COME! COME! FLEE from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD. 7“Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!” 8For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—9I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me.
10“Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. 11“Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”
Original Meaning
THE READER NOW MOVES from the world of vision to that of oracle. Although Zechariah incorporates oracles as integral elements into his visions (see 1:14–17; 2:4–5; 5:4),1 the present section lies outside the vision of 2:1–5. Furthermore, the audience also has changed, for while in 2:4–5 the angel speaks to the “young man,” 2:6–13 addresses the exilic community.2
The oracle continues emphases from 2:1–5, including expansion of the city (2:6, 7, 11; cf. 2:4) and the promise of God’s presence (2:10–11; cf. 2:5). However, it also develops the theme of the scattering (2:6; cf. 1:19, 21) and abuse of God’s people (2:8; cf. 1:15, 21)—key to the first two visions. This oracle builds on the previous visions and calls the people to respond to God’s initial work and promise by returning to his land and city, where he promises his presence.
The oracle also reflects the same historical situation as the initial visions. The nations who “feel secure” and with whom the Lord is “very angry” in the first vision (1:15) are the “horns that scattered Judah,” who will be terrified and thrown down in the second vision (1:21). This opens the way for rebuilding Jerusalem and the return of God’s presence (2:4–5). This fits the historical context of the Jewish community during the transfer from Babylonian to Persian hegemony in the early Persian period (see comments on 1:7–17). The Babylonians are the ones who took Judah into exile (“scattered Judah”), and they were overthrown by the Persians, first as Cyrus broke their mastery of the ancient Near East in 539 B.C. and later as Darius exacted punishment on them for their rebellion against him (522–520 B.C.).
God’s people are living within Babylon (“Daughter of Babylon,” 2:7; “the nations that have plundered you,” 2:8), which will be devastated by former slaves, that is, the Persians (“their slaves will plunder them,” 2:9). The people are called to “escape” from Babylon (2:7) to “Judah/Jerusalem,” the place where God’s presence will again be found (2:12). The return of both people and God to the land suits the initiatives of the Persians in the early Persian period, who with political savvy allowed subjugated peoples to return and to rebuild their temples in the wake of a disastrous Babylonian religious policy.3
These thematic and historical connections between the three initial night visions and the oracle in 2:6–13 highlight the function of the oracle in the night vision complex.4 At this crucial juncture, the oracle brings the message of the heavenly visions “down to earth”; that is, it calls the audience to respond, showing that these night visions have implications for their community (cf. 6:9–15). Whereas the apocalyptic tone of the visions and their accompanying messages emphasize the divine at the expense of the human, the prophetic oracle now invites human involvement in this great divine initiative. The people are to escape Babylon and return to Jerusalem, rejoicing in God’s deliverance and expecting his return.
The present oracle consists of two sections of equal length, each distinguished by a series of imperatives: 2:6–9 (introduced by three uses of hoy [NIV “come”] and the imperatives “flee/escape”) and 2:10–13 (introduced by the imperatives “shout/be glad”). The first section has an urgent tone as the people are called to escape the land of their captivity. The second calls them to rejoice as they return to their land, for God has promised his presence with them.
Call to Escape (2:6–9)
THE INITIAL ORACLE is the most urgent of the collection. It begins with the double exclamation “Come! Come!” (hoy hoy), a word that often appears at the beginning of the Woe Oracles of classic prophecy (e.g., Isa. 5), but here functions as a call for attention (as in Isa. 55:1).5 The audience of this declaration is not clarified until Zechariah 2:7, where we are told that it is “you who live in the Daughter of Babylon,” a reference to the exilic community in Mesopotamia. “Daughter of Babylon” functions as a synonym for Babylon and plays off the reference to “Daughter of Zion” in 2:10, juxtaposing the two cities and revealing that Zion will in the end be triumphant (see comments below).
The fact that Zion is living in Babylon is why they are called to flee/escape from the “land of the north,” a common image representing the Mesopotamian lands—in this case, the Babylonians, who subjugated the people of Judah. Although Babylon is nearly due east of Jerusalem, the path of invading Mesopotamian armies was always from the north as they followed the ancient roads of the Fertile Crescent.
