Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits .” Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. “I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones” – Zechariah 5:1-4. (NAU)
In Part 1, we identified Zechariah’s Flying Scroll as a message from heaven, specifically the Eternal Gospel with a ‘last days’ emphasis of law and judgment. Like the tablets of the law it is written on both sides, pointing out sins against God and sins against man. Ultimately, this will be the declaration of God’s judgment upon the world for breaking His Law. For now, this message ought to be used to point out people’s sins and prepare their hearts to receive God’s grace.
We now come to the dimensions of the scroll. It is twenty cubits by ten cubits. Such details in the Bible are worth noting. The Bible doesn’t waste time or space. So we must not ignore these little bits of ‘extra’ information. They are included for a purpose. Whether it is the dimensions of a scroll, the name of a town, or the age of the little girl Jesus raised from the dead, these small parts of Scripture are often keys to deeper truths if we will search them out.
The dimensions of twenty and ten cubits correspond directly with the dimensions of the porch that lay between the bronze altar and the holy place in Solomon’s temple.
The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits in length, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth along the front of the house was ten cubits – 1 Kings 6:3.
The common dimensions seem to link the texts. So let’s see whether the porch, and what happened there, can shed light on the meaning of the flying scroll. Upon this porch was the gate to the Holy Place. Any ritually clean Israelite could go into the Outer Court and the Bronze Altar, as far as the porch, but the porch separated the Outer Court from the Inner Court, into which only the priests could enter. The Inner Court contained the Ark (within the Holy of Holies) as well as the “menorah”, called “the candlestick” or “lampstand”, symbolizing the light of the Torah; the Altar of Incense, symbolizing prayer that is pleasing to God; and the Table of Showbread (and wine), which among other things surely point to fellowship with God. In short, the inner court is where fellowship takes place. The Outer Court was the home of what prepares us for fellowship, namely the Bronze Altar and Washbasins (Bronze Laver). They symbolize the Cross and the cleansing water of the Word (cf. Eph 5:26). The flying scroll, with equal dimensions to the porch acts in the same way that the porch does. Unless you heed the message of the flying scroll, you cannot enter into fellowship with God.
The Gospel, through the preaching of the Law, brings the conviction of sin. We understand and accept that Jesus had to die on the cross in our place. The cleansing water of the Word reminds us that we are to be holy; not ‘saved’ and sinful, but saved and spotless.
So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. – Ephesians 5:26-27.
We are saved by grace through faith, not by ritual. The true Gospel – emphasizing God as creator and judge, and our sinfulness before Him – leads us to understand the meaning of the Cross, which cleanses the believer from all sin. That Gospel leads us into fellowship with God. There He gives us His light, hears our prayers and ‘dines’ with us (cf. Revelation 3:20). The flying scroll and the porch have the same dimensions and the same function. They must be encountered and successfully traversed to the Holy Place, or else exclude us. As the flaming sword kept sinful man from the Garden of Eden, so the message of the Law shows that sinful man is excluded from the presence of God. Yet the Bronze Altar and the ‘sea’, in type, the Cross and the word of Grace are right there next to the porch. So we must remember that the message of the Law is not an end in itself, it must be accompanied by the message of Grace.
In contrast, a gospel which de- emphasizes the Cross and places its focus upon works, be they social or sacramental, cannot save us or take us into fellowship with God. The idea that you can be a Christian and believe what you like, or continue in sin, is false. We must come to the Cross and die to sin.
For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. – Romans 8:13.
After proclaiming the warnings of the Day of the Lord, Joel declared,
Let the priests, the LORD’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say “Spare Your people, O LORD.” – Joel 2:17.
In other words, “Heed the message of the flying scroll!” There had to be a recognition that Israel as a nation was in transgression and that judgment was upon them.
In similar circumstances the same message was preached at the same place by Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe:
Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. – Jeremiah 36:2-3.
