I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.(Zechariah 2)
The next vision Zechariah the prophet received, involved a heavenly surveyor, sent to measure the city of Jerusalem for expansion. At the time of the prophecy, Jerusalem was in a ruin, she had been destroyed by enemies,abandoned by God, her temple razed and the walls broken down leaving her totally vulnerable to any and every wandering brigand.
As we learned in the last vision, God had been “a little displeased” with His people, allowing the only city on earth on which He had placed his Holy name, to be desecrated and emptied.
But Jerusalem will not perish forever, instead she will expand and shall teem with Jewish life. The City of our God, shall again dwell in such security, she will not even need to be walled.
God himself would be Jerusalem’s outer defense, as a wall of Fire, and He would indwell her, animating her as in olden times, as the indwelling Glorious One.
This vision expands upon the gospel of the Last vision,
So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy…. Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem… and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.(Zechariah 1)
This is a message the so called “Kings of the earth and their rulers”had best familiarize themselves with, as they pronounce a new “divided Jerusalem” , and deny the connection of the “city of the great King” to the Jewish people, and adamantly deny that Israel, the nation brought back from captivity has the right to call Jerusalem her capitol.
Jahweh, the infinite personal,Holy God of the Bible, and the Sovereign Judge of all of the earth, is passionately concerned with Jerusalem, He has a Divine purpose for it, and in spite of her many harlotries and sins, Jahweh will soon return to this very city with great mercies and with salvation.
The Supreme Court of the United States last year denied a young US passport applicant, the right to answer the question of origin, as being from “Jerusalem,Israel”. The United Nations security council recently judged unanimously(Saving abstentions) that Jerusalem, including the Temple mountain, and the wailing wall, as being “unlawfully occupied” territory belonging to the Palestinians.
The Gentile nations have their own claims upon the holy city, which run counter to the Divine intention, thus precipitating a conflict, the “Controversy of Zion” which will embroil the whole earth and bring about the events of the day of the LORD.
For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.(Isaiah 34:8-10)
Zechariah hears from the Angel a cry, going out from the LORD to the exiled house of Israel, for though the LORD had spread them to the four quarters of the earth, the time had come t come home.
This is obviously a reference to a later exile than the one Zechariah had just returned from, for Zechariah and the captives had been sent to Babylon for their exile, but the exiles the Man in the vision call out to had been scattered to the “four winds of heaven”. This was the scattering predicted by Moses, and carried out in the years between 70 ad and 120 ad, by the Romans who again razed the temple, destroyed Jerusalem and glutted the world’s slave markets with Jews, which went from one end of the earth to the other, and which lasted until 1948 ad!
Nearly all of the nations of the earth have proven complicit in the scattering of Israel, the desecration of Jerusalem, and the abuse and persecution of the chosen people, over the long two thousand year ‘time of the gentiles’ . With impunity have they “carried the affliction ” God had laid upon his people, further than God had intended.
Those who have touched her, have literally touched the apple in God’s eye, and in the time of the return of the LORD with mercies unto Jerusalem, will also be a day of vengeance upon those nations which have spoiled her in her affliction.
There will be a division of the nations over this very issue, many will repent and be joined to the LORD, others will be inspired by Satan to try and wipe the name of Israel off of the face of the earth.
The Angel of God’s presence assures shattered and lowly Jerusalem, “I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord ofHosts hath sent me unto thee”.
This is the final and prophetic sequel to the final words of Jesus to Jerusalem in the temple of the LORD and in his capacity as the Messiah of Israel,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.(Matthew 23:37-39)
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 
The Word of God you have shared with us today is alive before our very eyes taking place in reality to warn us , and are we earnestly responding in obedience with diligent prayer for others to come to repentance andsalvation!!
This is so rich with promise! It is the vindication of God and His everlasting covenant with Abraham. Nothing less will do, for if God cannot vindicate Himself and His everlasting covenant, our very salvation is in question here.
The pupil of the eye, i.e., the “apple”, is very sensitive when touched, and the “shutter”, the lid, closes immediately when the eye is touched. It is an immediate reaction. Likewise, when the nations poke their finger in God’s eye, He immediately closes the shutter on them. One Jewish believer I met said that the pupil is also known as “the little man”, because when you look into someone’s eye you can often see a reflection of yourself.
By the way, Pastor Randles, I just listened to your latest message, “Rebekah, Jacob & Esau.” I know you have commented on this before. How many of us have been brought up to believe that Jacob was a “deceiver”, by pastors who love the Jews? It has really opened my eyes to the anti-Semitic undertones of this interpretation and characterization of Jacob, whether pastors and believers realize it or not. I so appreciate your insights on this story. In the same way, I’ve often heard pastors characterize Joseph as an “upstart”, or a smart alec, for telling his brothers his dreams about them bowing down to him. I have been thinking on this, and believe it simply is not true. It was YHWH who gave Joseph those dreams and visions. Joseph is such a portrait of Yeshua in so many ways, and his brothers are a portrait of Israel. Joseph did not reveal himself to his brothers until they came to the end of their power and acknowledged their sin in Joseph’s presence, without realizing that Joseph understood them. Yeshua will reveal Himself to His brothers on the day they “look on Him whom they pierced”, when they are at the end of their power and all seems utterly hopeless. Then all Israel will acknowledge their Messiah and be saved in a day, and the nations will come up to Jerusalem, just as Joseph’s brothers came to him. That God saw fit to preserve the story of Joseph in 15 chapters of Genesis should be a clue that we need to pay attention to it, for there are important eschatalogical issues contained therein. As you have often said, Genesis is the foundation of the entire Bible. We really cannot understand what is going on now if we don’t understand Genesis.
Is there any other book like the Bible?! God is so good! Praise the LORD!
thnks so much Jeanne. I agree with you about Joseph. Those dreams were nothing less then the Word of God, and Jospeh’s brothers hated him for shring the Word of God with them/
On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 1:29 PM, Pastor Bill Randles Blog wrote:
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