Zechariah 2:8-9
For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: “Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me."
Expositional constancy is the suggestion that symbols and idioms in the Bible are used consistently. It's a form of preaching that has advantages and disadvantages. When taken as a hard rule, rather than as a guideline, expositional constancy becomes a form of reading into the word of God the things one wants it to say. I think it would be better to trust the text, not just spiritualizing every text with what they seem to represent, but instead seeing consistently from explanations within the text that these things are being said of them. For instance, "the field" typically represents the world. And "the seed" represents the word of God. And "the birds" are often unbelievers and God's enemies. And "oil" represents the Holy Spirit.
Now of course birds are not always enemies. And sometimes oil is just oil. But if a biblical text uses allegory, it will usually explain itself from within that text. And so, we should trust the word to enlighten us clearly and be sure to use discernment and not just lean on what we want that text to say for effect. This is one reason why so many extrabiblical scriptures are NOT included in the cannon of scripture. These texts are often filled with far too many unexplained and frankly unlikely allusions and allegory.
The prophet Zechariah is given visions from the Lord about the coming rebuilding of the city Jerusalem, but also about an age of restoration yet to come. An age when every nation will fill that new Jerusalem, in fact filled to overflowing. And he explains these truths for the most part, but some of these visions fall into the expositional consistency category. We see similar visions and allegories used by the other prophets and so we can understand them and discern their meaning by cross referencing.
Today I wanted to focus on one particular word from God's message. And yes, I'm reading into this text a little bit. I'm seeing the social ills of our age and the ultimate importance of that human condition. And more importantly, more directly, I'm seeing the Nation of Israel and all the turmoil we've endured surrounding that people. And frankly I'm not seeing revival anywhere. I'm seeing only ruin. And a horrible war on the horizon. Nations on all sides of these conflicts are broken and wickedly evil. They are all prodigal people. All broken. All fallen in their faith and humanism is ruling them all. No one is good. No one is righteous. All of them are looming on the edge of the final stages of God's Day being set.
And in the midst of it...as is always the case...Israel is the hub of all the hubbub. They MUST [by God's design] be the earthly hub for all of mankind's violence, destruction, and ultimate revival and redemption.
They [Israel] are "the apple of his eye".
The apple of one's eye is usually seen as an idiom that refers to someone who is deeply cherished or valued by another. But is it literal or idiom? Is the apple just a word picture expressing a high regard, or should we see it as the language says directly? The Latin word used is pupilla [the eyes pupil] the center of the eye, the means by which sight is given, and maybe the word from Zechariah should represent just exactly that.
This line from the Book of Psalms (17:8) in the Bible is one of the earliest known references to the phrase.
"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,"
Follow me on this...the Israeli people have always been God's primary focus. They are the pupil in his eye. He sees all of humanity through that national lens. He delights in them, he pours out his wrath upon them, and he punishes all nations who punish them.
Our Creator demonstrates his glory and justice through the nation of Israel, and he demonstrated his love for all of humanity in that he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, from out of those people he sent faith and a way into his kingdom. He gave the world his Son and redeems all believers in him. And ultimately all redeemed people in Christ from every nation will come to Jerusalem and live with him in glory.
So here we are today...half the world hates the nation of Israel, the other half defiantly defends everything they do. Some people even suggest that they aren't even real Israeli people anymore, regardless of what the prophets said about them coming from the four winds and out of every nation around the world. They may look European, but God sees them as the apple of his eye.
Let's be real folks...the evidence of the past is that God IS focused and focusing on Israel and everything that occurs there is seen by him. He's arranged things in that way, and everything is coming to a head there. Nations great and small, all will gather there to make war and be defeated by Jesus, by a word.
I wonder what that word will be.
"Enough! These are the apple of my eye!"
I don't know...maybe he'll just speak the word, "silence".
At any rate we all need to understand one particular thing. The nation of Israel and the word of God coming from there are the pupil in God's eye. If we continue to focus upon his word and keep watch on Israel, we will be following God's plan. If we bless them, we'll be blessed, if we persecute them, we'll be persecuted. Do we have to love them and their wicked ways?
No.
We cannot imagine a world without them being the apple of God's eye. That's nonnegotiable.
Final word:
The wise father says to his son, “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye” (Proverbs 7:2)