Banishment Announced

I’ve never been banished from a place before. I’ve taken upon my self to leave a place never to return. I guess in a sense it’s self-banishment. It was used as an official form of punishment in the Old Testament. The way the banishment was announced to Zachariah really cracked me up this morning as he saw a flying scroll. His visions are really wild sometimes. I can imagine him saying: “Is this for real?” After reading the story, all I could think of was going to the beach and having the little airplanes flying by announcing a special “2 for 1 at Angelos Steakhouse”! The idea of a flying scroll made me chuckle. Check this out…

1 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.”’ (Zechariah 5:1-4 NIV)

I don’t want to get so distracted by the form of the announcement that I miss the actual announcement. He is clearly saying that thieves will be banished as well as liars. The Lord hates stealing and lying. They are two of the most dishonorable behaviors. How can you trust someone who lies? How can you trust someone who steals? You really can’t. I think it’s wise to keep myself in check on both counts because lying and stealing can be so subtle. I can take the smallest step in either of these infractions and it gets easier the next time and the next time. The Lord hates dishonestly and stealing – He announced with a flying scroll for goodness sake!

Pressing On!

Dwayne