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Zechariah
Chapter Five
Zechariah 5
Chapter Contents
The vision of a flying roll. (1-4) The vision of a woman
and an ephah. (5-11)
Commentary on Zechariah 5:1-4
(Read Zechariah 5:1-4)
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are rolls
in
which God has written the great things of his law and gospel; they are flying
rolls. God's word runs very swiftly
Psalm 147:15. This flying roll contains a
declaration of the righteous wrath of God against sinners. Oh that we saw with
an eye of faith the flying roll of God's curse hanging over the guilty world as
a thick cloud
not only keeping off the sunbeams of God's favour
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
being himself made a curse for us! Sin is the ruin of houses and families;
especially the doing hurt to others and false witness. Who knows the power of
God's anger? God's curse cannot be kept out by bars or locks. While one part of
the curse of God ruins the substance of the sinner
another part will rest on
the soul
and sink it to everlasting punishment. All are transgressors of the
law
so we cannot escape this wrath of God
except we flee for refuge to lay
hold on the hope set before us in the gospel.
Commentary on Zechariah 5:5-11
(Read Zechariah 5:5-11)
In this vision the prophet sees an ephah
something in
the shape of a corn measure. This betokened the Jewish nation. They are filling
the measure of their iniquity; and when it is full
they shall be delivered
into the hands of those to whom God sold them for their sins. The woman sitting
in the midst of the ephah represents the sinful church and nation of the Jews
in their latter and corrupt age. Guilt is upon the sinner as a weight of lead
to sink him to the lowest hell. This seems to mean the condemnation of the
Jews
after they filled the measure of their iniquities by crucifying Christ
and rejecting his gospel. Zechariah sees the ephah
with the woman thus pressed
in it
carried away to some far country. This intimates that the Jews should be
hurried out of their own land
and forced to dwell in far countries
as they
had been in Babylon. There the ephah shall be firmly placed
and their
sufferings shall continue far longer than in their late captivity. Blindness is
happened unto Israel
and they are settled upon their own unbelief. Let sinners
fear to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; for the more they multiply
crimes
the faster the measure fills.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Zechariah》
Zechariah 5
Verse 1
[1] Then I turned
and lifted up mine eyes
and looked
and
behold a flying roll.
A flying roll — A volume
or book spread out at
large
flying in the air
swiftly.
Verse 3
[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.
This — This roll or book containeth the curse
due to
sinners.
The whole earth — Either the whole land of Judea
or all the world
wherever these sins are found.
According to it — According to the threats
inscribed thereon.
Sweareth — Profanely
or falsely.
Verse 4
[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.
It shall enter — This curse shall come with
commission from me.
It shall remain — It shall stick close to them and
theirs like Gehazi's leprosy.
And the stones — Nothing shall remain
as when
both the timber and stones of a house are consumed.
Verse 6
[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.
He — The angel.
An ephah — A measure which held about three bushels.
Goeth forth — Out of the temple.
Their resemblance — This is an emblem of
this people everywhere. Thus there is limited time and measure for them
while
they sin
and are filling the ephah with their sins
they will find that the
ephah of wrath is filled up also
to be poured out upon them.
Verse 7
[7] And
behold
there was lifted up a talent of lead: and
this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
And behold — Here is another part of this
vision.
Lifted up — Brought thither to cover it.
A talent — A piece of lead of a talent weight
as large as the
mouth of the ephah.
A woman — A woman
the third in the vision. Perhaps this vision
was purposely obscure
least a plain denunciation of the second overthrow of
the state and temple
might discourage them from going forward in the present
restoration of them.
Verse 8
[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.
This — This woman represents the wickedness of the Jews.
He cast it — The angel cast down this woman.
On the mouth — And so shut her up
to suffer the
punishment of all her sins.
Verse 9
[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.
There came out — From the same place whence the
ephah came.
Their wings — They had wings
like the wings of
storks
large and strong
and flew before the wind with great swiftness. The
judgments came thus flying
and so bore away with them those that were
incorrigible.
Verse 11
[11] And he said unto me
To build it an house in the land of
Shinar: and it shall be established
and set there upon her own base.
To build — Not in mercy
but in judgment.
Of Shinar — Of Babylon whither many of the
Jews fled
and others of them were forced by the Romans.
Set there — There they shall be confined
without hope of release.
Her own base — They are settled upon the lees of
their own unbelief: their wickedness is established on its own bases.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Zechariah》
05 Chapter 5
Introduction
Verses 1-4
And I turned . . . and looked
and behold a flying roll
The flying roll
The object of this discourse is to present to you the
Scriptures as a phenomenon of the world around us.
Consider them as an appearance in the circle of our observation
a fact in the
history of our race
and ask
what account is to be given of it? The attention
of our age is taken up much and wisely with the study of phenomena. We may
interpret the Scriptures in one way or another; we may study or neglect
revere
or despise them; we may consider them to be the dictates of observation
or
below the level of human intelligence; we may call them a word of delusion
or
the Word of God; but in the extremest varieties of opinion no one can escape
from this
--that they are a leading phenomenon in the history of civilisation
and religious thought
in the aspect of the moral world as it now stands and
moves before us. In the text an angel speaks in vision to one of the last of
the prophets
and asks
as if in the very spirit of modern research
“What
seest thou?” The prophet raises his eyes and sees a winged book
“a flying
roll.” It is of gigantic dimensions. It is of restless speed. It “goeth forth
over the face of the whole earth.” It was the roll of the Lord’s judgments--a
consuming fire. In this respect the Bible corresponds with it only in one of
its parts
but in that part perfectly: in its testimony against
unrighteousness
its sentence upon those who love and practise dishonour
its
“fiery law.” Dealing with the “flying roll” more generally
what are the points
that we discover in it?
1. The extraordinary dimensions of the book
“its length twenty
cubits
and its breadth ten.” What a space does the Bible fill in the gaze of
mankind
though it can be carried about in the hand of the feeblest wayfarer!
Do we not speak truly of its wonderful dimensions when it holds on its ample
pages such a widely scattered wisdom
and is discerned from so far?
