Scripture for Today, 12-19-19: Zechariah's Visions

Zechariah's Visions: The Ephah and the Women
“Then the angel that talked with me . . . 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.”

 Zechariah 5:5-7

12-19-19, Henry Morris, III -- The ephah is a volume measure, similar to a bushel basket (Leviticus 19:36). The woman inside is defined as “wickedness” (Zechariah 5:8). The ephah is lead-sealed (contained) by God Himself and is taken (while contained) to Shinar by two women with wings like a stork (Zechariah 5:9-11).

These two women are difficult to identify. It is possible that they are Aholah and Aholibah described in Ezekiel 23:1, with Aholah representing Samaria as an adulteress with Assyria and Aholibah substituting for Jerusalem as the adulterous wife of Jehovah. It is also possible that these two women could represent Israel and later the church involvement with the worldly system of Babylon. In either case, these two women enable “wickedness” to be brought to Shinar and allow Babylon to be “established” (Zechariah 5:11). The New Testament counterpart of these events is probably the decadent woman pictured in Revelation 17:4.

This segment of Zechariah’s visions seems to set the stage for God’s harvest. There is the vision of the scroll of judgment impacting the entire earth; then this basket of “wickedness” that resembles conditions “through all the earth.” And lastly the house in the land of Shinar that is “established” before the four chariots (Zechariah 6:1) begin their final work. While these prophecies are not pleasant to anticipate, God “hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Source

​Zechariah's Visions: The Flying Roll
“Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll . . . the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.”

Zechariah 5:1-2

12-18-19, Henry Morris, III -- The large “flying roll” pictured for Zechariah is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide, signifying the enormity of its purpose. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah all speak of a roll in terms of judgment that is coming on Israel and Babylon (Jeremiah 36:2; Ezekiel 2:9-10).

This roll contains the curse that goes forth over the “face of the whole earth” (Zechariah 5:13)—a phrase that is only used five other times in all of Scripture: God warns Noah of the coming Flood (Genesis 6:7), the population under the leadership of Nimrod rebels at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4), God sends the plague of locusts on Egypt (Exodus 10:15), the vast empire of Greece destroys and overcomes Persia (Daniel 8:5), and a day will come “on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35).

The parallel to the scroll with the seven seals in Revelation is striking. Revelation 6:1-8 tells of the four horsemen who carry out the judgment of the first four seals that parallel the ninth vision of Zechariah (6:1-8). Revelation 6:12-17 describes the “great earthquake” that is parallel to the earthquake foretold by Haggai (2:6-7, 21-23). Revelation chapters 6–10 describe the judgments that impact both the planet itself and the population.

Zechariah’s roll judges those who steal and swear and will be “cut off.” The implication is that those unfit for the people of God will be “cleansed” from the final kingdom. Since the obvious purpose of these visions is to give assurance of the ultimate victory of God, we can be confident that “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Source