Zechariah 2:1 - "And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand!"

Have you ever looked out of your window and seen a man with a funny-looking spy-glass affair perched on top of a tripod, who seems to be earnestly gazing at nothing in particular? Or seen the same type of individual in an open field? Now, I’m not making fun of you. I know that you know that this man is a surveyor, marking out land boundaries. But you have to admit, it’s a very weird looking instrument that he uses.

Things were much simpler in the days of Zechariah. The man that he saw (actually, it was an angel!) held a measuring line in his hand! And, really, that was the surveyor’s tool in ancient times. Mathematics, as we know it today, was far beyond the understanding of ancient man. (Always, of course, excepting the Egyptians, who had Imhotep and the fabulous tools that he developed.) But the ordinary surveyor had to use what was at hand.

And what is always at hand? A rope or a cord, of course! Or, perhaps, the wife would be willing to lend a piece of twisted linen thread. This cord was then marked off into cubits, and there you were - home free with a perfectly good measuring line. The only trick involved was in getting enough cord, in long enough lengths, to enclose the area to be surveyed. Having done so, he could then make an approximation of the modern-day blueprint, by noting the survey in plans and in writing.

In our text, the angel is going to use this line to measure Jerusalem! Surely an arduous task when we consider the area covered by a city of such size, even in those days!

Later, as technology advanced, reed rods marked in furlongs were also used. And, as more and more was learned about the principles of mathematics and physics, new and better methods were constantly devised, until we have the sophisticated equipment of the modern surveyor.

And yet - for all that there was little in the way of mathematical knowledge involved, the men in biblical times did an amazingly accurate job of surveying the land and, especially, supervising builders in determining exact locations, elevations, and such. Let’s not look down our noses at a piece of string! They did much with what they had at hand!