The City Without Walls Text: Zechariah 2:1-5
Introduction: Measuring the Impossible
The book of Zechariah is a series of night visions given to a prophet tasked with encouraging a discouraged people. The exiles have returned to Jerusalem, but the glory days seem to be a distant memory. The city is a ruin, the temple is a construction site, and their enemies are heckling them from the sidelines. They are a remnant, a shadow of their former selves, and their ambitions are accordingly small. They are thinking about survival, about rebuilding what was, about putting the old stones back in their proper places. Their vision is limited to the rubble at their feet.
And it is into this constrained and dusty reality that God injects a vision of such expansive glory that it shatters all their categories. This is what God always does. When we are content with measuring our small projects, our manageable expectations, God breaks in and tells us to put away our little tape measures. He is about to do something that cannot be contained by our blueprints. He is going to build a city so vast that walls cannot hold it. He is going to establish a kingdom that will fill the whole earth.
This vision in Zechariah 2 is a foundational text for a robust, optimistic, postmillennial eschatology. It is a promise that the kingdom of God is not a defensive crouch, a holy huddle waiting for evacuation. It is an explosive, centrifugal force, destined to break out of the confines of Old Covenant Israel and flood the nations. What begins as a man trying to measure a city ends with God Himself declaring that He will be the city's protection and its central, radiating glory. This is a vision that stretches from the rubble of post-exilic Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, and it finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the growth of His Church.
We live in an age of evangelical pessimism, where many Christians view the world as a lost cause and the church as a beleaguered fortress. But this vision forbids such a cramped and fearful outlook. God's plans are for explosive growth, for a city teeming with such multitudes that walls become an absurdity. This is not a picture of retreat; it is a picture of global conquest through the gospel of grace.
The Text
Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there was a man with a measuring cord in his hand. So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is." And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him and said to him, "Run, speak to that young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. Indeed I,' declares Yahweh, 'will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.' "
(Zechariah 2:1-5 LSB)
Human Measurements (v. 1-2)
The vision begins with a very practical, human-scaled activity.
"Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there was a man with a measuring cord in his hand. So I said, 'Where are you going?' And he said to me, 'To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.'" (Zechariah 2:1-2)
Zechariah sees a man with a measuring cord. This is the work of a surveyor, a city planner, an architect. His intention is good and sensible. After the previous vision, which dealt with the removal of the Gentile horns that had afflicted Judah, the natural next step is to rebuild. And before you can rebuild, you must take stock. You have to measure the foundations, survey the boundaries, and draw up the plans. This is what Nehemiah would do later under the cover of night, inspecting the broken-down walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:13-15).
The man's goal is to determine the dimensions of Jerusalem, "to see how wide it is and how long it is." This represents the best of human intentions. It is the spirit of the returned exiles. "Let us rebuild the city of our fathers. Let us restore what was lost. Let us make Jerusalem what it once was." Their vision is retrospective. They are trying to get back to the glory of Solomon's day. They are measuring the ruins to replicate the past.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this impulse. It is pious. It is orderly. But it is entirely too small. God is about to interrupt this reasonable, well-intentioned project with a plan that is gloriously unreasonable. The man with the measuring line represents our tendency to limit God to the scope of our own experiences and expectations. We look at the current state of the church, we see the rubble of Christendom around us, and we think our task is to measure the foundations and perhaps, if we are optimistic, rebuild the old walls to their previous height. But God's intention is not restoration; it is resurrection. It is not reconstruction; it is a new creation.
Divine Interruption (v. 3-4)
Just as the surveyor sets about his work, there is a flurry of angelic activity. The divine plan interrupts the human plan.
"And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him and said to him, 'Run, speak to that young man, saying, "Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it."'" (Zechariah 2:3-4 LSB)
The interpreting angel who has been guiding Zechariah is met by another angel with an urgent message. The urgency is highlighted by the command: "Run!" This is not a casual update. This is a paradigm-shifting, blueprint-shredding bulletin from the throne room of God. The message is for "that young man," which could refer to Zechariah himself, or to the man with the measuring line. In either case, it is a message for the generation of builders.
