Today in God's Word—December 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
December 19, Zechariah 2
Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the LORD. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the LORD. Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.
- Zechariah 2:6-7
In Zechariah's day, some of the Jews had returned from Babylon to Palestine and were rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and their lives. But many more of the displaced Israelites were still back in Babylon. After seven decades and a couple of generations had passed, many Jews were content to stay in the land of their captivity.
The image of the measuring line appears in other prophecies and places in the Bible. It sometimes depicts judgment, as in the sense of measuring people or nations by God's standard and finding them flawed. But another way God used the figure of the measuring line is to suggest the immeasurable dimensions of God's plan. The vision of the man with the measuring line in Chapter 2 taught the Jews that God's plan was still on track. God would still bless them and the other nations of the world through Messiah. The coming kingdom would be more glorious and expansive than anything they could ever imagine. God would place his glory among them in a new way far beyond the Shekinah glory that signified his presence in the ancient tabernacle.
God was going to pour out his wrath on Babylon. He admonished his people who remained among the Babylonians to get out before it was too late. God showed his grace to the covenant people by giving them a way to leave their captivity and return home. They could enjoy the blessings he promised to his chosen ones instead of suffering and dying with their captors. The Babylonians would soon experience God's wrath for mistreating the people who were the apple of God's eye.
The ESV translates the admonition to get out of Babylon as "Escape." I noticed the KJV reading was "Flee" in verse 6 and "Deliver thyself" in verse 7. God opened the way for them to be blessed and favored as his beloved ones. Would they believe his word delivered by his faithful prophet? Would they trust God and do what he told them to do?
This text reminds me (and I trust you as well) of other Bible examples of how God invited people to be saved and admonished them to do what he said to receive the blessing his grace offered them. He saved Noah and his family by his grace from the flood by instructing them to build the ark. He called Lot and his family out of Sodom before he rained fire and brimstone down on the doomed city. When Peter announced the offer of salvation in Christ to the audience on the Day of Pentecost, he exhorted the people that day to "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
From all those cases we learn that trusting God involves more than passive waiting. Those examples teach us that trusting faith is active. Abel, Noah, Abraham and the other great heroes of faith obeyed God.
The Jews who remained in Babylon had to make a decision. God was going to bless his people beyond their ability to comprehend. The blessings would be greater and spread beyond the borders of Jerusalem to many nations. He was going to destroy the Babylonians in his furious anger. Which would they choose?
If the choice seems obvious and you can't imagine how they could make the wrong decision, that's good. Now will you and I apply what we can clearly see about those ancient Jews to ourselves? Will we leave the doomed "Babylon" of this fallen world to be among the richly blessed children of God in Christ? God still calls his people to "come out from among them and be separate." He still promises to show his grace and favor to those who are willing to surrender their will and do his will.
Obedience is not working to save yourself or to earn forgiveness. Obedience is the grateful, willing response of trusting faith to God's grace he offers to us in Christ.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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