Zechariah 2:10 - Meaning and Application

Here is joy proclaimed to the church of God, the daughter of Zion, who had separated herself from the daughter of Babylon. The Jews who had returned were in trouble and danger. Their enemies nearby were hostile, and their friends who stayed in Babylon were cold toward them and did not help. Even so, they are told to sing and rejoice, even in suffering. Those who have regained purity, integrity, and spiritual freedom, even if they have not yet regained outward prosperity, still have reason to sing, give glory to God, and take comfort.

God will have a people among them. If their brothers in Babylon will not come to them, people from other nations will, and Jerusalem and the cities of Judah will be filled again. Many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day, even though they are now far from him and strangers to him. After the captivity, the Jewish nation grew greatly through the addition of converts, who were made part of the nation and shared in all the rights of native Israelites. Paul mentions it as an honor that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, from the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5).

This was a preview of the bringing in of the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, into the Christian church. In that promise and others like it, God was already pointing to their full fulfillment. So it was strange that the Jews in the apostles’ time took offense at what the prophets had promised as a blessing, that many nations would join themselves to the Lord. Just as there had been one law, there would be one gospel for both the foreigner and the native. No matter what nation people come from, when they join themselves to the Lord, they become his people, as dear to him as Israel had ever been. God will own as his people all who deliberately join themselves to him. When many do so, we should look on them with joy, not jealousy. Angels rejoice, and so should the daughter of Zion when many nations join the Lord.

They shall also have his presence among them: “Sing and rejoice, for I am coming.” Those to whom God comes have good reason to rejoice, because he will be their greatest joy. He will not come just for a short visit. He will come to live among them and rule among them: “I will dwell in the midst of you” (Zechariah 2:10), and this is said again (Zechariah 2:11), because it had a double fulfillment.

One fulfillment was in the dedication of the temple, when they regularly kept God’s ordinances there and God showed that he owned them. God dwells among those who have his ordinances carried out in purity, with his power working through them. Afterward, the Jewish church was blessed with these signs of his presence as much as ever. The second fulfillment was in the incarnation of Christ, when the one who promises to dwell among them is shown to be “the Lord whom the Lord of hosts has sent” (Zechariah 2:11). That must be the Lord Jesus, who came and lived in the middle of the Jewish nation, the eternal Word who was made flesh and lived among us. This was the great honor reserved for that nation in its last days, and the promise of it helped preserve them until it happened.

They could not be destroyed while that blessing remained before them. For those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem, the promise was a great comfort and support. When Christ comes and lives among them, they will know that the Lord of hosts has sent him. All true Israelites came to know it. Christ gave enough proof through the miracles he worked that they could have known it. Yet some died in ignorance and unbelief because they would not know it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Their ancient honors and privileges will be restored again (Zechariah 2:12). Canaan will again be a holy land, no longer polluted by sin as it had been before, and no longer profaned by enemies as it had been lately. It will be an enclosed land again, not treated as common ground. Judah will be in that holy land, living there and enjoying its comfort, no longer lost and scattered in Babylon. Judah will be God’s portion, which he delights in, loves, uses in his service, and in which he is glorified. “The Lord’s portion is his people.” God will inherit Judah again as his portion, claim his rights over them, and recover them from those who had taken what belonged to him. He will protect and govern his people as a man guards his inheritance, and he will be at home among them. He will choose Jerusalem again, as he had chosen it before, to place his name there. He will renew and confirm that choice, and keep it as a chosen place until it gives way to the Jerusalem above. Though the election seemed set aside for a time, it will stand.

Here is silence proclaimed to the rest of the world (Zechariah 2:13). The daughter of Zion must sing, but all flesh must be silent. This gives a serious picture of God appearing for the rescue of his people. He is raised up from his holy dwelling, like a man waking from sleep (Psalm 44:23; Psalm 78:65), or like a man who rises with resolve to carry out a task he will finish. Heaven is his holy dwelling above, and from there we should expect him to appear (Isaiah 64:1). His temple is his holy dwelling in this world, and from between the cherubim he shines forth (Psalm 80:1).

He is about to do something unusual, unexpected, and deeply surprising, and to plead the cause of his people, which for a long time had seemed ignored. So there is a wise warning at such a time: “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord.” Before Christ and his grace, let flesh not object to the way he acts. Before God and his providence, the enemies of the church will be silenced, and all evil will be forced to stop speaking. The friends of the church must also be silent. Leave it to God to take his own way. Do not tell him what he should do, and do not argue with him over anything he does. Be still, and know that he is God. Stand still and watch his salvation (Habakkuk 2:20; Zephaniah 1:7).

Quietly accept his holy will, and wait patiently for the outcome, sure that when God rises from his holy dwelling, he will not turn back or sit down again until he has finished his whole work.