2. Its preservation and continuance through so long a sweep of time.
This is remarkable even at a first glance. Since faithful Abraham came out from
Chaldaea vast tribes and strong nations have risen to renown and passed away
into silence. Founders of states have not so much as secured the name of what
they founded. Dispensers of religion have left neither a priest for their
successor nor a shrine for their monument. Oracles of wisdom have grown
forgotten as well as dumb. Genius and learning have gone down into the dust
and there is not a finger track of an inscription upon it for their posterity
to read. Whole literatures have disappeared
their tongues having ceased
and
their characters become illegible or blotted entirely out. But here is writing
from many hands
and in a long series of instructions
dating as far back as
the school lessons of human improvement. It has defied time. It has repelled
decay. The linen
or the parchment
or whatever frail material it was confided
to
held fast its trust
while brazen trophies were melted down and marble
columns were pulverised. The temple of the Lord protected its archives; though
its huge stones were unable to hold themselves together
and its sacred vessels
served at last but for the ornaments of a heathen triumph.
3. Its spread. It is
indeed
a “flying roll.” The Scriptures move
rapidly. They are not only preserved
but incredibly multiplied. They were
addressed for the most part to one people
and they now speak to all people.
They were written in their own peculiar tongues
and now they call all tongues
their own. Have they not “gone forth over the face of the whole earth”? They
are among the studies of learned men
who find there a wisdom higher than all
else they know; while the ignorant and the simple
reading as they run
are
made wise to life everlasting.
4. The honour with which they have been received as they have flown
along. They are recognised in the public worship of most of the civilised
tribes now under heaven. They are enshrined in cathedrals. They are revered
at
least with all outward forms of homage
in the courts of the proudest empires.
They are sworn upon when the most solemn vows by which we can be bound are to
be attested. The patient fingers of holy recluses could for centuries find no
better task than to copy them; and countless presses are now perpetually busy
that they may be distributed over the globe. The rarest genius and the
profoundest learning are employed upon the illustration of them. It may be
objected that we have said nothing of the disrespect and derision with which
the Scriptures are regarded by multitudes
and have always been. We may admit
this
but press the consideration
that they have withstood even this trial.
Familiarity and levity have not subjected them to contempt. Nothing could
better show how deeply they are seated in the veneration of mankind.
5. Their influence
their surprising power. There may be a high
repute without any true efficiency. But that roll of the Divine covenants has
always been of a Divine force. It has acted upon communities
wherever it has
been introduced
so as to accomplish the most astonishing consequences. Are you
inquiring what overthrew many of the massy oppressions
the enormous abuses
of
the elder times? It was its paper edges that smote upon all that dark strength
and before those thin leaves buttress and battlement went down. How much has it
done for individual minds.
6. Their immeasurable superiority
as mere traditions
above
everything that has been handed down to us from the ancient world. There is in
their contents a deep spring of instruction
such as the old generations
nowhere furnish
and the coming ones are not likely soon to exhaust. Your own
minds will surely leap to the inference: the finger of God was here. You may be
perplexed with many passages in your Bible. You may slight some things as
unimportant
and repel others as uncongenial. You may think you discern great
blemishes and errors here and there. But what of that? It should throw no
mistrust over the spontaneous conclusion: the finger of God was here. Yes
the
Divine providence ordained and protected this charter of man’s truest liberty
and highest good. Let us look thoughtfully at it
then
as it flies on its holy
errand. (N. L. Frothingham.)
The flying roll
The import of this vision is threatening
to show that the object
of the prophet was to produce genuine repentance. The parts are significant. A roll
probably of parchment
is seen
30 by 15 feet
the exact dimensions of the
temple porch; where the law was usually read
showing that it was authoritative
in its utterance
and connected with the theocracy. Being a written thing
it
showed that its contents were solemnly determined beyond all escape or repeal.
It was flying
to show that its threats were ready to do their work
and
descend on every transgressor. It was unrolled
or its dimensions could not
have been seen
to show that its warnings were openly proclaimed to all
that
none might have an excuse. It was written on both sides
to connect it with the
tables of the law
and show its comprehensive character. One side denounced
perjury
a sin of the first table
the other stealing
a sin of the second; and
both united in every case where a thief took the oath of expurgation to acquit
himself of the charge of theft. This hovering curse would descend in every such
case into the house of the offender
and consume even its most enduring parts
until it had thoroughly done its work of destruction. The immediate application
of this vision was to those who were neglecting the erection of God’s house to
build their own
and thus robbing God and forswearing their obligations to Him.
On such the prophet declares a curse shall descend that will make this selfish
withholding of their efforts in vain
for the houses they would build should be
consumed by God’s wrath. The teaching of this vision is that of the law. It
blazes with the fire
and echoes with the thunder of Sinai
and tells us that
our God is a consuming fire. We learn thus a lesson of instruction to those who
have succeeded the prophets of the Old Testament
as the authorised expounders
of God’s will under the New. It is needful to tell the love of God
to unfold
His precious promises
and to utter words of cheer and encouragement. But it is
also needful to declare the other aspect of God’s character. There is a
constant tendency in the human heart to abuse the goodness of God to an
encouragement of sin. Hence ministers of the Gospel must declare this portion
of God’s counsel as well as the other. They must declare to men who are living
in neglect of duty
that withholding what is due to God
either in heart or
life
is combined robbery and perjury. For those who thus sin
God has prepared
a ministry of vengeance. There is something most vivid and appalling in this
image of the hovering curse. It flies viewless and resistless
poising like a
falcon over her prey
breathing a ruin the most dire and desolating
and when
the blind and hardened offender opens his door to his ill-gotten gains
this
mystic roll
with its fire tracery of wrath
enters into his habitation
and
fastening upon his cherished idols
begins its dread work of retribution
and
ceases not until the fabric of his guilty life has been totally and
irremediably consumed. (T. V. Moore
D. D.)
The flying roll
I. The man who is
marked as a special transgressor is marked also for special judgment. The curse
went “forth over the face of the whole earth
” but it was to cut off the thief
and the false swearer. In the Hebrew nation there were many sinners
but there
as everywhere else
there were sinners who had not yet filled up the measure of
their iniquity
and there were others who had passed all bounds
whose
transgressions were so great as to make them marks upon which the lightnings of
God’s displeasure must fall.
II. Escape from the
consequences of unrepented sin is impossible. It is not necessary that the sin
should reveal itself in action to ensure the entail of the certain penalty. If
it never passes the boundary of the inner man there will be a reaction upon the
man’s spirit as certainly as night follows day
and more so because
though God
has suspended the laws of nature
we have no reason to suppose He has ever
interposed to prevent the consequences of sin
unless the sinner has come under
the power of another law
--the law of forgiveness by confession and repentance.
