We’ll just look at verses 1 through 4. Rose has to leave here in about 15 minutes. So, remember Zechariah was given a bunch of, given 8 visions by the Lord that dealt with the nation of Israel.
Israel, the city, the nation of Judah rather, had been taken captive by the Babylonians. The Babylonians were defeated by the Medo-Persians. Cyrus, the Medo-Persians, had decreed that the Jews could go back to Judah.
They could rebuild the temple and they could also rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its walls. The temple was first started with the first number of Jews that went back. The first wave of Jews were 50,000, a rather small number compared to those that were taken into captivity.
Those that came back began to work and we see that Zedekiah, who we studied last week along with Josiah, Josiah being the high priest, Zedekiah being the one that was in charge of the civil government. Zedekiah had begun to rebuild the temple. He laid the foundations, but that’s all the further they got for a number of years.
They were becoming discouraged and that’s one of the reasons the Lord gave these visions to Zechariah, to show them God is ultimately in control and God will accomplish what He has said He will accomplish. Today we’re going to be taking a look at a scroll that Zedekiah sees and what is the meaning of this scroll. We’ll be looking at chapter 5 of Zedekiah verses 1-4.
Zechariah 5:1-4
Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. 2 And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. 3 Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. 4 I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord, I pray that you speak to us today about the flying scroll.
What does this mean? Lord, help us to understand a nation of Judah that was under great persecution by the Babylonians, and now trying to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple, and struggling tremendously. And how that you are showing them through these visions, who’s ultimately in control, and who shall ultimately be the judge. Lord, speak to us now through your word, we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen. He sees this flying scroll, and it’s interesting, a flying scroll. What was a scroll? Well, a scroll was used to contain the word of God.
If you would go to the synagogues, they would bring out the scrolls. And the scrolls would be wrapped up, and as they unrolled these scrolls, the word of God would be written on them. Remember when Jesus was up in Nazareth, his hometown, so to speak, that’s where he grew up as a young boy and as a young man.
And he was in the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath. And what they would do in any synagogue, they still do it today, is there are assigned readings for every Shabbat or every Sabbath, and they read these readings. And the one who is instructed to read is given the scroll.
These are usually the rabbis or someone of leadership in the synagogue that would read them the scroll. Jesus was given the scroll, if you remember, on the day he was visiting, and he read that day from Isaiah 61, which was the reading for the day. And as he read that, just want to turn you with me, just quickly keep your finger in Zechariah, because we’ll be coming right back to it.
But in Isaiah chapter 61, Jesus read some words, and he told us exactly what he told the people there, which is recorded in Scripture in the New Testament, what these words meant. And so if you go to Isaiah chapter 61 and begin at verse 1, it says, And then Jesus stopped there. The next verse, the next portion of verse 2 reads, Now Jesus stopped where he stopped at the first verse, because he was reading and he rolled up the scroll.
Everyone looked at him because he was supposed to keep reading, supposed to keep reading the verses that I just read, 2, 3, 4, and continue on for a ways. These verses all spoke of the ministry of the coming Messiah. And Jesus just read the verses, verse 1, which speaks of the first coming.
The second coming is spoken of beyond that, where it talks about vengeance of the Lord coming, and then the Lord establishing peace upon the earth. And it speaks of his second coming, when the millennial kingdom shall come. The first verse speaks of his first coming, when he shall come to heal the brokenhearted and to set the captive free, and then to forgive our sins.
That is what a scroll was used for. The words of God were recorded on the scroll. Well, we see that there’s this flying scroll that Zacharias sees.
It says, Then I turned and I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered him, A flying scroll, the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof is ten cubits. Now, if you would go and look at the construction of the area of the temple, you would see that there is a place where the people would be taught or the word of God would be read.
And that place at the temple measures exactly what this scroll measures. So it’s showing us an interesting thing. It’s showing us this is the word of God.
And this is the word of God that’s going to be read to the people. And this is the word of God that the people are to listen to. What was the purpose of the priest coming out and reading the scroll in this area that was ten cubits by twenty cubits? What was it there for? Well, it was so the people could hear the word of God.
