Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Zec 5.5 and following. Indeed, to understand this vision, we have to depend in all simplicity on the direct teaching of the Word. It is possible that our lack of spiritual intelligence prevents us from understanding all the details, but let us remember that if there is darkness, it is within us, for God has communicated these things to us for our instruction and not to embarrass us with riddles. “The angel who was talking with me stepped forward, and he said to me, ‘Look up, and look at what comes out there. I replied: What is it? And he said: It is the epha that comes out. He added: It is their iniquity throughout the country. And behold, a mass of lead rose, and there was a woman sitting in the middle of the epha. He says: It is iniquity. And he pushed it back into the epha, and he threw the lead mass on the opening. The epha is usually the greatest measure of capacity, because the horn or khomer, of a higher content, is only the epha multiplied by ten. In the middle of the epha a woman sits, which means that she has settled there; then the angel throws it there as an image of judgment and closes the epha of a lead disc, figure of an irrevocably sealed sentence.
This woman is called wickedness, a word whose meaning is iniquity: a nature that does not submit to a higher will and acts according to its own will. It is, in fact, the independence of God, who recognizes no law other than himself (1 John 3:4). The woman in the epha is therefore the independence of man from God, having reached his full extent and thus condemned in a definitive way. For the word of God often presents women to us as a moral or religious principle. Indeed, we find, for example, in Proverbs, a woman who is wisdom and a woman who is corruption. These principles are often represented by a nation or a city. An example of this can be found in Revelation 12, where the woman is a nation, the true Israel according to God’s counsel. Then, in Rev 17:3, where the woman is an apostate religious system, a city, Babylon the great. Jerusalem too is continually represented, as a moral and religious system, as a woman.
In our chapter, as we have seen, the woman is wickedness, the abandonment of God. In Judah and Jerusalem, this wickedness fulfilled, as the Lord says, “the measure of their fathers” (Mt 23:32). By the time Jesus walked here on earth, idolatry had disappeared since the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; the house was swept and adorned. In appearance, the people were purified, he who in the past had been abominably idolatrous. But, though outwardly purified, it was then that they rejected and crucified their king, and God again scattered them among the nations, as it still appears today. At the end of the days, when they have returned to their land, seven spirits, more wicked than the first, will occupy their house and dwell there (Mt 12:43-45). For these things will happen under the reign of the Antichrist: idolatry will again take hold of this people and they will kneel before an idol recognizing Satan for his king.
If the final condition of Jerusalem and Judah is shown to us here in a somewhat mysterious way, it is because this vision goes beyond the limits of the Jewish people to apply also to the nations, represented in the last days by Christianity that has become apostate. “It’s here,” we are told, “their iniquity throughout the country.” Since it does not belong to the realm of the Old Testament, this subject could only be presented here in a difficult form, while the New Testament gives us a clearer and more complete picture. For we know that after the rapture of the Church, Christianity, or professing apostate body left on earth, will become idolatrous like the Jewish people. The latter, at the instigation of the Antichrist, will deny Jehovah, the God of his fathers and Christ, his Messiah; under this same influence, Christianity will deny the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22). Henceforth Judah will have filled the measure of his iniquity and will no longer be able to get out of it; the same will be true of Christendom. The two will meet in a common idolatry. The “abomination” will be established in the temple in Jerusalem, and Christianity will drink with Judaism at the same poisoned cup.
The following verses describe what will happen to the woman we have just envisioned in these two aspects. “I looked up and looked, and behold, two women appeared. The wind was blowing in their wings; they had wings like those of the stork. They removed the epha between earth and heaven. I said to the angel who was speaking with me: Where do they take the epha? He replied: They are going to build him a house in the land of Schinear; and when it is ready, it will be deposited there in its place.” Is it perhaps because of this duality of appearance that we see two women taking the epha? But here we see that the principles represented by them find favorable circumstances for their development: “The wind is in their wings.” In addition, they have “stork wings”. Storks always return to their nest; the two women relate all this iniquity to its place of origin, in the plain of Schinear, that is, to Babylon, at a time when ancient Babylon is forever destroyed.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
The epha or measure:
Spiritual Conversation
-Used in daily life Dt 6:7 You will instill them in your children, and you will talk about them when you are in your house, when you go on a trip, when you go to bed and when you get up.
