Zech. 5:1-4: Judgement Is Coming--And You Can't Hide

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1)     Intro / Summary

A)   Everything has been VERY hopeful and positive up to this point

         Visions

1)     God’s 4 horsemen are patrolling the world, and God knows that things are not the way they should be

2)     The 4 horns (power) are terrifying the world, but God sent craftsmen to destroy them

3)     2:4-5 – Jerusalem will be a city without walls

4)     Joshua was in the presence of God with poop on his clothes, but God made him clean

5)     God will supply what his people needs to keep the lights on

B)    6th vision (5:1-4): Things are going to take a negative / threatening turn

2)     vv. 1-2

A)   A flying scroll

1)     Flying = fast

(a)   cf. Dan. 7:6 – Alexander the Great / Greece = a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back

(b)   He conquered the Persian Empire in 7 or 8 years

2)     Flying = direct

(a)   “…the fact that it is flying diminishes human agency… No one is holding or reading (or burning or eating) this scroll – it does the work of God directly.”[1]

(b)   v. 4 – “I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts…”

(c)   No human is holding, reading, interpreting, hiding, corrupting, or delaying God’s word.

B)    It’s huge (this is not a scroll you hold and read)

1)     20x10 cubits = 30x15 ft

2)     A standard billboard is 14x48 ft.

3)     Nobody is going to hide from this word or pretend like you didn’t know it. It’s a billboard flying around in the sky.

C)    These are the same dimensions as the Holy Place in the Tabernacle and Temple (pic)

1)     I’m not sure if this is significant, but given that Haggai and Zechariah are building the temple, it seems important

2)     Poss. point: The standard by which sin is measured is not society’s opinion or consensus, but the exact holiness of God’s sanctuary.

(a)   “This sin-seeking scroll, bearing God’s law and reflecting the dimensions of the holy place, reminds us that what determines sin is God’s revelation. We are not the ones who create moral reality, try though we might. We cannot revise moral truth by deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong. This scroll goes forth with God’s law, not with man’s opinion; its dimensions are not those of the latest poll but of God’s holy character. Our moral judgment is fatally flawed, like a distorted mirror in a carnival. What is straight our hearts show as crooked, and what is crooked as straight. So God gives us his law as a mirror in which to see ourselves truly —to know sin and ourselves as sinners the way that God does.”[2]

3)     v. 3

A)   “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land.”

1)     God made a covenant with his people, and there are both blessings and curses attached to it

2)     Lev. 26:3, 14-15; Deut. 28:1-2, 15

B)    The scroll has writing on both sides, which reminds us of the Ten Commandments / God’s Law (Ex. 32:15-16)

C)    There are two crimes written on the flying billboard scroll: Stealing and swearing falsely

1)     Some treat this as representative of crimes against God (vertical) and people (horizontal)

(a)   “The two crimes mentioned in vv. 3–4 are often understood to be representative crimes of the Decalogue, where swearing falsely is a crime against Yahweh (commandment 3) and stealing is a crime against one’s neighbour (commandment 8).” [3]

2)     Lev. 19:11-12 (vv. 17-18 = love your neighbor) – This is a person who has not loved his neighbor

3)     Jer. 7:1-4, 8-10 (stealing and false swearing) – This is a person who thinks they’re safe because they’re one of God’s people and they have his temple

4)     Representative secret / hidden sins

(a)   Anything that we do that we end up “getting away with”

(b)   “So these two offences neatly encapsulate both aspects of covenant obligation, and involve deliberate violation of both. Stealing and perjury are both, by their very nature, deliberate. Furthermore the offenders on view here, literally ‘the thief’ and ‘the false-swearer’ (both with the definite article) are not people who have lapsed temporarily from an otherwise moral life, but people whose conduct is of such a settled and persistent kind that ‘thief’ and ‘perjurer’ properly express their basic character.” [4]

5)     POINT: Human justice often fails, especially to punish hidden/secret crimes, but God’s scroll is flying around with God’s curse and you can’t hide from it.

4)     v. 4

A)   God will send out his word / curse / judgement, and it will come in through the locked door and find you, even in your house.

B)    “And it shall remain in his house”

1)     LTW – “to spend the night”

2)     God’s curse is not just coming it, it’s moving in.

C)    “and consume it, both timber and stones”

1)     You probably might think you’ve gotten away with it, and you probably think you’re safe, but God’s justice is moving into your house, and it will consume everything you have.

2)     e.g. Josh. 7:24-25 – Achan’s (hidden) sin was discovered, and his whole house was consumed.

D)   POINT: The flying scroll isn’t a billboard. It’s a reaper drone, and it’s coming for you.

5)     Summary quote

A)   “So the basic significance of the scroll is clear. But two further aspects deserve brief comment. First, its size. It is big – much bigger than a normal scroll, such as a reader could easily pick up and put down. 178 It is much more like a huge billboard, confronting and uncompromising – and appropriately so, because the matter it deals with is weighty. Let persistent offenders beware, and also a community unaware or unconcerned about their presence within it! 179 Finally, the scroll is flying (1), which suggests swiftness and imminence. It approaches like a bird of prey seeking its quarry, and there is no escape from it. It ‘goes out’ over the whole land (3), 180 and ‘enters’ houses (4). No area of life is beyond its reach; there is no place to hide from it. This is one of the most terrifying warning passages in the Old Testament. 181 There is no room for complacency. God’s law cannot be disregarded with impunity. Repentance is an urgent matter!”[5]

6)     Lessons

A)   You can’t hide

1)     (Search for more – there are a lot of these in the Bible. He even knows our motives.)

2)     Gen. 3:8-10 – Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden

3)     Ps. 139:7-12

4)     Prov. 15:3 – “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

B)    Examine yourself

1)     1 Cor. 11:27-30

2)     It’s better to examine yourself now, than to be examined by God later.

C)   Take refuge

1)     The only place where the curse of the scroll can’t touch us is under the cross of Jesus.

2)     Gal. 3:13

3)     “The marvellous truth is that he redeemed his people from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for them. However, for all who reject the Lord Jesus and seem to get away with it in this life, this vision is a reminder of another scroll that is in the hands of the risen Lord Jesus, the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:9). A scroll whose seals he is breaking, bringing judgment that will culminate in the great day of God’s wrath from which no one can hide (Rev. 6:12–17).”[6]

[1] Anthony Petterson, Apollos OT Comm.

[2] Richard Phillips, REC

[3] Anthony Petterson, Apollos OT Comm.

[4] Barry Webb, BST

[5] Barry Webb, BST

[6] Petterson, Apollo OT Comm.