However hidden the transgression
the curse will find out its most secret
hiding place.
III. Theft and
perjury include all other sins. The son who forges his father’s name includes
in that one act every other crime that he can commit against him except that of
taking his life. He only needs occasion to reveal his readiness for any other
act of dishonour toward his parent. The man who deliberately appeals to God to
uphold him in his false statements forges the name of the Eternal Himself
and
seeks to turn the God of truth into the Father of lies.
IV. The special
sins of some bring suffering upon many. The curse went forth “over the whole
earth
” or land. It is a truth proclaimed by God and verified by experience
that many may suffer by the sin of the few to whom they are in no way related.
See this principle
and its bright reverse
illustrated by St. Paul in Romans 5:18. (Outlines by London
Minister.)
The flying roll
The threatenings here are directed against the defects and
transgressions of the Jewish people at that time. God gives them to understand
by this vision that whilst it was His purpose to make His promise good
in the
establishment of His Church
He would by no means connive at their sins and
corruptions
but would visit them with present punishment
and with future
extirpation
if they persisted in their unbelief and rebellion.
I. The sins more
especially condemned.
1. Theft and sacrilege.
2. Perjury and false swearing.
II. The punishment
threatened. Partly personal and partly domestic.
1. A personal judgment is denounced. Everyone shall receive his
reward and punishment according to his sins
and according to the sentence of
the roll.
2. It was to extend to his relative and domestic interests. “It shall
enter into the house of the thief.” “It shall remain in the midst of his
house.” “And shall consume it with the timbers thereof
and the stones
thereof.” This subject may well teach heads of families a lesson of religious
caution
lest by an undue anxiety for their own worldly success
or that of
their children
they frustrate their most cherished purposes
and entail a
curse rather than a blessing. We shall do well to remember that no external
evil which may befall a particular class of mankind
in consequence of the
faults of their progenitors
renders any individual of that class less
acceptable to God
if he turn from his wickedness and repent. But the very
curse may become a blessing
if it operate to warn an individual against the
sin by which it was brought down upon him. On the other hand
let no children
of religious parents suppose that the piety of a long line of ancestors will
avail in their behalf
unless they are themselves the possessors of religious
principle. And since all are exposed to an infinite danger on account of sin
how deep should be our gratitude to that Divine Redeemer
who bore the curse
for us
that we might escape the impending penalty
and inherit the unspeakable
blessings of His salvation. (S. Thodey.)
The flying roll--Divine retribution
I. As following
sin.
1. The particular sins which retribution pursues.
The sins here mentioned are not mere specimens
but root or
fountain sins. The “flying roll” of Divine retribution followed sin with its
curses. There is a curse to every sin
and this is not vengeance
but benevolence.
It is the arrangement of love.
2. The way in which just retribution pursues them.
II. As abiding with
sin. “It shall remain in the midst of his house.” Not only does it rule the
house of the sinner
“it remains in the midst of it” like a leprosy
infecting
wasting
consuming
destroying. It abides in the house to curse everything
even the timber and the stones. Guilt
not only
like a ravenous beast
crouches at the door of the sinner
but rather
like a blasting mildew
spreads
its baneful influence over the whole dwelling. The sin of one member of a
family brings its curse on the others. The sins of the parents bring a curse
upon the children. (Homilist.)
Judgment with consolation
The angel shows
in this chapter
that whatever evils the Jews had
suffered
proceeded from the righteous judgment of God; and then he adds a
consolation--that the Lord would at length alleviate or put an end to their
evils
when He had removed afar off their iniquity. Interpreters have touched
neither heaven nor earth in their explanation of this prophecy
for they have
not regarded the designs of the Holy Spirit. Some think that by the volume are
to be understood false and perverted glosses
by which the purity of doctrine
had been vitiated; but this view can by no means be received. There is no doubt
but that God intended to show to Zechariah that the Jews were justly punished
because the whole land was full of thefts and perjuries. As their religion had
been despised
as well as equity and justice
he shows that it was no wonder a
curse had prevailed through the whole land
the Jews having by their impiety
and sins extremely provoked the wrath of God. This is the import of the first
part. And then
as this vision was terrible
there is added some alleviation by
representing iniquity in a measure
and the mouth of the measure closed
and
afterwards carries to the land of Shinar
that is
into Chaldea
that it might
not remain in Judea. Thus
in the former part the prophet’s design was to
humble the Jews
and to encourage them to repent
so that they might own God to
have been justly angry; and then he gives them reason to entertain hope
and
fully to expect an end to their evils
for the Lord would remove to a distance
and transfer their iniquity to Chaldea
so that Judea might be pure and free
from every wickedness
both from thefts and acts of injustice
by which it had
been previously polluted. (John Calvin.)
This is the curse that
goeth forth over the face of the whole earth--
The Lord’s curse
This type is expounded to signify the Lord’s curse going forth to
do execution in all the land of Judah
and to cut off sinners against the first
and second tables of the Law. Doctrine--
1. Whatever be the particular punishment inflicted by God for sin
yet this is seriously to be laid to heart
that every such punishment hath in
its bosom a curse
till the sinner
awakened thereby
flee to Christ
who
became a curse
that His own may inherit a blessing.
2. The Lord is an impartial avenger of sin
when it is persevered in
without repentance; and when other means are ineffectual
He will not spare to
cut off the desperate sinner; for the curse goes forth “over the face of the
whole earth
” or land; and “everyone shall be cut off
” without exception
who
are guilty.
3. The Lord will not spare but indifferently punish sin
whether
against the first or second tables
in avoiding of both which the Lord’s people
are to testify their sincerity. This is signified by “cutting off everyone that
stealeth
and everyone that sweareth.”
4. When a people are delivered out of sore troubles
and yet their
lusts are not modified
they ordinarily prove covetous
false
and oppressing
as labouring by all means to make up these things that trouble hath stript them
of; therefore is there a particular threat against everyone that stealeth
it being a rife sin at their return from captivity
for they went every man
to his own house (Haggai 1:9)
were cruel oppressors (Nehemiah 5:1-3)
yea
and robbed God of
tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8).
5. Covetous and false men
in their bargains with men
will make no
bones of impiety and perjury
if that may help to gain their point; for with
the former is joined “everyone that sweareth
” which is expounded
Zechariah 5:4
to be “swearing falsely by
God’s name.” (George Hutcheson.)
