Zechariah 3:1-5
Zechariah was a prophet contemporary of the prophet Haggai. He is believed to have begun his prophetic ministry in 520 BC. The name ‘Zechariah’ was the most common name in the Hebrew Bible. In Hebrew, it means “The Lord has remembered’.
There are 8 visions of Zechariah recording in the prophetic book of Zechariah.
This is the 4th of the 8 visions. This vision is a very interesting one!
Whenever we meet people for the first time, we get an impression of them. It is said that it takes less than 1/10th of a second to form an assessment of someone’s face. However, how accurate are our first impressions? Most of the times they are inaccurate. When we start getting to know them more, we realize that our first impression was wrong. We may have thought of someone to be very calm and composed at the first look but later would have realized that the person was exactly the opposite. The same is true with our spiritual lives as well. Some people portray themselves as spiritual giants but only to discover that they hardly have any relationship with God. We think of some people as spiritual babes but only to realize that they are actually men and women of great faith.
Zechariah experiences something similar in this marvellous vision.
Zech 3:1 - Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
Here, Zechariah sees a man named Joshua. Zechariah identifies him to be Joshua meaning he was somebody well-known to Zechariah.
Who is this Joshua?
Many misunderstand this Joshua to be the successor of Moses and the son of Nun.
However, he was not that Joshua.
Haggai 1:1 - In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
He was Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, who served as high priest during the times of Zechariah and Haggai.
The position of the High Priest is the most esteemed one among the Jews.
The Jewish temple consisted of three sections:
- The outer court
- Holy Place
- Holy of Holies
Any Jew could enter the outer court. However, only priests were permitted inside the Holy Place. At the back of the Holy Place was the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest had the unique privilege of entering the Holy of Holies, that too, only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood for the atonement of his own sins and those of the people of Israel (Leviticus 16).
The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was separated by the curtain.
The High priest’s clothes were very special. He normally wore an ephod (Exo 28:6-14), breastplate (Exo 28:15-30), robe (Exo 28:31-35), turban (Exo 28:36-38), linen turban (Exo 28:39). There were bells on his robe (Exo 28:33; Exo 39:25-26). The bells jingling was a sign that he was still alive and that he had been accepted by God and not fallen to the ground dead.
Jews had an ancient practise of attaching a robe to the ankle or leg of the High priest. A priest in the Holy Place tended the other end of this rope, which had a very practical purpose. If the High Priest said or did something wrong, it was believed that he would die in the presence of the Holy God. Since nobody else was allowed enter that part of the temple without also dying, the rope was used pull out the body of the high priest, if necessary.
Zechariah sees this High Priest in vision. There was also the Angel of the Lord standing before him and Satan was also present there to accuse Joshua.
This resembled a court scene with 3 members:
1. Accused – Joshua, the High Priest
2. Accuser – Satan
3. Judge - Angel of the Lord
There is a difference between an angel and the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord is the only angel who refers to himself in the Old Testament as the Lord and God in the first person, while the other angels are messengers sent by God who did not accept this kind of glory. Bible scholars identify this Angel of the Lord to be pre-incarnate Christ.
Satan is accusing Joshua, the High Priest.
We find similar instance in the story of Job (Job 1:8-11) where satan went before the very throne of God to accuse Job, the one certified by God to be blameless and upright.
If satan could accuse the one certified by God Himself, then how much does he keep accusing us. In fact, that is what he does day and night.
Rev 12:10 - Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
God proved the accusations of satan against Job to be false.
However, here satan accuses the high priest Joshua and his accusations seem to be true as in verse 3, we read:
Zech 3:3 - Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel
The Hebrew language for filth here is the filth of the most loathsome, smelling foul kind.
Such smelly filth represents the sins of the people as viewed by the Holy God.
Can you imagine the fear that would have flooded Zechariah when he saw the High Priest in his filthy garments and satan accusing him?
What happened to his special religious garments?
How can a man who serve as a priest of God allow himself to be become filthy? Not in one day!
It all starts with little things. Little sins stain our clothes and finally keeps accumulating to become filthy rags.
There is no such thing as acceptable sin in the life of a Christian. No such thing as a little lie, a little backbiting, a little outburst of anger.
1 Peter 1:15-16 - but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
If our standard of holiness is the Lord’s standard, no matter how good or righteous we look here, our righteousness are all filthy rags in the presence of God.
Isaiah 64:6 - But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
Here, the High Priest represents not just himself but he represents the entire Israel. If the righteousness of the High Priest and His own chosen people are as filthy rags, how will be our righteousness before Him? If Pauls says that he was the chief of sinners, how about us.
