November 27, 2019: Day 74 – Zechariah 2

Have you ever heard the phrase: “apple of my eye”?  Well, we find it here with the Lord referring to the people of Israel.  At the beginning of this chapter we have the good news that the city of Jerusalem will become populated again, to the point that people will not be able to live in houses because there are so many people who are living in the street and in the city.  

Starting in vs.6 you then have the call for the people of God to come back to the holy land.  Throughout the recent history of the very young, modern nation of Israel you have had this appeal for people to come back to their homeland.  I know many people who are Jewish who have spent time, a significant amount of time, in Israel on a kibbutz or some other communal setting which reinforced this sense of coming back to the mother land.  

We see the Lord being a protecting agent who puts a ring of fire around Jerusalem, then he raises his hand against those who would threaten Israel.   The final command is to be silent before the Lord because he is back in his holy dwelling, which would be the temple in Jerusalem.  That is the final goal in all of this.