Zechariah 5 Devotional

Wickedness Carried Away

These visions are strange, and the text explains them only so far. First an enormous scroll flies over the land. It is the curse going out against those who steal and those who swear falsely by God's name, and it enters their houses and consumes them, timbers and stones alike (5:1-4). God's word reaches into homes where wrong is hidden.

Then a measuring basket appears, and inside sits a woman the angel calls Wickedness. She is shoved down under a lead cover, and two winged women lift the basket and carry it away to Shinar, where a house is to be built for it (5:5-11). The vision is not decoded further, but its direction is plain. God does not only condemn evil. He removes it from among his people and carries it far off. He had already promised to remove the land's guilt in a single day (3:9). Sin is serious enough to bring a curse, and God is gracious enough to carry it away.

To think about: What sin are you hiding in your house, and what would it look like to let God expose it and carry it away?