It shall remain in the
midst of his house--
A curse in the family
As certain as the ordinances of nature
is the law that ill-gotten
gain will bring a curse. The following is a startling illustration of the
truth
gathered from the history of a rural town:--“In 1786
a youth
then
residing in Maine
owned a jackknife
which he
being of a somewhat trading
disposition
sold for a gallon of West India rum. This he retailed
and with
the proceeds purchased two gallons
and eventually a barrel
which was followed
in due time with a large stock. In a word
he got rich
and became the squire
of the district
through the possession and sale of the jackknife
and an
indomitable trading industry. He died
leaving property
in real estate and
money value
worth eighty thousand dollars. This was divided by testament among
four children
three boys and a girl. Luck
which seemed the guardian angel of
the father
deserted the children; for every folly and extravagance they could
engage in seemed to occupy their exclusive attention and cultivation. The
daughter married unfortunately
and her patrimony was soon thrown away by her
spendthrift of a husband. The sons were no more fortunate
and two died in
dissipation and in poverty. The daughter also died. The last of the family
for
many years past
has lived on the kindness of those who knew him in the days of
prosperity
as pride would not allow him to go to the poor farm. A few days ago
he died
suddenly and unattended
in a barn
where he had laid himself down to
take a drunken sleep. On his pockets being examined
all that was found in them
was a small piece of string and a jackknife! So the fortune that
began with the implement of that kind left its simple duplicate. We leave the
moral to be drawn in whatever fashion it may suggest itself to the reader;
simply stating that the story is a true one
and all the facts well known to
many whom this relation will doubtless reach.” (A. J. Gordon
D. D.)
A plague in the house
How terribly those words have been fulfilled in the case of people
and families we have known! It has seemed as though there were a plague in the
house. The fortune which had been accumulated with such toil has crumbled; the
children turned out sources of heartrending grief; the reputation of the father
has become irretrievably tarnished. “There is a plague spread in the house; it
is a fretting leprosy
it is unclean.” No man can stand against that curse. It
confronts him everywhere. It touches his most substantial effects
and they
pulverise
as furniture eaten through by white ants. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
Verses 1-11
Verses 1-4
And I turned . . . and looked
and behold a flying roll
The flying roll
The object of this discourse is to present to you the
Scriptures as a phenomenon of the world around us.
Consider them as an appearance in the circle of our observation
a fact in the
history of our race
and ask
what account is to be given of it? The attention
of our age is taken up much and wisely with the study of phenomena. We may
interpret the Scriptures in one way or another; we may study or neglect
revere
or despise them; we may consider them to be the dictates of observation
or
below the level of human intelligence; we may call them a word of delusion
or
the Word of God; but in the extremest varieties of opinion no one can escape
from this
--that they are a leading phenomenon in the history of civilisation
and religious thought
in the aspect of the moral world as it now stands and
moves before us. In the text an angel speaks in vision to one of the last of
the prophets
and asks
as if in the very spirit of modern research
“What
seest thou?” The prophet raises his eyes and sees a winged book
“a flying
roll.” It is of gigantic dimensions. It is of restless speed. It “goeth forth
over the face of the whole earth.” It was the roll of the Lord’s judgments--a
consuming fire. In this respect the Bible corresponds with it only in one of
its parts
but in that part perfectly: in its testimony against
unrighteousness
its sentence upon those who love and practise dishonour
its
“fiery law.” Dealing with the “flying roll” more generally
what are the points
that we discover in it?
1. The extraordinary dimensions of the book
“its length twenty
cubits
and its breadth ten.” What a space does the Bible fill in the gaze of
mankind
though it can be carried about in the hand of the feeblest wayfarer!
Do we not speak truly of its wonderful dimensions when it holds on its ample
pages such a widely scattered wisdom
and is discerned from so far?
2. Its preservation and continuance through so long a sweep of time.
This is remarkable even at a first glance. Since faithful Abraham came out from
Chaldaea vast tribes and strong nations have risen to renown and passed away
into silence. Founders of states have not so much as secured the name of what
they founded. Dispensers of religion have left neither a priest for their
successor nor a shrine for their monument. Oracles of wisdom have grown
forgotten as well as dumb. Genius and learning have gone down into the dust
and there is not a finger track of an inscription upon it for their posterity
to read. Whole literatures have disappeared
their tongues having ceased
and
their characters become illegible or blotted entirely out. But here is writing
from many hands
and in a long series of instructions
dating as far back as
the school lessons of human improvement. It has defied time. It has repelled
decay. The linen
or the parchment
or whatever frail material it was confided
to
held fast its trust
while brazen trophies were melted down and marble
columns were pulverised. The temple of the Lord protected its archives; though
its huge stones were unable to hold themselves together
and its sacred vessels
served at last but for the ornaments of a heathen triumph.
3. Its spread. It is
indeed
a “flying roll.” The Scriptures move
rapidly. They are not only preserved
but incredibly multiplied. They were
addressed for the most part to one people
and they now speak to all people.
They were written in their own peculiar tongues
and now they call all tongues
their own. Have they not “gone forth over the face of the whole earth”? They
are among the studies of learned men
who find there a wisdom higher than all
else they know; while the ignorant and the simple
reading as they run
are
made wise to life everlasting.
4. The honour with which they have been received as they have flown
along. They are recognised in the public worship of most of the civilised
tribes now under heaven. They are enshrined in cathedrals. They are revered
at
least with all outward forms of homage
in the courts of the proudest empires.
They are sworn upon when the most solemn vows by which we can be bound are to
be attested. The patient fingers of holy recluses could for centuries find no
better task than to copy them; and countless presses are now perpetually busy
that they may be distributed over the globe. The rarest genius and the
profoundest learning are employed upon the illustration of them. It may be
objected that we have said nothing of the disrespect and derision with which
the Scriptures are regarded by multitudes
and have always been. We may admit
this
but press the consideration
that they have withstood even this trial.
Familiarity and levity have not subjected them to contempt. Nothing could
better show how deeply they are seated in the veneration of mankind.
5. Their influence
their surprising power. There may be a high
repute without any true efficiency. But that roll of the Divine covenants has
always been of a Divine force. It has acted upon communities
wherever it has
been introduced
so as to accomplish the most astonishing consequences. Are you
inquiring what overthrew many of the massy oppressions
the enormous abuses
of
the elder times? It was its paper edges that smote upon all that dark strength
and before those thin leaves buttress and battlement went down. How much has it
done for individual minds.
