MEASURING THE NEW JERUSALEM If in the first vision the Savior appeared in the shadows to prepare the way to salvation for the believers; In the second vision, the gospel of Christ appeared like four “craftsmen” to destroy the hosts of evil; and In the third vision, He reveals to us his plan for the salvation from the true captivity, by setting the new free Jerusalem, in spiritual dimensions that bear the features of the One who dwells in it “the incarnate God”/ 1- Measuring Jerusalem and her glory 1 - 5 2- Fleeing from Babylon 6 - 9 3- Jerusalem and the incarnation 10 – 13 1- MEASURING JERUSALEM AND HER GLORY: The Lord Christ Himself comes forth as a man with a measurement line in His hand, to build His house in us by His Holy Spirit, to conform to His heavenly house seen by the Evangelist St. John – the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 11: 1, 2; 21: 15 etc.). The prophet says: “Then I raised my eyes and looked, ……..”, and repeats this expression in more than one place (1: 18; 2: 1;; 5: 1; 6:1). As this book proclaims the evangelic thought pertaining to the salvation of the world, it was not possible for the prophet Zechariah to perceive it unless he raises his inner eyes up by the spirit of prophecy to see and to perceive the thought of God toward man. This is a call directed to us all, to raise our eyes by the Holy Spirit, so that our perceptions would not stop at the limit of the letter, but enters into the life-giving secrets of God, to watch His salvation works; things not perceived by eyes covered by the dust of this world. “behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand(1). This man is most probably the Word of God who, for our sake became Man. The same One, the prophet previously saw as a Rider on a red horse, standing in the shadow among the myrtle trees (1: 8), came now to set the building plan of His holy church. St. Dedymus the blind says: [It is the Savior Lord to whom the prophet Zechariah refers by saying: “Here is the Man whose name is the Branch, and He will branch out from His place and build the temple of the Lord” (6: 12 – the Septuagint version). He is the true Light about whom St. John the Baptist says “This was He of whom I said: ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me” (John 1: 15). He is the Builder of Jerusalem, who laid the foundation as a divine Architect. Jerusalem which was destroyed by the enemies who put her under siege; Here He comes to measure her length and width to lay the foundations on which the walls are to be set, in order and harmony. On this city which was anticipated by all who pleased God by their faith, the apostle Paul says: “The city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrew 11: 10); and also according to the prophet Ezekiel: “I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze, He was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in His hand” (Ezekiel 40: 3) In the book of Revelation we see the holy temple and the altar measured by “a reed like a measuring rod……..And the angel said, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God………….; but leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it” (Revelation 11: 1, 2). By this, our Lord Jesus intends to confirm to us that the true children of God who are sanctified to Him, are kept by Him and known to Him ; whereas those outside faith, are left out and are not measured, because they are not worthy of being known by Him………..; hence He rebukes them, saying: “I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from” (Luke 13: 27). “The measuring reed” is golden (Revelation 21: 15); namely heavenly; for the spiritual and heavenly things would not be measured except by what is spiritual. What is the spiritual “measuring line” or “measuring reed”, held by our divine Architect to build the holy Jerusalem, but the holy cross formed of two boards: one vertical and the other horizontal. By this cross He measures the dimensions of His holy city in us. …….“He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” (2). On the horizontal board of the cross, the Lord Christ spread His hands to embrace the Jews by one, and the Gentiles by the other; to bring all together as one in Him.. According to St. Erinaos: [He, in whom all are gathered, was hanged on a tree]. And according to St. Athanasius: [It was befitting of the Lord to spread His hands, to embrace by one the old people, and the Gentiles by the other, to unify them together in Him].. This is the “width of the New Jerusalem”. It is befitting of the believer to bear the feature of his crucified Savior, and to spread his hands by love to embrace all mankind as his brethren. On the vertical board, the body of the Lord was nailed above the earth, to fulfill His promise: “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12: 32), to reconcile God the Father with man in His crucified body. According to St. Hippoletus: [The cross is Jacob’s ladder. That tree with its heavenly dimensions: which was lifted up from the earth to reach heaven; has set itself eternally between heaven and earth, to lift the world up]. This is the length of the new Jerusalem; where it is befitting of us to be nailed together with Him on the tree to receive the opening of heaven to the earth, and the lifting up of the earth to heaven. The dimensions of our new Jerusalem: Its width, is