Zechariah - Chapter 5

THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH VISIONS

THE FLYING SCROLL AND THE EPHAH (BASKET)

ZECHARIAH 5

The first five visions given to the prophet are focused upon hope and glory, as they are promises of restoration and renewal of the physical Temple and of the spiritual relationship between the Lord and His chosen people. The full completion of those visions are not yet all shown to be true, however, the last vision reinforced the hope of the light to come to Israel, as viewed by the eternally fed candlestick vision. As we consider the next two visions we must understand that before the millennial earth appears and earlier visions become fully true, the nation must be cleansed from all that could defile it.

In that regard, God's eternal plan is for grace to support those who will believe and judgment given to those who will not.

Now in verses 1-4 of chapter 5 we see the next vision of a scroll which flies and is of large size. We see what the prophet saw through his words that he saw the scroll flying and it was 15 feet X 30 feet, which also is the exact dimension of the sacred holy room of the temple itself and of the area outside the Temple known as Solomon's porch.

The angel tells Zechariah that this scroll goes out over the entire earth and takes a curse outward expelling those who are thieves or who misuse the name of the Lord. The two sins mentioned are from the original law of ten commands, and are indicative of the two major sins of Israel, stealing worship away from The Lord and giving it to idols and dishonoring God by refusing to repent.

The next vision appears to Zechariah and is shown in verses 5-11, a woman sitting in a basket. She represents wickedness and the angel places her down into the basket and covers the basket with a lead cover. The basket was known as an ephah. The wickedness seen is a feminine Hebrew word, so a woman is the focus of this vision. These things are symbols for greed, materialism, and dishonesty for profit. The woman symbol is covered by the lead cover and the prophet sees the vision returning to Babylon as two more women appear with wings like a stork to carry the basket away to the land of captivity which will soon judged and destroyed by the Lord.

In those days, storks were considered unclean animals but the vision shows clearly that the Lord commands things unclean to fulfill His will, even using agents of evil to do so to rid His chosen land of its iniquities.