They could understand and respond to the word of God and see how the word of God applied to their life and what God was saying he was going to do in their lives. And so we see that this flying scroll comes. It’s coming and Zechariah is coming and ministering to the people that are back in Judah.
And as he comes to minister them back in Judah, he sees this flying scroll. And it’s the same size as the area where the people are taught and read the scrolls from. Then said he unto me, this is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.
For everyone that stealeth shall be cut off on this side according to it. And everyone that sweareth shall be cut off on this side according to it. So we see that this is speaking of the fact that there’s coming a day of judgment.
And it’s a day of judgment not just for Israel, not just for Judah, but for the whole earth. Now people of Judah feel like well God maybe has forgotten about us and how do these other people that are so wicked seem to continue to get by with everything. And that is a common attitude often times amongst believers.
But we need to understand that the day of judgment is coming. And this flying scroll says that this day of judgment will come. And everyone on the whole earth that has done these things that violate and are sins and transgressions against the Lord shall be dealt with.
He then goes on and says in verse 4, more of what will be dealt with. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name. And it shall remain in the midst of the house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
Now the people thought, remember what had happened in Judah after Josiah. Josiah had cleansed the land, cleansed Judah, cleansed Jerusalem of the false prophets and all the false worship centers. But the people had hid idols in their house.
And Josiah didn’t know they were there. And when Josiah died, what happened? As soon as his sons and grandsons took over, remember we said what happened when we were studying the kings of Israel? Immediately, just about Judah went back to her old ways of worshipping idols and putting up false prophets. Why? Because they had hid the things in their house.
They thought no one knows. Guess what? God says there’s coming a day of judgment and everything will be dealt with properly. You cannot hide if you believe in false gods, if you’re worshipping false gods.
You can’t hide it from me. I’ll discover it. And you can’t keep it in your house and say no one will see.
And I will come and I will destroy your false worship. I will judge your house and there will not be a timber left or rocks left of that house. Why? Because the judgment is going to be complete.
It’s going to be final. And when is this judgment coming? Now this is a prophetic vision that Zedekiah is seeing. There’s a couple of things.
First of all, those that are coming against Josiah and Zedekiah, as they try to lead the nation of Judah to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and they’ve got all these false teachers and pagans that are coming against them, trying to discourage them, saying they want to join with them to help them, but really they want to destroy them. When they say no, we don’t want your help, then they immediately begin to try and undermine everything they’re doing to discourage them. God is saying that day is going to be judged.
Their words will be judged. Those that swear falsely by the Lord will be judged. People need to take seriously what He’s saying here.
You say that you’re a Christian, but you don’t really believe in what God says you should believe in. You don’t really follow what God says you need to follow and to do. You say you give lip service to God, but your heart is far from Him.
These are the things that result in the attitudes that we see here amongst the people that are going to be judged. And the judgment will be complete, and it will be final. And so, Zedekiah comes with this vision as a word that God is ultimately in control.
It may seem like at times He isn’t. He tells us to do something, and it seems like it’s taking a long time to get done. But God will be the one that shall complete what He says He will complete, and it shall be done in its fullness.
Let’s just close in prayer, Lord. I pray You just help us as we learn from Your Word and learn from these visions of Zedekiah. Help us to see that when You come at the second coming, You shall come to establish Your kingdom on earth, and You shall rule and reign in righteousness and holiness.
And Lord, at the end of that millennial reign, You shall judge all things at the great white throne judgment. All men shall have to stand before You and give account. Nothing can be hid.
And Father, it doesn’t matter what our hearts tell us, that somehow we have deceived You and deceived others, and they don’t know what we really believe. But You will open up the records and You will let us see exactly what our hearts really were about. And Lord, help us to walk in the power of Your Son and realize that only through Him can our hearts be cleansed, our lives be changed, and we won’t have to deal with the sin that is spoken of in the vision of Zedekiah.
Lord, speak to us now and help us to go in the week ahead. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.