opening our hearts wide for everyone; and its length is opening it on heaven. In other words, it is the practice of the commandment of love in our Lord Jesus Christ, love for all mankind in the heavenly God. Zechariah continues his talk by saying: “And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (3-5). How a joyful vision to the heart, that reveals the work of God with us: (1) Sending the angels; one after the other; who talk about our Jerusalem; the dwelling place of God with men. In the book of Revelation we see the angels in continuous movement, proclaiming their longing for the ultimate day, the day of the harvest of the earth (Revelation 14: 15-20); longing to see the bride, crowned with glory with her Groom. The first angel probably refers to the heavenly creatures, anticipating the fulfillment of the prophecies to rejoice in the salvation of man, and his return to their fellowship in their liturgies and songs of praise to God. The second angel refers to them, coming out in the new covenant, rejoicing in the fulfillment of what they have anticipated. (2) By “the young man” here, he most probably refers to the prophet Zechariah, or to the believer in a general way. To partake of humanity, the Lord Jesus became a fetus, a child, a young man, then a grown-up man; but not an old man according to the flesh; to keep His bride (the church) perpetually in a renewable spiritual youth, without getting into the frailty and weakness of old age; so that everyone of its members would sing saying: “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4: 16); “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40: 31); and, “Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103: 5). According to St. Dedymus the blind: [The godly man, in the sight of angels of God, is a “young man”, particularly when he puts on the new man, “for even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right” (Proverb 20: 11); and according to John: “I have written to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you; and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2: 14). Whoever is a young man in spirit would receive the teachings of the angel who is sent to reveal to him the proclamations we see in the rest of the prophecy. (3) He reveals to us the dimensions of the new church, saying: “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it” (4); It will be without a material wall; for it is the city of love without limit, in which the soul bears the kingdom of God wide with love for all with an inner glorious joy. The multitude of men and livestock in it refers to the sanctification of the soul with limitless energies, and the sanctification of the body that was carnal, with limitless new possibilities. Our inner Jerusalem will be wide enough to accommodate all men, through the sanctification of the soul and the body together, with all their possibilities and talents. (4)If our inner Jerusalem is like a town without material walls; but it has a unique wall: “For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire all around her” (5); the wall of fire that was sent by the Only begotten Son from God the Father, after His ascension; to dwell upon the disciples in the form of tongues of fire on the day of the Pentecost, to surround the church on all sides, to keep her safe against every evil arrow, and to ignite her with the continuous warmth of the Spirit ; hence the believer would sing: “By my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18: 29); “The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27: 1). According to St. Jerome: [The enemies put me under siege; they aimed their fiery arrows toward my heart; but the divine wall of fire that surround me will devour and quench the fire of evil; the way Moses’ rod that became a serpent that devoured the serpents of the magicians. Therefore, instead of the deadly fire of evil, our heart will be ignited by the holy divine fire (Ezekiel 38- 11, 12).. God is a wall of fire all around us, ignites our heart with the fire of love, to keep us from becoming like those about whom is said: “The love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24: 12) By such a divine wall, therefore, “You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwell without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’ – to take plunder, and to take booty” (Ezekiel 38: 11, 12) (1) “For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire all around her’” (5). If the Lord Christ is the high-priced pearl which we acquire in us, His wall of fire all around us, will keep anyone from looking hard at this glittering pearl inside us, because of its exalted beauty and radiations; its splendor will be our splendor; its glory will be to our account; saying to us, as the Lord said to His bride: “you were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you’, says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 16: 13, 14). 