Let us open our Bibles this evening
to Zechariah chapter 5. Zechariah, next to the last book
in the Old Testament, chapter 5. Tonight, we're going to look
at two of the visions of Zechariah that are given to us in this
fifth chapter. I feel the need to do some review
each Wednesday night, but I try to keep it at a minimum. We began
looking several months ago in the book of Ezra at the return
of the nation of Israel. from the 70 years captivity in
Babylon. And Cyrus was the king of Persia. He was named by the Lord 200
years before his birth. And he's the one who issued the
proclamation allowing the Jews to return, to go back to their
homeland. In Ezra chapter 1 and verse 2,
we read, the Lord God of heaven, these are the words, the proclamation
of Cyrus. The Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build
him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. And we saw that
it took more than his proclamation to encourage the Israelites to
return. They had settled down and many
of them didn't return from Babylon. But the Lord stirred up the spirits
of many of them, just as the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
is preached in all the world to every creature. And yet no
one, no one would believe No one in and of himself will ever
believe the gospel without God the Holy Spirit working a work
of grace in their heart. Man is dead in trespasses and
sins, and God must give life so that man might repent and
believe the gospel. Same thing we see in type there
in Ezra chapter one and two. The king made the proclamation,
it's like preaching the gospel to every creature, but the people
were not stirred to go until God did something in their heart. And many of them did return under
Zerubbabel as the governor, as he was a descendant of David,
the house of David, and he was a governor. And then Joshua was
a high priest, and they returned to build the house of the Lord. That's what God had charged King
Cyrus with, and that's what the people came back to do. And we've
seen that after laying the foundation, and that was a time of great
joy and a time of great sorrow. It was a time of great joy to
lay the foundation, but it was a time of sorrow for those who
had seen the temple before it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. It was a time of sorrow for them
because it seemed like such a small thing, even though the dimensions
were the same. But it did not have the porches
and all of the outer buildings that the temple had. And they
knew there was no way they could ever adorn this new temple as
Solomon had adorned that temple. I mean, you read about that in
1 Kings, and the floor was covered with gold, the walls were covered
with gold. I mean, it was just gold, gold,
gold in that temple. And there was no way they were
ever going to be able to restore the temple, to build a temple
equal to that. But they began to build, as I
said, there was joy and there was sorrow, and then Some of
the enemies that they had caused the work to stop, caused the
work to cease. But then we read in Ezra chapter
six and verse 14, and this is what brings us here to Zechariah. The elders, this is what the
scripture says, Ezra six and verse 14. The elders of the Jews
builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai, the
prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Edo. This has brought us here
to these two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. Now the prophecy
of Haggai consists of two chapters. It's the book before Zechariah. It consists of two chapters,
where Zechariah has 14 chapters. Now the two visions that we're
looking at tonight remind us. And I'm saying this to all of
us because I found this was true of myself. Because Haggai is
such a small book, two chapters, and because it's set first in
the scriptures, I think it's easy to think, well, Haggai prophesied
and his ministry was over and then Zechariah prophesied. No,
they both prophesied simultaneously. They both were used at the same
time, and we're going to see in these two visions that we're
looking at tonight that the sin that Haggai especially dealt
with was still something that Zechariah had to deal with. The first vision, the flying
row. The flying row, verses one through
four. Then I turned, and lifted up
mine eyes, and looked, and behold, a flying roll. And he said unto
me, What seest thou? That is the angel that was speaking
with him. And I answered, I see a flying
roll. The length thereof is 20 cubits,
and the breadth thereof 10 cubits. Then said he unto me, This is
the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.
