“The Prophets of God Helping Them”
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returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My house shall be built in it, ...
and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.”
Zechariah 1:12-16
.
The prophet was now directed to predict, “Thus saith the Lord of
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hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the
Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.”
Verse
17
.
Zechariah then saw the powers that had “scattered Judah, Israel,
and Jerusalem,” symbolized by four horns. Immediately afterward he
saw four carpenters, representing the agencies used by the Lord in
restoring His people and the house of His worship. See
verses 18-21
.
“I lifted up mine eyes again,” Zechariah said, “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.”
Zechariah 2:1-5
.
God had commanded that Jerusalem be rebuilt; the vision of the
measuring of the city was an assurance that He would give comfort
and strength to His afflicted ones, and fulfill to them the promises of
His everlasting covenant. His protecting care, He declared, would be
like “a wall of fire round about;” and through them His glory would be
revealed to all the sons of men. That which He was accomplishing for
His people was to be known in all the earth. “Cry out and shout, thou
inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee.”
Isaiah 12:6
.
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