Recognising that God’s spirit is at work all around us all the time – and even within us!
VISION#6: the flying scroll
The next vision that Zechariah receives is simple and clear. He sees a flying scroll (reminiscent of a Harry Potter scene): a huge flying scroll – about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. The angel explains how this curse will fly through the land condemning and banishing those who steal and those who lie.
Would there be anyone left, I wonder?
Christians sometimes get hung up on what they feel are the ‘big’ sins, most often sins of morality. It pretty much always comes down to sex and relationships. Of course, conducting ourselves with love and respect for the other is vitally important – in every relationship, every encounter in fact. But here, God’s pointing out that the ‘little’ sins are not little at all. Lying and stealing undermine relationships and violate trust.
Not speaking the whole truth.
Taking that which does not belong to us.
We’re all tempted to lie and steal every single day.
But how can words count for anything once we can’t be completely sure if they’re the truth?
And how can we display the generosity and hospitality God highlights as important if we’re grasping and grabbing and appropriating for ourselves stuff that does not belong to us?
VISION#7: the woman in a basket
Zechariah then sees a basket with a lid of lead. When the lid is lifted, he sees a woman in the basket. The basket represents wrongdoing and the woman represents wickedness. Two winged women come to lift the basket and carry it far away to Babylonia – Shinar – the place where the people built the tower of Babel in their arrogance to reach God. This is a place where wrongdoing and wickedness are welcome, where they will find a home. And Israel is not. God will not tolerate wrongdoing and wickedness among His people. They are to be carried away to where they belong.
VISION#8: four chariots
I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black, the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. Zechariah 6:1-3
Zechariah asks the angel for an explanation of this vision.
These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. Zechariah 6:5
Four spirits going out in every direction across the whole earth. Four spirits moving like the wind – invisible and yet felt. The power of God moving out across all lands, all people. Like the wind, we can’t see it, but we can see its effects. We can feel it all around us.
The powerful horses are straining to go. They wait for God’s word and then they’re off. Even to the North, where the enemies of God’s people reside, those who destroyed the temple and carried the people off into exile. This is for them too. God is sending His spirit to all people, everywhere.
How can we believe in something that we cannot see? Well, we can see the effects of the spirit at work in others, in communities, bringing light and hope into dark situations, bringing healing and restoration to broken relationships. And we can feel the spirit at work within ourselves – that prompting to do or say something, that inspiration to create something new, that love or peace or forgiveness that well up from within, that insight in the real truth of a complex situation….that shift, that change, that inexplicable sense that we can’t put our finger on but we know it’s there.
We can’t understand what’s going on or explain it in words. We don’t need to. We just need to learn to recognise it and acknowledge it for what it is.
That’s God at work in our lives right there.
Mindblowing, right?