6. Their immeasurable superiority
as mere traditions
above
everything that has been handed down to us from the ancient world. There is in
their contents a deep spring of instruction
such as the old generations
nowhere furnish
and the coming ones are not likely soon to exhaust. Your own
minds will surely leap to the inference: the finger of God was here. You may be
perplexed with many passages in your Bible. You may slight some things as
unimportant
and repel others as uncongenial. You may think you discern great
blemishes and errors here and there. But what of that? It should throw no
mistrust over the spontaneous conclusion: the finger of God was here. Yes
the
Divine providence ordained and protected this charter of man’s truest liberty
and highest good. Let us look thoughtfully at it
then
as it flies on its holy
errand. (N. L. Frothingham.)
The flying roll
The import of this vision is threatening
to show that the object
of the prophet was to produce genuine repentance. The parts are significant. A
roll
probably of parchment
is seen
30 by 15 feet
the exact dimensions of
the temple porch; where the law was usually read
showing that it was
authoritative in its utterance
and connected with the theocracy. Being a
written thing
it showed that its contents were solemnly determined beyond all
escape or repeal. It was flying
to show that its threats were ready to do
their work
and descend on every transgressor. It was unrolled
or its
dimensions could not have been seen
to show that its warnings were openly
proclaimed to all
that none might have an excuse. It was written on both
sides
to connect it with the tables of the law
and show its comprehensive
character. One side denounced perjury
a sin of the first table
the other
stealing
a sin of the second; and both united in every case where a thief took
the oath of expurgation to acquit himself of the charge of theft. This hovering
curse would descend in every such case into the house of the offender
and
consume even its most enduring parts
until it had thoroughly done its work of
destruction. The immediate application of this vision was to those who were
neglecting the erection of God’s house to build their own
and thus robbing God
and forswearing their obligations to Him. On such the prophet declares a curse
shall descend that will make this selfish withholding of their efforts in vain
for the houses they would build should be consumed by God’s wrath. The teaching
of this vision is that of the law. It blazes with the fire
and echoes with the
thunder of Sinai
and tells us that our God is a consuming fire. We learn thus
a lesson of instruction to those who have succeeded the prophets of the Old
Testament
as the authorised expounders of God’s will under the New. It is
needful to tell the love of God
to unfold His precious promises
and to utter
words of cheer and encouragement. But it is also needful to declare the other
aspect of God’s character. There is a constant tendency in the human heart to
abuse the goodness of God to an encouragement of sin. Hence ministers of the
Gospel must declare this portion of God’s counsel as well as the other. They
must declare to men who are living in neglect of duty
that withholding what is
due to God
either in heart or life
is combined robbery and perjury. For those
who thus sin
God has prepared a ministry of vengeance. There is something most
vivid and appalling in this image of the hovering curse. It flies viewless and
resistless
poising like a falcon over her prey
breathing a ruin the most dire
and desolating
and when the blind and hardened offender opens his door to his
ill-gotten gains
this mystic roll
with its fire tracery of wrath
enters into
his habitation
and
fastening upon his cherished idols
begins its dread work
of retribution
and ceases not until the fabric of his guilty life has been
totally and irremediably consumed. (T. V. Moore
D. D.)
The flying roll
I. The man who is
marked as a special transgressor is marked also for special judgment. The curse
went “forth over the face of the whole earth
” but it was to cut off the thief
and the false swearer. In the Hebrew nation there were many sinners
but there
as everywhere else
there were sinners who had not yet filled up the measure of
their iniquity
and there were others who had passed all bounds
whose
transgressions were so great as to make them marks upon which the lightnings of
God’s displeasure must fall.
II. Escape from the
consequences of unrepented sin is impossible. It is not necessary that the sin
should reveal itself in action to ensure the entail of the certain penalty. If
it never passes the boundary of the inner man there will be a reaction upon the
man’s spirit as certainly as night follows day
and more so because
though God
has suspended the laws of nature
we have no reason to suppose He has ever
interposed to prevent the consequences of sin
unless the sinner has come under
the power of another law
--the law of forgiveness by confession and repentance.
However hidden the transgression
the curse will find out its most secret
hiding place.
III. Theft and
perjury include all other sins. The son who forges his father’s name includes
in that one act every other crime that he can commit against him except that of
taking his life. He only needs occasion to reveal his readiness for any other
act of dishonour toward his parent. The man who deliberately appeals to God to
uphold him in his false statements forges the name of the Eternal Himself
and
seeks to turn the God of truth into the Father of lies.
IV. The special
sins of some bring suffering upon many. The curse went forth “over the whole
earth
” or land. It is a truth proclaimed by God and verified by experience
that many may suffer by the sin of the few to whom they are in no way related.
See this principle
and its bright reverse
illustrated by St. Paul in Romans 5:18. (Outlines by London
Minister.)
The flying roll
The threatenings here are directed against the defects and
transgressions of the Jewish people at that time. God gives them to understand
by this vision that whilst it was His purpose to make His promise good
in the
establishment of His Church
He would by no means connive at their sins and
corruptions
but would visit them with present punishment
and with future
extirpation
if they persisted in their unbelief and rebellion.
I. The sins more
especially condemned.
1. Theft and sacrilege.
2. Perjury and false swearing.
II. The punishment
threatened. Partly personal and partly domestic.
1. A personal judgment is denounced. Everyone shall receive his
reward and punishment according to his sins
and according to the sentence of
the roll.
2. It was to extend to his relative and domestic interests. “It shall
enter into the house of the thief.” “It shall remain in the midst of his
house.” “And shall consume it with the timbers thereof
and the stones
thereof.” This subject may well teach heads of families a lesson of religious
caution
lest by an undue anxiety for their own worldly success
or that of
their children
they frustrate their most cherished purposes
and entail a
curse rather than a blessing. We shall do well to remember that no external
evil which may befall a particular class of mankind
in consequence of the
faults of their progenitors
renders any individual of that class less
acceptable to God
if he turn from his wickedness and repent. But the very
curse may become a blessing
if it operate to warn an individual against the
sin by which it was brought down upon him. On the other hand
let no children
of religious parents suppose that the piety of a long line of ancestors will
avail in their behalf
unless they are themselves the possessors of religious
principle. And since all are exposed to an infinite danger on account of sin
how deep should be our gratitude to that Divine Redeemer
who bore the curse
for us
that we might escape the impending penalty
and inherit the unspeakable
blessings of His salvation. (S. Thodey.)
