The Old Testament book of Zechariah calls for the repentance and faithfulness of the remnant of God’s people based on the promises of God and prophecies of the future.  One part of the communication to and through the prophet Zechariah is a series of eight visions.  Zechariah motivates his Jewish audience with the record of a series of visions which portray God’s plans for Israel’s future.  I’m focusing on of them, what has been called “The Woman in the Basket” (Zechariah 5:5-11):

5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. 6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. 7 And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. 8 And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. 9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. 10 Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? 11 And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

This is a very, very simple story.  It’s not even much of a story.  An “ephah” (v. 6) is a basket, technically the size of a basket, which is today 6.1 American gallons.  You can’t make everything in this story mean something, but to stick with the basic, so let’s follow along.

The woman in the basket is the wickedness of the nation, which is obvious for all to see.  A lid is put on the basket made of a talent of lead.  That’s 75 to 100 pounds of lead sealing the top of that basket.  This lead lid means something, and it is an obvious expression of God’s separation of the wickedness, actual wicked people, from the nation.  A very heavy lead lid covering a woman in a basket is a serious separation.

Two women take this woman in this basket with a lead lid and with wind in their stork-like wings, they fly all to Shinar and set her on a base or pedestal in a house or temple.  The simplicity of it is that God separates the wickedness, the actual wicked people, from the nation of God’s people unto where it belongs, Shinar.  Shinar is Babylon, where the wickedness of this present world originated and will also end.  It is being disposed of, like taking out the trash.

God wants sin separated.  This is discipline.  This is personal separation.  This is ecclesiastical separation.  The sin and sinners are removed.  The bad influences are eradicated.  When all that offends God is sin, this takes preeminence for a people who want to please God.

The separation will occur.  Just like Noah and his family were separated from the world by the waters of the flood, while they were saved in the ark, the nation of Israel is saved by its separation.  At the very end of the Bible, the wicked are separated even from the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.  God wants separation.  Paul wrote, come out from among them and be ye separate.

What belongs to Shinar must stay in Shinar or be removed to Shinar.  Keeping it where we are — the world, the world system, wordliness, the spirit of this age — is not the will of God.  The people who do it, John says, the love of God does not abide in them.  They will be the woman in the basket.  The ultimate removal is being left behind to be judged by God and then cast into the lake fire forever.  These do not belong with God’s people, because God’s people are holy.

The motivation of the story is to repent.  The separation is not salvation for those in the basket.  These are not repentant people.  It is judgment.  However, the declaration of this message by God to Zechariah and from Zechariah to the people would give them their means of deliverance.  Separation would occur one way or another, in the basket or outside of it.

Not only is the vision of separation a call for separation.  If they repented of their sin, they would separate.  If they wanted deliverance, they would separate.  It is also a prophecy of separation.  Two-thirds of the nation is separated from the nation and destroyed in the ultimate separation.  Israel is saved, which amounts to the one-third of the nation that is saved.  Those people are saved, because they turn to Jesus as the Messiah.

If Jesus is the Messiah to you, the Christ to you, you believe in the Christ, the Son of God, and have life through His name, you are separating yourself by following Him.  Jesus leads a person to a new life.  Israel looks upon Him, whom they have pierced.  They repent, the repentance recorded in the confession that is Isaiah 52 and 53.  He was wounded for their iniquities.  They esteemed Him stricken for His own sins, but He was bruised for theirs.  They understand that they were sheep that had gone astray.  They were wicked in their nature and they were in need of conversion.

Salvation is separation.  It separates in the end the sheep from the goats and the tares from the wheat.  It separates the proud Israelite, who will not acquiesce to His Messiah, from the one who is poor in spirit, mourns over his sin, and in meekness hungers and thirsts after imputed righteousness.  Instead of building his house on the sand, he builds his house on the rock, Who Is Jesus Christ.  In the end, you’ll either be in the basket with the lead lid on it, or you’ll be free through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.