Baruch wrote down the words which God had given to Jeremiah and read them to all the people at the temple. They were judgments against Judah. They had broken the law. God said “Perhaps the house of Judah will hear... (and) turn”. This was the flying scroll message in their day. The message of God is an eternal one. In all generations it proclaims the judgments of God, to the end that man would repent and find forgiveness. Yet in a time of imminent judgment the emphasis on the Law is critical for it is everyone’s tutor (cf. Galatians 3:24).
It was also from ‘Solomon’s Portico’ that Peter and John preached the gospel in Acts chapter 3. Although the location may have been different, being the second temple, the name links the two texts. There, rather than dwelling upon the miracle which had just taken place, Peter and John preached the flying scroll message. Here are a few highlights:
While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement...
But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you
Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people...
For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. – Acts 3:11,14,19,23,26.
From Solomon’s Portico, Peter pointed out the sin of the Jews in having rejected The Messiah/Christ, and the coming judgment because of it. If they did not repent they would be destroyed. At the same time he proclaimed the way to “repent and return”, that the people would be ready for ‘times of refreshing’. It was a perfect balance of law and grace.
As Ray Comfort has pointed out, the story of the rich young ruler clearly shows us Jesus’ method of evangelism to the proud. When the man asked what he could do to inherit eternal life, Jesus presented him with five specific laws.
You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER’ – Luke 18:20.
Interestingly, four are from the second half of the Ten Commandments, one is from the first half, and Jesus left out the first two commandments. He allowed the man’s self-righteousness to blossom before convicting him of idolatry.
And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. – Luke 18:21-23.
Jesus, like David of old, prepared five ‘stones’ at first, but in the end it only took one stone; one law, to bring the man down. His self-righteousness was slain as his love of money was revealed. Whether the man turned from his love of money or not, it did not change the message. The Law was given, the true state of his heart revealed, and the choice to repent or not was left to the hearer.
In the shrines and temples of Japan, money buys business prosperity, “safety driving” (as they call it) and good exam results. In my area, people go to Nakayama Temple to buy a special belt, stamped by a priest, to wear throughout their pregnancy. This is supposed to ensure a safe delivery.
As I write this, on December 28, 2013 priests will be eagerly awaiting New Year, when most people visit the Shinto shrines and who knows how many billions of yen will enter their boxes in the name of luck. Japanese ‘Buddhists’ suddenly become Shinto at New Year, just like westerners suddenly become ‘Christian’ at Christmas and Easter. Yet true Shintos or Buddhists who really care about their religion are hard to find. It is all covetousness. Even Buddha himself if he were alive would surely be grieved at Japan. I often point this out while witnessing, and usually people will acknowledge their covetousness with a little shame. It is not hard to preach the flying scroll, we just have to present the Law. It will either convert the soul, or become a curse to them and spend the night in their house, for once they have acknowledged their sin, it will gnaw away at their conscience.
Just as Zechariah and Baruch’s scroll, Ezekiel’s scroll was a proclamation of the curse, given in the hope of Israel’s repentance.
“Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it. When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe. – Ezekiel 2:8-10.
There is a deep significance to Ezekiel’s scroll. The pattern of a vision is the same as the pattern in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. The throne room of God appears in both Ezekiel chapter 1 and Revelation 4. In both cases this vision includes a description of the ‘living creatures’, or Cherubim, who surround the throne and whose four faces depict various aspects of God’s character: Lion, Ox, Man and Eagle. Immediately following this, just as Ezekiel is presented with a scroll, so the Lamb that was slain receives a scroll in Revelation. As the seals of the scroll are removed by the Lamb, the exposure of sinfulness of the world increases, along with the severity of God’s judgments. Once the seventh seal is removed, the scroll is fully opened and the seven final plagues fall upon the earth. Zechariah’s flying scroll also flies out-stretched in the heavens (as its dimensions are clearly seen). It is a terrible message of judgment to those remaining upon the earth. The scroll message of Ezekiel to Jerusalem in the early days of the Babylonian Captivity corresponds to the message to the world in the time of Babylon the Great. It is all the same message.
