GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ZECHARIAH 5:7-8
7 And behold, the lead cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the ephah! 8 Then he said, “This is Wickedness.” He pushed her back into the ephah, and pushed down the lead weight over its mouth.
There are quite a few small details to examine here. We will handle this in a catechetical fashion today.
1, Why is the cover of the ephah lead?
The Hebrew text says it is “round / a bread loaf,” but this is the shape of the hole of the ephah-basket. The word also stands for a heavy lead weight, and so we understand it to be the lid, heavy as lead or made of lead. It is so heavy so as to keep what is inside secure; to keep the iniquity and guilt from escaping.
2, What is the woman?
The woman, we are told is “Wickedness.” The ephah-basket is said to hold guilt (verse 6), but also wickedness. This stands for the sin and the system of sin, which was the godless false teaching of their false preachers and teachers. A man’s wickedness is his design or path, and his sin is each transgression that takes place because of it. “The wicked man does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways; he will die for his sin” (Ezekiel 3:19).
3, Why is it a woman who depicts Wickedness?
A woman is depicted because the word “wickedness” in Hebrew, which is risha’, is in the feminine gender. But wickedness is an abstract idea, and the wicked can be male or female, as when Solomon uses a masculine verb when he says, “The wicked are brought down by their own wickedness” (Proverbs 11:5).
4, Is there something inherently wicked about women, that this woman is the symbol for wickedness, perhaps like the wayward and immoral woman in Proverbs 6:24; 7:10, and so on? She “reduces a man to a loaf of bread, and she preys upon your very life” (Proverbs 6:26).
The answer is No. The genders God gives to us are a glorious gift. There is nothing inherently wrong or sinful about being a woman. Quite the reverse! Women are mothers to us all, like our first gentle and caring mother Eve, who did what no other woman has done, being the mother, grandmother, midwife, and patriarchess to all the human race. When her daughters were becoming grandmothers, she was still having babies of her own (Genesis 4:25-26; 5:3), and she set the standard for mothering, caring, weaning, diapering, teaching, disciplining, and running her household. It would be a fine thing for mothers today to have a portrait of Eve above their changing tables to remind them that the Lord was behind her with everything that she did, coaching her, prompting her, instructing her, and blessing all she did. To this we can add many other things, for our Lord himself was born of a woman (Galatians 4:4), and Paul also says that woman came from man, and so also man is born of woman, but everything comes from God (1 Corinthians 11:12).
5, Why is the woman pictured as sitting in the ephah-basket?
She is sitting because we do not see most of a sin; it is like a person seated in a basket, or an iceberg floating in the cold sea. Most of the danger is out of sight. It may even look safe. But a man sitting at a table might have a weapon concealed there. A false teacher certainly has a hidden and secret agenda, “secretly introducing destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1).
6, Why does Zechariah say that the angel had to push the woman back into the basket?
He says “pushed” because it is always a struggle with false teaching. Once a word is said, it cannot be unsaid, and it must be countered with explanation and teaching. Even then, some damage is done, because as our poor country has begun to learn, the more times a lie is spoken, the more people will begin to believe it, until even the liar himself believes it, even though he knows that it was originally a lie. They bring down God’s curse: “You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue! Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin” (Psalm 52:3-5).
7, Why are no words spoken to the woman?
There is no message for wickedness itself apart from condemnation. A wicked person might be led to repentance through the preaching of law and gospel (Nehemiah 9:2; Job 22:23), but wickedness itself is first of all to be condemned (Psalm 10:15) and then punished (Job 34:26). Luther says: “Through the Gospel, hypocrisy is dethroned and brought to shame. But no improvement follows; the false teachers only become all the more hardened and fall all the more deeply and want to defend and preserve their teaching against the truth” (LW 20:242).
8, What else do we learn from this verse?
In the end, the angel must push the lead cover back over the mouth of the basket, because sin and wickedness will try to get out again. This is the same action we saw with the flying scroll, which was sent into the houses of the false teachers and liars to consume them, “wood and stone,” and leave nothing left at all. False teachers will hold on to their false teaching and attitude, even when it is exposed as a lie. They will sit and lick their wounds and make up new lies to try and challenge the integrity of anyone who contradicts their false message. John teaches us: “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist– he denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). This is the heart of every lie told in the name of religion, and perhaps all other lies as well, for a lie against God is at the heart of every single sin against one’s neighbor (1 John 4:20).
Finally, we also see the victorious, powerful and mighty hand of God, who conquers sin and evil, guilt and wickedness, and who rescues us from our own boggy mud puddles of sin and washes us clean in the water of our baptism. He promised to carry away our sin, and this is what he has done. “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises have failed; every one was fulfilled” (Joshua 21:45). Your sins have been paid for and all of your wickedness is carried away. You are clothed with the righteousness of Christ our Lord.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Zechariah 5:7-8 The woman in the basket