Hitherto
we have seen visions of peace only, and all the words we have heard have
been good words and comfortable words. But the pillar of cloud and fire has
a black and dark side towards the Egyptians, as well as a bright and
pleasant side towards Israel; so have Zechariah's visions; for God's
prophets are not only his ambassadors, to treat of peace with the sons of
peace, but heralds, to proclaim war against those that delight in war, and
persist in their rebellion. In this chapter we have two visions, by which
"the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men." God will do great and kind things for his
people, which the faithful sons of Zion shall rejoice in; but "let the
sinners in Zion be afraid;" for, I. God will reckon severely with those
particular persons among them that are wicked and profane, and that hated to
be reformed in these times of reformation; while God is showing kindness to
the body of the nation, and loading that with his blessings, they and their
families shall, notwithstanding that, lie under the curse, which the prophet
sees in a flying roll, ver. 1-4. II. If the body of the nation hereafter
degenerate, and wickedness prevail among them, it shall be carried off and
hurried away with a swift destruction, under the pressing weight of divine
wrath, represented by a talent of lead upon the mouth of an ephah, carried
upon the wing I know not where, ver. 5-11.
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The
Vision of the Flying Roll.
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B.
C. 520.
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1 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.
We do not find that the prophet now needed to be awakened, as he did ch.
iv. 1. Being awakened then, he kept wakeful after; nay, now he needs not be
so much as called to look about him, for of his own accord he turns and
lifts up his eyes. This good men sometimes get by their infirmities,
they make them the more careful and circumspect afterwards. Now observe,
I. What it was that the prophet saw; he looked up into the air, and behold
a flying roll. A vast large scroll of parchment which had been rolled
up, and is therefore called a roll, was now unrolled and expanded;
this roll was flying upon the wings of the wind, carried swiftly through the
air in open view, as an eagle that shoots down upon her prey; it was a roll,
like Ezekiel's that was written within and without with lamentations,
and mourning, and woe, Ezek. ii. 9, 10. As the command of the law is in
writing, for certainty and perpetuity, so is the curse of the law; it
writes bitter things against the sinner. "What I have written I
have written and what is written remains." The angel, to engage the
prophet's attention, and to raise in him a desire to have it explained, asks
him what he sees? And he gives him this account of it: I see a
flying roll, and as near as he can guess by his eye it is twenty
cubits long (that is, ten yards) and ten cubits broad, that is,
five yards. The scriptures of the Old Testament and the New are rolls,
in which God has written to us the great things of his law and
gospel. Christ is the Master of the rolls. They are large rolls, have much
in them. They are flying rolls; the angel that had the everlasting
gospel to preach flew in the midst of heaven, Rev. xiv. 6. God's word runs
very swiftly, Ps. cxlvii. 15. Those that would be let into the meaning
of these rolls must first tell what they see, must go as far as they can
themselves. "What is written in the law? how readest thou? Tell
me that, and then thou shalt be made to understand what thou readest."
II. How it was expounded to him, v. 3, 4. This flying roll is a curse;
it contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those
sinners especially who by swearing affront God's majesty or by stealing
invade their neighbour's property. Let every Israelite rejoice in the
blessings of his country with trembling; for if he swear, if he steal, if he
live in any course of sin, he shall see them with his eyes, but shall not
have the comfort of them, for against him the curse has gone forth. If I
be wicked, woe to me for all this. Now observe here,
1. The extent of this curse; the prophet sees it flying, but which way does
it steer its course? It goes forth over the face of the whole earth,
not only of the land of Israel, but the whole world; for those that
have sinned against the law written in their hearts only shall by
that law be judged, though they have not the book of the law. Note, All
mankind are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are, any
where upon the face of the whole earth, the curse of God can and will find
them out and seize them. Oh that we could with an eye of faith see the
flying roll of God's curse hanging over the guilty world as a thick cloud,
not only keeping off the sun-beams of God's favour from them, but big with
thunders, lightnings, and storms, ready to destroy them! How welcome then
would the tidings of a Saviour be, who came to redeem us from the curse
of the law by being himself made a curse for us, and, like the
prophet, eating this roll! The vast length and breadth of this roll
intimate what a multitude of curses sinners lie exposed to. God will make
their plagues wonderful, if they turn not.
2. The criminals against whom particularly this curse is levelled. The world
is full of sin in great variety: so was the Jewish church at this time. But
two sorts of sinners are here specified as the objects of this curse:-- (1.)
Thieves; it is for every one that steals, that by fraud or force
takes that which is not his own, especially that robs God and converts to
his own use what was devoted to God and his honour, which was a sin much
complained of among the Jews at this time, Mal. iii. 8; Neh. xiii. 10.
Sacrilege is, without doubt, the worst kind of thievery. He also that robs
his father or mother, and saith, It is no transgression (Prov. xxviii.
24), let him know that against him this curse is directed, for it is against
every one that steals. The letter of the eighth commandment has no
penalty annexed to it; but the curse here is a sanction to that command.
(2.) Swearers. Sinners of the former class offend against the second table,
these against the first; for the curse meets those that break either table.
He that swears rashly and profanely shall not be held guiltless, much less
he that swears falsely (v. 4); he imprecates the curse upon himself
by his perjury, and so shall his doom be; God will say Amen to his
imprecation, and turn it upon his own head. He has appealed to God's
judgment, which is always according to truth, for the confirming of a lie,
and to that judgment he shall go which he has so impiously affronted.
3. The enforcing of this curse, and the equity of it: I will bring it
forth, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 4. He that pronounces the
sentence will take care to see it executed. His bringing it forth denotes,
(1.) His giving it commission. It is a righteous curse, for he is a
righteous God that warrants it. (2.) His giving it the setting on. He brings
it forth with power, and orders what execution it shall do; and who can put
by or resist the curse which a God of almighty power brings forth?
4. The effect of this curse; it is very dreadful, (1.) Upon the sinner
himself: Every one that steals shall be cut off, not corrected, but
destroyed, cut off from the land of the living. The curse of God is a
cutting thing, a killing thing. He shall be cut off as on this side
(cut off from this place, that is, from Jerusalem), and so he that swears
from this side (it is the same word), from this place. God will not
spare the sinners he finds among his own people, nor shall the holy city be
a protection to the unholy. Or they shall be cut off from hence, that
is, from the face of the whole earth, over which the curse flies. Or he that
steals shall be cut off on this side, and he that swears on that
side; they shall all be cut off, one as well as another, and both
according to the curse, for the judgments of God's hand are exactly
agreeable with the judgments of his mouth. (2.) Upon his family: It shall
enter into the house of the thief and of him that swears. God's curse
comes with a warrant to break open doors, and cannot be kept out by bars or
locks. There where the sinner is most secure, and thinks himself out of
danger,--there where he promises himself refreshment by food and
sleep,--there, in his own house, shall the curse of God seize him; nay, it
shall fall not upon him only, but upon all about him for his sake. Cursed
shall be his basket and his store, and cursed the fruit of his body,
Deut. xxviii. 17, 18. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the
wicked, Prov. iii. 33. It shall not only beset his house, or he at the
door, but it shall remain in the midst of his house, and diffuse its
malignant influences to all the parts of it. It shall dwell in his
tabernacle because it is none of his, Job xviii. 15. It shall dwell
where he dwells, and be his constant companion at bed and board, to make
both miserable to him. Having got possession, it shall keep it, and, unless
he repent and reform, there is no way to throw it out or cut off the entail
of it. Nay, it shall so remain in it as to consume it with the timber
thereof, and the stones thereof, which, though ever so strong, though
the timber be heart of oak and the stones hewn out of the rocks of adamant,
yet they shall not be able to stand before the curse of God. We heard the
stone and the timber complaining of the owner's extortion and oppression,
and groaning under the burden of them, Hab. ii. 11. Now here we have them
delivered from that bondage of corruption. While they were in their
strength and beauty they supported, sorely against their will, the sinner's
pride and security; but, when they are consumed, their ruins will, to their
satisfaction, be standing monuments of God's justice and lasting witnesses
of the sinner's injustice. Note, Sin is the ruin of houses and families,
especially the sins of injury and perjury. Who knows the power of God's
anger, and the operations of his curse? Even timber and stones have been
consumed by them; let us therefore stand in awe and not sin.
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The
Vision of the Ephah.
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B.
C. 520.
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5 Then the angel that talked with me went
forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this
that goeth forth. 6 And I said, What is it? And he said,
This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is
their resemblance through all the earth. 7 And, behold, there
was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in
the midst of the ephah. 8 And he said, This is
wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the
weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. 9 Then lifted I up mine
eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was
in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they
lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. 10 Then
said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
11 And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar: and it
shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
The foregoing vision was very plain and easy, but in this are things dark
and hard to be understood; and some think that the scope of it is to
foretel the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation and the
dispersion of the Jews, when, by crucifying Christ and persecuting his
gospel, they should have filled up the measure of their iniquities;
therefore it is industriously set out in obscure figures and expressions,
"lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and
state might discourage them too much from going forward in the present
restoration of both." So Mr. Pemble.