The reference to the “four winds of the heavens” does not create an allusion here to an “eschatological” return,6 but rather to the returns that began at the end of the Babylonian era. Jeremiah uses the same language when speaking of Elam’s destruction and exile:
I will bring against Elam the four winds
from the four quarters of the heavens;
I will scatter them to the four winds,
and there will not be a nation
where Elam’s exiles do not go. (Jer. 49:36)
Although the Hebrew word for “scatter” here is different from the one in Zechariah 2:6, the reference to the “four winds” confirms that the same image is in mind. It is that of winnowing grain at harvest time, an agricultural process often performed on the tops of hills to utilize the natural breezes that carried away the chaff. The four winds come from the four ends of the heavens (NIV “quarters” in Jer. 49:36) and thus symbolize the universal scattering of the people.7 The universality of this expression does not contradict the first half of the verse that focuses on the “land of the north,” for Jeremiah adopts similar rhetoric when he speaks of the direction of the Exile to and the return from both the land of the north and the ends of the earth (Jer. 3:18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8).8
After calling the people to flee from their captivity in Zech. 2:6–7, Zechariah then explains why the people will escape from their captors. Echoing the message of the first two visions, Yahweh affirms that he will punish the nations who have plundered his people.
There has been much controversy over the meaning of Zech. 2:8–9 as a result of awkward Hebrew constructions. Verse 8 begins with an expression common in Zechariah: “For this is what the LORD Almighty says,” a phrase that typically introduces a speech of Yahweh in the first person. The difficulty begins from this point on. For most commentators the majority of the Lord’s quote that follows is to be attributed to the prophet Zechariah or one of his disciples, with the short central declaration (“I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them”) connected to Yahweh (so NIV text). Others have connected the first portion before this central declaration as a continuation of the messenger formula, functioning as an adverbial phrase modifying the verb “says” (answering the question “when?”; see NIV footnote).
To discern the flow of thought in this section, we should begin with the more common phrase that occurs at the end of verse 9: “Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me,” a phrase which also occurs at the end of 2:11. These declarations are unique to Zechariah and occur at two other points, 4:9 and 6:15, both in sections traditionally tagged as oracles lying outside the visions. In each of these occurrences the prophet refers to an action promised by Yahweh that will establish the legitimacy of his calling.9 The action promised in both 4:9 and 6:15 is that of the rebuilding of the temple, both in reference to the exilic community’s participation in that project with special attention to Zerubbabel’s role. The action promised in 2:9 is God’s release of his people, while the action in 2:11 is God’s return among his people.
The first part of this declaration “then you will know” is used often in prophetic material (esp. Ezekiel), though it is normally connected to Yahweh directly rather than to the prophet (e.g., Ezek. 6:7; 7:4, 9), drawing its origin from the experience of Moses (Ex. 6:7; 7:17; 8:22). The second part of the declaration (“the LORD has sent me to you”) is rare elsewhere, appearing in Exodus 3:13, 14, 15; 7:16; Numbers 16:28, 29.10 It is interesting that although the specific combination is unique to Zechariah (“then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you”), the calling of Moses in Exodus 3–6 is a common treasury for this phrase.11 In most of these passages the formulas are used in connection with God’s direct intervention in the affairs of his people, whether that is the Exodus (Ex. 10:2), provision in the desert (Ex. 16:12), victory in war (Deut. 9:3), discipline for disobedience (Ezek. 7:27), or salvation after judgment (16:62).
These other occurrences reveal the purpose of this particular formula in Zechariah. It is not primarily to remind the people of the oracle when it comes true. Rather, it is a rhetorical technique that bolsters the impact of the prophetic word, reminding the people that as a servant is sent with the authority of his master (2 Kings 5:22; 8:9; 18:27), so the prophet is sent with the authoritative words of God.12
Returning now to the initial phrase of the oracle begun in verse 8, we find there the use of the same verb “send” (šlḥ), which is the key to the legitimizing idiom. This suggests that, although unclear, it is to be interpreted in the same way. Yahweh’s message does not begin until after the legitimizing idiom is introduced, bolstering the prophet’s position as one through whom God brings his message of judgment to the nations.
