THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH
Wickedness Will Take Over
Zechariah 5 3/13/11 SCC
INTRODUCTION
We often wonder how our
children or our grandchildren will ever make it in this world. It seems that
every generation talks as if their day was a whole lot better than the one
coming. And we usually mean that things are getting worse not better. In our
day life was easier, less complicated, less vulnerable, less risky. Today daily
life is at the mercy of what happens in Afghanistan or Libya. How can our
children and grandchildren ever hope to live peacefully and with any sense of
hope? Legitimate questions especially when we peer into the pages of scripture.
God’s Word indicates that as we approach the end of all things, wickedness and
evil will increase and splurge. We must not count on things being or getting
better in the world. Zechariah learns that this wickedness is noticed and
checked by God. That while it increases God’s plan is to contain it, counter it,
and then destroy it. The prophet tells of two specific ways God will do this,
by means of the vision of the flying scroll and the Ephah.
GOD
WILL PUNISH WICKEDNESS
The Flying Scroll 1-2 Here
is the description of a flying scroll. It measures 30 ft by 15 ft. The scroll
is moving across the sky over the entire land of Israel. It is not rolled up
but spread out like a long sheet. The normal size of a scroll may be 8 or so
inches wide and several feet long. This one may be similar in length but much
larger in width. A point may be to make this scroll and what is written on it
visible to those it passes over. Its floating position will give this scroll
and its message swift access to where it needs to be delivered.
The Message and Mission
of the Flying Scroll 3-4 First, this
scroll brings a curse over the entire land. This curse is directed toward
violators of the middle command of each set of the 10 commandments represented
by the two tablets of the Law given in Ex 32:15. The writing on both sides of
the scroll is reminiscent of language describing the two tablets. Specifically
mentioned are the 3rd and 8th commandments. The first
commandments mentioned are the 8th commandment against stealing and
then the 3rd commandment against swearing falsely by the name of the
Lord. Swearing falsely represents man’s sin against God and stealing is a sin
of man against man. These violators of these commands probably represent
violations of the entire Law of Moses. So these two specific violations
represent the whole law being violated and spurned. This is how it has been
amongst the people of the nation.
Second, these
violations have prompted a purging. Twice this purpose is indicated in v 3.
What this purging is all about is spelled out in v 4. The scroll, God says, is
something he has sent out. He is its author both in its message and mission. We
have seen its message—pointing out violations and violators of the Law—but it
is also a weapon by which God will judge his obstinate people. Wielded by God
this scroll will enter the house of the thief and the blasphemer to purge these
out of the covenant community. But this purging is not only severe it will be
total and complete. It will stay the night—that is stay until its intended
purpose of banishment is accomplished—and then demolish that house until there
is no evidence that it existed. God knows even the very secrets done in the
house. Not even those secret sins will go unpunished.
Lesson The
scroll as the covenant Word of God contains the message that judges, punishes,
and then ruins all human efforts which defy God’s Word. Those violators
breaking this covenant will find that his and her sins against God and against
men will eventually and unavoidably lead to utter devastation. God will punish
wickedness. The judgment of God will be about our mistreatment of each other
and our mistreatment of God. No one will get away with this. (Marion, a
widow, is being purposefully harassed by ex-husbands family so she cannot get
inheritance he left to her). The justice of God will include every detail
of our lives. It will ‘spend the night’ and search out all out secrets. That
includes stealing and blaspheming Gods name. In the Bible people tried to hide
disobedience (Adam), idolatry, (In Ezekiel), murder (Cain), stealing (Achan),
adultery (David), and lying (Ananias/Sapphira). Romans 2:16 in that day God
will judge the secrets of men. Guard your heart (2 Cor 10:5), watch out for
attack (1 Pt 5:8, Be strong in the Lord (Eph 6:10-110, and know there are no
secrets (Eph 5:11-13).
GOD
WILL REMOVE WICKEDNESS
The Woman in the Ephah
5-8 Now the prophet’s attention is directed toward a measuring
basket with the capacity of 5-10 gallons. Since this is too small to contain a
person, this ephah in the vision is enlarged much like the scroll was in the
previous one. This ephah is also going forth as the scroll did appearing in all
the land. The ephah going forth is identified as wickedness in the following.
