SUMMARY
God sends measurers, messengers, and flying scrolls to ready the land for God’s residence among the people.
ANALYSIS
In the third vision, God sends a contractor to prepare to measure Jerusalem. As on home remodeling shows, the first bit of the remodel of the HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine City is to knock out walls and open up the floorplan. Jerusalem will be inhabited as an open area (not cramped or crowded) and will not have physical walls. God will be the wall of fire on all sides to protect the city. Into this recently remodeled home, God will invite Daughter ZionZion originally referred to a mountain near Jerusalem where David conquered a Jebusite stronghold. Later the term came to mean a number of other things like the Temple, Jerusalem, and even the Promised Land. to return. God does not want the Israelites to form friendships that are too permanent with the Daughter of Babylon, but to come home. God issues a statement beloved of those who have lived in Jerusalem over the centuries: “Truly, one who touches you touches the apple of my eye!” The Holy City is treated as a part of God’s own body, whose abuse God will certainly not tolerate. God assures the people, “I will come and dwell in your midst.”
But as in the days of the wilderness community, God dwelling in the midst of the people requires holiness on the part of the people. A flying scroll with commands on both sides will enter the homes of people who lie and steal, and will demolish those homes from within and carry away the guilty. This scroll echoes the house-searching of the destroying angel that passed over Egypt in the Exodus narrative (Exodus 12:12-13). These two visions prepare the way for the return to God’s daily presence among the people.