The core of God’s message is seen in the phrase, “I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them.” To raise one’s hand against another is a Hebrew idiom usually referring to a violent action against an opponent. When Yahweh appears as the subject, it indicates a military action (Isa. 11:15; 19:16; cf. 10:32; 13:2). In both references in Isaiah Yahweh’s action is directed against Egypt in a context containing allusions to the Exodus. So also here, the passage alludes to the Exodus in the phrase “their slaves will plunder them” (cf. Ex. 12:36),13 indicating a reversal of the plundering activity of the Babylonians.
This occurs “after he has honored me” (lit., “after glory”). This is the most hotly contested phrase in the oracle and is rendered as a description of the manner (“with insistence”),14 the timing (“after glory,” i.e., after his calling as a prophet or reception of visions),15 or the purpose of the prophetic commission (“for glory”; cf. Ezek. 39:21).16
The link to Ezekiel 39 in this final suggestion provides a helpful clue for understanding this awkward phrase. Ezekiel 38–39 introduces us to the rise and fall of Gog and Magog, which is probably a coded reference to Babylon.17 Ezekiel 39:21–29 clearly links this passage to the Exile and restoration of Israel, and there we read of God’s displaying his “glory” among the nations, paralleled in the second half of the verse with a display of “the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them” (39:21). Glory here is thus equated with God’s judgment either on Israel (exile) or on their enemies (restoration). As Zechariah considers the restoration and the defeat of Babylon, he alludes to this prophecy of Ezekiel, saying that “after glory”—that is, after God’s judgment—the prophet is sent to declare disaster for Babylon. Like Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 1:5, 10), Zechariah is to initiate disaster on the nations by announcing their fall.
The zeal of God that calls Zechariah to announce judgment is ignited by the character of the nations’ actions. When they plundered Israel, they were touching “the apple of his eye.” The idiom “daughter of the eye” is synonymous with another idiom, “the middle of the eye,” appearing both independently and in conjunction with one another (Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2; Lam. 2:18) and denoting vulnerability and by extension the inordinate care for something equated with it (Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2). The verb “touch” when used in combination with the preposition b often denotes harmful touching (e.g., Gen. 26:11; 2 Sam. 14:10). God’s statement is not merely that these nations harmed his people, but that when they harmed his people, they were in reality touching the dearest part of Yahweh himself.
THE SECOND SECTION of the oracle opens with a new set of imperatives: “Shout . . . be glad.” The mood changes from the harried cry to escape from a place of danger (2:6–9) to the exuberant call to rejoice. This section, therefore, represents the appropriate response of a community delivered from captivity (cf. Zeph. 3:14–18; also Jer. 31:7).
This community is identified as “Daughter of Zion,” a phrase that creatively plays off of the earlier designation, “you who live in the Daughter of Babylon.” The city of Jerusalem is often called “Zion” in the Old Testament, a name that predates David’s conquest (2 Sam. 5:7) and becomes closely associated with God’s presence, for on Mount Zion his presence dwells (Isa. 8:18) and there he is worshiped (Ps. 48:2). It becomes intimately linked with God’s people, personifying the community of God mourning the fall of the state (Lam. 1:1–11)18 and surviving through the Exile (Isa. 1:26–27; 49:14). As the people long for restoration, it is on Zion that their hopes are set (Ps. 69:35; 102:13) and to which they long to journey (Ps. 120–134).19
About 25 percent of the occurrences of the word “Zion” are in the phrase found here, “Daughter of Zion,”20 half of which are positive, reflecting “dignity, joy, favor, and exaltation” (so Zech. 2:10), with the other half negative (cf. Lam. 2:13; Zeph. 3:14). The reason for the female image of “daughter” is difficult to discern. It appears to be a familiar idiom for cities (Ps. 45:12; 137:8; Isa. 23:10), not only because “city” (ʾir) is a feminine noun in Hebrew, but also because “it is an image of the unity between place and people within which divine favor and civilization create a setting of stability and home.”21
Ollenburger has noted that the “central theological notion evoked by the symbol of Zion is the kingship of Yahweh.”22 In many contexts as God enters his royal city (Zion) and palace (temple), he is greeted with exuberant joy (e.g., Ps. 9:14).23 This explains why the exhortation to rejoice in Zechariah 2:10 is based on the promise that God is “coming” to “live among” his people, a pledge repeated in verse 11 and found throughout the Old Testament to express God’s presence in his sanctuaries (Ex. 25:8–9; Num. 35:34; 1 Kings 6:13; Ezek. 43:7; cf. 37:27).24
This reveals that those who respond to the exhortation to return to the land will be met there by the God who once abandoned the land (compare Ezek. 10 with Ezek. 37). This promise echoes the words of the first night vision in Zechariah 1:16, where God promised to return (“I will return to Jerusalem with mercy”), an assertion closely aligned with the promise to rebuild the temple (“there my house will be rebuilt”; 1:16) and that of the oracle in the third vision in 2:5: “I will be its glory within.” The rebuilding of the temple will be useless if God does not bless the structure and community with his manifest presence.
