I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air.
“What do you see?” the angel asked.
“I see a flying scroll,” I replied. “It appears to be about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.”
Then he said to me, “This scroll contains the curse that is going out over the entire land. One side of the scroll says that those who steal will be banished from the land; the other side says that those who swear falsely will be banished from the land. And this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:
I am sending this curse into the house of every thief and into the house of everyone who swears falsely using my name. And my curse will remain in that house and completely destroy it—even its timbers and stones.”
(Zechariah 5:1-4 NLT)
Stealing and lying.
In the sixth vision God gives Zechariah, these are the two sins chosen to represent how God’s people have disobeyed His law.
And the consequence of disobedience is no joke.
One of the reasons God is having the exiles rebuild the temple and reinstate the sacrificial system is to bring His people back to an awareness of His Law. Our pastor talked on Sunday about how every moral, ritual, and civil law included was, at its heart, a more thorough working out of Love of God and neighbor.
And stealing and lying are two very direct violations toward our neighbor.
I’ve been heartbroken these past several weeks over sin: from our nation’s to my own. The thing I keep coming back to is asking God to make hearts, mine included, tender to Him and His Word. It seems like this could be the difference between worldly guilt and godly sorrow that brings repentance.
I’m so grateful that Jesus took the curse for us. If He hadn’t, where would we be? But because we who trust in Him stand before the God of heaven and earth justified, we can rest in that sacrifice and cooperate with Him as He makes us more like His Son.
And fortunately no one who encounters Him remains the same.