Flying Book
Zechariah 5:3 He told me, “This book is the verdict going out worldwide against thieves and liars. The first half of the book disposes of everyone who steals; the second half takes care of everyone who lies.
:4 I launched it”–Decree of GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies–”and so it will fly into the house of every thief and every liar. It will land in each house and tear it down, timbers and stones.”
After being gone from home for a few years to college and elsewhere, I went home during my brother, Scott’s, senior year in high school. I had grown up in a house in town just a couple blocks from the church, but since I had been gone, Dad and Mom had bought this beautiful place just a little way out of town. It had a few acres with a horse in a pasture and a row of trees that surrounded the house. The setting was incredibly peaceful and my parents had done so much to make it a homey place of welcome.
I had gone home to be with my brother, but it turned out that there was another young man that was in need of a place to stay, so during much of those few precious months in that wonderful haven, there was more than just us four. My brother seemed to be less than favorable of this arrangement, but the kid seemed to be nice enough and quite charming, so somehow we ended up keeping him in our home while he also finished his senior year.
It might have been all right, and we did have some good times during those months, but there was something with the presence of that young man that threatened the tranquility of the peaceful place of rest for which my parents had worked so hard. While my parents had established a physical home of refuge, they had also established a spiritual home where respect was given and moral character was held in high regard. This had made for a great sense of security where, though not totally void of conflict, there was an assurance that peace would prevail. As this other person was brought to abide in our home, though, there was also the inclusion of someone who regularly lied and managed to ‘use’ things without our consent from time to time. While Scott was often annoyed by something he would lie about, I also personally experienced his: totaling the car Dad bought me when I graduated from high school (’borrowed’ it), and breaking my prescription glasses that he also ‘borrowed’ without my consent. It seemed like there was a continual sequence of behaviors that were a cause for annoyance, bringing much disturbance to a home that would not be destroyed, but was being severely shaken from its peaceful state. It was if a curse had come against our home when it became the residence of one that fit the description of this passage from Zechariah.
So many homes and families are being destroyed today. Their physical structure may not be burned to the ground, but every semblance of a family structure has been completely dismantled in a way that would seem compliant with the curse of the flying book. Not only have they allowed others to ‘hang out’ in their walls like we did at our home in Colorado, but they have actually allowed the destructive patterns to be a part of their own behaviors. While there was a defense against that curse in our home, many homes without the dominance of God’s presence have no resistance whatsoever to the threat of a thieving and lying presence. An otherwise hopeful future of ‘living happily ever after’ is totally deprived of its purpose by the acceptance of the fulfilled curse into the home through practicing the actions that are its welcome. To allow theft, lying, or any other Godless behavior to continue in the home as a normal behavior is to give full access to the wrecking ball that will take out every wall, leaving a smoldering rubble on the ground. God will not have been at fault, but He will have always been the answer.
Perfect love will prevent the curse and preserve relationships and atmospheres of beautiful peace and tranquility that are formed in the home of God’s design in holiness.
Psalms 127:1 <A Song of degrees for Solomon.> Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