Verse 11 introduces a surprise into the oracle by declaring that foreigners will enter the community of the Lord on the day when God’s presence returns to Israel. That the expression “many nations” does not refer to the exilic community living among the nations but to the nations themselves is clear from other prophetic contexts that use this verb and imagery (Isa. 14:1; 56:3, 6; Jer. 50:5). The phrase “be joined” is clearly covenantal in nature (Isa. 56:6), a point made clear by the declaration “[they] will become my people,” which is used throughout the Old Testament to typify the people’s status in the God-Israel relationship (Jer. 31:33; 32:38). The fact that the oracle then repeats the phrase “I will live among you” after declaring the inclusion of these foreigners is an intentional technique to emphasize their participation in the covenant community and its privileged access to God’s presence.
This reference to foreigners entering the community, coupled with the assertion of God’s presence, connects this oracle to the third night vision (Zech. 2:1–5), where the young man is forbidden to measure the city for its wall because of the potential size of the city (the great number of inhabitants) and protective role of Yahweh (a wall of fire). This oracle repeats the assertion of God’s presence and explains the large size of the city.
If the inclusion of a great number of foreigners in the covenant community gives rise to questions about the special status of the land of Israel, verses 12–13 address any concerns. The universal vision will be realized through the particular reinstatement of Judah and Jerusalem as God’s special possession. The verb “inherit” and the noun “portion” are well known from the Conquest narratives, but there they refer to the Israelites’ possession of the land (Josh. 19:9, 51; cf. Num. 18:20; 26:55).
Here in Zechariah 2:12 God is depicted as repossessing and reconquering the land of Judah, which he abandoned. “Judah” refers to the region rather than tribe because it is the object of “inherit” and identified as a subset of “the holy land.” “Jerusalem” is a subset of Judah, and the phrase “his holy dwelling” in 2:13 anticipates the temple complex within Jerusalem. The particularistic tone of this verse shows that the universal impact of God’s covenant will be accomplished through a return to his throne in the temple in Jerusalem in Judah in the holy land.25 The land is still important to God’s plans and is consecrated (“holy”) for God’s presence.
God’s return to his land, city, and temple has implications for all humanity, who are called to silence with the interjection “be still” (has).26 Silence is demanded because God is stirring and is about to appear among his subjects.27 Most see “his holy dwelling” as denoting God’s heavenly court, since the temple had not been rebuilt.28 It therefore alludes to the temple rebuilding theme, which will restore Zion as the passageway to God’s heavenly court. This signal to all humanity that God is entering his courtroom was the original reason for the joyous tone of this section of the oracle begun in verse 10 (“I will live among you”). The universal and particular emphases encountered throughout this section converge here.29
In summary, Zechariah 2:6–13 divides neatly into two sections each introduced by a series of imperatives. The first (2:6–9) focuses on God’s salvation and the response expected of the people. Although the Lord has scattered the people in discipline, it is now time to restore the people he calls the “apple of his eye.” The prophet calls them to respond by fleeing and escaping their captivity as God breaks the nations who subjugated them. The second section (2:10–13) emphasizes the presence of God and the response expected of the people. Although the Lord abandoned his temple, city, and land because of the disobedience of the people, he will now return to meet his escaping people. The prophet calls them to respond with shouts of joy as God returns to his temple. But there is a surprise in store. The prophet expands the scope of this community to include “many nations.”