So this basket represents the iniquity or the attempt to assert wickedness in
all the land. Using a measuring basket to symbolize the corporate evil of the
land is appropriate since one of those evils was tampering with the measures to
make false ones. Here is sin connected to the commerce in all the land. This
kind of sin was prevalent everywhere one went in the land. The cover of this
basket was of lead most likely to ensure that whatever wickedness was in there
stayed there. (Story this week of police working an apartment of a deceased
young lady. They discovered after opening a box and unexpectedly confronted
with a cobra quickly replaced the top and promptly found seven of the most
venomous snakes in the world in separate containers. In a sense these contained
wickedness that we want contained.) The messenger goes on to point out that
when the cover is lifted there was ‘a woman’ sitting in the ephah. It is when
the cover is raised that she becomes visible to the prophet. Again, the
impossibility of such a thing heightens the point that this vision is of divine
origin with a unique message to convey.
Finally in v 8 she is
identified as ‘wickedness’ personified. She represents the moral condition
encompassing all kinds of civil, religious, and personal wickedness and evil.
That this woman is dangerous is immediately apparent for as soon as her name is
pronounced he slams the heavy cover down over the ephah to ensure she does not
escape. The urgency of the moment is captured as the messenger threw the woman
in to the ephah and then threw the lead weight over the opening. The reason for
this lead cover is now clear. This ephah is not only a way to move her form one
place to another but also a cage in which wickedness will be carried off
against her will. There is no way this opening can be tampered with form the
inside. She is securely caged and ready for transport.
The Removal of the
Ephah 9-11 Once this is done the ehpah takes wings and begins its flight.
Two other women with wings of a stork carry the ephah away v 9. A stork was an
unclean bird (Lev 11). This seems appropriate since it coveys unclean cargo in
addition to the huge size of storks wings. The ephah was lifted up with the
wind in its wings. What they are doing is made possible by resources outside of
its natural abilities. The wind in these wings refers to the spirit of God as
with Zerrubabel and the building of the Temple so now was at work transporting
wickedness to her destination. This purged wickedness, judged, and caged, is
now being transported from the land to its original destination.
At a loss to understand
Zechariah asks and learns that its destination is the land of Shinar v 11.
There a house or temple will be built for it and she will be placed on her own
pedestal—a throne. Shinar is the recent place of Israel’s exile but
also the site of ancient and
future immorality and rebellion against God (Gen 11:2; Rev 17:3-5). So this
wickedness is returning to the very place of its origin and climax, Babylon.
Reference to Shinar is tantamount to reference to Babylon. It is that city
which becomes the very incarnation of human independence and resistance to God,
His will, and sovereignty.
BABYLON:
1. It was at Babylon that the
human race erected a large pyramid to frustrate Gods mandate to be fruitful,
multiply and fill the earth (Gen 1:28; 9:1). Men of Babylon wanted to make a
name for themselves lest they be scattered across the face of the earth (Gen
11:4). From that time Babylon became synonymous with human arrogance and the
fountainhead of competitive social, and religious ideology.
2. The leader of the campaign
of eastern kings against Canaan and Abraham was the king of Shinar (Gen 14:1).
This was the first act of aggression against the people of God by a hostile
power.
3. The Babylonian empire of
627 BC made it evident that the ancient archenemy of God in days of old would
again rear its ugly head in history to challenge Gods salvation on earth
through his chosen people. Even for the prophets, Babylon as the center of
Jewish dispersion is very much their theme (Isaiah 13-14, 47; Jeremiah 50-51).
The prophets viewed Babylon as the paradigm of wickedness and hostility toward
God’s gracious purposes.
4. Zechariah’s Babylon though
is exclusively future. By now Babylon had been swallowed up by Persia. This
same Babylon is pictured in Revelation 17-18. There she is called the ‘great
harlot’ the ‘great city that reigns over the kings of the earth’. Then
destruction so devastating, compared to the casting of a huge millstone into
the sea from which it can never be retrieved. This describes the immorality and
prosperity of Antichrist’s empire right up to its end. It will never
deteriorate but will suddenly be destroyed in a moment by Jesus Christ, at His
Second Coming.
5. Zechariah takes his place
in a long tradition regarding Shinar, Babylon, and rebellion. The wickedness in
the Ephah is being transported to Shinar returning where it belongs from where
it originally came. It had dogged the steps of God’s people leading at last to
their destruction and captivity at its hands. But in the day of restoration God
will remove wickedness from His land forcing it to return and await its
ultimate destruction.
Lesson Look
for a future world economic prosperity based in wickedness and centered in
Babylon. Attempting to get rich—not being rich or becoming rich due to success
of some kind—will always compromise with this world’s evil system and
contributes to that independent spirit that competes with God’s place in our
lives. It is dependence upon God and not independence upon our own resources
that keeps us humble and in God’s favor. God will not tolerate competition.