Theological Commentary: Click Here
The visions
in this chapter are not combined, but they are placed side by side to convey a
combined meaning. They are also
difficult to perceive. Once more, Zechariah
has difficulty understanding. What he
sees makes sense to him, but he cannot make sense of the deeper spiritual
meaning.
With the
flying scroll, God is attacking how people treat each other. Those who steal will receive the curse. Those who take away from another person’s
reputation likewise receive the curse.
Why is God targeting
these two sins in particular? Remember
that Zechariah is writing as the people are coming back from exile. They are rebuilding the land. This is not the time for divisions to develop
among the people. This is not the time
for enemies to be made among people who should be supporting one another. This is not the time to let infighting
deplete what few resources are there to allow the Hebrew people to rebuilt.
Furthermore,
remember that the Hebrew people went into exile because they believed that they
were untouchable. They believed that God
wouldn’t judge them because they were His people. God wants to remind them that as they are coming
back from exile that God’s curse can apply to them as well as the rest of the
world.
This leads
us into the second vision. Here we have
a woman in a basket. Hat isn’t clear,
though, is that the word for basket plays a double role in Hebrew. It is the word for the largest unit of
measurement for the Hebrew people of the day.
In other words, God gives Zechariah a vision of wickedness that can only
be kept in the largest container available.
What’s God’s
point? As the Hebrew people return from
exile, they need to be reminded that their sinfulness is vast. Human sinfulness is great in size. Not only will it be judged, as learned in the
first vision, but it has a right to be judged because of its greatness in
quantity. It isn’t like human beings are
slightly evil. It isn’t like we are
mostly good with sporadic moments of sin.
We are sinful human beings whose sin taints just about everything with which
we come into contact.
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