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Zechariah 5

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1 Then again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.

2 He said to me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits."

3 Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

4 I will cause it to go out," says Yahweh of Armies, "and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones."

5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, "Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing."

6 I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the ephah basket that is appearing." He said moreover, "This is their appearance in all the land

7 (and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket."

8 He said, "This is Wickedness;" and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth.

9 Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky.

10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are these carrying the ephah basket?"

11 He said to me, "To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place."

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 376

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376. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" And I said to him, "Lord, you know." (7:13-14)

This symbolizes their desire to know and wish to inquire, and the reply and instruction given.

John was asked these questions because it is common in all Divine worship for a person to first wish, desire, and pray, and for the Lord then to reply, instruct, and effect. A person does not otherwise accept anything Divine.

Now because John saw those who were arrayed in white robes, and desired to know and ask who they were, and because this was perceived in heaven, therefore he was first asked about them, and afterward informed.

The case was similar with the prophet Zechariah when he saw the many representations displayed before him, as can be seen from Zechariah 1:9, 19, 21; 4:2, 5, 11-12; 5:2, 6, 10; 6:4.

Moreover in the Word we frequently read that the Lord answers when people call on Him or cry out to Him (as in Psalms 4:1; 17:6; 20:9; 34:4; 91:15; 120:1), and that He gives to people when they ask (Matthew 7:7-8; 21:22). Yet, even so, it is the Lord who gives people to ask and what they should ask for, and the Lord knows it, therefore, beforehand. But still it is the Lord's will that a person first ask, in order that the person may do so as though on his own, and that the petition may thus be assigned to him. Otherwise, if the petition itself did not emanate from the Lord, it would not have been said in those passages that people would receive whatever they ask.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.