New Jerusalem
A picture of the triumph of Jerusalem over all the surrounding people but what exactly might Zechariah mean by ‘Jerusalem’?
He may be thinking of Jerusalem as a city or as a symbol of everything that Jerusalem stood for in the context in which he was working, much as we might refer to Hollywood or Moscow. Think of it therefore as a collective noun for the triumph of those values which Yahweh, the Jews, Zechariah and his colleagues represented and stood for in the light of their history, where they had come from and what they had always striven for.
The specific values they treasured may not resonate easily with the world we live in. Christianity long ago added a dimension Zechariah could never have contemplated, and in the last 50 years in Europe the exclusivity of the Judaeo-Christian tradition and the hitherto unquestioned western values developed in the years of Reformation and Enlightenment no longer have universal acclaim. Better to begin where we are and to focus our hopes on those ultimate values which today we regard as crucial. What are they? Where do we find them and how we can establish them? When we do we may notice that some of their roots lie deep in those earlier traditions of which Zechariah and his contemporaries were only too well aware.
For example, coming to terms with the totality of creation and the place of humanity within it (v 1). Surrounding forces (ie other nations) may well lay siege to the values (ie Jerusalem) but can never conquer them or destroy them. Those who try to destroy them will only finish up destroying themselves like people suffering hernias from trying to lift something beyond their strength (v 3). The enemy will panic and go mad but the people (if not the chiefs) will come to see the superiority of what we stand for (vv 4-5). At the same time we may have to recognise that Jerusalem (ie the values) cannot succeed in isolation. Support may be needed from quarters previously ignored or rejected if we are to achieve our objectives and the day will come when we, like Jerusalem, have to come to terms with the fact that we will never supersede those other forces which will continue to have their own identity (vv 6-7).