ALIENS JOURNEY HOME. For many, traveling in a 1970 Ford Ranch wagon packed with seven children and two parents is not their idea of a good time. But for my siblings and me it is one of our fondest childhood memories. My parents, raised in New York and New Jersey, would brave the dangers of the American Interstate system and set out from the Canadian prairies on a tour to their old haunts, complete with a trip to an upstate New York farm and a coastal New Jersey beach. But in those many summers I cannot remember a desire to move permanently to those faraway worlds. They were nice to visit, but I had my own life on the frozen tundra of Saskatchewan.
In the passionate cry of the prophet to return to the land, it is at first difficult to grasp the reason for such spirited zeal. The vast majority of North Americans have come from foreign contexts, immigrating to this continent over the past five centuries. The socio-psychological pattern for these immigrant groups is that the first generations typically have close associations with their homeland, but there is a subtle transformation in the succeeding generations as they assimilate into the dominant culture. This was driven home to me vividly when I was pastoring in a church in Toronto. One of the teens whose parents had emigrated from India before he was born asked his father concerning his grandparents: “When are those Indians going to go home?” At the second generation, the identity of this family had already shifted to the new country.
By Zechariah’s time some families had lived in Mesopotamia for fifty, others up to seventy years. Surely they would have felt settled in this new country. Archaeological finds in Mesopotamia have revealed that some within the Jewish community were able to construct a comfortable life in their new land,30 evidence displayed in Ezra as it catalogues considerable economic donations from the Mesopotamian Jewish community; Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel also reveal traditions of successful Jews within the Persian aristocracy. Living in exile may have been difficult at first, but had they not grown accustomed to this new context? Is this merely a burst of nostalgia, a longing for the good old days in the Promised Land?
The prophet’s passion can be linked to several factors. Sociologically, there is no question that there was considerable stigma attached to the alien within ancient Near Eastern cultures. We know this is true for immigrants today, especially for visible minorities, even within a North American milieu where immigration laid the foundation for the nations. This was even more so in the ancient Near East, which explains why the Torah protected the rights of aliens and grouped them together with those most vulnerable within the society: fatherless and widows (see comments on 7:1–14).31 Assimilation into the various Mesopotamian cultures would have been difficult because of the difference in language, traditions, and especially religious observance.
But there is something more going on here than sociology, for Zechariah’s call is not merely an appeal to create a safe living space for the Jewish community; rather, it is based firmly on strong theological traditions within Old Testament revelation. In the covenant established with Abraham, God promised three things: people (Gen. 17:4–6), relationship (17:7), and land (17:8).32 God’s intention for Moses was that he would be the instrument to bring these three promises to fulfillment.
The book of Exodus begins with a numerous Jewish community threatening the Egyptians (Ex. 1–11). As this multitude is released from bondage, their immediate destination is Mount Sinai, where they meet with God and establish a national relationship with him through covenant (Ex. 12–39, esp. 20). As a result of this encounter, God comes to live in their midst (Ex. 40). With their sights on Canaan and the fulfillment of the third promise to Abraham, the people and their leader go astray and are forced to wander around the desert for forty years (Numbers). It is left to Joshua, not Moses, to finally storm the land of Canaan and realize the final promise of land. These redemptive events lie at the foundation of Jewish faith and Old Testament revelation (cf. Deut. 6:20–24; 26:1–11; Josh. 24; Neh. 9; Ps. 78; 104–106; 135–136).
At the Exile, however, all three of these promises were endangered. Violation of covenant through the infidelity of the people threatened the promise of relationship. The final blow is pictured in Ezekiel as the glory of God, representative of his presence, abandons the people and land through the east gate (Ezek. 10). Without God on their side, the promises of land and people are soon reversed. The land is handed over to enemies who subjugate the population and cart away numbers of people into exile (2 Kings 25).
Set in this theological context, the prophet’s insistence on a flight from Babylon to return to the land is justified. Relationship with God is linked to a land, where he and his people will live together. Land ensured preservation of community and covenant for the people of God.
Aliens find a home. As I mentioned at the outset, my identity as an “immigrant” child in Canada eventually was shaped by my new country and culture. For me home became Canada because I had adopted the values and traditions of the nation of my childhood rather than my birth.
