In the first five visions which Zechariah saw (1:7—4:14), God spoke a comforting, consoling, and encouraging word to Joshua, Zerubbabel, and the people. God said that He would be with them and do something through them. In this way He encouraged them not to stop the building work on the temple, but rather to continue to finish the building of the temple under the priesthood of Joshua, the high priest, and under the kingship of Zerubbabel, the governor. Whereas the first five visions were positive, the last three visions Zechariah saw (5:1—6:8) were negative, because they concern God's universal judgment on the evil people and the evil on earth. These three visions are the vision of the flying scroll (5:1-4), the vision of the ephah vessel (vv. 5-11), and the vision of the four chariots (6:1-8). In this message we will consider the two visions recorded in chapter five.
"Then I lifted up my eyes again and I saw, and behold, there was a flying scroll. And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a flying scroll" (5:1-2a). The flying scroll signifies God's righteous law and its justice (just judgment). Without judgment, there may be righteousness, but there will not be justice. When a particular case is subject to righteous judgment, then there will be justice.
The length of the flying scroll is twenty cubits and the breadth is ten cubits, signifying the testimony of the law by two squares of ten cubits by ten cubits. The number two is the number for testimony, and the number ten signifies completion in fullness. Therefore, the law of God is a testimony to the whole world, and the two squares of ten cubits by ten cubits is the completion in fullness of the law.