About Building a Temple in Babel
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An expository
study in chapter 5:5-11
I remind you
again to read my comments with the Bible open and at hand, so you can read each
verse as we come to it. This is how a Bible study functions and the main
purpose is to perceive what the Author, the Holy Spirit, wants to impart to
Zechariah for the people of his day, as well as for future generations. We can
then consider how it may apply personally to our lives and the situation around
us.
The seventh vision:
The Ephah
When sin fills to the brink
In the previous vision,
Zechariah lifts his eyes without prompting, but in this seventh vision, before
he can react, the angel commands him to lift his eyes. The text states (v.5)
that the angel “went out”, that is,
that he without delay proceeded forward. In the last vision, the angel asked, “What do you see?”, but this time
Zechariah asks, “What is it?”
Perhaps Zechariah cannot
identify the object physically. It may be that it was not an object known to
him and that he could not recognize its properties and so he needs a good
explanation. I think that concerning some things, people would rather not “lift
up their eyes” and they are afraid to ask about them. There are things that
they would rather not know, but the person, who sees the things of God as vital
to his life, is in a school where he continually is learning new things (v.6).
This is his eighth question.
I never tire of emphasizing the importance of asking questions. The Gospels
mark a difference between those who only came near Jesus to experience His
presence, hear His voice and observe His works, and those who looked for Him to
be alone, so that He would explain the meaning of the things, of which He spoke.
These two categories still exist today among Christians and the difference
between them is a matter of trust. In what do they trust? The first category of
people trusts in a certain atmosphere and in things that they experience. The
second are only satisfied, when they know the truth.
An ephah was a Jewish measurement
of about one bushel of dry material and the object that Zechariah saw, then,
was a receptacle that could hold an ephah. The NAS translation of “appearance”
in verse six is a good one. The literal Hebrew is “This is their eye in all the
land” and is sometimes translated “iniquity”, but it means that what one
sees with his eye, when he looks at this receptacle, is iniquity. Symbolically,
it represents a great quantity of sins, the collective sins of a people in the
land. That is the appearance or the impression that it leaves, something akin
to the impression left by the people in Noah’s time. No good could be seen in
them, only wickedness. The measure has come to be a full ephah and it is time that
it must be dealt with.
Here we confront an
interesting spiritual principle that God has established. It is something that
every human being should fear, because God measures sin and when that measure
comes to its fullness, He will act against it and judgment will fall. We can
get a good idea, perhaps, from Genesis 15:16, when God speaks to Abram about
the sin of the Amorites… “The iniquity
of the Amorite is not yet complete.” During the four generations that the
Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, the ephah of the Amorites is filling. When it
is completely full, then the Lord sends Israel to carry out judgment against
them.
Daniel warns Belshazzar of
the pride of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, and the ephah that was measured
against him was the hardness of his heart: “When
his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved
arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away
from him… yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even
though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of
heaven.”
God’s finger wrote against
Belshazzar, “TEKEL: You have been weighed on the scales and found
deficient” (Dan.5:20, 22, 27). Because of the quantity of evidence that God
placed before Belshazzar, he should have learned his lesson, but he did not.
This is the same principle, expressed in a different form. I think you can
understand it; Belshazzar’s ephah is full of deficiency! Or we might express it
like this: When the ephah was filled with spiritual deficiency, caused by a
pride, which conduced you to resist the truth that was placed before your eyes…
“You, his son, Belshazzar, have not
humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.”
The Jews in Jesus’ time came
to a point of hardness that was never reached before in all their history. Jesus
said to them, “Fill up, then, the measure
of the guilt of your fathers… so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the
righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the
altar” (Mt.23:32, 35). The ephah was filled with innocent blood.
The receptacle has a heavy,
lead cover (v.7). Zechariah saw a woman, personifying sin, sitting in the ephah
receptacle. She is the source that has produced all the sin that the ephah has
taken in. Up to this point there had been a possibility of remedy, but now the
woman, who is called Wickedness, has settled in and become comfortable. Her
presence has affected everything, as a rotten apple among many (v.8).
Previously, she had some liberty of movement and her head could protrude out of
the ephah, but now she is thrown down inside and destined for her place of
origin. The cover is heavy and once firmly put in its place, there is no
escape.
When the Lord shuts the door,
no one can open it. He measures the time, in which repentance must take place,
and when that time ends, judgment falls. The Psalmist said, “It is time for the Lord to act, for they
have broken Your law” (Ps.119:126). In this case, you see, time is the measurement against them. The
situation was like this in the Thyatira church also: “I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel… I gave
her time to repent, and she does not
want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness
and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation… and I will kill
her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who
searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to
your deeds” (Rev.2:20-23). An ephah can surely fill against a church, as it
filled against Israel. I am afraid of some situations where, it seems to me,
the ephah of God´s patience is reaching the brim and the roof is about to fall
in. May everyone take care not to be under it when it falls!
Where is all this going to end?
The consequences come in the
form of two women with wings. Their arrival is quicker than the velocity
produced by their wings, because it is increased by a tailwind (wind always
symbolizes spirits) and their mission will be like that of storks, migrating to
a distant destination (v.9). The time has come and the punishment will be
carried out under extreme pressure. The ephah is taken away from the place
where it had settled and is rapidly carried through the air. The expression “between
the earth and the heavens” indicates something that will take place in full public
view.
Zechariah asks his ninth
question (v.10). “Where are they taking
the ephah?” He wants to know the conclusion, the end of this matter. This
is something that we must always take into consideration. It does not matter how
successful things seem to be at this present moment. Everyone may think that
the ephah is very successful, because it is certainly full. Let’s get this
lesson learned: Pragmatism is not a
legitimate measure for judging any situation! The quantity and extension of
a work proves absolutely nothing. The apostle said, “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices
righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin
is of the devil” (1 Jn.3:7-8), no matter what the results seem to be. These
are days in which you can hear speakers in Christian circles with dirty mouths,
speaking openly of sex, using foul language, questionable jokes, who talk about
God without reverence in their teaching. In the fear of God, I don’t even want
to give you an example, so as not to repeat blasphemy. God wants to teach us
the conclusion of the matter and how it will be brought to its end. “Where are they taking the ephah?” asks
Zechariah. That, my friend, is what
is important!
The answer is that they are taking
it to Shinar (v.11), originally Babel, which means confusion (Gen.11:2). God is not the God of confusion, disorder, or
inconsistency. He is a firm Rock, in whom we can confide and His word is
established forever in heaven. That which confuses, causes disorder and is inconsistent
is carried to its source. Those who are involved with the ephah, will have
perfect liberty to carry out their heart’s desire, because they will be loosed
to found their own religion. The land of Shinar is the atmosphere of paganism.
The ephah people cannot be
involved in the building of God’s temple that is being built in Jerusalem. They
will be separated from God’s people and allowed to form an evil kind of worship.
The full ephah will have plenty of capacity to perform it and all the finances
necessary to build. It is to become part of the Babylon of the book of Revelation
that has migrated, as the stork, to its origin. “To build a temple for her in
the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” It will
be a temple to please the ephah people and will be after their appearance (v.6). The woman, Wickedness,
will be the great Babylonian harlot. Scofield comments on this vision: “Prophetically, the application to the
Babylon of the Revelation is obvious. The professing Gentile church at that
time condoning every iniquity of the rich, doctrinally a mere
"confusion," as the name indicates, and corrupted to the core by commercialism,
wealth, and luxury, falls under the judgment of God (Revelation 18).”
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