Audio Sermons
Search Me O God! (II)
Building up the Church of Christ:
Search Me O God!
Life B-P Church Worship Service, 24th March 2024
Text: Zechariah 5:1-11
The Visions of Zechariah (1:7-6:8):
- Zechariah received eight visions in one night on 15 February 519 BC.
- They are full of symbols that are sometimes hard to understand.
- The messages of the first five visions:
- & 2. God will defeat the gentile kingdoms that oppress His people and hinder the work of building His kingdom.
3. God will make Jerusalem a great city and protect His people.
4. God will save His people from their sins through the Messiah.
5. God’s power will enable His people to rebuild the Temple.
- In the next two visions, God reveals how He deals with all sinners and with all sins.
- All Sinners Will Be Judged by God’s Holiness (vv.1-4)
- The flying scroll contained the Ten Commandments which reveal how holy God is. (vv.3-4; cf. Exodus 20:7,15; Leviticus 11:45)
- It had the same dimensions as the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, and of the porch of the Temple. (v.2; cf. 1 Kings 6:3)
- Sinners will come under the curse of the Law. (cf. Deuteronomy 28:45, Zechariah 5:3,4; Proverbs 15:3; Numbers 32:23; Joshua 7:1)
- This served as a strong warning to the Jews who were rebuilding the Temple to put away all their sins, and to keep themselves holy.
- All Sins Will Be Banished from God’s Presence (vv.5-11)
- The ephah is a basket for measuring grain that was sold. Many were using a false ephah for dishonest gain. (v.6; cf. Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10)
- The woman in the ephah is a personification of idolatry or false worship. (v.7)
- The heavy lid of the ephah symbolises God’s measures to suppress the influence of false worship on His people, including exile. (v.8)
- Since God’s House was being restored, God alone must be worshipped, and there must be no place for false worship.
- False worship was banished to the Land of Shinar (Babylon), the place of man’s first concerted rebellion against God. (v.11a; Genesis 11:1-9)
- While the people in Jerusalem were building God’s house to establish true worship, the people in Babylon would build a house to establish false worship. (v.11b)
Note: Six centuries later, the apostle John saw a vision of:
- The destruction of ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots’ and of false worship (Revelation 17:5,6; 18:21)
- The appearance of the New Jerusalem, where true worship will prevail forever. (Revelation 21:2; 19:8)
God’s Gracious Provision for Sinners
- By His death on the cross, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. (vv.3,4; cf. Galatians 3:13)
- By His work of sanctification, Christ will banish every idol from our lives.
Questions for Reflection:
- How can you apply the Ten Commandments in your life?
- What dishonest practices at work or business should you avoid?
- What idols are there in your heart which need to be banished?