I have found the many visions written in the book of Zechariah are really interesting and they tell us so much about God and His salvation.

I have chosen the vision in Zechariah 5: 5-11, notably called “the woman in the basket”. At first glance you will obviously see the themes of  wickedness, judgment and the Temple restoration. (go to the end of this blog for the verses).

Lets start at the opening scene of this vision, it starts with a basket flying in the air. The basket is actually a measuring device and we find the basket has a woman in it who is trying to get out. But we read an angel is forcing the lid down onto the woman to contain her.

Following that we also see two woman with wings like storks that carry the basket away to another place called Shinar (Babylon) where it would be set on its base. Interestingly, Shinar was also the site of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:2).

Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”⁶ So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket^[a] that is going forth.”He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth: ⁷ Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”; ⁸ then he said, “This isWickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover^[b]over its mouth. ⁹ Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.¹⁰ So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”¹¹ And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar;^[c] when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”

In John 2 there is the story of Jesus clearing out the the temple and overturning tables  and showing His anger. I have heard talks from speakers abou this event and generally they explain the parallel between Jesus and the temple and the justifying of  righteous anger and other such points. 

My thoughts on this passage today, are more about what this means to us personally. 

So to explain my thought, I will build some context by going back to the time of Joshua and the Israelites and the destruction of  Jericho. Remember the story when the walls came tumbling down. This is found in Joshua 6. 

Briefly, in this story we find the Israelites after crossing the river Jordan going through to the promised land. They immediately come up against an impenetrable walls protecting the philistines. 

So what did they do? We read that they gathered together in pray and were given Gods assurance of victory. They then did as instructed and marched around the walls once a day while the priests blew their trumpets as the arc of the covenant was carried behind them.

The next day they did the same again. And they did this every day for 6 days.

On the seventh day they walked around the walls doing the same as before but this time they walked around the walls seven times and at the very end there was a long blow of the rams horn and the people shouted. When they did this the walls collapsed. 

As I have written before in other blogs the numbers have meanings in this passage but I will get to that soon. See if you can work it out before I tell you.

The metaphor for this story is that the Israelites were going to the promised land but their were pockets of rebellion in that land. The walls collapsed because of God’s power and nothing the Israelites did except for complete surrender to His will.  Again this is like our life. We have pockets of rebellion in us and it is only through surrender to God’s will and power that God eradicates the sin or rebellion in our life. Nothing we can do except believe and surrender will root out pockets of rebellion or sin in our lives. 

Back to the numbers again. Yes, the number 6 is humanity without God. They walked 6 times over 6 days and nothing happened. Yes the walls remained and so did the philistines. But on the 7 day and the seventh time the people shouted out and victory was done. It is perfection (represented by #7) that eliminates pockets of rebellion or sin in our lives. Where perfection resides there is no darkness.

Now back to Jesus in the temple. The parallel is striking. Here we see Jesus cleansing the temple just like God was cleansing the land the Israelites were going to occupy. God will do anything to take those things out of our lives. He wants to dwell in our body or temple and by our submission He will root those pockets of rebellion or sin out of our lives. We cannot do this ourselves. It must be Jesus power alone. He loves us so much and wants nothing to prevent or spoil our relationship with Him. 

When Jesus was in the temple he said “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Interestingly the traders were selling animals for sacrifice. So in essence they were justifying their actions by doing something that was needed for the Temple sacrifices. However they were doing it for the wrong reasons and thus were defiling the Temple. You see they had got to a point where their actions were rationalised and they thought it was ok.

So Jesus is showing us that of ourselves we cannot root out pockets of sin that hurt our relationship withHim. Remember He is a jealous God and wants all of us. So Jesus is the only one who can cleanse the Temple that is Jesus is the only one who can cleanse us. Only he can drive out those things that defile the Temple. 

So if we ask Him to live in us be prepared that He will enter and change us from within. Just like Joshua and Israelites God will destroy those things in our lives that defile His paradise.

Getting back to the sentance “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” I want to add that we cannot trade with God either. We cannot trade our degree of submission in our own lives. We cant submit 95% of us and still want to have some control. There is no trade off here! It is 100% submission and nothing less. Give it all to Him and He will enter your temple and cleanse you from within. When you surrender your temple to Him, Jesus lives in us. It is then His presence will be seen by others and they too will be moved to seek Him.

You probably guessed that I am giving my biblical thoughts on the wedding in Canna where Jesus performed His first recorded miracle. The reference is John 2:1-12.

I admit that when I read the opening words “on the third day” that really got my attention, because there are a number of things recorded in the Bible that occurred on the third day. The most memorable in the New Testament is when Jesus was resurrected on the third day. So I asked myself is the miracle at the wedding connected to Jesus resurrection?

To understand the context of the wedding miracle I read the preceding passages in John 1. Reading John 1 I realised there is a distinct link between that passage and Genesis 1 (see my blog on Salvation in Genesis for some further reading). The first chapters in John and Genesis set the referral point for the wedding scene. However I will return to that thought at the end of the this blog.

So the scene is obviously a wedding and this gives the context of the passage and the message. I am sure you know that a wedding is about union between two people and the parallel is that Jesus mission was about the union of God to His children (us).

In John 2 verse 6 we read there are 6 waterpots of stone. We know these pots were generally used to purify the hands prior or during to a meal, apart from other uses. In the wedding they now replaced the purifying water with wine. Then we find out the wine runs out and Jesus has it replaced with water. This is interesting in its self. The pots are to cleanse the hands prior to a meal then for the wedding they replace that with wine then Jesus replace the pots with water and turns it into wine. It is a statement about mans efforts in salvation. Man uses the water to cleanse themselves and resorts to man made wine to save themselves. However Jesus uses the Living Water to cleanse us and the wine represents His blood which provides us salvation. So this parallel is comparing mans efforts versus Jesus way is Jesus to salvation.

This story is a metaphor to illustrate our lives without God and more specifically humanity without God. The clue is the number 6. Six in the Bible means humanity without God, it is “the number of man, the number of imperfections and man’s work”.

So here we find man’s efforts in producing wine eventually fails, despite man’s efforts it will never restore the union between man and God that was in the beginning of the creation of man.

To further explain let’s look at verse 7. Jesus instructs the servants to fill the 6 empty pots and they filled them to the brim (that is to the very top). This filling to the brim is significant. As it eliminates any chance of the servants or Jesus adding something extra to the water to alter it, otherwise it would overflow. The change from water to wine was not from what was added rather it was a changing from within. Just like us. We are not changed because Jesus helps us to change by adding some extra power, rather we are changed completely because Jesus lives in us. I cringe when I think I use to pray these words “please help me to be a better person ………”. Rather I now I pray for Jesus to live in me through the Holy Spirit and take control of my life and do the will of God in me.

The important part is to understand that Jesus is the 7th pot in this story and as you know seven means perfection in the Bible. He pours himself completely into the other pots. That is why the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now” Again this affirms the concept that man’s efforts will never be good enough and always inferior. Only Jesus is perfect and it is He that must live in us to escape condemnation and the fear of death.

Now lets wrap this up. The wedding feast is about union with God as it was in the garden of Eden. John purposley connects Genesis 1 (which is about salvation and having the Light live in us) in the first chapter of John because he knows Jesus is the Light of the world and the Lamb of God who takes away sin. Jesus was also “in the beginning with God” and talked with Adam and Eve and now has come to restore the relationship that once was. It was the third day when Jesus resurected and this was the day salvation through His blood was available to us. Praise God.