The Optimism of Faith
J. G. Greenhough, M. A. Zechariah 2:1-4 I lifted up my eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.… Zechariah was the most uniformly hopeful of all the prophets. He was a young man. His little book is the work of a youthful imaginative mind, richly endowed with poetic gifts, as well as steeped in the diviner fount of inspiration. He saw all things bathed in the glory of the morning. The time in which he wrote was near the end of the Babylonian captivity. The prophet draws one picture after another of the glorious things which were nigh. Here the prophet sees a young man going with a measuring line in his hand, and asks "Whither? To measure Jerusalem," is the answer, and straightway he marches on. Then the angels appear, and one says to the other, "Go after that young man, and tell him that his measuring line is too short. Jerusalem will expand beyond all boundaries and all measurements, because of the number of people in it. Tell him that he is going to measure the immeasurable." This allegory contains these two Gospel truths. 1. Faith realises that which does not exist. 2. These Divine things which faith realises are so great that even faith cannot measure them. I. FAITH REALISES THAT WHICH IS TO BE. This young man was going to do an apparent absurdity. He was going to measure a city which had not yet been built. All the practical, materialistic, matter-of-fact people of the world would call that the very climax of folly. The Gospel of common sense says, Let us have no illusions. Give us facts, for anything which is not built upon facts is foolishness. Our religion indulges throughout in this foolishness, if foolishness it may be called. Faith realises the city that is not yet built., grasps coming events as though they were already present. All the best and greatest men and women that have ever been upon this earth have lived and moved and had their being in what was called a world of dreams, a world, that is, of fair, sweet hopes, of treasures and of glories that had not yet been created. Illustrated by Abraham, David, etc. It is the source and secret of all our strength and confidence, that where other eyes see only imperfections, we see a city of God which He will most assuredly build. II. THESE DIVINE THINGS WHICH FAITH REALISES BEFORE THEY COME INTO EXISTENCE ARE SO GREAT THAT EVEN FAITH CANNOT MEASURE THEM. The angel speaks to the young man, to rebuke him for the presumption of thinking that he can measure the city — it is immeasurable. We cannot measure anything that God builds. You cannot gauge moral influences or tabulate spiritual forces. There is no plummet that can sound the depths of love Divine. You could have measured Giant Goliath, but you could not have measured the faith and the courage of the young man who came up to meet him in the name of the Lord. Illustrated from the company carried by the Mayflower; or by comparing the French Revolution with the beginning of missionary enterprise. You cannot measure the Church, the Church of Christ. It is infinitely broader, larger, stronger, than the most flattering statistics show. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. WEB: I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.