The flying roll--Divine retribution
I. As following
sin.
1. The particular sins which retribution pursues.
The sins here mentioned are not mere specimens
but root or
fountain sins. The “flying roll” of Divine retribution followed sin with its
curses. There is a curse to every sin
and this is not vengeance
but
benevolence. It is the arrangement of love.
2. The way in which just retribution pursues them.
II. As abiding with
sin. “It shall remain in the midst of his house.” Not only does it rule the
house of the sinner
“it remains in the midst of it” like a leprosy
infecting
wasting
consuming
destroying. It abides in the house to curse everything
even the timber and the stones. Guilt
not only
like a ravenous beast
crouches at the door of the sinner
but rather
like a blasting mildew
spreads
its baneful influence over the whole dwelling. The sin of one member of a
family brings its curse on the others. The sins of the parents bring a curse
upon the children. (Homilist.)
Judgment with consolation
The angel shows
in this chapter
that whatever evils the Jews had
suffered
proceeded from the righteous judgment of God; and then he adds a
consolation--that the Lord would at length alleviate or put an end to their
evils
when He had removed afar off their iniquity. Interpreters have touched
neither heaven nor earth in their explanation of this prophecy
for they have
not regarded the designs of the Holy Spirit. Some think that by the volume are
to be understood false and perverted glosses
by which the purity of doctrine
had been vitiated; but this view can by no means be received. There is no doubt
but that God intended to show to Zechariah that the Jews were justly punished
because the whole land was full of thefts and perjuries. As their religion had
been despised
as well as equity and justice
he shows that it was no wonder a
curse had prevailed through the whole land
the Jews having by their impiety
and sins extremely provoked the wrath of God. This is the import of the first
part. And then
as this vision was terrible
there is added some alleviation by
representing iniquity in a measure
and the mouth of the measure closed
and
afterwards carries to the land of Shinar
that is
into Chaldea
that it might
not remain in Judea. Thus
in the former part the prophet’s design was to
humble the Jews
and to encourage them to repent
so that they might own God to
have been justly angry; and then he gives them reason to entertain hope
and
fully to expect an end to their evils
for the Lord would remove to a distance
and transfer their iniquity to Chaldea
so that Judea might be pure and free
from every wickedness
both from thefts and acts of injustice
by which it had
been previously polluted. (John Calvin.)
This is the curse that
goeth forth over the face of the whole earth--
The Lord’s curse
This type is expounded to signify the Lord’s curse going forth to
do execution in all the land of Judah
and to cut off sinners against the first
and second tables of the Law. Doctrine--
1. Whatever be the particular punishment inflicted by God for sin
yet this is seriously to be laid to heart
that every such punishment hath in
its bosom a curse
till the sinner
awakened thereby
flee to Christ
who
became a curse
that His own may inherit a blessing.
2. The Lord is an impartial avenger of sin
when it is persevered in
without repentance; and when other means are ineffectual
He will not spare to
cut off the desperate sinner; for the curse goes forth “over the face of the
whole earth
” or land; and “everyone shall be cut off
” without exception
who
are guilty.
3. The Lord will not spare but indifferently punish sin
whether
against the first or second tables
in avoiding of both which the Lord’s people
are to testify their sincerity. This is signified by “cutting off everyone that
stealeth
and everyone that sweareth.”
4. When a people are delivered out of sore troubles
and yet their
lusts are not modified
they ordinarily prove covetous
false
and oppressing
as labouring by all means to make up these things that trouble hath stript them
of; therefore is there a particular threat against everyone that stealeth
it being a rife sin at their return from captivity
for they went every man
to his own house (Haggai 1:9)
were cruel oppressors (Nehemiah 5:1-3)
yea
and robbed God of
tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8).
5. Covetous and false men
in their bargains with men
will make no
bones of impiety and perjury
if that may help to gain their point; for with
the former is joined “everyone that sweareth
” which is expounded
Zechariah 5:4
to be “swearing falsely by
God’s name.” (George Hutcheson.)
It shall remain in the
midst of his house--
A curse in the family
As certain as the ordinances of nature
is the law that ill-gotten
gain will bring a curse. The following is a startling illustration of the
truth
gathered from the history of a rural town:--“In 1786
a youth
then
residing in Maine
owned a jackknife
which he
being of a somewhat trading
disposition
sold for a gallon of West India rum. This he retailed
and with
the proceeds purchased two gallons
and eventually a barrel
which was followed
in due time with a large stock. In a word
he got rich
and became the squire
of the district
through the possession and sale of the jackknife
and an
indomitable trading industry. He died
leaving property
in real estate and
money value
worth eighty thousand dollars. This was divided by testament among
four children
three boys and a girl. Luck
which seemed the guardian angel of
the father
deserted the children; for every folly and extravagance they could
engage in seemed to occupy their exclusive attention and cultivation. The
daughter married unfortunately
and her patrimony was soon thrown away by her
spendthrift of a husband. The sons were no more fortunate
and two died in
dissipation and in poverty. The daughter also died. The last of the family
for
many years past
has lived on the kindness of those who knew him in the days of
prosperity
as pride would not allow him to go to the poor farm. A few days ago
he died
suddenly and unattended
in a barn
where he had laid himself down to
take a drunken sleep. On his pockets being examined
all that was found in them
was a small piece of string and a jackknife! So the fortune that
began with the implement of that kind left its simple duplicate. We leave the
moral to be drawn in whatever fashion it may suggest itself to the reader;
simply stating that the story is a true one
and all the facts well known to
many whom this relation will doubtless reach.” (A. J. Gordon
D. D.)
A plague in the house
How terribly those words have been fulfilled in the case of people
and families we have known! It has seemed as though there were a plague in the
house. The fortune which had been accumulated with such toil has crumbled; the
children turned out sources of heartrending grief; the reputation of the father
has become irretrievably tarnished. “There is a plague spread in the house; it
is a fretting leprosy
it is unclean.” No man can stand against that curse. It
confronts him everywhere. It touches his most substantial effects
and they
pulverise
as furniture eaten through by white ants. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
Verses 5-11
And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah
The woman in the ephah
This vision
like the preceding
is of a warning character
and
somewhat more obscure in its symbolical apparatus.
A dim outline rises to the eye of the prophet
to which the angel calls his
attention
but which he cannot at first distinctly make out. The angel tells
him that it is an ephah
a very common dry measure
containing about three
pecks. He then sees a mass of lead
containing about a hundredweight
lifted up
above the measure
and on looking more closely he sees a woman in the measure.
