Remarks Upon the Book of Zechariah

THIS passage records the vision of a roll which went forth over all the city. This roll being twenty cubits, or about thirty-five feet in length, and ten cubits, or about seventeen and a half feet in breadth. The angel said that this roll represented the curse which goes forth over the face of all the earth against all who swear falsely. Verse 3. It must therefore be the curse of the law of God which is pronounced against all iniquity. Deut. 27:15-26; Gal. 3:10, 13. It originated when God pronounced his curse upon Adam and upon the earth, it will remain upon the earth and upon sinners till it has utterly consumed them by the fire of the last day, after which there will be no more curse. Isa. 24:6; Rev. 22:3.

Only two kinds of sin are specified by the angel, theft and perjury, but these are taken as examples of all the things which the law of God condemns. Thus theft is forbidden in the second table of the law by the eighth commandment (Ex. 20:15), and swearing falsely by the name of God is forbidden by both tables, that is by the third commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," and by the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Exo. 20:7, 16.

On one side of the roll the curse related to the sins against the first table of the law of God, perjury being taken as an example. On the other side of the roll the curse related to the transgressions of the second table, theft being specified as an example. Verse 3. The immense size of this roll was for the purpose, no doubt, that the acts of transgression against each table of the law might be written each under the commandment which it transgresses. Thus idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, disobedience to parents, murder, adultery, and covetousness, must also be included with theft and perjury in this terrible curse which goes forth over the face of all the earth, to enter into the house of every transgressor, and to abide there till it utterly consumes that house. Verse 4.

St. Paul speaks of self-righteousness as the most prominent of the sins upon which the curse of the law of God reposes, for it is the transgression of the whole law. He says: "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." Gal. 3:10. The law of God does not curse obedience but disobedience. But every act of the self-righteous man is an act of disobedience, for the law demands love in every commandment and the Pharisee gives it in not one case. Rom. 13:8-10; Luke 11:42.

The Christian is redeemed from the curse of the law, that is from its just condemnation, by the blood of Christ, so that he need not be consumed by that curse at the last day. Gal. 3:13. For Christ took the curse upon himself, though innocent, that he might die in the place of the guilty. 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18. But no one can share in this redemption except upon condition of repentance, faith, conversion, and the solemn promise to refrain by the grace of God from future transgression. Acts 2:38; 3:19. The law of God is written in the heart of the redeemed, and the law of sin is removed from the heart by the Spirit of God, so that obedience is made possible through the grace of God. Heb. 11:16, 17; Ps. 37:31; Isa. 51:7; Rom. 7:21-23; 8:2.

But the angel of God said that this roll, the curse of God, should enter into the house of the sinner, and should remain there till it utterly consumes it. Zech. 5:4. No sinner can escape this terrible visitor except by repentance. The death of Christ did not destroy this curse; it only made the escape of the sinner possible. Every house where men live in sin has a copy of this great roll lodged within it, and day by day the recoding angel writes upon it the sins committed in that house. If the inmates could see this roll as it enters their dwelling they would be alarmed. Still more would they be alarmed if they could see that this roll had taken up its permanent abode in their house, and that the angel of God was standing by it and writing upon it the sins which they were each day committing.

Yet is absolutely true that every house where the inmates transgress the law of God, has a copy of this roll as a permanent dweller. Not an act of injustice, of fraud, of blasphemy, of impurity, of covetousness, or cruelty, or of falsehood, will fail to be placed upon this roll and to receive at the last day its terrible malediction in the case of all who do not repent.

This roll is at present invisible to human eyes, but it is none the less real on that account. At the day of Judgement, when the books are opened, the curse of the law God will be found a terrible reality, as Christ shall pronounce these words to those on the left hand: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41.