Judgment Is In The Air!
OPENING PRAYER:
Father God, as I read your Word today, open my eyes to connect the temporal with the permanent, my daily life with your eternal plan.
The Flying Scroll
5 I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll.
2 He asked me, “What do you see?”
I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”
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. 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.’”
The Woman in a Basket
5 Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.”
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.”
7 Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! 8 He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.
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.
10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.
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.”
REFLECT:
How much evil do we see going on around us? Does it ever bother you that nothing seems to be done to deal with it? Which evil, in particular, bothers you the most?
Zechariah’s sixth and seventh visions, involving large identified flying objects, are about God’s judgment. First, we see the large flying scroll. Interestingly the dimensions are the same as those of the Temple porch, where the Law was usually read (1 Kings 6:3). The scroll seems to have the Law written on it, for one side mentions stealing, and on the other side swearing falsely; the eighth and third commandments (v 3; see Exodus 20:7,15). God will judge the wicked people in the land, totally destroying them and their houses (v 4). The second object is a large basket, large enough to contain a woman (v 7). She is identified as wickedness (v 6). Two women appear and carry the basket, by air, away to Babylonia, where wickedness will be set up like an idol in a temple.
These are simple visions to imagine, but harder to understand. However, what is clear is that God is promising to judge the wicked people in Israel, and even to remove wickedness itself. We can rest assured that God takes sin seriously and is able to purge it from his people.
APPLY:
Give thanks to God that he is able to – and will – deal with all evil. Thank him that we don’t have to face Judgment according to his standards because of Christ.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Patient One, forgive me for not taking sin seriously. I become so used to adjusting to sin in my life that I lose my sensitivity to it. Forgive me, and once more cleanse me from sin.
WORSHIP: