Separation

Separation!

Separation is the Lord’s answer in this vision to a question that undoubtedly arises in the heart of the prophet as he considers the immediately preceding vision of the flying curse.

In that vision the Lord had revealed to the prophet that the curse will be fulfilled over the whole land, over the house of God, and over the church of God, so that all the ungodly—those who swear falsely and those who steal—will be uprooted from the land and perish with their houses.

And the prophet understands that vision. Yet again he is lost in deep reflection on that wonderful night of visions, and the question arises: How shall this be? When this dreadful curse comes, when this curse of twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide strikes the holy place, how will it be possible that the curse strikes only the ungodly? Will not the righteous be destroyed with the ungodly? Will not the flying curse strike those who fear the Lord as well as those who do not fear him?

The angel, who is the instrument to reveal and explain these visions to the prophet, speaks to the prophet and awakens him out of his deep reflection. The angel is about to show the prophet another vision, and the angel asks for the prophet’s attention, saying, “Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.”

In this wonderful vision of the woman and the ephah, the prophet receives an answer to his question.

The answer is, through separation!

There is a continual process of separation in which the ungodly constantly are being drawn away to their proper places: Shinar, Babylon, and the world.

And God’s people always are being separated and delivered from Babylon.

Sons of God and daughters of men mingled together; but Noah and his family were separated in the ark, and the curse and the flood devoured only the ungodly.

Righteous Lot was separated and delivered from wicked Sodom, and the ungodly were destroyed.

Departing with God’s people from the bondage of Egypt were fleshly Israelites who were being drawn away from God by their own lusts, who yearned always for the fleshpots and idols of Egypt. They could not enter Canaan because of their unbelief; they wandered in the wilderness and died, struck by the curse on the house of God.

But the righteous entered into the rest!

The fleshly seed of Abraham also entered the land of promise, and there they rapidly developed and prospered. However, always deceived through the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, they were drawn away to the idols of the heathen around them and were falsifiers and thieves who yearned for Babylon. They were carried away to the land of Shinar, where they stayed, even when the remnant returned to the land of their fathers.

Always the remnant was delivered.

Pharisees and scribes, the blind, self-conceited, and self-righteous leaders of the blind, strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel and devoured widows’ houses. Yet the Pharisees and scribes piously observed the temple service and not only prayed but also cursed. Though they fasted, they satisfied their own flesh; and from monies stolen from widows, the poor, and the persecuted, the Pharisees and scribes paid the Lord a tenth. They instructed others in the law while they trampled the law and built the tombs of those they had murdered. They were under God’s wrath. That wrath acted as the curse on their own covetousness, and by it they were always carried far away to the land of Shinar, where they had their proper spiritual homes. They became hardened when the kingdom of God came, and they remained behind when the violent took the kingdom by force.

Always there is a thorough process of separation!

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations—even while a curse sweeps across the entire land—and to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment to be punished, chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and who despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, and not afraid to speak evil of dignities (2 Pet. 2:9–10).

This process of sifting continues its work right to the very end.

This sifting process works also in Jerusalem on the earth in the new dispensation.

In this Jerusalem there is the carnal element, the husk, and the chaff. There live Shinar’s citizens who wear the marks and the insignias of King Jesus. These citizens of Babel, who dwell in Jerusalem, constantly are being carried away to Babel, being drawn away by their own lusts: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Thus they increasingly become lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God—yet they have a form of godliness (2 Tim. 3:2–5)!

So Jerusalem becomes Babylon.

Thus the holy city spiritually becomes Sodom and Gomorrah.

Until the curse comes over the whole land.

Making the final separation.

The separation of eternity!

Wonderful vision!

How shall these things be?

How will the curse over the whole land and the holy place work to sift and separate between the righteous and the ungodly, so that the righteous are delivered and the ungodly are struck and destroyed?

Lift up your eyes now and see!

What is this that now goes forth?

The prophet beholds an ephah—the largest dry measure used in Israel, roughly equivalent to one bushel. Even though the prophet sees an enlarged form of the ephah, as can be determined easily from the rest of this vision, the ephah is clearly recognizable. Moreover, the angel immediately declares, “This is an ephah that goeth forth. This is their resemblance through all the earth.” The pronoun “their” refers to the immediate context in which the angel speaks of “every one that stealeth” and “every one that sweareth”—references to the wicked among Israel who are destined to be struck by the curse and utterly eradicated.

But there is more to see. A heavy lead plate covers the ephah and is lifted up; and the prophet sees in the midst of the ephah a woman, sitting and then rising as if poised to step out of the ephah. And the angel says to the prophet, “This is wickedness.” And simultaneously the angel casts the woman back into the ephah and seals it shut with the lead plate. Then on the scene appear two women with stork-like wings. The wind fills their wings, and the women take the ephah and its contents and carry it away between heaven and earth.

Where?

To the land of Shinar.

There a house is built for the woman in the ephah.

There the ephah is established and set upon its foundations.

A wondrous sign!

What might this mean?

What is the word of the Lord to the prophet and to us?

Is the woman within the ephah a symbol of a measure of iniquity that has reached its fullness?

But what, then, is the significance of the ephah and the woman being carried away to the land of Shinar and that a house is built as a residence for the woman?

Is the woman in the ephah a symbol of the sin of idolatry, which vanished from the land of Canaan after the exile, as some have suggested? This interpretation strips the vision of almost all its significance. Moreover, what is the meaning of the angel’s words that the ephah is “their resemblance through all the earth”? And why would the sin of idolatry be transported to the land of Shinar? Why would a house be built there as a residence for the woman?

Is the woman an image of the godless world power that always plagued Israel and destroyed Jerusalem, as yet others interpret this wondrous vision? This interpretation leaves all the previous questions as even more insurmountable objections.

What, then, is the meaning of the image of the ephah and the woman?

According to the meaning of the angel’s words “this is their resemblance through all the earth,” it is certain that the image of the woman in the ephah taken as a whole is a symbol of the wicked throughout the land: those who steal and those who swear falsely. The Hebrew word translated as “resemblance” literally means eye. However, that Hebrew word can also mean color, appearance, or form. In Leviticus 13:55 that Hebrew word describes the appearance or color of leprosy. In Ezekiel 1:4 that Hebrew word describes the appearance or color of amber. And in Ezekiel 1:5 the Hebrew word for vision is translated as “appearance.” So also in Zechariah 5:6, the Hebrew word translated as “resemblance” conveys the following meaning: The woman within the ephah constitutes the true appearance of the wicked throughout the entire land; this is what they truly look like; this is their sign, their symbol. And by means of this sign, they are portrayed most aptly. The woman within the ephah is the symbolic representation of those who steal and those who swear falsely throughout the land!

And what might this mean?

Why this symbol, and what is its meaning?

It is certain according to the word of the angel that the woman is the embodiment of godlessness and iniquity. And the angel’s words particularly emphasize that the measure that the prophet beholds is an ephah. The ephah was the most common and familiar commercial measure in Israel. Godlessness within the ephah signifies iniquity in business and everything that accompanies such iniquity in business. So scripture instructs us in Amos 8:4–6:

4. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

6. That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

This is the woman in the ephah!

Unrighteousness in business!

The figure of all the ungodly in the whole land and in the whole church!

An image of those in Jerusalem who steal, who devour the needy, who enrich themselves with the wages of laborers, who oppress the poor and destroy the wretched, who pay tithes on what they obtained through deceit and oppression, and who build temples and altars and churches and schools out of their plunder.

Thieves on a grand scale!

Babylonians in Jerusalem!

Woe unto them!

The flying curse is upon them!

And by their own lusts, they are ever drawn away toward the land of Shinar—the land of Babel—where their true dwelling place lies and where they never will inherit alongside the children of the kingdom!

Such, indeed, is what the vision further reveals to us.

The ephah and the woman are carried away by two women—women with stork-like wings and the wind in their wings—borne through the air between heaven and earth. Everything suggests that their carrying away is not by force or some external power but by a spiritual force of the inner impulse of iniquity. Just as the woman within the ephah is easily identified as an image of unrighteousness, so likewise it is easy to identify the two women as representing the forces of iniquity—the lusts of the flesh and the evil desires of sin. This interpretation is reinforced by the imagery of the stork-like wings. The stork is likely a part of the vision not only for its broad wingspan but also because a stork was classified among the unclean animals—creatures that according to the law were to be an abomination to Israel. This interpretation is reinforced further by the fact that the woman inside the ephah is carried away through the air, not along the surface of the earth.

Through the operation of God’s curse, the ungodly in the whole land are led away through their own lusts, enticed, and inexorably carried away!

To what place?

To the land of Shinar! There Babel’s tower was the ideal of ungodly men. The land of Shinar is then also Babel, the world, the power of the beast, and the antichrist!

They are carried away to that place!

The ungodly Israelite, whose appearance is the woman in the ephah, and the pious thieves and the lovers of the world increasingly lose the form of godliness; they turn toward Babylon, where they are received with open arms and take up permanent residence.

The nominal church becomes a false church; the false church becomes antichrist.

Until the flying curse upon her is fulfilled.

In eternal separation!