Another important feature to note is that while the Lamb Himself removes the seals of the scroll, it is the living creatures that proclaim each coming judgment. The Lord Himself reveals His Word, but His servants, who depict His likeness, proclaim the message. Here on earth, it is believers who are to fulfil that role. As God reveals His word and the fulfilment of prophecy to us, we are to proclaim it to the world. The ‘full gospel’ so to speak, of Christ the Lion, the Ox, The Man and the Eagle. But before Ezekiel could proclaim the message, he had to eat the scroll!
Only the Lamb that was slain could open the scroll. Before Ezekiel could preach the message, he had to eat the scroll himself. That means receiving the message of the law and having it slay you. Your sins will be exposed. Your motives will be revealed. After he ate the scroll, God ‘lifted up’ Ezekiel into the presence of God and sent him out to preach.
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His place.” And I heard the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. So the Spirit lifted me up; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. – Ezekiel 3:12-14.
What a baptism of the Spirit that was; but remember, that ought to be our experience too. Let God’s Word slay you. Open your heart to His rebuke. Then cling to the Cross as your means of redemption. You will experience a new life! Moreover, you will have a powerful testimony to those to whom God sends you.
Until you have allowed God to deal with the sins in your own life, you cannot effectively preach to others. People hardly listen anyway, how much less if we still give a bad testimony! Who will listen to someone who cannot overcome his own sin? Peter preached powerfully after the Lord had exposed his sinfulness and weakness. He had been humbled and restored. Now he was ready to preach. In David’s confession, recorded in Psalm 51 after his sins were totally exposed, he goes on to say that sinners would be converted.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You. – Psalm 51:12-13.
You don’t have to sound proud while preaching the Law. The Gospel messages I heard as a young Christian were simple, humble and powerful. “Man is fallen; but God can raise us up!” It was true in Bible days; it has been true in my life; and it will be true for you as well.
King Ahaz faced an allied attack from Northern Israel and Aram, which is modern day Syria. Despite Isaiah’s assurances of God’s protection, he turned to Assyria for help.
Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. – 2 Kings 16:5.
Turning to the world for help always brings its detrimental consequences. Assyria happily invaded Aram and broke the power of the alliance. But what followed in Judah was a complete pagan revival. King Ahaz had a replica of the pagan altar of Damascus built and placed in the temple of the LORD.
Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship. So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. – 2 Kings 16:10-11.
Remember that the Bronze Altar is a type of the Cross. This is like bringing a foreign gospel into the Church. He actually worshipped the gods of Aram which had just been defeated.
When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then the king approached the altar and went up to it, and burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. The bronze altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the LORD, and he put it on the north side of his altar. Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded. – 2 Kings 16:12-16.
King Ahaz set up the pagan altar for public worship, but for his own devotions he used the Bronze Altar. He knew that the pagan altar was just a façade. Likewise there are many today who believe in God’s creation, but they will not talk about it fearing the ‘scientifically minded’ will balk at the message. Recently a friend attended a meeting of Christians who support Israel – a worthy cause for a conference indeed. However, when somebody stood up and prayed for the ecumenical movement to be blessed worldwide, no one could stand up and object. Why? They feared spoiling the unity of the occasion. Many people must have known that ecumenism was spiritual Babylon, but to please the people they happily tolerated the ‘Damascus altar’.
Urijah the priest set up the pagan altar just as King Ahaz had commanded him. This Urijah was called a faithful witness in Isaiah 8:2. Yet once the flying scroll message is rejected, the priests as well as the people are corrupted.
Ahaz’s compromise reaches its peak however, when the Assyrian King, Tiglath Pilesar, makes a personal appearance at Jerusalem.
Ahaz had compromised on account of Assyria from the start; the new altar being a kind of new ‘cross’, but when Tiglath Pilesar comes to Jerusalem Ahaz goes all the way with his compromise, removing from the temple things representing the very nature of God.
Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. The covered way for the Sabbath, which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the LORD because of the king of Assyria. – 2 Kings 16:17-18.
