Zechariah 5:5-11 - Woman in a basket

5:5-8

Zechariah then gets another vision, almost immediately. On hearing the first vision the people might think “well at least I don’t do that sin”, and maybe we don’t. But this vision involves the “iniquity of the people throughout the land”. The vision is of a basket, it has a lead cover on it. No one is quite sure what the lead cover represents, but inside the basket is a woman. Now why is a woman representing the “iniquity of the people”, this is a bit unfair isn’t it? Well, later in the vision women are shown in a more positive light! However, the woman may be a figurine and may represent idolatry.

5:9-11

And here are the women shown in a positive light. They are taking the sin away from the land, and the basket and its sin will set in that place in Babylon. So we see God removing sin from the land. It is a consistent feature in the Bible that when God gets involved in the life of a person or a nation He removes sin from that person or nation. If we wish to see God at work in our land then we need to appreciate that part of that work will be God removing sin from the land. The view of God’s love that many have, even people in the church, is one that is totally unbiblical and ungodly, for so often it is a sin affirming view. We should also note that the picture here of sin being set in place in Babylon is consistent with the place that Babylon has in Revelation.