Zechariah 5: Will God Purge Evil?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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The short answer to the title of this article is…you bet!

In Zechariah 5, we learn of two visions (#6 & 7), that the prophet sees. He learns the meaning of those visions with the help of an attending angel, sent by God to bring understanding. The first (or 6th vision), deals with a flying scroll. The second (or 7th vision), deals with the woman in the basket.

As can be expected, the prophet Zechariah, while seeing these things in the visions doesn’t necessarily understand their meaning or importance. Let’s notice that during the process, the angel prompts Zechariah to focus on the visions and try to determine their meaning, although Zechariah is largely at a loss to be able to explain them so he must rely on the information provided to him by the angel.

Zechariah sees a “flying roll” (scroll) – v. 1 and this scroll contained writing on both sides (like the 10 Commandments) and was equivalent to a book. The scroll represents the curse (v. 3) that goes out over the entire earth, from God Himself. The scroll contains references to sins and the angel only mentions two specific sins yet it seems clear that these two sins reflect the entirety of the Law. In essence, one points to how people treat other people and the other points to how people treat God, so in that sense, the two sins listed represent the whole law:

• Stealing – set aside our neighbor’s right
• Swearing – to swear is to set aside God’s claim to reverence

The scroll itself measured about 30’ x 15’, which makes it a fairly large scroll. As if flies across the sky, people would not only see it, but be able to see what is written on it due to its size.

Interestingly enough, Yahweh promised the curse would seek out the guilty, expel them and bring judgment on them (v. 4). So in essence, the scroll had two purposes: find the guilty and expel them from the land through judgment.

God personified the curse as if it had human intelligence to go through the land and into homes to find the guilty. This is similar to the angel of death during the time leading up to the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt (Exodus 12).

Though God had revealed glorious promises for the future, He also warned that continued sin would bring inevitable divine judgment upon the Israelites. Zechariah was learning that God took the sins of His people seriously and even though it often appeared as though God did not care or notice, He truly did notice and His grace was often mistaken for an “I don’t care” attitude. This, instead of causing Israelites to repent and endeavor to serve God faithfully, caused them to become very callous toward God and His Law.

A good questions that we Christians should be asking ourselves is though we are judicially righteous before God, can we fall into this same problem of taking sin too casually? What should our approach to God be? Do we take for granted His grace, turning it into an opportunity to sin?

The vision of the flying scroll downplays human activity. This is all God’s doing. He is in charge of it and what He does He does for His purposes and glory.

Next, Zechariah sees a woman in a basket (ephah; vv 5 – 11). An ephah was the largest dry measure among the Hebrews and this may represent the large accumulation of Israel’s sins. Bear in mind that Zechariah is continually asked by the angel what he sees and what he thinks the visions mean. This is proof that without God’s help, there is no understanding of His oracles. His entire Word represents His oracles to us and to simply and cavalierly read His Word without much thought is something we should not do. As we read, it should not be done to simply “check things off” but to delve deeply into His Word. We can best do this by reading, asking questions and seeking answers as we do so.

The first (or 6th), vision where Zechariah sees a scroll, deals with the purging of all sinners from the Land (Israel). The second (or 7th), vision focusing on the woman in the basket, extends this theme in which the entire evil system will be removed from the Land of Israel. Ultimately, this will occur BEFORE the coming Millennial Kingdom (Ezekiel 20:38).

The wicked system is represented as a basket with a woman held captive and a lead cover to keep it inside the basket. The people of Israel are seen as pieces of grain – indicating wickedness here is materialism. Secularism to materialism is central to the final world system (Revelation 18).

We are seeing this more and more throughout society. It seems to be that though God began this work during Zechariah’s day, He is moving in earnest to bring out into the open the sinners that love their sin so that God can purge them. If we consider what is happening throughout society, with the possible exception of the complete moral depravity and failure during the days of Noah (which was “worldwide”), we seem to have the same type of thing happening today.

People have become seriously brainwashed, deluded and seriously evil. They make no apologies for their words, actions or behavior either. When Paul listed the attitudes of people during the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-5), it would be difficult to understand his full meaning if we were not seeing it happen right before our eyes. Yes, in general, people throughout society have become selfish, loathsome, haters of good, proud, disobedient and everything else he states in that passage. But again, we are seeing the complete lunacy of people who claim that a person can change their gender and if someone doesn’t like that, then they are transphobic or worse.

Science has always said gender is pretty much based on chromosomes. However, today, chromosomes, we are told, play a very small part if any. It’s how a person feels about themselves that ultimately determines their gender. It’s not only not science, but it’s completely asinine to believe that a person born with XY chromosomes (male), can literally change their gender to that of a XX chromosomes. The mental illness that is occurring in people who call themselves “trans” is fully on display. Is God bringing those people out into the open so that He can purge them? It’s very possible.

In essence, those who firmly believe (or at least firmly state), that they have changed their genders (even going so far as to have surgery to make them appear more like the opposite gender from which they were born (not assigned), has outed them and there is no going back for them generally. Yes, some who have gone through transition now regret their earlier decision and many are transitioning back to their previous exterior gender. Aside from those folks though, many who remain transitioned are resolute in their positions and attack any and all who oppose them.

This is interesting because their belief that they can actually change genders is an affront to God Himself. Their actions and words call God a liar. They are the center of their universes and they persist in their lies, maligning God Himself concerning their gender dysphoria. It is all for attention? Do they do this because it focuses things on them? Paul says people have become in love with themselves, lovers of money, proud, boastful, abusive, unforgiving, brutal, arrogant, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash and all the rest? Yes, Paul is speaking about what happens to those who claim to be Christians in the very last days (and that is certainly happening within Christendom with more and more people claiming to be Christian coming out as gay and with pastors who fall due to adultery and other issues. But I believe Paul’s words represent what would be happening with the world in general as the time of Jesus’ physical return approaches.

Zechariah was privy to what God began doing in the nation of Israel during the prophet’s day, but ultimately, this final purge of individual sinners and the wicked system itself will happen toward the end of the coming Tribulation period, in preparation for the Millennial Kingdom over which Jesus Himself will rule for 1,000 years.

The scroll vision represents the removal of individual sinners from the land via divine judgment. This woman in the basket vision paints a picture of the eventual complete removal of all wickedness from the future “holy land.” Ultimately, as just noted, all 8 visions in the book of Zechariah fully extends to the coming Millennial Kingdom following the Great Tribulation, but the immediate application is to the time and conditions of Zechariah’s days.

As far as the woman in the basket goes, the lead cover of the ephah is lifted up to show a woman inside the basket. A lead cover is much heavier than a stone that would have normally been used, ensuring the contents remains stored. The woman represents “wickedness” (v 8), as noted in the text. There are three views regarding the “woman”:

1. covenant-breakers, a particular form of wickedness (Hebrew; feminine)
2. Wickedness of “commercialism” based solely on greed
3. Represented by a woman due to her ability to be tempted (Eve) and to tempt

The angel casts the woman into the ephah and sets the lead cover in place to keep her from escaping, so that she can be carried to her destination. Zechariah next sees two woman (v 9), who are like storks. Storks are strong, motherly birds, capable of carrying loads a long distance in flight. Some believe these women were “demonic” forces but if so, they would’ve likely helped the wicked woman to escape the ephah.

These “storks” faithfully carry the ephah and its contents to God’s appointed destination – Babylon. Like the removal of Joshua’s filthy garments (3:4), the removal of the woman was an act of sovereignty on the part of the covenant-keeping God.

Zechariah engages the angel by asking where the women/storks were taking the ephah to… (v 10). He is modeling for us the best way to approach the reading of God’s Word. What does it mean? Where is the woman begin taken to? These questions are good because the answers provide more information for Zechariah so that he can wrap his brain around the visions and their meaning to a much better extent. We need to remember that during Zechariah’s day, the Bible had not yet been completed. Zechariah did not have any of the New Testament including Revelation. Today, we have access to the entire Bible, yet we should still be asking many questions as we read through His Word. That is the only way we will learn.

Zechariah is told that the ephah was going to the “land of Shinar” which is another name for Babylon (v 11). The “land of Shinar” goes back to Genesis 10 where it all began with Nimrod who created the corrupt system of Babylon (Babel). The idolatry of Babylon, which had taken up root in Israel, was being physically separated from that nation in preparation for God’s final remnant that would go into the Millennial Kingdom. It ultimately speaks of the coming Tribulation, the return of Jesus and the establishment of His Kingdom.

In the future from our perspective, Babylon will likely be a real physical place during the Tribulation (though it may not be called that). But it will also includes a global trade system and ideology/religion as it is now and as a GLOBAL government. The Antichrist will have his headquarters in future Babylon during his rule and Babylon will be the center of world idolatry. The spirit of Babylon will reach its apex during the coming 7-year Tribulation as it overtakes the entire world. All of this is allowed by God for His purposes and glory. It further separates any goats (unbelievers) from the sheep (true believers).

The woman in the basket corresponds to the woman in Revelation 17. The woman highlighted in Zechariah 5 has been captured and sent to Babylon to become the object of worship. Once there, she is released from the basket and rides the scarlet beast and called “great prostitute/whore” (Revelation 17:1). At that point, the entire system of Babylon will engulf the entire world and be worshipped with Antichrist as head. However, the Bible specifically states that Babylon will be destroyed by God in Revelation 14:8.

It appears that God, in preparation for His coming judgment and purge, is allowing all forms of unheard of evil to rise to society’s surface. It is out in the open and there is no way to put everything back in the bottle. Society is becoming worse because of what is happening and it’s not merely transgenderism but many other things. Things will come to a climax during the coming seven year Tribulation period but we are certainly seeing things happening now. The only reason I can discern that God is allowing all of it is due to the fact that He will purge the people who live in a way that essentially calls God a liar.

Join me next time as we look at the four chariots in Zechariah 6!

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/10/28/zechariah-5-will-god-purge-evil/