Zechariah’s Seventh Vision

 

Read Zechariah 5:5-11

 

The seventh vision is a picture of Israel’s sin being full. An ephah, the largest form of dry measurement in that day, is a basket that holds about five gallons of material.  The angel lifted the cover to reveal a woman, called “Wickedness,”  sitting inside the basket.  She was a picture of all the lawlessness in the land.  There was great lawlessness in the Israel at that time, but this vision also foreshadows the revealing of lawlessness in the last days, our day (2 Thess 2:3-12).  Wickedness did not want to be confined and struggled to get out of the basket, but the angel threw the woman back down and set a lead weight upon the top.  Typically, a stone would be laid on top of the cover, but in this case a lead weight was used to ensure the woman could not escape.

 

Two women with stork-like wings carried the basket off to Shinar, another name for Babylon.  The word, “stork” in Hebrew means “faithful one,” but the stork was an unclean animal.  It makes sense then that these unclean women were faithful to carry away the basket of wickedness to Babylon, the place known for wickedness.  In this land of idol worshippers, wickedness was set on a pedestal and worshipped.  This had to be separated out of the ‘Holy Land’ of God.

 

The shaking that the earth is experiencing right now is shaking out the wickedness, it is exposing things that have long been at work in the earth subverting the ways and Truth of God.  No longer will these things remain hidden; God is exposing them so that every person will have to openly choose their allegiance to God or to satan.  No more can we attempt to remain neutral.

 

• Take time to come before the Lord Jesus and let Him “shake” you, in order to reveal any rebellion or wickedness in you. Invite Holy Spirit to examine you, not for condemnation, but for conviction of sin.  Embrace what the Spirit shows you and change your mind, confess that you haven’t been living up to all you were created to be and be restored to Abba Father who will establish you on the right path.  (Ps 139:23-24, Acts 3:19)

 

• Thank the Father for exposing wickedness among us and for His desire to cleanse His people and the land. This is making way for a new move of Holiness across the earth.  Call forth holiness in God’s people.  (Isaiah 35:8, 2 Cor 7:1)

 

• Ask God to conform you to His image. We are made in His likeness and we want to look like, sound like, smell like our Father!  Reject conformity to the world system and cry out for God’s people to represent Him well, for His glory!  (Rom 12:1-2)