A Vision of a Flying Scroll

The cleansing of the Land

God removes lawlessness V.1-4: Zechariah sees a massive open scroll. Scroll-15ft x 30ft. Floating through air. Writing both sides. One side Zech. reads 3 commandment. What is it? taking God’s name in vain. other side 8 command not steal. Scroll represents law of God that brings curse on those disobey, includes us.

Out of 10 commands, why God choose these 2? Were they especially prevalent amongst Jews at that time?

3rd and 8th were central commandment on the tablets, so these two command represent whole law(James 2:10). Obedience to one law doesn't negate disobedience to one law. To break one law is to become a lawless person.

V.4: Scroll enter individual homes and judge those deliberately disobeying God.

Today lawlessness is everywhere and the only command people worry about is “Thou shalt not get caught” Ethics is studied in classrooms but not practiced serious in business. Today people break God’s law and then try to use man’s law to protect themselves, and often they win. Ultimately God will judge all sinners, but He will start with Israel. This will occur before the millennial reign of Christ.

God removes wickedness V.5-11: not only will individual sin and sinners be judged, but wickedness itself will be removed from the land. in this vision wickedness is personified by a woman, because the word for “wickedness” in Hebrew is feminine. Ephah common measuring tool in Israel. The woman attempted to escape the Ephah, so a heavy lead cover was put over the ephah to keep her in. A talent of lead would be around 100 pounds.

V.9: Zechariah see’s 2 women, but they have wings. With the help of the wind, they lifted up the basket and its content, plus the heavy lead cover, and carried it in the air to Babylon. Although angels are sexless, in Scripture they are often referred to as males, so these angels were special agents of the Lord created for this particular task. They put this ephah on a base in a special house.

In order to understand this vision, we must ask, “what did the Jews bring to their land from Babylon when they returned after their captivity?” The answer— commercialism. Many Jews that were born in Babylon became people of the city and successful merchants. So it was the spirit of competitive commercialism that was represented by the woman in the ephah and the talents are measures of commodities.

Throughout Scripture, Babylon symbolizes the world's enmity against God. When you read Rev. 18 you see the emphasis is on the commercial success and the vast wealth of Babylon, the very “virus” that some of the Jews had caught during the Babylonian exile.

This doesn’t imply that it’s wrong for anybody to earn money by engaging in business. Both believers and unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles, can be manufacturers and merchants and faithfully do their work. But if worldly commercial spirits infects the child of God, it will result in twisted values, confused priorities, and a craving fir wealth and position that grieves the Lord. The best antidote in Matthew 6:33.

The two angels placed this ephah in a special house in Babylon which would suggest “commercialism” was worshipped as one of the Babylonian gods. Today money has become a god all over the world. Like a god money is trusted by people to give them help, to solve their problems, to provide happiness, and to empower them to accomplish their goals in life. The last of the commands- “Thou shalt not covet”, coveting will cause people to break all other 9 commands. 1 Tim. 6:10. everything from lying on income taxes to murdering a helpless victim for a few dollars is the love of money.

God has now cleansed the land. What is God’s next step for preparing His people for their promised kingdom?