For everyone that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according
to it, and everyone 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. This vision
that we've just read in those four verses was a threatening,
was a vision of threatening to show that the work of the prophet
was to produce repentance. Now, let's look at what the prophet
saw. He saw a roll that was 20 cubits
by 10 cubits. That's approximately 30 by 15
feet. He saw a roll that was 30 by
15 feet. You say, well, what's the significance
of that? That was the exact proportion
of the porch of the temple. And it was from the porch of
the temple that the law was most often read. In other words, when
there would be an assembly for the reading of the law, the person
who would read would be on that porch and the people would be
assembled before him. That's where the law was usually
read. This row was 30 by 15 feet. The second thing we see, he saw
the row was unrolled. Now, they didn't have books like
we have. They had rolls. I'm sure that
the book of Exodus was a roll. The book of Deuteronomy was a
roll. Now, when the prophet sees this
vision, he sees that it is unrolled. It had to have been unrolled
for him to know the dimensions. If it had been rolled up, If
it had not been unrolled, he could not have known the dimensions,
that it was 15 by 20 cubits. There's no way he could have
known that. This means that it was written
on both sides, as we see in verse 3. On one side, there was a message
to those that steal. On the other side, it was a message
to those that swear. This, of course, is pointed us
to the law, the law of God. Remember, it was written on two
tables, two tables. The law that God gave to Moses,
the law that God wrote with his finger, the law of the Ten Commandments. And then later again, he wrote
upon those two tables. And the fact that it is written
means that it is determined. that it's not going to be changed
and it's beyond all repeal. And then he saw that it was flying.
He saw that it was flying to show that these threats, these
are not empty threats. They're real. And they may come
upon a people quickly. People may think that they're
secure, they're safe, and the curse that this speaks of may
come quickly. And he saw there was a particular
evil mentioned on both sides. And this brings out again how
it is pointing us to the law of Moses, to the Old Testament
law. The law was written on two tables.
On one table, we call, the writers do, I don't know why, but over
the years I've seen this many times by most writers, they refer
to these two tables, the first table and the second table. Well,
what is pointed out was written on the second table is, thou
shalt not steal. And then what was written on
the first table here, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain. You say, where do you see that?
Because when a person was accused of being a thief, of stealing,
he would take an oath and he would swear in the name of God
that he was not guilty. And so these two sins, but it
speaks of all the law of God. You know, in the epistle of James,
He tells us that to offend in one point is to be guilty of
the whole law. If a person were able to keep
all the law of God perfectly and just offend in one point,
that one point would condemn that person to eternity in hell. We must have a righteousness
that is perfect. And that righteousness, which
is perfect, is the righteousness of God. It is the righteousness
of Christ. It is His perfect obedience. How did this apply to the Jews
of that day, the day in which Zachariah was speaking? Well,
that's the reason I said I believe we have to remember and not think
as though Haggai's prophecy was over and done, but the same thing
that Haggai rebuked the people for was still taking place here
when Zechariah had this vision. If you look back to Haggai chapter
1 and verses 2 through 4, what was it? Neglecting the building
of the house of the Lord. Neglecting the building of the
house of the Lord. in Haggai chapter 1 verses 2
through 4. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that
the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you? Now here's
where we see the stealing. Is it time for you? to dwell
in your sealed houses? In other words, to take that
which should be given to the building of the house of the
Lord and to build your house, is it time for you to dwell in
your sealed house? When I think of a sealed house,
I think of a house like most of us live in today. You know,
when they dry in a house, Most of you are familiar with that,
when they put the frame up and the studs and all of that. Then
they dry it in. That means that all the way around
it's enclosed and there's some type of a roof on top of it. It's sealed, it's dried in. They
were living in dried in, or sealed houses, where the house of the
Lord, the only thing we can know for sure, The foundation had
been laid. Just picture that in your mind,
if you will. Here is the Jews come back out
of captivity. They're in the land of Palestine,
in Jerusalem, and there's the foundation there. And you can
just see there's no building. There's no superstructure. But
here they are. Their houses are right in. They've
got a place to protect them from the rain and from the wind and
from the heat and from the cold while the house of the Lord is
neglected. That's the thing that I believe
this vision especially refers to as a warning to them. A warning
to them as they're saying, well, it's not time. It's not time
to build a house of the Lord. It's time to build my house.
