Zechariah 5:5–11

The woman in a basket

Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what this is that is appearing.”

6 I asked, “What is it?”

He replied, “It is a measuring basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.”

7 Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! 8 He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth.

9 Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.

11 He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When it is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”

The dialogue between the angel and Zechariah continued. “What is it?” Zechariah asked. The angel answered, “It is a measuring basket.”

This is the ephah that is mentioned often in the Old Testament. The word itself is of Egyptian extraction. Perhaps this was the measure used by Joseph’s servants as they filled the granaries of Egypt during the seven good years and as they divided out the grain in the seven bad years. We are not certain today of its exact volume. It was a unit of measure, something like our bushel basket.

The iniquity of the people was being kept track of, measured.

A woman, who is the personification of wickedness, sat in the basket. It was a kind of Pandora’s box. She sat under a good stout cover, one made of lead.

We notice that she was contained. She did not have free rein or sway in this world. Wickedness, though rampant, is contained by God. It is shackled. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Perhaps, with this in mind, Luther was prompted to state that the devil is the greatest servant of the Lord. He works to accomplish God’s will contrary to his own will. The devil is restrained in his activity. Otherwise even the elect would be taken. Job is evidence that the devil is curtailed in his activity. “‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?’” (Job 1:10). In Revelation 20:2 we have the picture of an angel seizing the great dragon and binding him for one thousand years.

It is great news for us who cower when we hear the hellish lion roar to know that the lion is on a leash or, in the picture that we have before us in our text, that the wicked lady is in a basket with a lead cover on it.

Evil is not happy being confined. That is shown by the fact that when the basket was opened, the woman whose name was wickedness wanted out. She would have made it too if she had not been forcibly shoved back into the basket and sealed in with the lead cover.

Then women—wonderful women with wings like storks—performed the welcome work of removing the evil from the land and transporting it elsewhere.

They took it to the land of Shinar. That is the Hebrew word for the land that is translated as “Babylonia” here. Genesis chapters 10 and 11 tell us that Shinar was where people committed the atrocity of making a name for themselves and snubbing their noses at God. Babylon, with its evil reputation, was a proper place for the wicked lady.

The thing we wish to note is that God is going to rid the world of evil. The great purging is coming on judgment day, when the workers will gather the wheat and separate the chaff and weeds from it. On the other hand, it is already happening. Ananias and Sapphira are examples of wickedness taken out of the church. God did it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, in connection with the Lord’s Supper and a misuse of it, Paul wrote, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep” (verse 30). In 1 John 2:19 we hear, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.”

God will not allow evil to continue to live among his people forever. His hand shoves it down into the basket, and the lead cover falls into place.

In the church evil cannot peacefully coexist with good. “Expel the wicked man from among you,” said the apostle Paul to the congregation in Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:13). “What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

There is a final home for wickedness. It is prepared by God. “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).