Going Forth
Zechariah v., vi. 1-8.
There is a clear connection between the three next visions, furnished by the words, Going forth. alg curse goes forth over the face of the whole land” (3); “The ephah goeth forth” (6); “The chariots go forth” (vi. 1-5.) It is as though Zechariah were permitted to stand in the center of things, where God is, and was able to see the successive issues of the Divine Providence in respect of the moral government of his people and the world.
I. Tue Vision oF THE Fryinc Roti. — The prophet beheld in vision a huge sheet of paper, or dressed skin, prepared for writing, slowly floating in mid-heaven. It seemed to be hovering, and prepared to pounce, as a bird of prey may often be seen on the point of settling over a plowed field. Its considerable extent, thirty feet by fifteen — the dimensions of the temple porch — was covered on each side by the solemn curses of the law; on this, by those that condemn the thief; on that, by those condemning the false swearer.
We have already learned that God had returned to
Jerusalem, prepared to become a wall of fire round about, and its glory in the midst; the temple should be rebuilt, and the priesthood reconstituted; but the people must be made to understand what a solemn thing it was to have God in such near proximity. If He was ready to defend them against their foes, He was also determined to purge out from among them those who transgressed His holy law.
It is clear that this young community was specially cursed by these twin sins. Men were fraudulent and mendacious. They got the better of their customers if they had the chance; and then, with unblushing effrontery, lied to conceal their frauds. These are always the sins of a mercantile community; and they are as prevalent in London and New York, in Bombay and Melbourne, as ever they were in the newly-restored Jerusalem. But God is always pledged to deal with them, in the interests of society itself, which must be undermined if they be allowed to prevail unchecked. Over the great commercial centers of the world — yes, and over the great emporiums of trade — that roll still hangs, and the curse of God threatens to fall.
The effect of the curse is told in graphic symbolism. It seemed after a time to settle down on certain houses. They may have been resepectable houses, the houses of men that were held in reverent repute, houses which were often alight with the lamps of high festival; but by the settling down of that roll, the master of such and such a house was indicated as being either a thief or a liar. “I will cause it to go 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.”
That, however, was not the end, either of the vision or of those divine dealings which the vision describes. The interpreting angel goes on to say: “It shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof.” It was as though, from the moment that the curse settled down, the whole fabric of the house commenced to rot; and the owner might fairly adopt the words of Leviticus: “There seemeth to me to be, as it were, 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 heart-rending 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 pulverize, as furniture eaten through by white ants. It is as though he were condemned to hear, like another Job, the voices of successive messengers, atinouncing that they only are left to tell the story of irremediable disaster. Timber and stones, however carved and chiseled, crumble to ash and dust! How awfully realistic! How terribly true!
II. Tue Vision oF THE EpHAan. — Again the prophet’s eyes were directed by the angel that spoke with him toward mid-heaven, and he saw a yet more graphic symbol. An ephah was seen careering through the air. “TI said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said, moreover, This is their resemblance in all the land.”’ As much as to say that the Jews were known throughout the world of that time as traders, who were constantly handing the Hebrew dry measure, containing about a bushel, or seven-and-a-half gallons.
Presently the cover was lifted off, and a woman was seen sitting in the midst of the ephah. “And he said, “This is Wickedness; and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah: and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.’ Does not this clearly mean that the commercial life of these Jewish traders was deeply saturated with wicked practices, and that there was a kind of alliance between them and the impalpable spirit of Wickedness, as illustrated by this personification of evil?
How often when men slam to the doors of their safes, shut their ledgers, and lock their countinghouses, they seem to place the leaden weight on the top of the ephah containing wickedness! They wish to hide it from the eyes of their nearest and dearest. They would like to hide it from the face of God Himself.
It is at this juncture, however, that an entirely new turn is given to this vision. “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.” The stork has long and wide wings. It is also a migratory bird. It would have no difficulty in covering the distance between Jerusalem and Babylon. And, therefore, storks’ wings are attributed to these two women. As two anointed ones stand by the Lord as his ministers, so these two women execute his purposes in removing wickedness, which answers to the mystery of iniquity, of which the apostle speaks.
“Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build her an house in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place.” Babylon was far away, the seat of apostasy from God and demon-worship. It was meet that Wickedness should be borne thither. But how great the deliverance for the chosen land!
What comfort is here! Wickedness may be strongly entrenched; but she shall be removed, when once God arises on the behalf of his people. Do you sigh and cry against it? Do you desire that some terrible form of it, which has cursed your life too long, and alienated the Divine favor, should be eliminated? Be encouraged by that vision! Lift up your eyes, and see the swift stork-like wings, with the favoring breeze bearing them forward as they speed to perform God’s behest. If only you are willing, God will certainly free and deliver you.
i as Thousands have experienced this deliverance from certain forms of besetting sin, which have dropped off as the viper from Paul’s hand, as they have received the more perfect indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Not long after his conversion, the saintly Fletcher passed into this experience, trod sin under his feet, and proclaimed that we must not be content till we have been delivered from the power of sin, through the indwelling of the Divine Spirit. And Wesley says of Halyburton: “This great servant of God sometimes fell back, from the glorious liberty he had received, into the spirit of fear, and sin, and bondage. But why? Because he did not abide in Christ; because he did not cleave to Him with all his heart; because he grieved the Holy Spirit by whom freedom from sin is rendered the common privilege of all.” From which we infer that Wesley held and taught, that we are delivered from the power of sin and darkness, just in so far as we abide in Him who is the light of life. Abide in Him, and you, too, shall see wickedness borne out of the practical experience of your life.
III]. Tue Vision of THE CHARIOTS. — This is a vision of Protection and Deliverance. Four chariots are seen issuing from the mountains that were round about Jerusalem. In each case the color of the horses represented the commission that their hurrying drivers bore to the different nations, which, before that time, had ravaged the Jewish people. “Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me: What are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me: These are the four spirits of Heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.”
Against the north country, where Babylon lay, two chariots went forth; whereof the black horses represented defeat and despair, while the white stood for the victorious successes of some conquering people, before whom Babylon would be laid low in the dust — a prediction which was probably fulfilled in the rise of the third great world-wide kingdom of Greece, under Alexander the Great.
The grizzled, or piebald, went forth toward the south country, and represent the mixed experiences — partly of disaster, and partly of prosperity — which would befall Egypt, on the southern frontier of the Holy Land. For the word bay, the margin suggests the possible alternative strong; and this is probably the right rendering. So this one chariot seems to have been allocated to the work of going to and fro in the earth, on a general mission of patrol and defense. If Satan goes to and fro, seeking whom he may injure, the chariots of God go to and fro, to bring succor and deliverance to the saints.
How comforting this vision was and is! It clearly teaches that, when sin is put away, as between God and his people, He constitutes Himself their gracious Keeper: no weapon that is turned against them prospers, and every tongue that rises in judgment against them is condemned. Woe be to their enemies! God’s Spirit is, in strong metaphor, described as being quieted by their overthrow; whilst his chosen dwell always within the precincts of his Almighty guardianship. “They shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.”.