But it's not time to build God's house. You see the rebuke? You see the
warning here that was given unto them? Is it time for you, O you,
to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Is
that right? You claim that you love God,
that he's everything to you, and yet You let his house lie
in waste while your house is sealed, finished? Now therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Is this right? Consider your ways. They neglected
building the house of the Lord to build their own houses. And so this vision was threatening
them. And look at what the vision,
look back to Zechariah now, chapter five, turn back. Look back to
what the vision said was going to take place in verse four. 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. What is he talking
about? The curse. The curse. Remember, the law,
I said this points to the law, and the law, what does the law
do? It curses. Cursed is everyone. that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law for to do them. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Now God is telling
them that, or threatening them with this curse coming upon their
house. because of their thievery and
because of their taking His name in vain. But I want you to point
out, I want to point out rather in verse 4 what God says is going
to happen to their house. You've got your house all sealed,
adorned, furnished, beautiful. God said now let me tell you
what's going to happen to your house. And it shall remain in the midst
of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and
the stones thereof." Now, when I read that and reading through
this several times, I could not help but think of that altar
that Elijah built. When I read here that this curse
is going to consume the wood, that's easy, fire. Fire burns
the wood, doesn't it, if it had wood stuck? But the stones? The
brick? The mortar? Oh yeah. Couldn't help but think of that
altar that Elijah built, you remember? And put that sacrifice
on it and then had it flooded with water. And the scripture
says after he prayed and asked the Lord to show that he had
done that, at the Lord's command. Remember, fire came down from
heaven, and isn't that a beautiful picture? It started at the top. You know, most sacrifices, the
fire's underneath, right? Consumes the sacrifice. But no,
the fire comes down from heaven, it consumes the sacrifice, then
it consumes the wood, then it consumes the stones that they
altar was made of, and then it licks up the water that was around
in the trenches. The fire from God. And God is
telling Israel at this time that the curse in their homes would
consume the timber and the stones thereof. One of the writers pointed out
this lesson. And it was especially to me,
but I believe to all of us, to me as a preacher. And I quote,
there's a constant tendency in the human heart to abuse the
goodness of God to an encouragement to sin. Hence, ministers of the
gospel must declare this portion of God's counsel as well as the
other. They must declare to men who
are living in neglect of duty that withholding what is due
to God, either in heart or life, is combined robbery and perjury. It's so easy as a preacher to
preach on the goodness of God, on God's forgiveness, God's love,
And we love these great attributes of God, his mercy, his wonderful
grace. But God also is a God of judgment. Our God, the scripture says,
is a consuming fire. And these things must be declared
as well, to be faithful to the word of God, to be faithful to
God. Our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, he spoke more
on hell than any other person in the Bible. That he pointed
out that man who disobeys, who does not trust in Christ, and
who does not take up his cross and follow him, that he's going
to perish eternally. She's going to perish eternally
in hell fire. We can't explain that, but I
know this, that God is a just God and every sin, every sin
is going to be punished. Every sin is going to be punished. Either your sin was punished
in Christ and your substitute and the substitute or You will
be punished for your sins, but every sin is going to be punished
because God is a just God and God is a faithful God. Now let's
look hurriedly at this second vision. It won't take long, the
Lord willing. Beginning with verse 5 in chapter
5 then the angel that talked with me went forth and said unto
me Lift up now thine eyes and see what is it? What is this
that goeth forth? And I said, what is it? And he
said this is an ephah that goeth forth He said moreover This is
their remembrance resemblance rather throughout all the earth
And behold, there was lifted up a talon 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. Then lifted 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. Then said
I to the angel that talked with me, whither do these bear the
ephah? And he said unto me, to build it a house in the land
of Shinar, and it shall be established and set there upon her own base. Now this vision is very much
like the one we've just looked at, of the flying roll, in that
here too, it's a warning. It's a vision that brings a warning. The symbolism of this vision
is more difficult, no doubt. But the angel, I'll just go through
this, the angel tells the prophet what he saw going forth. He saw
an ephah. a basket. That's what that is,
a basket. There was a unit of measurement
among the Israelites, and it was a dry unit of measurement.