The twelve oxen which bore the sea faced outwards in each direction, representing the twelve apostles who would take the Gospel, the cleansing water, into all the world. Ahaz removed the sea from off the backs of the oxen; that is, he removed the cleansing water from the foundation of the bearers of the Gospel. In type, it was a new gospel, not the one that the apostles preached. Next he removed the borders from the bronze stands. Upon the borders were engraved pictures of lions, oxen and Cherubim (1 Kings 6:29). Corresponding to the faces of the living creatures in Revelation 4:7 and Ezekiel 1:10 these aspects of the Word emphasize Jesus as the Lion, the King of Israel; the Ox, the strong one who came as a servant to lay down His life for the weak; and the heavenly beings, emphasizing the divinity of Christ, who came down from heaven (John 6:38). They are the faces of the ones closest to God. They reflect God in all His aspects, not just one. Yet if the above three aspects are removed, what is left? Only Jesus the man. “Just a man, like any other teacher or philosopher.”
That was the state of the Church in the days of King Ahaz of Judah. His failure to trust God for protection led to compromise with Assyria, which in turn led to the desecration of the temple and the truth that it represented. Many today find themselves in the same situation. They are embarrassed by Jesus as the Lion.
The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favour is like dew on the grass. – Proverbs 19:12
The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion, He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life. - Proverbs 20:2
People are embarrassed by the wrath and judgment of God. They try to deny that God will one day punish the world and its people for their sin. They are embarrassed by the Ox. They don’t wish to dwell upon why Jesus had to come and die for us. The message of the cross, dying to self and to the world is shunned. Many are even embarrassed by Jesus as the Heavenly One, the Divine Creator. They are ashamed to acknowledge the historicity of Genesis and the miracles in Scripture, happily compromising with evolution and modernism. Afraid of being labelled creationist, Christians have allowed evolutionary thinking to rot away true faith in the Bible. As a result the church is backslidden. That was the heritage that Ahaz left to his son Hezekiah.
Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he closed the doors of the house of the LORD and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. – 2 Chronicles 28:24.
The sea and altar were corrupted. The doors of the porch were closed. Temple worship was effectively shut down. In type, Ahaz had taken away the true Gospel, the only way into fellowship with God.
In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. “For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and have turned their backs. They have also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the LORD was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. – 2 Chronicles 29:3-8.
Hezekiah repaired the doors of the porch: the twenty by ten! The flying scroll was uplifted again. The way into God’s presence was reopened. Then they cleansed the Holy Place. This led to a true revival.
So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the LORD they brought out to the court of the house of the LORD. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron valley. – 2 Chronicles 29:16.
There are unclean things in the Holy Place today. The love of money is being preached instead of the love of God and humility. How much more does the heart of man need to be cleansed of its idolatry? The porch must be repaired; the true Gospel restored. Learn to use the Law in your evangelism! But first, let’s eat the scroll and examine ourselves.
“I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.” – Zechariah 5:4.
Zechariah’s Flying Scroll: The message which thunders from heaven in the last days. It is the eternal Gospel, but man’s time is limited. The night is coming, the Great Tribulation, the time of great darkness at the end of the age. If you are guilty of theft (sins against man) or swearing falsely (sins against God), then the curse of the Law is upon you and your time to get right with God is running out. Ritual won’t save you, only the Cross and the Word of God. The flying scroll message urges us to “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters” (Revelation 14:7). At some point Christ will return in power to resurrect the saints. For those people and churches that have rejected the message, it will be a curse, spending the night (Great Tribulation) in their house, and destroying its timber and stones. Rather than being the Gospel leading to salvation, it will become a proclamation of inescapable judgment. The easy believe gospel will not work. The prosperity and singing will be laid in the dust. The lies of compromise will be exposed. Babylon will be fallen, setting the stage for Zechariah’s next vision (Zechariah 5:5-11).
Geoff Toole, originally from Sydney, has been a missionary in Kansai, Japan, since 2000. Geoff is also the co-ordinator of Moriel Ministries in Japan. As well as evangelism in his local area, he teaches regularly in the Philippines. Geoff and Fumie have four children whom they home school.
