Context No. 2671 of 4322 · Zechariah
Context · Reflection
Zechariah 2:6-13: in context
6Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says the LORD; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says the LORD. 7‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ 8For the LORD of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. 9For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me. 10Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says the LORD. 11Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you. 12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
Zechariah calls the exiles to come home from Babylon, and in the middle of the summons God says something startling about how he regards his people: he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. To harm them is to jab a finger into the pupil of God's own eye, the most tender and guarded part of the body. And he promises to come and dwell among them, so that even many nations will join themselves to the LORD.
The apple of the eye. It is hard to imagine a more tender image of how God regards his people. The pupil is the part we protect instinctively, flinching at the smallest threat to it; and God says that is how sensitive he is to what touches his own. We do not usually think of ourselves as that precious to God, that closely guarded. But this is his own word: to touch his people is to touch his eye. It should change both how I see my own worth to him and how I treat others who are equally the apple of his eye. What is done to them registers with God as instantly as a threat to his own sight.
Do I know that I am the apple of God's eye, precious and closely guarded, and do I treat others, equally precious to him, with that awareness?
Sources
- Zechariah 2:8: for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.
- Zechariah 2:10: Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you, says the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 32:10: He kept him as the apple of his eye.