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Zechariah 5:9 The basked or measure of wickedness goes to Shinar - Day 352

Good afternoon fellow readers and doers of the Word,

In the final two weeks of devotions.  You are doing a great job persevering to the end. I hope this devotional encourages you as we seek to understand some secrets of the kingdom.

Blessings,

Jeff

This short chapter makes me wonder why God just doesn't come out and say what He means.  Instead He gives these visions that are memorable but not all that clear as to meaning.  But as I write this, I remember Jesus' explanation to the disciples about why he spoke in parables.  

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Matthew 13:10-11

Of course, God does come right out and say what he means in the moral law.  Can't get much clearer than the 10 commandments.  So these are not "the secrets".  Everyone can read and clearly understand God's expectations for man.  Many choose not to read them, but willful ignorance is not an excuse for breaking the commandments.  But when it comes to "secret things", God intentionally wraps them in parables and visions.  So someone who reads the Bible but is not regenerate will read about visions and parables but be left without understanding them.

All this is to say, my believing reader, that we can know the secrets.  

I think it is time to borrow some of Calvin's commentary:

The Prophet says here that such would be the change of things, that God would in turn afflict the Chaldeans, who had so cruelly treated the chosen people. And this is the reason why I think that iniquity is to be taken for the violent injustice and plunder which heathen enemies had exercised towards the Jews. For when he says that a house would be for iniquity in the land of Shinar, it is as though he had said, "as Judea has been for a long time plundered by enemies, and has been exposed to their outrages, so the Chaldeans in their turn shall be punished, not once, nor for a short time, but perpetually; for God will fix a habitation for wickedness in their land." Zechariah 5:9

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