FRAMEWORKS:
Zechariah 5: Removal of Unrighteousness
from the land
v.1-4
The flying scroll
v.5-11
The woman in a basket
[Preliminary
Comment: The two parts of this short chapter
are complementary; the first declares the Lord's intent to deal
with all outstanding wickedness in this now holy land and then
having it removed elsewhere. Verses 3 & 4 see the removal
of the participants of unrighteousness and from verse 6 on we
see the Lord's intent to remove the very presence of such wickedness
from the land. It is the Lord's double-sided declaration that
this land to which they have returned is not to have any semblance
of unrighteousness in it. The Lord had declared previously through
His prophets that He would change the hearts of the people in
exile before they could return and now He declares that will not
let any unrighteous behaviour spring up and prevail.]
v.1-4
The flying scroll
v.1,2
Zechariah identifies a massive flying scroll
v.1
I looked again,
and there before me was a flying scroll.
v.2
He
asked me, ‘What do you see?'
I
answered, ‘I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits
wide.'
v.3,4
The angel explains it brings a curse on the unrighteous in the
land
v.3
And
he said to me, ‘This is the curse that is going out over the whole
land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will
be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone
who swears falsely will be banished.
v.4
The
Lord
Almighty declares, “I will send it out, and it will enter the
house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely
by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely,
both its timbers and its stones.”'
[Notes:
The enormous scroll carried God's decree of bad for all
unlawfulness in the land. It is His declaration that this returned
people shall be righteous and if they are not He will deal with
them. It is a very explicit warning.]
v.5-11
The woman in a basket
v.5,6
He is then shown a basket representing the wickedness in the land
v.5
Then
the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me,
‘Look up and see what is appearing.'
v.6
I
asked, ‘What is it?'
He
replied, ‘It is a basket.' And he added, ‘This is the iniquity
of the people throughout the land.'
v.7,8
The wickedness is represented by a woman who is being confined
in the basket
v.7
Then
the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman!
v.8
He
said, ‘This is wickedness,' and he pushed her back into the basket
and pushed its lead cover down on it.
v.9-11
Two women are seen carrying the basket away to Babylonia
v.9
Then
I looked up – and there before me were two women, with the
wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and
they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
v.10
‘Where
are they taking the basket?' I asked the angel who was speaking
to me.
v.11
He
replied, ‘To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it.
When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.'
[Notes:
The vision continues, revealing wickedness in the land
that the Lord is suppressing and curtailing in order to return
it to Babylonia where unrighteousness prevails [implied] and where
it will be more at home.]
Continue
to Chapter 6