That is why Peter says in 1 Peter 4:18 –
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
Outwardly we all appear righteous, holy and good, but
1. God knows you we actually are
2. Satan also knows who we actually are
That is why, he boldly goes to the presence of God to accuse us. He is the one who tempts us and makes us to sin. Again, he is the one who accuses us of those sins before God. He also accuses us of our past failures and shortcomings making us feel guilty and discouraged.
When God gives us a promise, satan condemns, “You are a sinner, you cannot inherit the promise.” When God gives us a special assignment, satan says, “You cannot do, you are not deserving. Your situation is like that”
We get discouraged because of these since it is partly true. Discouragement is one of the greatest tools that he uses against the people of God.
I remember reading a very interesting story. It was about the devil advertising that he was going to put his tools up for sale. There was a sale price for each of the tools that were placed on display. There were a lot of harmful implements such as jealousy, pride, enmity, wrath, murder, robbery and so. However, there was one harmless looking tool that was laid apart from the rest. Surprisingly, this tool was priced very high although it looked very used and worn out. One of the purchasers asked for the name of that tool to which the devil replied, “Discouragement”. Wondering, the purchaser asked why it was so highly priced although so worn out to which the devil replied, “This is my most used tool. I have been successful at almost everyone with this. Very few people are aware that it actually belongs to me.”
Remember that once we are discouraged, satan has won half the battle because we are discouraged, we are not grateful to God, we start murmuring against him, our prayer life is badly hit and our relationship with God is affected. That is what, Satan needs. If our relationship with God is not correct, Satan can easily attack our health, our finance, our family and everything.
Something wonderful happens now in Zechariah’s vision:
Zech 3:2 - And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
The Lord steps in and defends the people whom satan was accusing.
Firstly, the Lord rebuked satan. When the Lord rebukes someone, their power is lost. When Lord rebuked the Red Sea, it dried up. When the Lord rebuked the wind and waves, there was a calm.
Note that we don’t rebuke Satan but God does. Jude 8-11a
The Lord said, “The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!” It was the Lord who chose Jerusalem. Likewise, He chose us, we did not choose Him.
John 15:16 - You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask.
What keeps us continually attached to Christ is not our strength and faithfulness to hold on to Him. If that were so, we would have lost our salvation long ago. It is based on His choice of us.
Is this not a brand plucked from the fire – Fire represents Babylonian captivity. What the Lord was saying was His people had already suffered enough punishment for their sins. That was the Fatherly discipline.
Our adversary, the devil, may accuse us but he has no power to condemn us. Only the Judge, our Lord, has the power to condemn and acquit.
God acquits us by doing something marvellous.
Zech 3:4 - The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
The Angel of the Lord takes an action that neither Joshua nor mankind can take for themselves. We cannot clean ourselves. That is why Romans 7:23-25 says that we struggle with sin. But God has the power to take out our sin.
Sinful people cannot enter the kingdom of God. If God would allow it, the mercy of God will not be consistent with the righteousness of God.
There is a beautiful verse in psalms.
Psalm 85:10 - Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth represents reality, without error and hypocrisy. Mercy overlooks the error. In a way, truth and mercy contradicts each other but they have met together. Again, righteousness refers to inflexible injustice. However, the righteousness of God was opposed to peace on earth, if we remain in a sinful, unrepentant state. But these two contradictory concepts have kissed.
When did these opposing attributes meet each other? Its ultimate fulfilment is in Christ at the cross of Calvary. In Jesus, we are declared righteous.
This is what happens in this vision. The Angel replaces the filthy garment with the rich robe. This represents Jesus dying for our sins and clothing us with His righteousness.
Two events take place:
1. Taking off – the removal of filthy garments from him is symbolic of the taking away of sin (Romans 3:25; Eph 1:7). This is the result of forgiveness of sin.
2. Putting on – clothing in rich robe symbolic of the righteousness of God through Christ (Romans 1:16-17). This is the symbolic transformation of our old character with the new character of purity, glory and joy.
Zech 3:5 - Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So, they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by
A glistening turban completes the rich attire. Such turbans are not usually worn by everybody but only the princes and kings.
We read in Exodus 39:30-31 that the High priest wore a turban that had written upon it, ‘Holy to the Lord’.
Every person who receives Christ in his life will be crowned with the crown of life.
Now the priest was clean and perfect from head to foot.
Everyday our garments get stained and everyday we need to change our filthy garments and put on clean garments (through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which washes away all our sins) so that we can enter His manifest presence.
