A Flying Scroll and Woman in a Basket

Zechariah 5:1-11 

1 Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying scroll.

2 And he said to me,
"What do you see?"

So I answered, "I see a flying scroll.
Its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits."

3 Then he said to me,
"This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth:
'Every thief shall be expelled,'
according to this side of the scroll; and,
'Every perjurer shall be expelled,'
according to that side of it."

4 "I will send out the curse," says the LORD of hosts;

"It shall enter the house of the thief
And the house of the one who swears falsely by My name.
It shall remain in the midst of his house
And consume it, with its timber and stones."

5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me,
"Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth."

6 So I asked, "What is it?"
And he said, "It is a basket that is going forth."

He also said, "This is their resemblance throughout the earth: 7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket"; 8 then he said, "This is Wickedness!" And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth. 9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.

10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they carrying the basket?"

11 And he said to me, "To build a house for it in the land of Shinar; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base."

These visions were God’s way to communicate in visual parables of sorts so only those who were given eyes to see and ears to hear could fathom God’s work.  Zechariah was first shown a flying scroll, a winged written message of a sort with references in verse 3 to two of the Ten Commandments which the people of God had violated and needed to be shown their accountability for.  This sin-seeking scroll, bore God’s law and reflected the dimensions of the holy place of God’s house to show that what determines sin is God’s revelation according to His word.  According to the Reformed Expository Commentary, “one side is the eighth commandment, against stealing, and on the other is the ninth commandment, against giving false testimony. These particular sins—theft and false swearing—are specifically emphasized as prevailing problems in Zechariah’s time, especially since he later exhorts: “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD” (Zechariah 8:16–17).”  Therefore this huge scroll was a long testimony against them of what was written by God that they were long disobeying with utter disregard for the revealed will of God.  This curse of disobedience by theft and lying to harm each other was flown far and wide in the picture of a book that covered them all no matter how far away they stood and those words found out their sin that could not be hidden.  The sinners would be expelled from God’s land and presence for not being truthful and just in their dealings with one another as it is written.  Their sin would track down every thief and perjurer even while they sat in the supposed sanctuary of their homes.  The second vision shown to the prophet was of a basket going by which showed that wickedness was everywhere as symbolized by a wicked woman held inside with a heavy lead cover to keep that evil contained.  That basket was quickly closed back up and carried off to Shinar as a reference to Babylon and the captivity of sin found there.  This wickedness would be carried there to have its effect on the idolatrous people as it removed the sin from among God’s people.  After sin was discovered by the scroll of the word, judged by the curse, and then removed in the basket, God’s people would be restored.  The application for us all then is to consider where you stand before God.  Is your sin still upon you and you are trying to hide it and yourself away from His penetrating gaze?  The one certainty is that He will find out and expose all your sins through His word, and judgment is absolute for us (Romans 6:23).  The only hope is for Jesus Christ to carry them away by the forgiveness through the cross of substitutionary atonement.  God’s curse lies on us all according to His word (John 3:18, 12:48) which has us in judgment (Hebrews 9:27-28) from the moment we are born and you will die in your sins (John 8:24) to be cast out of His presence forever because of His holiness and our wickedness under the hidden lead lid of our baskets.  The only hope is to trust His word and work as it is written that Christ has paid your price and in His holiness and righteousness is restoration of reconciliation (Romans 5:11, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19) in the gospel which is the only answer to the bad news of our pitiful condition.  He will then carry you out of that darkness and into never ending light (Acts 26:18, 1 Peter 2:9) and peace (Romans 5:1) as He carries your sin’s penalty far away.