No! It won’t be OK! That temple and those people will be judged!  

Revelation 11:1-2 is about the coming judgement on the third temple, which the 2 witnesses will protest, as symbolized by the rod. The measuring line in Zechariah 2:1-2 is about establishing justice in Jerusalem from 520 BC forward.

Zechariah 2:3  Behold, the angel [pre-incarnate Yeshua] who talked with me [Zechariah] went out [out of the ravine], and another angel [unknown name, may or may not have been the one with the measuring line] went out [of Jerusalem] to meet him [pre-incarnate Yeshua].

An angelic force is always present in Jerusalem. We know this from many scriptures where angels actively protected Jerusalem or were seen in visions in the city. The 520 BC Jews would have been comforted by knowing Jerusalem was being watched by angelic forces.

Seeing angelic activity was another way YHVH showed the Jews His protection over the city. An angel had protected the city from the Assyrians in 2 Kings 19:35-36 and Isaiah 37:36. He promised Jerusalem’s protection in Isaiah 31:5.

THE PROMISE OF JUSTICE AND PROTECTION

The vision is about the promise of the reestablishment of justice in Jerusalem.

Zechariah 2:4  and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.

Let me go down this rabbi trail about Zechariah’s age because he is the young man. He was a young priest in his early 30s or perhaps a priest trainee in his 20s. We know this because he prophesied about Greece in Zechariah 9:13. Greece was rising and becoming a threat to the Persian empire and there were wars between Persia and Greece from 490 BC to 479 BC. Yet Zechariah continued prophesying during this time because of what he wrote in chapter 9 verse 13.

If Zechariah was 30 years old in 520 BC, then he would have been 70 in 480 BC during the time of the Persian/Greek wars. If Zechariah was 20 years old in 520 BC, then he would have been 80 in 480 BC during the time of the Persian/Greek wars. This also would have been within the time when Xerxes I ruled (486 BC to 465 BC). This is why we know Zechariah was a young man in 520 BC and that the “young man” in verse 4 was him.

And now that YHVH has expressed to Zechariah that what the Jews are building is not just about the temple; that it is also about the city (which is why the city was being measured), it is also about how there will be villages around Jerusalem. And now He tells them that He will put a firewall around Jerusalem.

Zechariah 2:5  For I,’ says Yahweh , ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.

The firewall is reminiscent of the pillar of fire by night. This would have been comforting to the 520 BC Jews.

Zechariah 2:6  Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh.
Zechariah 2:7  ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’

The Jews did not leave Babylon and the consequences of that stretch all the way to today and into the Tribulation.

Zechariah 2:8  For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor, he [the Father of Yeshua] has sent me [pre-incarnate Yeshua] to the nations which plundered you [Jerusalem]; for he [anyone] who touches you [His people] touches the apple of his [the Father’s] eye (Deuteronomy 32:10).

Here is also another example of binitarianism (which I explained last week), YHVH speaking to YHVH in the same verse, YHVH speaking to or about YHVH in relation to Himself. …He [the Father] has sent me [pre-incarnate Yeshua] to the nations which plundered you…”.

That the Father has sent Yeshua to the nations here in Zechariah also prophesies of Yeshua coming to the nations in 1st century BC.

YHVH keeps repeating His protection to the Jews because He wants them to trust Him and He wants the temple to be built. They need to know they will safe while they work. Thus the repetition in different ways so they will be confident in His protection.

Zechariah 2:9  For, behold, I will shake my hand over them [who? The horns who scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem], and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies [the Father] has sent me [pre-incarnate Yeshua].

Assyria has already been plundered at this point, and so has Babylon. Egypt will be plundered by Greece after Greece conquered Persia. Every nation which defeats another one becomes the next conqueror’s plunder.

Zechariah 2:10  Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh.

“Daughter of Zion” is another metaphor for YHVH’s people, but used more like a term of endearment, and expression, from Him to His people who were in the city and the surrounding villages of Israel.

THE TEMPLE WHERE THE MESSIAH WILL DWELL WITH HIS PEOPLE

There is also another prophecy of YHVH coming to dwell among His people. Yeshua is YHVH. Yeshua is the Messiah and He is the one who is called YHVH that will come dwell among His people in the Millennium.

The prophecy now jumps ahead 2500 years.

Zechariah 2:11  Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you.

The prophecy is reminiscent of:

Isaiah 2:3  Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.

Micah 4:2  Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;

And…

Isaiah 56:7  I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

We know that “in that day” refers to the day of judgement, the time of the Tribulation and the Millennium, depending on context. Here it is the Millennium because it will be in the Millennium that Yeshua will rebuild His temple and city so that the nations want to join Him which will turn the temple into a house of prayer for all people.

Zechariah 2:12  Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.

Why did YHVH inherit Judah and again choose Jerusalem? It fit His plan of salvation.

From 520 BC to 70 AD is when YHVH inherited Judah and chose Jerusalem so that Yeshua could come fulfill being the Lamb of God who reunited and restored all Israel.

John 10:16  I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

You might be thinking that all Israel is not yet reunited and restored. Yes, it is. It just has not manifested on the earth yet as it has in Heaven at His throne. Many things have to happen before the earthly manifestation of the Heavenly reality can be seen.

Zechariah 2:13  Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

The reason Zechariah had so many visions of Heavenly beings around Jerusalem is precisely because YHVH was roused from His holy habitation in Heaven. May He do that again soon!

Interestingly, YHVH says “be silent” in verse 13. Yom Kippur, the day that calls for silence, will begin on Sunday evening at sundown and go through Monday evening. May you be still and may your name be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life!