Building on the prophetic vision of Zech. 2:1–5, a vision prohibiting a walled city that would limit urban growth, the oracle in 2:6–13 reveals the reason for the expansion potential of this city. The community released from bondage to experience afresh the presence of God is the community into whom God will bring “many nations.” So also “all mankind” is hushed in the final verse as God rouses himself from his throne room. The restoration of the people to their land with a holy temple and city had implications for the whole world. In this we see the stark contrast between the two sections of the oracle in 2:6–13. Verses 6–9 view the nations in a negative light as those who plunder God’s people and who will be plundered now by their former slaves. In verses 10–13, however, the nations are now invited into the community of God.
Such a perspective is not foreign to the Old Testament witness. From the outset of redemptive history, God has had such a global vision.33 The promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, which is formalized through the covenant of land, relationship, and people in Genesis 15 and 17, envisions the blessing that God will bring to “all peoples on earth” through Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 12:2–3; cf. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). This blessing is fulfilled in the gospel (Rom. 4:13; Gal. 3:8, 29). Israel’s call from God as a nation is understood as a priestly role as God declares in Exodus 19:4–6:
You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Israel is a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” within the larger family of nations. As priests they will serve as mediators between God and the nations. This role is closely linked in Exodus 19:5 with their obedience to the covenant, which God laid before them and which is summarized in the following chapter, the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20).34
This vision for the nations is not restricted to revelation during the patriarchal and Exodus periods. God’s covenant with David and his choice of Zion have a global dimension. Through the Davidic king Yahweh will exercise his rule over all the nations (Ps. 2) as well as communicate the blessing promised to Abraham (Ps. 72, esp. v. 17b). Zion, the Davidic capital in which Yahweh resides, is the place from which God exercises his rule over the whole earth (Ps. 48) and in which all the nations have a place (Ps. 87).
In light of this, the prophets envision a day when all the nations will be drawn to this city for teaching (Isa. 2:1–5//Mic. 4:1–5) and worship (Zech. 8:20–23). The prophet Jonah shows us that God’s covenant compassion extends beyond the borders of Israel (Jonah 4). So also Isaiah introduces a servant figure who will be “a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6; 49:6).
Therefore, Zechariah 2:6–13 presents two aspects of Old Testament theology that must be kept in balance. God is intent on forming a people for himself, a redeemed community in which he dwells. This group, however, is not an exclusive group, but one into which God will bring others from among the nations. These two aspects are not unique to the Old Testament but can be traced throughout the New Testament as Jesus forms a community that is both transformed as well as transformative, not of the world and yet in the world. The New Testament speaks of the “world” as the system of rebellion against God and his people (John 7:7), yet at the same time as the object of God’s love and redemption (John 3:16–17). We are saved out of this world by the grace of God into a relationship with him by his Spirit. This same Spirit propels us back into this world as instruments of God’s grace to bring the “nations” into covenant relationship with him.
Contemporary Significance
ON ONE LEVEL the prophetic oracle in Zech. 2:6–13 is limited to its time and community. Through it we are escorted to front row seats in the arena of redemptive history to observe God’s drama of salvation at one of its critical junctures: the return of God’s presence and people to the temple, city, and land. This restoration will set in motion a complex of events that will eventually usher in the era of Christ and the church. This future era is intimated in the promise of the nations entering into covenant relationship with God.
We often forget that the church era was inaugurated in Jerusalem among a restoration community. The Feast of Pentecost brought Jews from far off countries. When God poured out his Spirit on that day, the apostle Peter stood up and cited Joel 2:28–32, a prophecy that speaks of the return of the remnant from exile: “On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls” (2:32). The church begins within a community returning from exile on whom the Spirit falls. This community that experienced God’s presence through the filling of the Spirit is the community that is to be sent out empowered by that Spirit to bear witness to the gospel among the nations (Acts 1:8). In this way, then, this oracle shapes our behavior as the people of God.
