Zec 5 | MHCC | e4.org | 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, #Ps 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.

‏ Zechariah 5

* The vision of a flying roll. (1-4) The vision of a woman and

an ephah. (5-11)

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, #Ps

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. 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.