Cleansing the People

Zechariah 5:1-2 (ESV) Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.”

It is important that we remember Zechariah's ultimate theme. God is restoring the spiritual life of His people after the long exile concludes, and they rebuild in the land. Each vision builds upon the movements of God's grace at work in the returned community. Here, the image of a flying scroll points both to God's immediate work among them and the Lord Jesus coming centuries later. 

The size of the scroll is telling. It is the same size as the Holy Place within the Temple. 

In the scroll, we see a picture of God's cleansing from sin. The nation is corrupt. In verses 3 and 4, we find the corruption dwelling within her. 

Zechariah 5:3-4 (ESV) Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. 4 I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

The Lord mentions two sins. Swearing falsely, which breaks Commandment 3, and theft, which breaks Commandment 8. They represent the sins that Israel learned in Babylon. If Egypt taught Israel idolatry, Babylon had imbued them with the lust of excessive commercialism. God sends a message here that He would send His Word to wipe this sin out of the land. You see, Israel learned the lesson of the exile and forsook idolatry forever, but other forms of wickedness developed in the commercial center of their exile. God would once again save His people from a system and then purge that system's influence from His people. 

One day later, Christ, the Living Word, would come into the Temple and purge the religious system of Israel of the excessive commercialism involved in their sacrifices. He flipped the tables and cast out the money changers, for they had turned God's house into a den of robbers.

 

Zechariah 5:5-8 (ESV) Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.” 6 And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the basket that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity in all the land.” 7 And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket! 8 And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.

Not only is the Word of God coming to cleanse, but the wind of God will come to remove what is bound up in the nation and return it to where it belongs. The word for "basket" in Hebrew is "ephah" a standard measure of wheat in those days. Israel's unjust commercialism was being packed and sent away. The Lord was restoring them by removing from them the fraudulent practices they adopted from Babylon. Where would the Lord send it? To Shinar. 

Zechariah 5:9–11 (ESV) Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. 10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” 11 He said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.”

Shinar was the place where men gathered to build a tower to the heavens. We identify it today as the Tower of Babel. In man's pride and lust, he uses people and perverts laws to build himself a name and glory. God hands them over to this in greater measure. But these practices are to be purged from His own. He will not let His people act like the world, or they can never impact the world.  

We should look to Zechariah's vision with gratitude. The Lord both brings His people out of the world and then cleanses the world from His people's hearts. In doing so, He creates a new people, fit for His service to enjoy His presence.