"Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD. (7) Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. (8) For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (9) For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me."
This proclamation and call to the Church respecting Babylon, of coming out of her, cannot mean the temporal deliverance of the Church, for this was after the people had returned from Babylon. Besides, the discourse is prophetical, and refers to some future period of the Church. I am inclined to think that it is the call of Christ to his redeemed, directing them to himself, and his all-sufficiency. And I am t he more inclined to think so, from the tenderness of the expression with which this call is accompanied. Whoso toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. Whose eye but Christ's? Who was it led the Church about in the wilderness; instructed Israel, and kept him as the apple of his eye? Deuteronomy 32:10 Think, Reader, what a proof this is of the Church's union with Christ! Think what a testimony of the oneness and interest in Christ.