Zechariah 5-6
Dear RTB’ers,
Again, a late post. You can expect those for the next few days; Carol and I are family-camping with our kids and grandkids. Things move at “kid-speed”, whatever that is. But stay tuned; I have good signal and I’ll get it done, however late!
Zechariah’s final three visions. The first, a flying scroll with curses against those who steal and swear falsely. I doubt that these violations of two of the Ten Commandments were meant to signify that these two sins were worse than any other. It always seemed to me that honoring false gods was the worst. Certainly it was the first.
The second vision, “Wickedness” in a basket. Would that our own wickedness could be transferred so quickly away to another land!! Today’s third vision, the chariots and horses – Zechariah looking ahead to the book of Revelation?
Finally, we close today with another anointing, this time a crown upon the high priest, Joshua’s head. So we have a high priest being crowned. Again, that sounds like Jesus, our King and eternal High Priest. Joshua is asked to take the lead in the building of the temple. Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. (v. 6:12b) But he will not be alone: And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. (v. 6:15a) More exiles returning from Babylon…?? Five verses earlier we see exiles returning from Babylon with silver and gold. Perhaps a whole cadre of people, now ready and willing to undertake the work that Haggai and Zechariah are speaking out for. And, as we’ve read earlier, that work was completed in another four years. As with the wall in Nehemiah’s time, …the people had a mind to work. (Nehemiah 4:6)
Blessings.
Fred