And what is the message? "Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls." The reason? Because of the "multitude of men and cattle within it." The city God intends to build will be so overflowing with life, so packed with people and livestock, a sign of immense prosperity, that walls would be a hindrance, not a help. They would be a straitjacket on a growing giant.
In the ancient world, a city without walls was no city at all. It was a deathtrap, a vulnerable village, an open invitation to any passing marauder. Walls meant security, identity, and strength. To say that the future Jerusalem would have no walls was to say something utterly counter-intuitive. It would be like a shipbuilder proposing a ship with no hull. But God's logic is not our logic. The city's population will explode. The growth will be so immense, so dynamic, that it cannot be contained. This is a prophecy of gospel success. It is a promise that the people of God will grow from a remnant into a vast, international multitude.
This is the New Covenant reality breaking into the Old. The physical Jerusalem, with its stone walls, was a type. The reality, the antitype, is the Church of Jesus Christ, the New Jerusalem. The Church is not defined by ethnic boundaries or geographic limits. Her citizenship is heavenly, and her growth is global. The gospel cannot be walled in. It is destined to spill over the old boundaries and fill the earth. "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2). This is that city. Its growth is not incremental; it is exponential.
God's Own Defense and Glory (v. 5)
If the city has no walls, what about its defense? If it is an open, sprawling metropolis, what protects it from its enemies? God answers this question directly and magnificently.
"Indeed I,' declares Yahweh, 'will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.'" (Zechariah 2:5 LSB)
Here is the heart of the vision. The city does not need stone walls because it has a divine wall. Yahweh Himself will be its perimeter. And what kind of wall will He be? A "wall of fire." This image hearkens back to the pillar of fire that protected Israel in the wilderness, a guide for the people and a terror to their enemies (Exodus 13:21-22). It is a picture of absolute, unbreachable, terrifying, holy protection. Who would dare attack a city encircled by God Himself as a wall of consuming fire?
This is the security of the New Covenant church. Our safety does not lie in political maneuvering, in cultural fortresses, or in demographic majorities. Our protection is the presence of the living God. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The world may rage, and the rulers may plot, but the Church of Jesus Christ is indestructible because her guardian is the Almighty.
But God is not only the circumference of the city; He is also its center. "And I will be the glory in her midst." The glory of God, the Shekinah, that once filled the tabernacle and the temple, will not just reside in a stone building at the city's center. He will be the glory in the midst of His people. The city's ultimate reality, its defining characteristic, its central treasure, is the manifest presence of God Himself.
This is what makes the city desirable. People are not drawn to stone walls; they are drawn to the presence of the living God. The nations will flow to this city not because of its architecture, but because God is there (Isaiah 2:3). This is the great promise of the gospel age: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). God dwells not in temples made with hands, but in the midst of His people by His Spirit.
Conclusion: Put Away Your Measuring Cords
This vision is a direct assault on every form of small-minded, defensive, and pessimistic Christianity. The man with the measuring cord represents our natural inclination to cut God's promises down to a manageable size. We want a faith that fits within the lines of our past experiences. We want a church that can be neatly organized and protected by our programs and traditions, our little stone walls.
But God comes to us and says, "Run! Tell that man to put his tape measure away. The city I am building is a global city. The family I am gathering is an international family. The growth will be so explosive that your walls will only get in the way." This is the promise of the Great Commission. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). This is the promise that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
The security for this boundless city is not in its own strength, but in the fiery presence of God surrounding it. And the attraction of this city, the reason the nations will stream to it, is the glory of God dwelling within it. Our task, therefore, is not to be surveyors of ruins, trying to rebuild a bygone era. Our task is to be bold citizens of this city without walls. We are to live in such a way that the glory of God in our midst is visible to the watching world.
We are to be so confident in our wall of fire that we are not afraid to live in an open city, engaging the culture with grace and truth, welcoming strangers, and proclaiming the gospel without fear. God is building His city. It is growing, and it will continue to grow until it fills the earth. Do not be discouraged by what your eyes see. Lift up your eyes, as Zechariah did, and see what God has promised. He is our defense, He is our glory, and His kingdom knows no bounds.