Category Archives: Wickedness

Angels, Bible, Forgiveness, Scripture, Wickedness

STORK WINGS AND A BASKET

ZECHARIAH 5:9

“Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of the stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.”

Once, while walking a beach in Florida, I witnessed an osprey (a large raptor) swoop down and grab a little dog that was walking by its owner. Fortunately, the dog was on a leash. However, this meant that now there was a tug of war between the lady and this bird. I watched as she snatched her dog out of the bird’s talons and back to the beach. (In case you are wondering, as far as I know, the dog lived happily ever after.)

We are near the conclusion of this vision, but not without another strange sight. Zechariah sees two winged women fly down and pick up the ephah with the woman inside and carry it away. Scholars have all sorts of opinions about this verse. No one seems to come to a concrete decision about who these women were and where they were going. It is obvious the wickedness in the basket is being carried away. We have to speculate these women were agents of God who alone has the power to vanquish sin. Let’s leave it at that.

APPLICATION

With that view in mind, we need to see how this verse applies to us. Remember, every verse of Scripture is inspired by God and applicable to us. So, how does this verse apply to us. If you use the explanation that I ended the previous paragraph with, God is the one who has the power to take away our sin. He has done that through His Son, Jesus Christ. I don’t know what the two women in Zechariah’s vision represented. All I know for certain is they carried away the wickedness. Don’t you want God to do that for you?

I am involved in a men’s group that meets each Thursday evening. We are in the book of Romans right now and are in chapter 6. Oh man, is that chapter good. Verse 6 and 7 apply here. “6 …knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.”

Did you catch that? “our body of sin might be done away with.” The Greek word for “done away with” actually means to completely make inoperable. It might as well be carried away and dumped. Once we are in Christ, our old man is dead, gone, done away with. Aren’t you glad? I sure am.

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; Buried, He carried my sins far away; Rising, He justified freely forever: One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

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Commands, God's Will, Holy Spirit, Bible, Scripture, Evil, Redemption, Flesh, Deceit, Devil, Sin, Choices, Cleansing, Boundaries, Wickedness

PUT A LID ON IT

ZECHARIAH 5:8

“Then he said, ‘This is Wickedness!’ And he thrust her into the middle of the ephah and threw the lead weight on its opening.”

Put a lid on it! You may have heard that expression in regard to asking someone to be quiet, to stop talking. It is usually used when someone keeps rambling on about something until someone gets tired of hearing it. Has that ever happened to you? Have you been told that or told someone else that? It happens to the best of us.

Zechariah watches as the angel “puts a lid on it.” He calls the woman “Wickedness” and shoves her back into the ephah and slams down the lead cover. Obviously, when the angel raised the lid in the previous verse to show Zechariah what was in the ephah, the woman tried to stand or escape. But that was not happening here. Slamming of the lead cover showed that God could and would restrain the sin of the nation. He was in control, not the wickedness symbolized by the woman.

APPLICATION

We need to “put a lid” on sin. Our sinful nature is more prone to let it run free. I remember all too well how sin controlled me. It truly is wickedness. But we can gain control of that if we allow the Holy Spirit to slam the lid on it. We are actually told to do just that.

In Romans 6:12-14 we are told, “12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.”

Well, you can’t argue with that, can you? We are not under the Law. We are under grace. Praise be to God! Sin has no more control over my life through Jesus. He paid the price. He paid off our debts to sin and its master. We are free to live a life away from sin. We still have that sinful nature in us, but the Holy Spirit can restrain that, if we let Him. Will you?

Lord, use Your Holy Spirit in my life to restrain me from sin, to put the lid on it.

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Accountability, Bible, Flesh, Judgment, Rescue, Scripture, Surrender, Trials, Wickedness

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

ZEPHANIAH 2:9

“‘Therefore, as I live,’ declares the LORD of armies, the God of Israel, ‘Moab will assuredly be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—ground overgrown with weeds and full of salt mines, and a permanent desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them, and the remainder of My nation will inherit them.’”

Parts of our world are just plain wicked. Sex trade, drugs and prostitution are staples of these places. The darkness that exists can almost be felt on your skin. You can see the lostness in the faces of those who live there. They live with no hope. No, they don’t live. They simply exist. There is no life in them – only death.

When the Lord through Zephaniah compares Moab and Ammon to Sodom and Gomorrah, the audience knew exactly what he was talking about. The story of those cities is told in Genesis 19. Here are a couple of those verses. “24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.”

APPLICATION

2 Peter 2:4-10a gives us a great picture of God’s judgment and also His mercy. For the sake of space, I won’t include all of those verses here. You should take a moment and look that passage up. But the last two verses tell us what the Lord will do.

“9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority.”

We see the rescue and the judgment. God is capable of both. He rescued Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah, but He also judged the wicked in those cities. The same holds true today. God will rescue the godly. If you are living for Him and striving to live godly, God will rescue You in His perfect timing. But if you are living to please the flesh, then….

I am thankful for His Holy Spirit Who guides me each and every day. He warns me of evil. He points out those things that can lead me astray. Now, I still have to make that decision to follow His lead. He won’t force me. But I have learned to trust Him. Have you? Have you learned to lean on the Lord during those times of testing. He is there.

O Lord, it does break my heart to see those who are wandering in darkness. Help me shine the light of Christ on them.

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