Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/78

 ssed to Jerusalem) " shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me " (" make room ") " that I may dwell," so that the limits of the city and the land shall be ever wider extended, and Jerusalem shall resemble a succession of " villages " on the open plains.

II. But a promise much greater than mere outward enlargement and material prosperity follows in the 5th verse: " For /, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory (or for glory ) in the midst of her." This is one of the most beautiful and com prehensive promises in the Old Testament. It contains an assurance of protection though inhabited as " villages " in an open plain, without visible walls or fortifications, it shall be " a strong city " and perfectly safe from all attacks and danger; for not only will Jehovah in that day " appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks" (Isa. xxvi. i), but He; Himself (the " I " in ver. 5 being very emphatic) will be a wall of fire " as an inner circle " of perfect defence to those within, but for sure destruction to enemies who shall dare to approach from without.

And as He shall be her protection from without, so shall He be her glory from within, for " Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory"

(Isa. Ix. 19); and what is said of the heavenly Jerusalem shall, in a degree, be true also in that day of the restored earthly city, " The glory of the Lord shall lighten it, and the Lamb shall be the lamp thereof" (Rev. xxi. 23).

But it might be as well, before proceeding further, to pause and inquire if there is any truth in the assertion that this promise has already been fulfilled, and to make quite sure that it is of the literal Jerusalem that these beautiful words are primarily spoken; for there are some interpreters who even deny this. Thus Pusey (whose otherwise devout and scholarly work on the Minor Prophets is vitiated by the so-called spiritualising method which seeks persistently to explain away even the plainest prophecies about Jerusalem, and applies every promise to " the Church/ while it carefully leaves the curses to the Jews), after