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Zechariah, Prophet of God's remembrance, part 14

In Zechariah 5, the prophet was shown a big “scroll” flying through the air. Its dimensions were 20 x 10 cubits. The dimensions are too wide, but it seems to be a ballistic missile carrying a prophetic message (curse) wrapped around it. Perhaps the written message is so long that together it looks disproportionate.

Zechariah 5:1-4 says,

¹ Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. ² 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.” ³ 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 [falsely] will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. ⁴ I will make it go forth,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and it will enter 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.”

The missile seems to be the means by which the curse of God is delivered to “the whole land.” The writing itself is described in terms of violating two specific commandments: the third and the eighth. These are set forth in Deuteronomy 5:11 and 19,

¹¹ You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain [profanely].

¹⁹ You shall not steal.

Violating the Third Commandment

The Third Commandment prohibits the invocation of God's name for a dishonest or unlawful purpose that is contrary or hostile to God and His will.

All oaths in a biblical court of law invoke the name of God as witness to the truth of some testimony. This means that all testimony in God’s courtroom, spoken under oath, is required to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth “so help me God.” Conversely, if anyone gives misleading, incomplete, or false testimony, the testifier can be prosecuted for blasphemy for saying, in essence, that “God bears witness to my lie.”

Israel and Judah were called to bear witness of God’s nature as expressed in His law. However, they failed to do so, and for this reason God exiled them to foreign lands.

Isaiah 52:5 says,

⁵ … Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.”

Paul quotes this later in Romans 2:23, 24, saying,

²³ You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? ²⁴ “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

Jews held other nations in contempt on account of their idolatry and blasphemous ideas about the nature of God, but the Jews were supposed to show all nations the true nature of God and set the example of righteous living among the nations. They failed, and so Paul does not merely condemn the nations for blasphemy. He lays the blame on those who claim to know the law but who blaspheme God by “breaking the Law.”

After all, God did not appear to other nations with the revelation of His law. He delegated the responsibility to teach the law by example to Israel and especially to Judah in whose territory the temple and its priests were located.

Today we are about to see the flying scroll prophesied by Zechariah. The first (stated) reason for this divine judgment is their violation of the Third Commandment. So it is no surprise that we see the Jewish state committing genocide and doing everything they can to curse all non-Jews, when, if they were truly the children of Abraham, they would be a blessing to all nations.

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16,

¹⁴ For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵ who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God but hostile to all men, ¹⁶ hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

This ungodly representation of the nature of God causes the nations to believe that the God of the Bible is a bloodthirsty God who hates and curses all non-Jews. This is the first of two main reasons why the flying scroll will soon fly toward Jerusalem to destroy it so completely that it will never again be rebuilt (Jeremiah 19:10, 11).

The Eighth Commandment

The Eighth Commandment forbids theft. Zionism is based upon theft. At first, Zionists immigrated to Palestine and purchased property in a lawful manner. But once they assumed statehood on May 14, 1948, they began to steal whatever land the Palestinians refused to sell. They instigated wars in order to steal large sections of land through conquest. Many were driven “temporarily” from their homes and villages and sent to Gaza, where they were increasingly oppressed in this open-air prison camp.

The latest project today is to steal the land of Gaza, to make it uninhabitable for these refugees, and to starve them until they agree to leave forever. In this way they, along with Christian Zionists, tell the world that this is the will of God and that it conforms to His nature. Such assertions are blasphemous, as they affirm that God condones theft. Such people know little about the nature of God, having been influenced by those lawbreakers who are “hostile to all men.”

Zechariah’s flying scroll is a divine message, a warning, and a curse to the Israeli state itself. God thereby justifies Himself for sending this message, powered by a ballistic missile (probably nuclear) to fulfill Jeremiah 19:10, 11 and Isaiah 29:1-6.