This woman is then violently thrust down into the measure
and the mass of lead
laid upon its mouth
after which two winged women carry it away into the land
of Shinar
where it was to be permanently deposited in a house prepared for it
there. The general meaning of this is to show that when the measure of the
people’s wickedness became full
then their punishment should come
and they
should again be carried into the land of their enemies in exile
not for
seventy years
but for a long time. As the flying roll symbolised the certainty
and completeness of their punishment
so this vision indicated its swiftness
and mode. The ephah is selected simply as a common dry measure
to symbolise
the thought that there is a certain measure of sin beyond which the people
cannot go with impunity. The woman sitting in it represents the Jewish people
by a common figure. The phrase
“this is their appearance (Heb. eye) in
all the land” (Zechariah 5:6)
simply means
this
represents that to which the people are looking
or tending
namely
to fill up
the measure of their sin
and when they have done that
God will lay upon them
their punishment. When the prophet perceives the woman in the measure
he is
told that this is (represents) wickedness
even that of the Jewish people.
Henderson thinks that the wickedness here represented was idolatry
and that
the vision predicted the removal of idolatry from Palestine to Babylon. But there
is no reason at all to limit it thus
but rather the contrary. Idolatry had not
been a sin of the Jews for a century
and would hardly be represented as an
existing thing
as this vision does. It did not exist in the land
and so could
not be removed out of it. Moreover
it was not removed to Babylon
in any
sense
literally or figuratively
and did not remain there as the vision
declares (Zechariah 5:11)
for the Mohammedan
occupants of that region were not idolaters. Hence the explanation that refers
it to the entire wickedness of the Jewish people of all kinds
is more
consistent with the preceding vision
and gives a better sense. The mass of
lead symbolises the heavy judgments that God was holding over them
and which
at the fulness of time He would allow to fall. Accordingly
the wicked woman is
thrust down into the small measure
crushed and doubled together
and the heavy
weight laid upon her to keep her thus prostrate. Then there appear two winged
messengers
with outstretched pinions
as if the wind was raising them up
and
their wings were strong for flight like those of the stork. There were two
because it required two persons to lift such a measure. They symbolised the messengers
of God’s wrath that should desolate Judea
and banish the people. They were to
carry it into Shinar
which is here the symbol for an enemy’s country
and not
the exact country to which they were to be exiled. There it was to be put in a
house
shut up
and this house to be built strongly and securely for a
permanent habitation
to show that this exile would not be
like the first
a
brief sojourn
but a long
weary
and enduring banishment from the land of
their fathers; when their resting should not be on God
or on the rock Christ
Jesus
but “on their own base”; they should be left to themselves
weighed down
like lead with judicial blindness
stupidity
darkness
and hardness of heart.
The vision predicted what happened four hundred years afterwards
when the
measure of their iniquity being full by the rejection and murder of the
Messiah
their hearts being gross
and their care heavy
the hour of vengeance
came. Then appeared the Roman eagles
and after the most desperate struggle
the Jewish nation was crushed
and scattered to the four winds
wandering in
enemies’ countries
not resting on the promise of God
but weighed down with
leaden obstinacy
and resting on their own works and righteousness. Learn--
1. Every individual
and every nation
has a measure of sin; and
until that measure is filled up
God’s longsuffering will wait for repentance
and reformation.
2. There hangs above every sinner a crushing weight of wrath
poised
and ready to descend with overwhelming destruction.
3. If the measure is filled up
the weight shall fall
and crush the
sinner with its ponderous mass of punishment.
4. The finally impenitent shall be driven from God into loomy exile
and left to himself
“to rest on his own base
” to be subject to the thrall of
his own lawless lusts that he has so long pampered into strength
and to reap
as he has sowed
through a long and limitless banishment. (T. V. Moore
D.
D.)
Vision of the ephah
There are some portions of Old Testament prophecy which
at first
appear in meaning. But upon closer examination they are found to contain
important lessons
profitable for all times. Such a prophecy is Zechariah’s
vision of the ephah. Look--
1. At the symbol as seen by the prophet. The ephah was a well known
Jewish measure
represented by our word “bushel.” The prophet saw’ such a
measure moving forth as if it were a thing of life
and in the midst of it sat
a woman with a talent of lead lifted up before her. The whole picture was a
composite symbol
in which were prominent the measure
the woman
and the
talent of lead.
2. The meaning of the symbol. In verse 8 the Hebrew emphatic ally
declares--“This is the wickedness.” The most obvious suggestion is
that form
of wickedness most likely to ensnare and ruin the people to whom Zechariah
prophesied. The symbols point most naturally to the sin of unrighteous traffic
the root and essence of which is covetousness (1 Timothy 6:10; Colossians 3:5). Why a woman rather than
a man appears in the symbol is somewhat difficult to say
but probably because
of her power as a temptress. The ensnaring images which have been most
prominent in the great systems of idolatry have borne the female form. This
woman’s throne was an empty measure
and her sign an uplifted talent of lead
thus aptly representing the sin of those who would “swallow up the needy
and
cause the poor of the land to fail” (Amos 8:4-6). This iniquity of unrighteous
traffic appears to have ever been a besetting sin of the Jewish people. The
preceding oracle of this prophet (verses 1-4) was directed against thieves
and
those who swore falsely by Jehovah’s name; and the obscure expression in verse
16 (lit.
“this is their eye in all the land”) is perhaps best explained as
alluding to the fact that in all the land the eyes of thieves
extortioners
and false swearers
turned longingly towards this tempting goddess of
covetousness.
3. The removal of this ephah to the land of Shinar indicates some
kind of retribution which will visit this form of wickedness. The woman was
cast down into the empty measure
and the leaden weight was cast upon her mouth
(or on the mouth of the ephah)
and ephah
woman
and talent were lifted up
and carried off into a foreign land; and the removal was effected by two women
who had wings like the stork
and who were helped by the force of the wind.
This part of the vision sets forth God’s penal judgment upon this sin and its
devotees. Among the various elements of this judgment we note the following--
4. The land of Shinar is to be understood as the opposite of the land
of Israel
which in Zechariah 2:12 is called “the holy land.”