So we just think of it as a basket. He saw a basket. Then he saw
above the basket, there was a talon of lead above the basket. And then in the basket, a woman. The woman is pushed down or cast
down into the basket and the lead is placed on the top or
on the mouth of the basket. And then here comes two women
with wings who pick up the basket and they carry it into this land
of Shinar where it is permanently deposited in a house that is
prepared for it. Now what's the meaning of this
vision? Well, I believe the general meaning is for the nation of
Israel that their wickedness, when it became full, when their
wickedness became full, then their punishment would surely
come. And it would result in them being
carried into a foreign land. This vision, I believe, was fulfilled
400 years later, when they had filled up, when
the Israelites denied the Lord Jesus Christ, when they crucified
him, then the Roman soldiers, or the Roman army, rather, we
know, destroyed Jerusalem and carried them into a foreign land. Not just one land, but they were
scattered over the face of the earth, actually. The effort or
the basket is a unit of measurement and the woman in it represents
the Jews. And in verse six, if you look
in verse six, it says, this is the, this is their resemblance
through all the earth. A more literal reading would
be this represents that to which the people are looking or tending. In other words, they were tending
in filling up that measure, that basket, that measure of sin,
and when it is filled up, then God will bring punishment. The woman in the basket represented
the wickedness of the nation of Israel. And as I said, this
vision predicted what took place 400 years later when the Israelites
were destroyed as a nation, and it was because of their rejecting
and crucifying the Lord Jesus. I want you to keep your place
here. We'll come back, but I want you to turn back to Genesis chapter
15 with me just a moment. In Genesis chapter 15, God had
promised and did promise Abraham the land of Canaan. And that
promise was renewed to his son Isaac and to his son Jacob. He
gave them the land of Canaan. But notice here in chapter 15,
beginning in verse 13, God speaking, He said unto Abram, Know of a
surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is
not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400
years. Now that was their time in Egypt. That's when Jacob went down to
Egypt, Joseph was already there, and all of them lived there for
400 years, and they were afflicted. Remember, they were slaves in
Egypt. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, that is
the nation of Egypt, will I judge? And what a judgment he brought
upon the Egyptians, right? But those 10 plagues, and then
when they say to overtake the Israelites, remember, and God
destroyed, overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. That nation whom they serve will
I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance.
Remember how they borrowed from their neighbors? Earrings and
things like that. And the Egyptians just willingly
gave to the Israelites. They came out, they plundered
that nation. They came out with a great substance. Just as God said they would.
This is over 400 years before it took place. And thou shalt go to thy fathers
in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the
fourth generation they shall come hither again. Now notice
this, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. You say, who are the Amorites?
The Amorites was one of the nations, one of the six nations that controlled
the land of Canaan. And the same was true of those
other nations as the Amorite. Their iniquity was not yet full. But when their iniquity was full,
when that basket was full, God sent Israel into that land with
the command to destroy every man, woman, boy, and girl. Now, it seems to me that the
scriptures reveal that every nation and maybe, listen, every
nation and maybe every person has a measure of sin. And until
that measure is filled up, God is long-suffering. Remember,
Peter says God's long-suffering counted as salvation. His long-suffering. But when that measure is filled
up, God's judgment is poured out. And I bring this out to
us because I think of our country. I think of our country. that
has been blessed so greatly over the years has had God's blessing
upon this country, maybe like no other country other than Israel.
And yet, we see things and hear of things and know of things
and you can't help but wonder if the iniquity of this nation
is not filling, filling, filling, and when it reaches the top,
Just like that lead came down on that wickedness, that woman,
in that basket, God's judgment comes down. Well, I pray the
Lord would grant us revival, don't you? An awakening in this
country. And I pray that he would begin
with us, with our church, first of all, with me. May the Lord
bless his word to all of us here this evening.