Experiencing God’s redemptive action. We cannot ignore the vigorous language at the outset of the oracle as the prophet calls his community to flee, to escape their land of captivity. The focus here is not on moral contamination; that is, the prophet is not saying come out and be separate from the evil Babylonians. Rather, the focus is on response to God’s redemptive act; that is, God has broken the power of the oppressor and has thus freed them from captivity. They must now exercise that freedom. They have longed for this for seventy years (Zech. 1:12), and God has now accomplished it; they must act on that.
Similarly, God in Christ has broken the power of the oppressor for his community and invites them to escape bondage. This freedom has many dimensions in the new covenant era, foundationally liberation from sin in all of its dimensions: personal, social, and spiritual. We who were born in our own “Babylon,” a world of sin dominated by the prince of the power of the air, are saved by God’s act of grace and called his “workmanship” (Eph. 2). We are invited to enter a new life in a new kingdom in Christ.
But the lives of many Christians and their communities do not always show evidence of the liberation God has provided for his people. There are many reasons for this. (1) There is the ongoing effect of sin. We live between the times, that is, between Christ’s first and second coming. On the cross Christ defeated the power of sin, yet this does not mean that we no longer sin (1 John 1). When I say this, I am not capitulating to sin and saying that dealing with it is not important, only that we await ultimate restoration when Christ returns again. When I speak of sin, I do mean sin both on a personal level and on a corporate level. Sin does transcend the individual to the very systems and structures of our society, and these can keep God’s people in bondage, whether that is due to economics, gender, race, or age.
(2) Related to this first reason is a more psychological one. For some, psychological and relational damage from their past has left scars that last a lifetime.35 Others are even caught in a spiritual morass in which they are reliant on bondage for their sense of well-being.
(3) A third reason why liberation is not always evident is simply theological immaturity. I am not speaking here of whether a person has an academic theological degree, but whether a person has a solid grasp of the Bible’s teaching on salvation in all of its dimensions. This is the problem that Paul addresses in the church at Rome, especially as he repeats the question: “Do you not know?” (Rom. 6:3, 17; 7:1).
Zechariah 2:6–13 offers hope to those who are still caught in bondage. God considers his people the “apple of his eye,” a term of endearment, and has broken the forces that oppress them. He now urges them to experience this freedom as they enter his presence, to live in light of the freedom that God has accomplished through Christ as they walk in step with the Spirit. Such freedom will mean revisiting the reason for one’s bondage and responding appropriately, whether that is confession of sin, godly counseling, or theological grounding (cf. comments above). All of these highlight the importance of a community of faith that has and is experiencing God’s presence and power in their midst.
Celebrating God’s redemptive presence. Experiencing God’s redemption is one legitimate form of application for this passage of Scripture. The people are to respond to God’s redemption by escaping from their bondage. The second half of Zech. 2:6–13 adds other responses to this initial one as the prophet calls the people to celebrate God’s redemption. This celebration is based on the return of God into their midst.
God’s presence, identified as the fulfillment of the promise of relationship to Abraham (Gen. 17) and the goal of the great act of redemption at the Red Sea (Ex. 40), is now the outcome of God’s great act of restoration. The ultimate expression of this presence is seen in Christ who “tabernacled” among us (John 1:14). In him the Lord climactically “roused himself from his holy dwelling.” This same Christ sent the Spirit of God to indwell his community (Acts 2; 1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21).
Because of this presence God’s people are prompted to respond in two ways. (1) They are drawn to “shout and be glad,” to rejoice in the presence of God. Today, the church rejoices because of God’s expression of himself in the Incarnation and because of the ongoing presence of the Spirit in their midst. Worship as one expression of this joy is the natural response of a people redeemed from bondage and experiencing the presence of their God.
(2) But Zech. 2:13 accents another human response in worship: “Be still before the LORD,” a response linked to God’s holiness (cf. Hab. 2:20). Certainly we are encouraged to celebrate God’s redemption with joyful shouts and songs, but sometimes it is easy to forget that we are worshiping the holy and awesome God of the universe and need to “worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28–29).
Our worship in the church today should be shaped by this prophetic oracle. We need an approach that balances the transcendence of God with his imminence, that is, the exaltedness of God above all his creation with the nearness of God within his creation. Furthermore, we need an approach that balances exuberant and expressive praise with quiet and reflective worship rather than juxtaposing these between traditions and even services within a single church.
