A man with a measuring line
Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 I asked, "Where are you going?"
He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”
3 Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’
The third frame of the vision of Zechariah comes in chapter 2.
Zechariah recognized a man. He also recognized a measuring line. He did not ask “Who?” He did recognize the need to ask “Where?” Perhaps the mien and manner of the man prompted the question. The man seemed anxious to do the work that the measuring string in his hand promised he would do.
The answer to Zechariah’s question “Where are you going?” is, “To measure Jerusalem.” The further reason for knowing these dimensions is the construction of the wall of fire around it, for it is to be a city not protected by earthly ramparts but surrounded by God’s power and might.
We are reminded of the glory cloud, the visible sign of God’s protecting presence as the Israelites fled from Pharaoh—a fire by night and a cloud by day. They didn’t need further armament or protection. It was enough.
When God is the protection of his people Jerusalem, of his believers, there is no fear or failure, no surprise attack or storm that breaches the walls. “Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
This Jerusalem surrounded by the wall of fire is the same Jerusalem that the book of Revelation talks about in chapters 21 and 22. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it” (21:23-26).
The walls of ancient cities were the life insurance of the people inside. The gates were closed at night to keep out enemies. If the walls failed, the people died. If the walls held, the people lived. Many ancient stories deal with the walls. We have the Trojan horse in Greek mythology. Cyrus was alleged to have diverted the river so his troops could march through the water gates into the city of Babylon.
Both Zechariah and the apostle John saw the Lord as the glory of the Holy City. They saw the city standing secure without a wall of human construction. And they saw it filled to overflowing. Here is the second reason why the new Jerusalem will be a city without walls. Walls would not hold the burgeoning population inside, “because of the great number of men and livestock in it.” John spoke also: “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). All God’s people will enter it!