The Flying Billboard and Other Strange Things

A Study of Zechariah 5 and 6

Introduction: My parents often took my sister to Myrtle Beach for a week each summer, and it was the best week of the year. I’d play in the ocean all day, and the festive atmosphere was delightful. Families everywhere. The sound of the waves and trying to catch one to ride in like body surfing. Among the many simply lovely things was looking into the sky and watching the airplanes drag huge billboards or signs through the sky. Sometimes it was an advertisement for a suntanning lotion. Sometimes it was an ad for a restaurant. I was simply amazed at these great advertisements flying through the air over the ocean.

I’ve lost a little of my childlike wonder about flying signs, but it all comes back to me when I read the fifth chapter of the Old Testament prophet Zechariah. Long before modern aviation and modern advertising, we have a vision of an unfurled scroll flying through the air. And then we have a basket with a woman inside of it. And then we have a vision of flying horses.

So I’ve called this message “The Flying Billboard and Other Strange Things.”

Review: Before jumping into the text, let me give the setting. After about seventy years of exile, a remnant of Jewish families returned to Judah and Jerusalem to try to start rebuilding their city and their land and their temple. The leader was Governor Zerubbabel and the High Priest was named Joshua. They made a valiant start, but they ran into political opposition by the local Palestinians who had moved in to occupy the territory. And there was also military pressure. So the work of rebuilding the second Jewish temple stopped for eighteen years. This story is told in the book of Ezra. 

One day a prophet named Haggai came and started preaching about the rebuilding of the temple. Soon he was joined by another—we believe a younger—prophet named Zechariah. These two men spurred on the remnant and soon the temple work resumed and was completed.

Haggai and Zechariah, then, are motivators. They are encouragers. They come to us when we feel defeated or discouraged and they lift us up and spur us on.

The book of Zechariah is a record of his messages, and he begins by describing a series of eight visions that he saw on a single night, which we can date to February 15, 519 B.C.

• His first vision was about an angelic patrol that was circling the earth, letting him know that world conditions now favored the rebuilding of the temple (chapter 1a).

• The second vision was of four craftsmen hammering to pieces the four horns of the empires arrayed against Judah (chapter 1b).

• The third vision was a man with a measuring line conducting a geographical survey of Jerusalem and finding that it was going to grow exceedingly (chapter 2).

• The fourth vision was the forgiveness and grace offered to the Jewish people in the person of High Priest Joshua (chapter 3).

• The fifth vision was the golden lampstand fed by an unbroken supply of golden oil, telling the remnant that it was not by might, nor by power, but by the Holy Spirit that the work would be finished (chapter 4).

So you can see the progression of thought. World conditions are right for the Second Temple to be finished. The Lord is going to greatly expand Jerusalem. He is offering forgiveness to His people, and His Spirit will equip them to finish the work.

That brings us to the sixth, seventh, and eighth visions—the flying billboard, the flying basket, and the flying horses. Let’s read about the sixth vision in Zechariah 5:1-4:

1. The Flying Billboard

5 I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll. ² He asked me, “What do you see?”

I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”

³ And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. ⁴ The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”

This is a scroll 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. It was unrolled and it was flying over the land of Israel. No airplane was needed. The message was a reminder, a warning to the people as they rebuilt their nation of Israel that the Law of God was still vital for them. The nations of Israel and Judah had been destroyed because they had trampled on the Law of God. If the new and reestablished nation was to succeed, the people would absolutely have to obey God’s Word.

There were two stipulations that were so important the Lord had written them on this flying banner Zechariah saw in his vision.

First, cursed is everyone who steals. Look at verse 3: And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished….

Second, the other side of the banner said: Everyone who swears falsely shall be banished.

At first glance, it looks like the Lord is simply warning people not to steal and not to swear falsely, but most commentators believe this is shorthand for the entire Law of God. The Ten Commandments summarize everything God expects His people to be and to do. The first four commandments relate to our relationship with God; and the last six are about how we get along with others.

The Eighth Commandment says, “You shall not steal.”

The Third Commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” We are saying something and adding, “So help me God.” We are swearing by the name of the Lord, and if we do that falsely we are breaking the Third Commandment.

So the two messages on the flying billboard represent both sides of the Ten Commandments.

Dr. George Klein in his commentary on Zechariah says, “The two crimes Zechariah mentioned represent all the commandments in each of the two tables of the Ten Commandments. The first table focuses on commandments that have special reference to the Israelites’ relationship with God. The second table governs the people’s relationships with one another.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary says, “That the scroll had writing on one side and on the other is reminiscent of the language describing the two tables of the Law. In fact the curse of the scroll is directed toward violators of the middle command of each of the two tablets—the eighth command against stealing and the third command against swearing falsely by (misusing) the lame of the Lord.”

Nearly every commentary I consulted suggested the same thing. So this is a warning to the people to remember and keep the Ten Commandments, the Law of God.

The last verse gives us application. ⁴ The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”

I’ll paraphrase this. The first temple was destroyed because the people turned away from the Law of God.  They no longer kept the Ten Commandments. The land became full of people who did not revere my name. They lived as they wanted to. They lived according to their pride and according to their hormones. They lied. They committed fornication. They took for themselves other gods. Other things became more important to them than I was. Now we’re starting all over, and with My help you are rebuilding the nation and the temple of the Lord. But make sure you don’t do what your forefathers did, for cursed is anyone and everyone who lives in rebellion against me. So…

• The first vision said: God is overseeing world conditions and it’s time to rebuild the temple.

• The second vision said that God would deal with empires that oppose the Jews.