The prophet was contemplating the power and terror of the curse which
consumes the houses of thieves and swearers, when he was told to turn and he
should see greater desolations than these made by the curse of God for the
sin of man: Lift up thy eyes now, and see what is here, v. 5. What
is this that goeth forth? Whether over the face of the whole earth, as
the flying roll (v. 3), or only over Jerusalem, is not certain. But,
it seems, the prophet now, through either the distance or the dimness of his
sight, could not well tell what it was, but asked, What is it? v.
6. And the angel tells him both what it is and what it means.
I. He sees an ephah, a measure wherewith they measured corn; it
contained ten omers (Exod. xvi. 36) and was the tenth part of a homer
(Ezek. xlv. 11); it is put for any measure used in commerce, Deut. xxv. 14.
And this is their resemblance, the resemblance of the Jewish nation over
all the earth, wherever they are now dispersed, or at least it will be
so when their ruin draws near. They are filling up the measure of their
iniquity, which God has set them; and when it is full, as the ephah of corn,
they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom God has sold them
for their sins; they are meted to destruction, as an ephah of corn
measured to the market or to the mill. And some think that the mentioning of
an ephah, which is used in buying and selling, intimates that fraud, and
deceit, and extortion in commerce, were sins abounding much among them, as
that people are known to be notoriously guilty of them at this day. This is
a proper representation of them through all the earth. There is a
measure set them, and they are filling it up apace. See Matt. xxiii. 32; 1
Thess. ii. 16.
II. He sees a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah, representing
the sinful church and nation of the Jews in their latter and degenerate age,
when the faithful city became a harlot. He that weighs the mountains
in scales and the hills in a balance measures nations and churches as in an
ephah; so exact is he in his judicial dealings with them. God's people are
called the corn of his floor, Isa. xxi. 10. And here he puts this
corn into the bushel, in order to his parting with it. The angel says of the
woman in the ephah, This is wickedness; it is a wicked nation, else
God would not have rejected it thus; it is as wicked as wickedness
itself, it is abominably wicked. How has the gold become dim! Israel was
holiness to the Lord (Jer. ii. 3); but now this is wickedness,
and wickedness is nowhere so scandalous, so odious, and, in many instances,
so outrageous, as when it is found among professors of religion.
III. He sees the woman thrust down into the ephah, and a talent, or
large weight, of lead, cast upon the mouth of it, by which she
is secured, and made a close prisoner in the ephah, and utterly
disabled to get out of it. This is designed to show that the wrath of God
against impenitent sinners is, 1. Unavoidable, and what they cannot escape;
they are bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up under the curse,
as this woman in the ephah; he would fain flee out of his hand (Job
xxvii. 22), but he cannot. 2. It is insupportable, and what they cannot bear
up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of lead, to sink him to the
lowest hell. When Christ said of the things of Jerusalem's peace, Now
they are hidden from thy eyes, that threw a talent of lead upon them.
IV. He sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed to death in it, carried
away into some far country. 1. The instruments employed to do it were two
women, who had wings like those of a stork, large and
strong, and, to make them fly the more swiftly, they had the wind in
their wings, denoting the great violence and expedition with which the
Romans destroyed the Jewish nation. God has not only winged messengers in
heaven, but he can, when he pleases, give wings to those also whom he
employs in this lower world; and, when he does so, he forwards them with the
wind in their wings; his providence carries them on with a favourable gale.
2. They bore it up in the air, denoting the terrors which pursued the wicked
Jews, and their being a public example of God's vengeance to the world. They
lifted it up between the earth and the heaven, as unworthy of either
and abandoned by both; for the Jews, when this was fulfilled, pleased not
God and were contrary to all men, 1 Thess. ii. 15. This is
wickedness, and this comes of it; heaven thrust out wicked angels, and
earth spewed out wicked Canaanites. 3. When the prophet enquired whither
they carried their prisoner whom they had now in execution (v. 10) he
was told that they designed to build it a house in the land of Shinar.
This intimates that the punishment of the Jews should be a final dispersion;
they should be hurried out of their own country, as the chaff which the
wind drives away, and should be forced to dwell in far countries,
particularly in the country of Babylon, whither many of the scattered Jews
went after the destruction of their country by the Romans, as they did also
to other countries, especially in the Levant parts, not to sojourn, as in
their former captivity, for seventy years, but to be nailed down for
perpetuity. There the ephah shall be established, and set upon her
own base. This intimates, (1.) That their calamity shall continue from
generation to generation, and that they shall be so dispersed that they
shall never unite or incorporate again; they shall settle in a perpetual
unsettlement, and Cain's doom shall be theirs, to dwell in the land of
shaking. (2.) That their iniquity shall continue too, and their hearts shall
be hardened in it. Blindness has happened unto Israel, and
they are settled upon the lees of their own unbelief; their wickedness is
established upon its own basis. God has given them a spirit of
slumber (Rom. xi. 8), lest at any time they should convert, and be
healed.
