17 “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
    dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
    never again will foreigners invade her.

18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk;
    all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
    and will water the valley of acacias.
19 But Egypt will be desolate,
    Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
    in whose land they shed innocent blood.
20 Judah will be inhabited forever
    and Jerusalem through all generations.
21 Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
    No, I will not.”

The Lord dwells in Zion!

The final section of this book seems to look beyond the last great battle of history, to the blessings of the Millennial reign of Christ. (In fact, the picture seems to almost merge with what comes after that, according to the book of Revelation: the ”new heaven” and ”new earth”; see Rev.21). In the final expression of the Kingdom of God, He will be in the midst of His people and it will be a time of lavish and overflowing blessing (18).

I venture to suggest, however, that even now, where Jesus reigns over a human life/over a church community, we can expect to see an outflowing of life into the world:

”On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39a; see also Ezekiel 47:1-12).