-Concern the things of God Ps 145:11 They will say the glory of your kingdom, And they will proclaim your power,
The habit of the saints Ml 3:16 Then those who fear jehovah spoke to each other; The Lord was attentive, and he listened; And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and honor his name.
Christ, the theme of spiritual conversation Luke 24:13-14 And behold, on that same day, two disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, sixty stadia from Jerusalem; 14 and they were talking about everything that had happened.
-Led to spiritual favor Luke 24:32 And they said to each other: Didn’t our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us on the way and explained the Scriptures to us?
-The spiritual thoughts expressed in the music Eph 5:19 sustain yourselves through psalms, hymns, and spiritual hymns, singing and celebrating with all your heart the praises of the Lord;
- Epha, a unit of measurement
Ex 16:36 The omer is the tenth part of the epha. Lev 19:36 You will have right scales, right weights, right epha, and right hin. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Jg 6:19 Gideon entered, prepared a kid, and made unleavened breads with an eph of flour. He put the flesh in a basket and the juice in a jar, brought them to him under the terebinth, and presented them. Rt 2:17 She gleaned from the field until evening, and she beat what she had gleaned. There was about one epha of barley. 1 Sam 1:24 When she had weaned him, she had him ride with her, and took three bulls, an epha of flour, and an extra of wine. She led him into the house of the Lord in Silo: the child was still very young.
- Storks
Lev 11.19 la stork, the heron and what is of its kind, the hoopoe and the bat. Ps 104:17 This is where birds make their nests; The stork has its abode in the cypresses, Jer 8:7 Even the stork knows its season in the heavens; The dove, swallow and crane Observe the time of their arrival; But my people do not know the law of Jehovah. Za 5:9 I looked up and looked, and behold, two women appeared. The wind was blowing in their wings; they had wings like those of the stork. They removed the epha between the earth and the ciel
- Schinear
Gen 10:10 He first reigned over Babel, Erec, Accad, and Calne in the land of Schinear. Gen 11:2 As they had left the East, they found a plain in the land of Schinear, and they dwelt there. Isa 11:11 At the same time, the Lord will extend His hand a second time, To redeem the rest of His people, Scattered in Assyria and Egypt, in Pathros and Ethiopia, in Elam, in Schinar and Hamath, and in the islands of the sea. Dn 1:2 The Lord delivered into His hands Jojakim, king of Judah, and part of the utensils of the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar took the utensils to the land of Schinear, in the house of his god, he put them in the house of the treasure of his god. Zec 5:11 He answered me: They will build him a house in the land of Schinear; and when it is ready, he will be deposited there in his place.
From all of the above, we note that it was in Babylon that idolatry originated. The iniquity of the Jews in the last days, will openly return to his place of origin, where his house will be fixed and laid on his base. The same will be true of apostate Christianity, called Babylon the Great and the Prostitute, the mother of the abominations of the earth (Rev 17). Our passage leaves it on its base, but in this state, judgment will then reach apostasy, both in its Jewish and Christian form. Let us notice the repetition of the word ‘go out’, as always being related to judgment: the scroll, the curse, comes out, the angel comes out as well as the epha, the women go out and take away the epha, little suspecting that what will be founded and established, will be so quickly destroyed! And in the midst of all this iniquity, will there still be some testimony for Christ? Yes, because a faithful Jewish residue, as found in the midst of present-day Christianity, the remnant of Philadelphia. That of Judah will become the core of the future Israel, more numerous than the stars of the heavens and the sand of the seaside. He will enjoy the blessing of the millennial reign, after apostate Jews and apostate Christianity have come into memory before God, and Babylon, the great city, has been thrown into the sea to be found forever. May the Lord Jesus watch over our walk behind Him. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “the vision of Joshua, the high priest.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.