Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville Date: 26 February 2006 (evening)

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Psalm of praise: 103:2
Prayer
Psalm 25:3, 5
Scripture reading: Zechariah 5
Scripture text: Zechariah 5:8

The angel said, “The woman’s name is Wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and closed the heavy lid again. (Zechariah 5:8 NLT)

God takes the wickedness to where it should be.

He does it at his appointed time and in his power.
The Lord will not only do it during his Second Coming or during the hereafter.
He is already doing it.

In this night vision Zechariah witnessed how God made his church holy.

In the church there are sins and conflict and many things that are wrong.
These often discourage us, but you must remember that the Lord is not powerless against them.
The Lord allows it up to a certain point. Then the Lord takes action in his church and He cleanses his church by removing all the evil from her.

In this sermon we focus on the following two issues:

1. The church at that time
2. The scroll and the woman

1. The church at that time

The people living with Zechariah among the ruins of Jerusalem were just like us.

They also committed the same sins.
Although many centuries have passed, we do not commit “new” sins or other sins than those people.

We read about crime we know very well:

There were many thieves.
False swearing was the order of the day.
The Name of God was misused when they committed perjury.

We would expect that a nation tried as much as they had been would not defy the Lord by committing such sins. Hence the Lord showed two visions to Zechariah:

First he saw the vision of a flying scroll.
- This preached the curse on the sinners in this land.
The next vision preached that the Lord Himself would remove all the wickedness.

But please note carefully: The Lord does not remove the faithful who fight against sin – although they also sin.

He condemns and removes those who persist in committing sins – the wicked people.
He removes the sins.

When we read this passage in Zechariah, we immediately notice how urgent it is to make ourselves holy.

From this passage in the Scriptures it is clear that the faithful do not live as people who know the Lord and truthfully worship Him.
Furthermore we read that the people are powerless. They can’t even help themselves.
- Hence they appear very weak against their enemies and sins.
- If we were in the same position, we would probably have become so discouraged that we would have given in.

Hence these night visions: The Lord preached to them and to us that He passes judgment on sinners and then removes the sins among his people.

2. The scroll and the woman

Zechariah had just seen the flying scroll when he noticed the woman in the basket (ephah). This is a remarkable vision.

An ephah was a measure of capacity used to measure wheat in those days.
Its capacity was about 20 litres.
This was the largest measurement they used.

The basket Zechariah saw in this vision was probably much bigger than the ephah as it was big enough for a woman to fit into it.

In this basket was a woman and it was covered with a very heavy lid.

What is the meaning of it? This is exactly what the prophet asked the angel. The angel promptly replied:

It is a basket for measuring grain. This is what they look like throughout the land.

This means that this was the situation in the entire land, or put differently:

This is what our view should be of all the people living in the land.
The woman in the basket – in her sinfulness – resembles the people.
This is a reflection of the church at that time.

What is so strange about this woman with whom the Lord compares his people?

This woman personifies the wickedness of the people.
Sins in the flesh!

The angel doesn’t hesitate, because he frankly replies in verse 8:

The woman’s name is Wickedness!

Maybe you find it strange that the Bible uses a woman to represent sins. The image corresponds with other images we find in the Old Testament.

For instance, the Lord refers to sins as prostituting away from the Lord.
Sins are also called treachery.
Often the sins of a nation are described as a woman who has left her husband (think of Hosea who had to marry a prostitute in order to make him understand these things).

When we read about this vision, we find the picture of the woman in the basket quite innocent at first. But in actual fact this is a very serious matter, because the Lord urgently wants to bring something to his people’s attention:

Sins are as general as women are, in other words sins are becoming so ordinary that people hardly notice them.
The ephah corresponds with this. They used the ephah every day. And because they used it every day, nobody detected any evil inside it.
This is how wickedness gets hold of you! The devil makes you so used to sin that eventually you commit sin without realising it’s wrong!

Hence the result of sin is prominent here:

corruption,
fraud,
perjury and
theft.

And then also the consequence of it all: The anger of the Lord. This is the scroll flying across the land.

Something amazing happened while the angel was with Zechariah.

The lid on the basket was lifted.
This gave the prophet the opportunity to see what was inside.
But at the same time the sins tried to free themselves from the restrictions God placed on them. The woman tried to escape.

The angel did not allow her to escape. With great power he grabbed her and thrust her back into the basket. No time for pardoning. He also closed the lid again.

Consider the image again.

It must have been a very petite woman that could fit into the basket.
She was literally tossed around by the angel.
As a woman with her fragile body she was helpless against the power of the angel who was strong and masculine.