It was the Babylonian plain
where the descendants of Noah settled after the
flood
and builded the city and tower
which was the occasion of their being
confused and scattered by the curse of Jehovah (Genesis 11:2). It was a land of idolatry
whither the Jewish people had
according to Zechariah 2:6
been scattered as by the
four winds of heaven. So this vision symbolised the penal scattering abroad
into an unclean land of all whose eye admired the goddess of weights and
measures more than Jehovah. The great moral lesson of the vision is therefore a
warning against covetousness and unrighteous traffic. Where the love of money
is so strong as to employ “balances of deceit
” and make “the ephah small and
the shekel great
” there will come curse and exile. The covetous man will
suffer in ways he little dreams of
and the very instruments of his sin may be
turned into modes of punishment. He who will serve Mammon must leave the house
and land of the Lord
and so all those Jews who loved the wages of
unrighteousness might expect sooner or later to be again scattered as by the
winds of heaven. Their aiders and abettors might come to their help
and even
build for them a house in the foreign land; but
like the tower of Babel
built
by selfish ambition in the plain of Shinar
even that house will be likely to
prove a curse. This process of separating and removing the lovers of this world
from truth and holiness is ever going on in the development of the kingdom of
God. Judas loved silver
and was cut off and went to his own place. Demas
forsook the Apostle Paul from love of the world. John
the apostle
speaks of
those who went out from the godly because they were not of them (1 John 2:19)
and Jude significantly
mentions the sensual
having not the Spirit
as they who separate themselves
or make separations. So
by the necessary antagonism of opposite natures
the
covetous must remove from the holy; for the narrow-minded
self-centred
worldling cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (Milton S. Terry
D. D.)
The woman in the ephah
The question of the angel
and the answer of the prophet
suggest--
1. That the medium of Divine thought may be obscure to human
understanding.
2. That which we are to communicate to others must be seen clearly by
ourselves.
3. That what is difficult to one servant of God may be clear to
another. The vision probably refers to the general sin of the nation
which
reached its height in the rejection of Messiah
after which the nation was entirely
removed from the land. It suggests--
I. That time is
needed for a nation to complete its destruction
as well as for its
construction. The ephah is a measure of considerable size; the idea conveyed is
that
when it is full
it is lifted up and carried away. The filling takes
time
and the nation to which the vision pointed did not all at once fill up
the measure of its iniquity. Wickedness is allowed to go on unchecked for a
certain period
but only to give space for repentance.
II. Sin first
imprisons the sinner
and then separates him from the Divine presence. A talent
of lead shuts the woman into the ephah
which is then borne into the land of
Shinar. This foretells the constant dwelling of the Jews among the Gentile
nations. The man who finds himself in a condemned cell is really shut in and
banished from his own choice. So it was with the Jewish nation
and so it is
with every man who rejects God’s plan of regenerating him. He is
self-imprisoned and self-banished.
III. Those who
reject God’s plan of restoration will be left to their own. God offered to the
Jewish nation a sure foundation upon which to rebuild their national greatness
(see Isaiah 28:16). This they would not accept.
Therefore they were banished from their land
and
in the words of this
prophecy
“set there upon their own base.” They were left to be their own
national architects and defenders
and the history of their bitter sufferings
for many centuries
and their present inability to gather themselves into a
national whole
shows how ill they succeed who prefer their own way to that
which God offers to them. This truth applies equally to every man who rejects
the only foundation upon which his character can be rebuilt into its original
greatness. (Outlines by London Minister.)
A materialistic community
Utter mercenariness is an abhorrent object to an angel’s eye. The
prophet still looks
and what does he see? The meaning of the new scene may be
easily discovered. The ephah
with the woman in it
is carried away between
earth and heaven
i.e. through the air. Women carry it because there is
a woman inside; and two women
because two persons are required to carry so
large and heavy a measure
that they lay hold of it on both sides. These women
have wings
because it passes through the air; and a stork’s wings
because
these birds have broad pinions
and not because the stork is a bird of passage
or an unclean bird. “The wings are filled with wind
that they may be able to
carry their burden with greater velocity through the air. The women denote the
instruments or powers employed by God to carry away the sinners out of His
congregation
without any special allusion to this or the other historical
nation. This is all that we have to seek in these features
which only serve to
give distinctness to the picture.”--Thiel and Delitzsch.
I. Such a
community is encased by the material. This woman
the emblem of the worldly
Jews
was not only “in the midst of the ephah
” but was closely confined there.
“He cast the weight of the lead upon the mouth thereof.” To an utterly worldly
man matter is everything. He is utterly shut out from the spiritual; there is
no glimpse of it
no interest in it. Like the woman in the ephah
he is encompassed
by that which shuts him in. The bright heavens and the green fields of the
spiritual world are over and around him
but they are nothing to him. He is in
the ephah.
II. Such a
community is being disinherited by the material. This woman in the ephah
emblem of the worldly Hebrew
is borne away from Palestine
her own land
into
a foreign region. Materialism disinherits man. His true inheritance as a
spiritual existent is “incorruptible
undefiled
that fadeth not away.” But
materialism carries him away from it
away to the distant and the gross.
Verse 8
And he said
This is wickedness
Worldliness
This is the ruin of thousands and tens of thousands.
It is not at all necessary to insure a man’s perdition that he either “steal”
or “swear falsely.” A man may be a thorough worldling
without the practice of
these or any gross iniquities. Whatever shuts God out from His place in the
heart as the object of fear and love
and from His place in the conscience as
the authoritative regulator of the life
that
be it what it may
is the ruin
of the man. In the parable of the marriage feast
the men who declined the
invitation
and went away to their farms and to their merchandise
are not
charged with any selfish and fraudulent dealings in the management of their
farms or the prosecution of their merchandise. What was their sin? Worldliness.
They preferred the world to God. They declined the blessings of the Gospel for
something more to their taste. They chose the world and the things of the
world--no matter in how innocent a form--even the sweets of domestic life
itself--to God and the things of God. And in the enjoyment of these
as their
chosen portion
they “had their reward.” Thus it was of old; thus it is still.
Let no man deceive himself by fancying it necessary to his forfeiture of the
blessings of God’s salvation
that he give himself up to the practice of
dishonesty and of open vice. If his heart is in the world
with the world he
must have his portion. Let Christians be on their guard against “the love of
this present world.” It is as insinuating and perilous principle. In proportion
as it gains upon the heart
it tends to enfeeble the energies
and deaden the
sensibilities
of the Divine life in the soul. God will not have a divided
heart. “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” (Ralph Wardlaw
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》