Zechariah 5
ZEchariah prophesied when the Jewish people were rebuilding the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest. That historical parable was a picture of Jesus building His eternal church. Not surprisingly, therefore, quite a few passages in this minor prophet book are quoted in the New Testament gospels. In fact, all the visions recorded in this book relate to the Cross and the period that follows, and the two found in Chapter 5 are especially pertinent to the end-time period that we now live in.
The Flying Roll
The chapter begins with Zechariah seeing a flying roll. I shall comment on “flying” presently, but let’s first look at the word “roll”. Unlike the word “book” that God uses over a hundred times to denote the Bible or parts of it, the noun “roll” appears much fewer times in the Old Testament and in almost all cases, it conveys a warning from God.
Examples: God told Jeremiah, “Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day” (36:2).
And Ezekiel wrote, “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel” (3:1). Here, the prophet was told to warn the house of Israel of upcoming judgment, even though the people were not expected to listen to him.
A curse. Indeed, God Himself explains in verses 3 and 4 that the roll is a curse that cannot be removed:
Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
Those that steal, spiritually speaking, represent false prophets. Jesus says in John 10:7,8: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.”
And those that swear picture professed Christians who take the name of God in vain. The Bible warns in Leviticus 19:12, “ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.”
Temple’s porch. The dimensions of the roll—“the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits”—further suggests that God has the apostate church particularly in view. Reason: they are the exact dimensions of the porch outside the temple (please see I Kings 6:3) King Solomon had built.
God does not speak too kindly of that porch, or court. In Revelation 11, the Apostle John was told to measure the temple of God and count the worshippers there. However, God specifies in verse 2, “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles.” It is a picture of the corporate church being taken over by unbelievers toward the end of time.
Rapid dissemination. What might the fact that the roll flies convey? For one thing, it ties in with the end-time warnings given in Revelation 8:13. Flying through heaven is the angel that proclaims, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth.”
For another, it stresses that God’s final warning is saturating the world through the air. Until recently, the gospel had to be proclaimed largely by individual missionaries. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.” But since the advent of radio, internet and satellites, God’s final warning has literally been flying through the air waves to all nations. Jesus says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14).
Woman in an Ephah
Zechariah saw another vision and an angel explains it to him in verses 6-8:
And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
An ephah was a Hebrew unit of dry measure. And measures are something God uses to identify with His laws. He says in Leviticus 19:36, “Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
Linking the command to His liberation of the Jews, God makes it clear that no one should ever tamper with the law of the gospel. And using the word “just” four times, He emphasizes that His definition of righteousness is to be observed universally.
Remember in Daniel 5 King Belshazzar saw certain handwriting on the wall and became scared? When told to interpret it, Daniel explained to the king, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” (v. 27). He came short as he was weighed by God’s word.
Can you now see why the wicked woman sitting in the midst of the ephah and under a lead weight resembles the sorry condition “through all the earth”? The unsaved are confined by God’s law and cannot possibly escape from it.
Sinking lead. As a matter of fact, the metal lead is a figure sometimes used by God to denote eternal damnation in hell. In Exodus 15, for example, Moses sang a song of praise to God after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and then God drowned the Egyptian soldiers and chariots. We read in verses 9-11:
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
In the same vein, we also read in Ezekiel 22:18-21
Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
Savour of death. Verse 9 goes on to reveal whom God has commissioned to send forth the end-time warning that mankind is under the wrath of God:
Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
There is little doubt that the two women here are a picture of the body of believers. The number two, when used spiritually, typically points to the church—sometimes the visible corporate church, sometime the invisible eternal church. And we believers are spoken of in Ephesians 5 as the wife of Christ. Moreover, Revelation 12:14 pictures the church of Christ as a woman that was given two wings of a great eagle.
When we bring the gospel to an elect of God at the right time, the Holy Spirit applies it to save that person. But the context of this vision is not about salvation; it is about Judgment Day. What then are we doing here? We are telling people to fear God. We read in II Corinthians 2:15,16:
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life.
In other words, we are carrying the word of God to the world, warning people of the Lord’s imminent return.
Eternity in hell. After that, we’ll take part in judging the world, as verses 10 and 11 teach.
Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
The word “Shinar” appears in the Bible a few times in Genesis in passing as God talks about the land of Shinar or the king of Shinar. But in Daniel 1:1,2 its spiritual meaning shines forth:
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
Nebuchadnezzar is a picture of Satan here and the land of Shinar typifies the house of Satan. In other words, Zechariah 5 concludes by saying that on Judgment Day when we judge the world for having violated God’s law, we will set them down in hell and they will remain there forever.