Ok, this chapter will give you pause. A flying scroll? A woman in a basket?

The prophet sees a flying scroll and on one side is thieving and on the other side is swearing falsely by the Lord. Theft we understand. Swearing falsely is probably quite broad but at the root is saying, “I swear to God this is true” when the person knows it isn’t. It’s lying. It’s deceiving.

Some say one is about harming our neighbor and the other is about profaning the name of God, similar to the 10 commandments. The commandments being directed towards God and then directed towards our neighbors. Maybe. Maybe not.

But the LORD says he will bring judgment upon these. God didn’t just bring them back from Babylon to live wickedly. He expected righteousness from them and to put away their evil and sins.

Then there’s the woman in a basket. This seems kind of strange.

The Lord shows Zechariah a basket. Then the angel removes the lead cover and inside is a woman. The lid is slammed back down. Then two women angels with stork wing take it back to Babylon.

Huh? What’s this all about? And why the women?

First of all the basket is not huge but rather around 5 gallons. So the woman inside the baskets is probably an idol.

Second the Hebrew language has feminine and masculine nouns. The word for “wickedness” is feminine. This seems to further indicate that the gender of this idol was to represent not womanhood but wickedness.

Third the angel says plainly, “this is wickedness.”

Fourth, considering that idolatry was one of the main reasons Israel was sent into captivity, we can be reasonably confident that this whole scenario is about the idolatry of Israel.

The women with the stork like wings also perhaps represented wickedness. Maybe they wre angels but maybe they weren’t.

Regardless, they were returning the wickedness back to Babylon. It would dwell there.

The point is that idolatry may have been in Israel, but it did not belong there. It was an imported wickedness. Send it back to where it came from — Babylon. And unfortunately it would dwell in Babylon and be a thorn in the land, even as the Persians now inhabited it and ruled there.

Bottom line? Wickedness has no place in Israel. Just because the LORD was bringing them back didn’t mean they got a free-to-sin pass. He sent them to Babylon because of their wickedness. It was their judgment and discipline. It was time for a new day where once again Israel would value righteousness.