The Vision of the Flying Scroll
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Important messages
Then again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a
flying roll. 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. Then said
he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land:
for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on the one side according to it;
and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on the other side according to it.
I will cause it to go forth, saith
Jehovah 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 abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber
thereof and the stones thereof. Zacariah 5:1-4
Nevertheless, the message
would not be properly balanced, if it did not also present the curse upon
those, who persisted in their evil ways; God also cares for them. They will be
excluded from the blessings to come. So that none will be deceived, along with
the promise of forgiveness for the repentant sinner, the Scriptures guarantee with
solemn certainty that “no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an
idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God… because of these
things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph.5,5,6) and “those
that practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal.5:21). “The
cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and
sorcerers and idolaters and all liars” (Rev.21:8), will be excluded. 1 John 3:8
proclaims: “He that practices sin is of the devil”.
In the last chapter, Zechariah
had to be awakened, but not any more; he is now totally attentive to the
messages that are coming from God. To see heavenly things, one has to lift up
his eyes. Heaven has to attract our attention. Only the one who keeps his eyes
fixed on heavenly things can have a message for those on earth. We have to be
focusing with expectant eyes. As we must have ears to hear, we also must have
eyes to see. He now sees a flying scroll and this is the theme that we now seek
to understand.
Zechariah does not ask a
question this time, but before he can, the angel asks him what he sees. Heaven
must be assured that we are capturing the scene correctly or it may want to see
that we are fixed with all our attention in what we see. If the eye is whole,
all the body has light. Zechariah is sanctified and set apart for God and the
Holy Spirit inspires him, so that we can receive by him the word of God. Think
of the responsibility that there is in seeing this thing well.
A scroll, more than the spoken word, carries
more weight because it has a written message. It cannot be altered by a
mistaken utterance or a faltering ear. It is not silenced by the death of the
speaker. It is a faithful word and no one can be excused when the message is
put in writing. Also the scroll is big enough (30 x 15 feet, more or less) and
it will not escape the sight of anyone, who wants to see and read it. It is
sent from heaven and flies, in order to be viewed quickly over the whole land.
Ezekiel also saw a scroll that was open (Ez.2:9-10) and this is surely open as
well, according to the measurements given.
Ezekiel’s scroll, just as this one, had
writing on both sides and the message addressed the consequences of sin.
Clearly, the angel declares to Zechariah that the scroll symbolizes a curse.
God in His goodness wants the world to know of the curse that lies ahead. Jesus
demonstrated that concern, because he spoke more about hell than about heaven.
The preachers are very cruel and unfaithful, who do not warn their hearers to
flee from the wrath to come. If these speakers ignore the curse that awaits the
transgressor, surely they do not understand the nature of the love of God,
which they pretend to announce. The love of God only saves a sinner, the ungodly, and the enemy,
according to Paul in Romans 5:6-10. These false prophets cover their lust for
fame and popularity by exuding a sentimental sympathy and a humanistic love
that does not come from God.
This scroll has writing on
both sides. It is a curse for having broken at least two of the Ten
Commandments: Thou shalt not steal on
one side and thou shall not bear false
witness by swearing on the other side. Paul warned the Ephesians (4:28,29) “He
who steals must steal no longer… Let no unwholesome word proceed from your
mouth…”. Perhaps these were prevailing, dominating sins in the time of
Zechariah. Some think that stealing represents
the sins against mankind and that swearing
falsely represent the sins against God. Any way we might look at them, sins
are inter-relational; for example, to kill and covet also is to steal and to
swear falsely is blasphemous. The moral law reflects the nature of God and for
this reason the Psalmist delighted in the law, seeing the attributes of God in
it. He rejoiced in the beauty of holiness and the purity of God.
God hates the thief and the
one who swears falsely, but His love provides a way to escape that hateful
condition. The law is, said Paul, “for the transgressor and the disobedient…”
(1 Ti.1:9). The law does not only provide commandments, but also pronounces a
bitter sentence for breaking them. The whole world needs to know that it is
guilty before God, before it can hear the gospel. Matthew Henry said, “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!” Today preachers have
forgotten what Henry, and all those whom God has used to bring multitudes to
salvation over the centuries, knew to be true… that “the Law has become our
tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal.3:24).
Throughout this book of
Zechariah, God is presented as the Lord of Hosts and in the case of the thief
and the one who swears falsely, He releases all of heaven in order to fulfill
His curse. He comes against all that is dear and sure to them. They think that
gain an advantage by stealing and swearing, using the name of God for their
purposes, but in the end God demonstrates His righteousness by showing that
there is no gain, when His word is ignored by those who have no fear of God.
The flying scroll enters the house of the wicked person permanently and cannot
be exterminated until its destruction is total, people as well as material
things.
 |
| Joseph Kennedy Sr. |
Joseph Kennedy was a rich
man, who knew how to take advantage of any opportunity to gain his fortune.
When the prohibition law against liquor ended in the United States, the ships
of Kennedy were waiting in New York harbor, ready with alcoholic beverages to sell across the country. They were emptied immediately and
alcohol flowed freely in the streets of that city and many more, finding the
hands of those, who were helpless against its vice. (Just so that you can see
that I am not exaggerating, I copied a little of his biography from Wikipedia: After prohibition of alcohol ended
in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when he traveled to Scotland with
FDR's son, James Roosevelt, to buy distribution rights for Scotch whisky. His company, Somerset Importers, became the
exclusive American agent for Gordon's Gin and Dewar's Scotch. In
addition, Kennedy purchased spirits-importation rights from Schenley Industries, a
firm in Canada. He
owned the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, giving his family an important base in that city
and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.)
Joseph
Kennedy was able to buy the presidency of the United States for his son, John,
and another son, Robert, took the position of U. S. Attorney General. Ah, but
John was shot in the head and killed during a parade in Dallas and Robert also
fell to an assassin. There are more stories to tell about the Kennedy family
curse, which continues now over the grandchildren. Hear the story of the oldest
daughter, Rosemary, also taken from Wikipedia: Kennedy allowed surgeons to perform a lobotomy (one
of the earliest in the U.S.) on his eldest daughter Rosemary in
1941. Various reasons for the operation have been given, but it left her
permanently incapacitated. Rosemary
has since been deemed "mentally retarded," and she may have been
"mentally ill" (for which no treatment other than incarceration was
considered to exist in the 1940s. She was interred the rest of her life.). She died in 2005 at age 86. Rosemary's name "was never
mentioned in the house" according to Janet Des Rosiers, Kennedy's
secretary and mistress of nine years. Joseph Jr. died in combat in
1944. Daughter Kathleen died in an airplane accident in France. Joseph was the
leading member of the Irish Catholic Community. The Kennedy family was and
continues to be Roman Catholic and profess to swear in the name of Jesus
Christ. They stole the finances and health of many families, as a consequence of
alcoholism, but the Kennedys have been victims of the flying roll for at least
three generations. “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your
venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness!” (Hab.2:15)
The scroll of the curse flies
rapidly over all the earth, casting its shadow over this modern world still,
entering into the private and secure lives of the rich and famous. Don’t ever
doubt it, the God of salvation cannot be mocked, because He is also the God of
the curse. No one, but no one,
escapes the word written on both sides of the scroll!
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