The Flying Curse

Election and reprobation!

Everywhere they go together. They are realized together, the one and the other, the latter for the sake of the former, reprobation for the fulfillment of election.

Together they go on toward their ultimate fulfillment, so that at a certain moment they—as kernel and husk, as grain and chaff—both will be ripe: election, but reprobation as well.

Conversion and hardening, a savor of life and of death, blessing and cursing, grace and wrath, justification and condemnation, heaven and hell.

Always and everywhere they go together to the very end!

The church of God was redeemed by the water that overflowed and destroyed the first world in wrath. Israel entered the rest of the promised land as the walls of Jericho fell down and the heathen were exterminated. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, but then the axe is laid to the root of the tree. The day of the Lord will come under the signs of blood, fire, and vapor of smoke. Soon the new Jerusalem will come down to the new earth that will have been reborn from elements that were melted with a fervent heat. Very soon men will hear the words of eternal blessing and of eternal cursing: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!” (Matt. 25:34, 41). 

Election and also reprobation!

Blessing but also cursing!

So it is also here in the prophecy of Zechariah. The promise of the certain and final completion of God’s house is paired with the proclamation of the curse on the ungodly.

The prophet has just seen the rich vision of the bowl of oil and the two olive trees. The word of the Lord to Zerubbabel was that it will come to pass not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. Then it surely must come to pass! No world power will be able to prevent it. God’s house shall be built! God shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, “Grace, grace unto it.”

Blessings, rich blessings!

Blessings over that second temple that Zerubbabel built in Jerusalem.

Blessings over the house of God, when it is fulfilled centrally in the coming, the suffering and death, and the resurrection and exaltation of our Lord.

Blessings when that house of God is realized spiritually in the church of the new dispensation.

Blessings finally, when soon the new Jerusalem will descend from the new heaven to the new earth, and the tabernacle of God will be eternally with men.

But also a curse!

Therefore, now the vision of the flying curse.

A curse…also over that house!

The prophet sees a flying curse.

It is still the same night in which Zechariah has seen the other visions, the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the second year of the reign of Darius. The prophet has seen much already. He is yet again lost deep in thought. And again his attention is drawn by another vision. So we read, “Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked…”

The angel—who undoubtedly serves as the instrument to summon these visions before the seer’s eyes and to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God to him—addresses Zechariah. The angel desires to ensure that the prophet sees clearly, that the correct vision stands before his mind’s eye, and that he can describe the vision in its essential elements. So the angel asks Zechariah, “What seest thou?”

And the prophet has observed keenly and noted well, as is evident from his reply: “I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.” He sees not only the scroll, but he also specifically observes that it is a flying scroll. Moreover, he discerns its rectangular shape and dimensions. This last point is significant, for it points out that the scroll is large and possesses the dimensions of the holy place. The prophet is well acquainted with these dimensions. Hence it is relatively easy for him to determine immediately the scroll’s length and width. The scroll is, therefore, open and inscribed on both sides: “on this side…on that side.” On one side could be read the curse upon him who steals; on the other side could be read the curse upon him who swears falsely.

A symbol of the curse itself.

A symbol of the fearsome curse of the living God.

This scroll is not intended merely to show the prophet the content of God’s curse upon the wicked; rather, the scroll is an image of the actual curse itself. For this is how the prophet interprets the scroll: “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.” Thus the scroll is not stationary and being presented to the prophet for reading; instead, the scroll is flying—hovering in the air—as a power against which one is utterly helpless: a force that flies and moves about like a pestilence, striking and destroying whomever it wills.

The flying curse!

God’s curse is a word of God.

The curse is a word of power, as is every word that issues from the mouth of God. For, indeed, he speaks as God. Therefore, his word is also deed—an irresistible, divine deed—living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, divinely mighty and creative, calling into existence things that do not exist as though they did, and making the dead alive!

Such is the word that God sends forth to and over his people in his eternal favor. The Lord’s blessing rests upon his people. The word—the mighty, irresistible word of his grace—eternally goes forth to them. And that word brings salvation to God’s people, and it fills them with salvation—eternal salvation—both now and in the fulfillment of God’s eternal covenant.

But such is also the word that God sends forth over the ungodly in his wrath. That, too, is a mighty word of the living God that accomplishes all his good pleasure. It is irresistible, cannot be escaped, and pursues and surely strikes the ungodly. That word encircles the ungodly, penetrating deeply into his very marrow and bones and his heart and innermost being. That word consumes the ungodly, uproots him and his household and all that is his. That word renders him utterly wretched and finally casts him into outer darkness.

Is it not as we sing?

The ungodly man steals; by greed he is driven.
With cunning he borrows, but his debts are
unpaid.
The righteous man giving, heart full of compassion,
He possesses the earth, God’s inheritance giv’n.
Now in peace he enjoys the Lord’s blessing and
life;
The curse hounds the other right down into the
grave.¹

Here, in this flying scroll, is an image of this mighty, cursing word of God in its ultimate revelation and operation.

For, indeed, the wicked man is always under the curse. The wrath of God is and remains upon him. God’s curse is also within his earthly home. But soon his house, too, will be laid waste, his name eradicated, his place wiped out. And he himself will be utterly destroyed!

The flying curse!

God’s curse over God’s house!

Judging, sifting, separating, choosing, and—even there—rejecting between Jacob and Esau, Israel according to the promise and Israel according to the flesh.

Judgment must begin at the house of God. There lies the center. There the antithesis is sharpest. There the lines are drawn most sharply. There election wrestles with reprobation already in the mother’s womb. There Christ and the antichrist are born.

Over that house the curse flies.

That this is the meaning should be evident from the dimensions of the scroll: twenty by ten cubits—the dimensions of the holy place within God’s tabernacle. The curse is as extensive as that holy place; it is a curse upon that holy place. And that holy place is the church. There stood the golden altar of incense, the golden candlestick, and the table of showbread—symbols of God’s people as they are consecrated to God, acknowledging him alone and glorifying him as the light of the world. 

That the curse flies over God’s house is also made clear by the angel’s explanatory words: “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.” That land is the promised land where God’s people dwell and where his house is established.

It is the curse over the whole church.

The curse concerns the church in the old dispensation—Israel as a nation—just as she had entered into the earthly rest, the earthly Canaan, and dwelt therein. And it concerns the church in the new dispensation—all that bears the name of church on earth, all the baptized.

But upon this church the curse goes forth—not to strike everyone within God’s house but to affect a separation, a final separation, between the righteous and the ungodly in order to thoroughly purge the threshing floor.

For not everyone and everything belong in that house. Not everyone is Israel who is of Israel. Not everything is church that as church is gathered and develops on earth. There are the wheat and the chaff; there are the kernel and the husk.

And the flying curse makes the final separation!

The flying curse strikes him only who swears falsely and him who steals.

For he who swears falsely invokes God’s name within the sphere of lies. He cries out, “Lord, Lord!”; yet he loves, practices, and perpetrates iniquity. He seals iniquity with a solemn oath when he allies himself with the world and takes up the same yoke as the ungodly. He calls God to witness when he accepts and bears the mark of the beast upon his forehead or right hand. He professes God while serving mammon. He sits at the Lord’s table as a friend of the world. He declares that Jesus is Lord, even while remaining a subject of Belial. Upon the drinking cup—cleansed on the outside but filled with filth—he inscribes the name of the Most High. He who swears falsely is the embodiment of false religion, the antichrist within God’s house, the liar who claims to belong to God yet walks in darkness.

That is why he is indeed the thief!

He steals, for he loves the world!

Therefore, he steals and plunders as much as he can. He does this directly—like the burglar and robber who is punished even by the godless authorities—or indirectly and on a grand scale by shortchanging workers’ wages and oppressing the poor.

He lives by the fundamental principle of the love of the world: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

And the love of the Father is not in him!

And he does all this while invoking God’s name!

He bears the mark and insignia of God’s covenant—and the mark of the beast!

He sits at the wedding feast without a wedding garment!

But God’s curse pursues him!

The flying curse!

For thus says the Lord of hosts about the curse, “I will bring it forth…and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.”

The curse over God’s house, the holy place, the whole land, the church!

But separating, sifting, and thoroughly cleansing the threshing floor.

Reprobation—for the sake of election!

And the curse struck!

And it strikes still, ever hovering over the holy place!

And it shall strike, until God’s house is revealed in eternal glory.

It struck the church in the old dispensation and at the advent of the house of the Lord in its new-dispensational form.

For then the angel of God’s covenant came suddenly to his temple. And who could stand in his presence? He was like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap, and he sat, refining and purifying the silver, cleansing the sons of Levi, and refining them like gold. He drew near for judgment, “a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts!” (Mal. 3:1–5).

The curse struck after having been foretold by the one who came as the prophet Elijah, who preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and that therefore the axe was laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that did not bear good fruit was destined to be cut down. And this Elijah preached that he who came after him would thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and burn the chaff with fire.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

And the curse struck!

For Jesus came, and the kingdom of heaven came. He came in the flesh; he glorified the Father; he shone in the darkness; he descended into death; he arose in glory; he was exalted to the right hand of the Father; he returned in the Spirit. The kingdom of heaven came in its spiritual reality, and into that kingdom entered only those who were born again by the Spirit. The rest were inexorably left behind—uprooted! No temple service or sacrifice, no fasting or weeping, no payment of tithes could be of any avail. Because unless one’s righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, he shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Jerusalem was laid waste.

The temple was consumed by fire.

The earthly Canaan is no more.

The flying curse struck the holy place!

And yet, this curse still awaits its final consummation.

For the kingdom of heaven has indeed come, yet it is also still coming. Even now, within the earthly manifestation of that kingdom—a kingdom that is essentially in heaven—there remain both kernel and husk, tares among the wheat; there remains an Israel that is in truth no Israel. There are still those who steal and swear falsely.

And still, the flying curse hovers over the holy place!

Always the separation continues. For into the new Jerusalem shall enter nothing that defiles, practices abomination, or loves and speaks a lie. And outside shall be the dogs, the sorcerers, the whoremongers, the murderers, the idolaters, and the liars.

There the curse is fulfilled…and the blessing!

And there shall be no more night!