Zechariah: Your King is Coming! - Part 9 - Audio

Bakersfield First Assembly

Zechariah 2:1-13 (NIV) – [1] Then I looked up—and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! [2] I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.” [3] Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him [4] and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. [5] And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’ [6] “Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD. [7] “Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!” [8] For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye— [9] I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me. Zechariah 2:6-8 (TEV) – [6-7] The Lord said to his people, “I scattered you in all directions. But now, you exiles, escape from Babylonia and return to Jerusalem. [8] Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me.” 1. It means passion. “…the love of God towards the faithful is so tender that when they are hurt he burns with so much displeasure, as though one attempted to pierce his eyes. For God cannot otherwise set forth how much and how ardently he loves us, and how careful he is of our salvation, than by comparing us to the apple of his eye.” (John Calvin) Deuteronomy 31:30, 32:9-11 (NIV) – [30] And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel… [9] For the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. [10] In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as THE APPLE OF HIS EYE, [11] like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. 2. It means possession. “The pupil of the eye… as being the object most carefully preserved, is a figure used to denote the dearest possession or good.” (Keil and Delitzsch Commentary) Psalms 17:7-9 (NIV) – [7] Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. [8] Keep me as THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE; hide me in the shadow of your wings [9] from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. 3. It means protection. “The pupil, or aperture, through which rays pass to the retina, is the tenderest part of the eye; the member which we most sedulously guard from hurt as being the dearest of our members; the one which feels most acutely the slightest injury, and the loss of which is irreparable.” (Jaimison, Fausset, Brown Commentary) Proverbs 7:1-3 (NIV) – [1] My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. [2] Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE. [3] Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4. It means reflection. “…signifies the apple or pupil of the eye, literally the ‘little man’ which anyone may see reflected in another person’s eye.” (Synonyms of the Old Testament) “This is a remarkable expression. Any person, by looking into the eye of another, will see his own image perfectly expressed, though in extreme miniature, in the pupil… does not the expression mean that the eye of God is always upon His follower, and that His person is ever impressed on the eye, the notice, attention, providence, and mercy of God?” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary)