The Weight of Sin
Notes
Transcript
The Weight of Sin: A Vision of Judgment and Hope
These two visions found in chapter 5 and the one following in chapter 6 are different from the preceeding ones, turning from the conciliatory character of the previous visions. Before this there were promises found in the visions: Israel’s enlargement, the subjugation of her enemies, the internal cleansing of the nation for priestly service, followed by the ministry of illumination and witness to the nations.
But first there must be the righteous judgment of all sinners and all transgression.
Before the first visions of blessing there will be a period in the life of the nation where moral declension and apostasy intervenes. God must and will purge out all iniquity.
For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Heb 12:29
for our God is a consuming fire.
These two visions in Chapter 5 are connected in meaning but different in form and manifestation as well as their ultimate fulfillment. Thes and the last vision in chapter 6 are also connected by their judgmental character and by the Hebrew word translate “going forth” in the NASB.
1. Scroll: Swift and Sure Judgment
1. Scroll: Swift and Sure Judgment
Zechariah 5:1-4
A scroll is emblematic in Scripture of a pronouncement or message of great importance from God. an example: Ezekiel 2:9-10
Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it.
When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe.
The significant features of this scroll is its position, its size, and its curse.
It is suspended in the air and is written on both sides. It has the ability to fulfill its purpose of judgment with swiftness and the ability to access a large territory. As it is written on both sides, it links itself to the foundational covenant document delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai which was also written on both sides, according to Exodus 32:15
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other.
It is 20 cubits in length and 10 cubit in width; in our measurements roughly 30 feet long by 15 feet wide.
The double-sided nature of the scroll identifies this image with the covenant law of Israel while the flight and dimensions of the scroll emphasize the efficacy and universality of these covenant demands. No one can plead ignorance as it hovers imposingly above the earth, and no one can escape its censure if its stipulations are disregarded.
The curse is goingout because the guilty are going unpunished. For the disobedient, the scroll - representing the entire law - becomes the source of curse.
This can be compared to the destruction of the house of the leper in Israel, described in Lev 14:45
“He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an unclean place.
Dr. Charles Feinberg: “The leprosy of sin always carries desolation, extreme and final, in its wake.”
The promise for us today:
The Lord Jesus fulfills the law and absorbs the scroll's curse, offering a hope that transcends judgment for those who receive Him as their Savior from sin and its curse.
Zechariah receives this vision, surely meant for his time. However the context points to that time before the purging of the land from all sin and sinners, just before the setting up of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, comparing Scripture with Scripture.
2. Sin: Sealed and Sent Away
2. Sin: Sealed and Sent Away
Zechariah 5:5-8
Punishment for sin is not all that is addressed; sin itself must be removed from the land. Now we are entering the second vision, which points out not just removal of wickedness, but return to the place of its origin.
Zechariah once again lifts his eyes at the interpreting angel’s prompting and asks what he is seeing. It is an ephah — a basket measurement used agriculturally for harvest equivalent to about two-thirds of our bushel. As it comes into view, having gone forth, it represents the judgment of sinners in the land of Israel, who have been gathered together.
This is seen when the lead cover is lifted up and inside the ephah is a woman, entrenched in her sin, a representation of all sinners in the land.
In Scripture, the figurative use of a woman can represent a nation, as seen in Isa 47:1-7 and
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, And her salvation like a torch that is burning.
The nations will see your righteousness, And all kings your glory; And you will be called by a new name Which the mouth of the Lord will designate.
You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
It will no longer be said to you, “Forsaken,” Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”; But you will be called, “My delight is in her,” And your land, “Married”; For the Lord delights in you, And to Him your land will be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.
Another figurative use of a woman is one out of her rightful place of submission and humility. Anytime in the Scriptures we see a woman out of place, there is an evil connotation.
In Matthew 13:33 a woman puts leaven in flour:
He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”
That leaven represents evil, and the leaven of evil is a principle all the way through the Scriptures.
A third figurative usage of a woman is as a system, such as a religious system, Rev 2:20
‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
and Rev 17:5
and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
In this vision the declaration of the angel is “This is wickedness!” The woman here represents wickedness as it is and will be culminated in the last days. It will be organized, both among Israel and the nations, into a colossal confederacy holding sway religiously over the earth. To keep wickedness of this sort under wraps until the proper time, the angel cast the woman into the middle of the ephah and then took the leaden weight (lid?) and put it over the top, keeping that wickedness bound there. It was not dormant, it is not dormant:
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
Sin is a grave issue, yet it is not insurmountable because Christ provides a means of purification and deliverance. Acknowledging sin, confessing it before the Lord, then actively putting it off leads us toward pursuing holiness.
3. Sin’s Destination: Out of Sight
3. Sin’s Destination: Out of Sight
Zechariah 5:9-11
Continuing this second vision, Zechariah now views two women with the wind in their wings who lift up the ephah to take it away. It will be removed from the land and taken to the land of Shinar, or the land of Babylon. Every time Shinar is mentioned in the Scriptures it speaks of a definite geographical place.
There Zechariah is told that they will build a temple for her and when it is prepared, the woman will be set there on her own pedestal.
Religious and spiritual corruption and confusion had its origins in Shinar/Babylon in rebellion against God. Throughout the Old Testament, Babylon is seen to be the object of the wrath of God. Idolatry, of all sins the most abhorrent to the true and living God, had its origin and full development here. Zechariah speaks that in the last days all wickedness, with idolatry particularly in mind, that will be in existence in Israel at that time will go back forcibly to its place of origin — Babylon, the great apostate religious system. Compare this with Matthew 12:43-45:
“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.
“Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
“Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
Revelation 17-18 make clear that not only the evil in Judaism but that in Christendom as well will wind up and culminate in the abominable system called Mystery Babylon. The greatest sin in Israel is idolatry. This wickedness will come to its settled abode at the very place of its
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
“Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
“And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
Sin will be exiled and its ultimate destination is away from God’s presence. God has dealt decisively with sin through the cross of Christ. That is why as believers in Christ we can live victoriously in the freedom that Christ now provides, as we are being transformed to be like Him by means of His Holy Spirit working powerfully within us.
