Zech 2:4   Run, tell that young man, `Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it.

          

Zechariah is a fairly small book of prophecies given in the period while Jerusalem was being rebuilt after the Exile. This is a word apparently spoken by one angel to another about Zechariah. Remember, this is a time when only a remnant have come back to the city and they are, no doubt, still smarting under the pain of history. Their beloved city had been burnt to the ground and they had been cast into exile by the Lord. Possibly some of them were questioning whether they really had a future.

Was this enterprise of rebuilding the walls of the city a fruitless exercise because they had no king and they were still under the dominion of another nation, so what was the point? It is into this context that this word comes. (It is helpful sometimes in Scripture to try to think your way into the minds of the people of that day to try to understand  the nature of the day.)

 

Here they are rebuilding the walls and the Lord's angel says that Jerusalem will be a city without walls! Hullo? What does that mean? Well, why was it to be without walls? Answer: “because of the great number of men and livestock in it.” In other words it will so flourish that the existing walls will not be able to contain the people and their possessions. Wow! This is a word of great encouragement.

When a time of revival next comes to the church, that same word will come to us: your building will be a building without walls because of the number of people who the Lord will draw to Himself! It is a picture of abundant blessing that is so overflowing that its boundaries have been removed. Can we believe for such a time to come when the Lord so moves that the Church expands and expands? Can we pray for such a thing to happen? And if we can believe such a thing could happen, can we work towards such a goal, building Church with anticipation of having moved under the direction of the Lord, we will receive His blessing and fruitfulness?