2- FLEEING FROM BABYLON: If God, by Himself, measured the city and surrounded it by His holy Spirit, as a wall of fire; and transfigured in it by His glory; He did all that to motivate it more to strive to escape away from every offense, lest it would lose the work of God in it; hence he calls her, saying: “Up, up, flee from the land of the north’, says the Lord” (6) On the literal historical aspect, it is a divine call addressed to those who held fast to the land of captivity because of their personal interests; to flee from Babylon – the land of the north – to the promised land. Here He does not call them by name nor title; on account of that, by holding fast to life of humiliation, they became unworthy of being recognized by God; but on the spiritual aspect, the call is set and perpetual along the generation to every man. As to repeating the call, saying “Up, up”, it refers to that the call is addressed to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles, to flee from the land of captivity by the devil, where the cold wind of the north blows (Wisdom of Joshua 43: 20), and quenches the flame of love in the heart; to go, not to another land, but to heaven -- the spirit -- through the fire of the Holy Spirit, that takes her away from the land of the north, and brings her from glory to glory, into the bosom of the Father in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a repeated call to the rich and the poor, to man and woman, to forsake the land of evil, its dust and mire, and return, by the Holy Spirit, to the divine sanctuaries; According to St. Dedymus the blind, it means: [Flee from evil; or “Depart from evil and do good” (Psalm 34: 14); and, “Cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1: 16); something that could be realized by following the counsel of the apostle Paul, saying: “Test all things, hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5: 21); for whoever holds fast to what is good, and intends to consummate it, would flee from evil. For, if God has ‘spread them abroad like the four winds of heaven’, He calls them, saying:, ‘Up, up Zion, escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon‘” (6), because of their evil, He calls them now to forsake their places of dwelling, and to set forth to Zion, to enjoy salvation. Here, it is noticed: (1) God intends for us to set forth from Babylon, which means (confusion), to enter into Zion, where inner peace, and life of joy and songs of praise are. According to St. Dedymus the blind- [The place of salvation is the holy Zion, where those who used to dwell in the daughter of Babylon would be saved ……… The way the name ‘Babylon’ refers to confusion, whoever has his spirit confused and disturbed, is a Babylonian, and would be committed to change his condition if he intends to return to Zion; for then, he would sing praises, and play on harps to honor God, according to what is written: “Praise, is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; and to You the vow shall be performed” (Psalm 65: 1); and, “Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion; declare His deeds among the people” (Psalm 9: 11). As it would be impossible for us to praise God and to play music to Him while still dwelling in the daughter of Babylon in the north; the Holy Spirit cries out loud: “Up, up, escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon’ to take refuge in Zion, where I would gather you together from the four winds of the earth’. Let us then flee from the confusion of sin, and take refuge in the peace of Zion, where the divine stronghold is, that our souls would be lifted up to enjoy the truth in the righteousness of God; as according to St. Jerome: [As long as we are in the condition of grace, our soul would be in peace; but, once we start to play around with sin, our soul would be in confusion, like a boat struck by the mighty waves]. (2) What are the four winds, allowed to scatter them away from Jerusalem, but the evil spirits left by God to chasten whoever delivers himself by himself to them. The way the apostle Paul condemned the young man who committed evil with his step mother, to be “delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5: 5). If God’s love protects us against the authority of the wicked one; yet, His care allows for us, sometimes, to be delivered to the bitterness of this enemy, to whom we delivered ourselves by ourselves, and received him as our father instead of God the Father (John 8: 44); For then we would, in bitterness, feel our need for the true fatherhood of God. By the winds here he probably means the strange teachings that shake and destroy the soul; which were unable to shake St. John the Baptist; about whom the Lord Christ says: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matthew 11: 7); on which St. Hilary, bishop of Poitier comments, saying: [Did you go out to see someone with no knowledge of God, who responds to the breaths of every unclean spirits?]; or by St. Augustine, saying: [St. John, was certainly, not a reed shaken by the wind; for he did not respond to every teaching wind].; or according to St. Dedymus the blind, saying: [The four winds could be the diverse teaching currents; which could be translated in those who walk with unbefitting minds, into evil thoughts and vain deeds; as according to the apostle Paul: “That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Ephesians 4: 14). By the four winds he may also mean the temptations and tribulations that shake and destroy the souls built upon sand, and not upon rocks. Or it could also refer to the love of the world, and the evil desires of the body that would shake the soul; having known that the figure 4 may refer to these things, in our interpretation of the four horns. (3) It is not enough to flee from Babylon, but we are committed to set forth to Zion; namely, it is not enough to flee from the confusion of evil, but it is befitting of us to take refuge in Zion; namely in the righteousness of Christ our Lord. On the positive aspect, according to the apostle Paul: “you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrew 12: 22 – 24). Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His blood, will bring us forth into His Zion, to make us live on a heavenly level. Finally, Having brought us forth from the captivity of the devil into His divine kingdom; He goes back to punish the devil who humiliated us; saying: “For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. 9 For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me” (8, 9). In our study of some books of the prophets we noticed that God used the Gentiles to chastise His people; but once those are puffed up, He goes back to punish them. By saying: “after glory”, he probably means (after the crucifixion), by which man is brought back from captivity, and God is glorified in him. At the same time, the devil who humiliated the children of God, by the Lord Christ, came to be humiliated without authority over them (Colossians 2: 14, 15). By saying: :”touches the apple of my eye”, he means that the devil who stretched his hand to us, and deprived us of our spiritual insight, his work will get back to him, and his blindness will increase day after day. It is as though, by his increasing evil, he touches the apple of his own eyes until the cup of his blindness is full. This applies as well to man; who, by doing evil against hisneighbor, he touches the apple of his own eyes, to lose his spiritual insight. It is as though, while doing harm to his neighbor’s body, his possessions, or his reputation, he directs his strikes on his own inner eyes. Evil is not confined to losing the inner insight, but extends to losing his whole being, according to the words of the Lord: “they shall become spoil for their servants”. While thinking that he plunders his neighbors, he, himself, will become spoil for his servants. Who are these servants but the senses and emotions of the body, which become out of control because of his evil, and makes him lose every blessing in him. That is what we practically notice; by being stirred up against our neighbors, the evil desires of our bodies are stirred up inside us, and we lose every control over our depths, and the grace of God that grants chastity and purity. 3- JERUSALEM AND THE INCARNATION: If this vision, in which the Lord Christ appears like a Man with a measuring line in his hand, by which to measure in us His new heavenly Jerusalem; fills the soul with gladness, the secret of the true joy is His dwelling in her; saying: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst! says the Lord” (10). According to Fr. John of Cronstadt: [While the feature of sin is disturbance and depression, the feature of the righteousness of Christ is the inner peace and joy]. ………With grief filling their life, the Jews hung their harps upon the willows, and said: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137: 4); And by returning to Zion, they had their joy back, and their life turned into singing praise. According to St. Dedymus the blind: [While, in the time of captivity, the Hebrews were burdened with grief and wailing, on account of that they were forsaken by the Lord, Once they returned to Zion, their spiritual mother, the Lord commands them to sing and rejoice, for He came and dwelt in her midst, in the temple newly rebuilt. Enjoying security, the faithful captives will say: “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Psalm 26: 1). After moaning when they were separated from their homeland, and gone into captivity, it was natural for them to rejoice and exult when they come back, for the Lord, the fountain of joy and exultation came to dwell in their midst. According to St. Augustine, the singing here is not just by the tongue, but by the whole life of man. Joy extends from him who returns from captivity, to his neighbors to draw them together with him to the kingdom of joy; as according to the prophet: :”Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people, and I shall dwell in their midst” (11). Here he speaks about the return of the Gentiles to faith, and their enjoyment, together with the Jewish believers, of the dwelling of God in their midst. ……And lest the Jews would assume that the door of faith is closed before their face, he confirms to them: “And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem” (12). Becoming the new Judah through belonging to Him who came out of the tribe of Judah; and the new Jerusalem, they become the inheritance of the Lord, and the location of His divine choice. Because it may seem impossible in the eyes of many, that the door would be open before all the Gentiles, to enjoy the dwelling of the Lord in their midst ; he adds: “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation” (14). Let every human tongue be silent in fear and awe; for God who proclaimed His care for all humanity along the generations, will do wonder by opening the door of faith before the Gentiles, to seem as though He is aroused to wake humanity up from their sleep.
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