• The third vision predicted a great future for Jerusalem.

• The fourth vision was one of cleansing and renewal.

• The fifth vision was the availability of the Holy Spirit to enable them in the work.

All of that is so encouraging. But the sixth vision is a different kind of encouragement. As you do the work, the Lord is saying, I encourage you not to forget about My law, about living according to My standards and My character and My holiness.

Neal McDonough is a Christian actor who agreed to play the role of Satan in the faith-based film “The Shift.” McDonough’s character didn’t appear as a monster but as a subtle fellow full of tricks and lies who created concrete temptations that most of us can relate to. 

That’s an accurate picture. We need to watch out for all the little compromises into which the devil tries to lure us. We need to obey our Lord with integrity.

2. The Flying Basket

The next vision is one of the strangest in the Bible. It’s the scene of the flying basket. Let’s read it, staring with verse 5:

⁵ Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.” ⁶ I asked, “What is it?”

He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.”

⁷ Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! ⁸ He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.

⁹ Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

¹⁰ “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.

¹¹ He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”

With this vision, Zechariah is really moving into the future, into the area of biblical prophecy about the end times. From Genesis to Revelation, the word “Babylon” is a code word for global evil. It began with Nimrod, a type of antichrist, who built his kingdom in Babylon in Genesis 10. Babylon was the kingdom that destroyed Israel in 587 B.C. And in the book of Revelation, Babylon is the codename for the kingdom of the antichrist. 

Here a woman who represents pure evil is being contained in a basket covered with a lead cover and taken to Babylon where a house or temple will be prepared for her. Revelation 17 picks up the story in verses 3 and following: Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit to the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

The beast is the antichrist, and the woman is his evil system of religious, economic, and governmental power. 

The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held a golden cup, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the Great. The Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth.

This evil system of secularism and tyranny will collapse, and the antichrist will be destroyed. Zechariah is telling us that the center of evil will one day be focused on the antichrist’s kingdom of Babylon.

The cry that goes forth in Revelation is: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.” Looking at it through the eyes of Revelation and comparing Scripture to Scripture, this vision seems to point toward the end of history. It was meant to reassure the remnant and all of us that one day in the future evil would become concentrated in the Babylonian system of the antichrist, and that it would fail and fall under the powerful authority of the Messiah.

3. The Flying Horses

But if that seems upsetting, the final vision of the flying horses shows us how it will all end. Look at chapter 6, beginning with verse 1:

I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. 

Bronze was the metal of the military in those days. It represented strength, and it appears these chariots were flying from the fortress of the highest heaven. Each of the chariots was harnessed to a powerful flying horse. Look at verses 2 and following:

² The first chariot had red horses, the second black, ³ the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. ⁴ I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?”

This brings us back to the angelic patrol of the first vision in Zechariah 1. These are angels coming down out of Heaven.

⁵ The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. 

Look at that title for God: The Lord of the whole world. That especially has millennial connotations. These are God’s own angelic soldiers who stand in His presence, and He is sending them like warriors in chariots through the bronze mountains that serve as a portal between heaven and earth.

⁶ The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”

These angelic forces are going to the east, the west, the north, and the south of Israel. And note the power and speed and urgency of their mission.

⁷ When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth.

Enemies against Israel came from the North. This is especially a reference of Babylon, the kingdom of the antichrist, the ultimate enemy of the Jews.

⁸ Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.”

I think what this means is that in the last days, during the Great Tribulation, the forces of evil will be focused on the antichrist and his revived kingdom of evil, codenamed Babylon. And destruction will come upon Israel from the north. Armageddon will become the staging area. Judah will be occupied and Jerusalem will be invaded. But before the Jewish people can be annihilated, Jesus Christ will come with His powerful angels. We read about this over and over. Later Zechariah is going to describe in prophetic form what he has told here symbolically in vision.

And listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24:30-31. I have a suspicion that Jesus and Zechariah are describing the same event.

Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Isn’t that an amplification of what Zechariah said?

And list to Paul’s words to the Thessalonians:

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is the same event Zechariah saw in a vision and Jesus described in a sermon. This is the return of Christ and the salvation of Israel and the dawning of the thousand-year reign of Christ.

Isaiah said something similar: “See, the Lord is coming with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind. He will bring down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with His sword the Lord will execute judgment on all people” (Isaiah 66:16-16).

Psalm 68 has a very similar passage.

So the entire story of Israel from the exile to the millennium is bound up in these eight visions:

• The first vision said: God is overseeing world conditions and it’s time to rebuild the temple.

• The second vision said that God would deal with the four great empires that oppose the Jews.

• The third vision predicted a great future for Jerusalem.

• The fourth vision was one of cleansing and renewal.

• The fifth vision was the availability of the Holy Spirit.

• The sixth vision was a warning to keep the Law of the Lord.

• The seventh vision was the ultimate enemy—future Babylon.

• The eighth vision was a sign of the return of Christ and the ushering in of His Kingdom of rest and peace.

What an encouragement for the remnant! And what an encouragement to us. We are not doing small things. We are involved in a great work as we prepare for the return of Christ. Sometimes it seems small in our eyes. Sometimes we wonder if we’re doing any good. But we have the Holy Spirit. We have the Word of God. We have the hand of God over the unfolding of history. And we have the coming of Christ to keep us going forward and looking upward.

Now, I’d recommend if you really want to get a grasp on Zechariah that you set aside an hour to read through these opening chapters again. Look at the notes on my blog. Make notations in the margin of your Bibles. And spend some time majoring on this minor prophet.

Next time, we’ll look at an amazing word that came to Zechariah in the last half of chapter 6.