NB: What God wants us to know, is the following:

Such is the way in which God looks upon sin.
Sins have always been too weak and powerless to resist God.
The power of the Lord is simply too great.

Can you see the grace this passage reveals to us?

God controls our lives.
He also drives sins away from us.
He easily restricts sins, because He is so much greater than sins.
Eventually He also determines that sins will never become free again, and hence will not be able to harm the church again.

These two visions also teach us that God Himself will make his church holy. How is this going to happen? Look at the vision again. Suddenly the scene has changed.

There are two women with wings like those of a stork.
This shows that God has equipped them to definitely complete their journey with power.
The Lord helps them even more – their wings glide on the wind and it helps them to complete their journey.
They pick up the basket and flew with it into the sky. Their destination is the land Shinar (Babylonia).

We know this place very well, because it is often mentioned in the Bible.

Shinar is die land of Nimrod. The Bible tells about him as being the man who first started to be a tyrant – the first dictator.
Shinar is also the land where the builders of the tower were trying to make a name for themselves.
- This name had to be forever.
- Those people wanted to defeat God’s plan, and then God scattered them all over the earth.
Shinar is also the land that Isaiah said in which God would ransom a remnant of his people.
- Nebuchadnezzar robbed the temple of the Lord, and took the treasures of the temple to the pagan temples of Shinar.
- It is Babylonia, die land from which the people had just returned from exile.
- In the Bible it resembles the place of the world powers – God’s enemies.

And now the sins among God’s people are banished to this land. This land resembles the home of the antichrist –hell.

What happens to the woman once she arrives in Shinar? In Revelation 17 we read about her again.

Here she is the great prostitute – mother of all prostitutes and obscenities in the world.
It says that she is drunk with the blood of the holy people who were witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 says that she and her people wage war against the Lamb.
The Lamb will defeat them because He is Lord over all lords and King over all kings, and his people are the called and the chosen and faithful ones.

All these things beautifully correspond with our text and its preaching. God takes wickedness to where it belongs – in a place outside his church.

This vision carries a very clear promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and his redemptive ministry.

This revelation prophesies that Jesus Christ will make his church holy.
At his Second Coming the sanctification of the church will be complete, and then God will live in his church.
At that time the church will be so perfect forever that no sin will be found inside it because Jesus conquered sins and the power of sins, together with the devil and death.
Through his victory all these things are sealed off in a place outside the church.
- This is told by the vision of the woman sealed in the basket and taken to a place where the devil belongs.

But, brothers and sisters, we must remember one very important issue:

Although the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was decisive, it has not been completed totally.
On the cross the Lord Jesus Christ definitely conquered the devil, but He did not want to destroy Him then. He will do that only at his Second Coming.

We are now living between these two events in history. The Lord Jesus defeated the power of sins, but there are still sins on earth. Now where do you and I fit in?

During this time the Holy Spirit is our Guide.
Through his Word God makes us realise how urgent it is that sins and iniquity in the church are wiped out.
We should know that we can only hear and understand the voice of God’s Spirit if we know the revelation of the Lord!
Hence we should know the contents of the Bible, because only then we will experience that the Holy Spirit encourages us to fight against sin.
- The Holy Spirit reprimands us and warns us against evil.
- He makes us understand what the Lord teaches in his Word.
- Amongst others He teaches us that the end of times will be so evil as a result of the sins that the Lord will shorten the days for the sake of those who still believe. (This is the present time, and we are the ones being reprimanded!)
  - We must not take part in evil actions, because the Lord is going to remove all evil from his church, and if we continue to do wrong we will be removed from the church.
  - If we stubbornly continue to sin, we might perhaps not be banned from the church in this life, but God will do it on Judgment Day when the Lord Jesus comes again.

This night vision strongly preaches the final judgment.

It’s not just a matter of all sins being removed and then everything is over and done with.
The sins will first try to defeat God’s plan.
In order to do this people in the church are targeted! – The woman in the basket. You and I!

What do we do about all these things?

We realise that we could be destroyed if we are not alert in our faith.
Currently sins are so commonplace that we easily commit them without thinking, because we have become so used to it!

Are we sure we always understand the Bible correctly? Do we understand life? Do we realise that when we make mistakes that in actual fact we directly transgress the Lord’s commandments?!

We have a great responsibility to worship the holy Triune God. Else we’ll simply be part of the banishment when the Lord purifies the church.

Then one day I went into your sanctuary, o God, and I thought about the destiny of the wicked. Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction. (Psalms 73:17-18 NLT)

But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do. (Psalms 73:28 NLT)

Amen.

Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 86:3

The Lord will bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift His countenance to you and give you peace.
Amen.

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 26 February 2006 (evening)