The old ways do not belong in the new life. This is the message being conveyed in the visions of chapter 5. The Jews had been released from Babylon to live new lives in the land and to fulfil God’s purpose. It seems that a number of people had lost sight of this. So, God gave Zechariah a vision of a large scroll looming like a great banner over the land declaring banishment for all who persist in sin. This banishment is then further illustrated in the vision of the women in the basket. The women was carried away to Shinar in Babylon where the Jews had previously lived. Shinar was also where the infamous tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11:2). In other words, the sins of the people belonged to another way of life and they were being asked to choose. It is a choice we too must make continually. God has delivered us from our captivity to worldly concerns. But these things have a way of sticking with us. They hide in the closed baskets of our hearts and God wants to remove the sin and its hiding place. There will inevitably be various sins hiding in our hearts and to find them we need God to open the lids and bring them into the light. Once the lid has been opened on a bad attitude or a sinful desire its power to influence us is greatly diminished. We are then empowered to choose otherwise. Let God open the lid on the things hidden in your heart today so that he can remove the things that are undermining you.
Ask God to bring to light the things he wants to remove from your heart.
Read Zechariah 5
