Zechariah 2

God continues giving Zechariah visions of what He wants so much to do for Judah. The prophet sees a figure bearing a measuring line heading up the valley toward the city. Zechariah asks where he is going, and the surveyor replies he is about to measure the city’s new layout. At that time, the angel who had been speaking with Zechariah went out to meet another coming from somewhere else. The new arrival instructs the first to tell the prophet God plans to cause such a rapid expansion of population in the city there would be no point in building a wall, something the residents were hoping to do some day. Instead, God Himself would be a wall of fire about the people, protecting them from any possible harm.
So the Lord calls to those still in Babylon — popularly referred to as the Northland, since it was very long trip north just to reach the old Babylonian borders on the Upper Euphrates River. The Lord calls for those still living there to flee back to Judah. The cryptic warning regards an uprising by the old Babylonian nobility against their Persian rulers. They would be crushed, of course, because they dared to harm the people of Judah. He refers to it as daring to poke the center of His eye, something painful and unforgettable.
If the rest of the people come home and embrace afresh the Covenant, they can be sure God Himself will return to live in the Temple: His shekeinah glory would return. Then the people would realize Zechariah wasn’t just spouting wild demented dreams. If only the people would return in flesh and in spirit to obeying His Word.