Embracing God’s redemptive plan. The church cannot ignore one final aspect in this passage. This oracle balances the call to God’s community to “escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4), but also to embrace God’s redemptive plan for the world. It is not difficult to appreciate the fear of a people, recently freed from the bondage of their exile in Babylon, to return to a state of subjection. This is this same fear that often has shaped the ministry of the church and limited its impact within its society and world.
This prompts several key questions. What is the goal of our church’s ministry? In what ways do we limit the availability of our members to become active contributors to our society? Do our vision and preaching support those who live “among the nations,” whether in the workplace or the neighborhood, in the university or the government? There is understandable fear that the church will lose its identity among the nations, but the call of Jesus is to go because he is with them always (Matt. 28:18–20).
The movie The Legend of 1900 tells the story of a long-forgotten piano prodigy named “Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900” (1900 for short). A poor family on their way to the United States as immigrants leaves their baby in the ballroom of the luxury liner The Virginian, on which they are traveling in third class, in the hope that a rich couple will find the baby and adopt him as their own. Instead, an engine room worker finds the baby, and the child grows up on the ship. This child possesses a remarkable ear for music and soon captivates audiences aboard The Virginian with music “that’s never been heard before.” His talents come to the attention of the great jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton, who challenges 1900 to a piano contest. Morton describes him this way: “I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about a guy . . . he’s supposed to have been born on this ship, and never been off it since.” But even after 1900 humiliates Morton, he refuses to leave the ship.
The Virginian transports thousands of Italian immigrants from Italy to New York, who leave the ship to begin their new life in America—but not 1900, for he remains aboard. His good friend, the trumpet player Max, encourages him to “leave this ship, marry a nice woman, and have children . . . all those things in life that are not immense, but are worth the effort,” but to no avail. 1900 refused to leave.
In the closing encounter between 1900 and Max, the piano legend recounts the moment in his life when he stood on the gangplank of the ship and gazed out at the streets of New York, which appeared to spread out for infinity. He concludes: “I was born on this ship and the whole world passed me by . . . a thousand people at a time.”
At times I wonder if we do not face a similar challenge in the church. Overwhelmed by the streets of our culture, the villages of our globe that seem to go on for infinity, we are content to allow the world to pass us by from the safe vantage point of our pew. Using the metaphor of the vision of Zechariah 2:1–5, we build walls around our city, providing safety for the community but shutting out the nations. These walls are often laudable activities in our churches. Many churches today are filled with programs that are exciting and relevant. But such internal programming can often stifle the involvement of our church (both on the individual and corporate level) in the life of our surrounding community, nation, and world.
As a pastor leading a ministry team, I was forced one summer to count the number of programs in our ministry area of the church. The number was astounding, and I had to admit that I was successfully capturing the attention of my parishioners but was simultaneously stripping them of any opportunity to reach out to their friends and family. Furthermore, as we sought to support these many ministries, we were starving funding and personnel for ministries that took place outside the walls of the church building, but also in more needy areas of our nation and world. Thus, we began the painful process of evaluating the many internal programs with an openness to reducing the number of ministries. At the same time, however, it remains important to encourage, empower, and enable God’s people to live faithfully within their surrounding community in word and deed.
Another way that we build walls around our communities of faith is by focusing our attention on one target group at the exclusion of others. Although this can be helpful (and necessary) to reach an unreached group within our local communities, too much fixation on one particular group may set a tone of exclusion within the community of faith. Sometimes God surprises us as he brings an unexpected person (and often then group) into our lives or church.
One church I know noticed the emergence of several Cambodian families at their church, all of whom could be traced back to one or two families who had come a few years prior. This trend forced them to reflect deeply on what God was doing in their church, and as a result they were able to expand their vision and mission to support what they had discerned to be a new work of God in their midst. Such support led to great fruit not only within this church community but also within the larger body as they have been enriched by the presence of these believers.
Zechariah 2:6–13 reminds us of God’s passion for the nations, a passion that informed his purposes for his people from the outset of redemptive history and climaxed in the revelation of his Son Jesus Christ and the community he established. Of course, this impact on the nations is possible only for the community that has been redeemed from the bondage of sin and cultivates God’s presence in its midst through worship.