When The Enemy Comes To Accuse You

When The Enemy Comes To Accuse You

And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?—Zec 3:1-10. v.2 Text

As we look at our text the Israelites were engaged in rebuilding the Temple, but notwithstanding their own zeal and earnestness, and the apparent permission and encouragement of the Babylonian king, they found themselves making little progress. They were being continually defeated. The work halted in their hands. I can imagine the thoughts which may have troubled many at such an unexpected event.

In this book God gave the prophet Zechariah a series of eight visions and revelations on one special night. They were called “Zechariah’s Night Visions”. Each one of them had its own message but all of them together had one larger message, a larger message which supports the theme of the message of Zechariah’s book, which is the “return to God” message of 1:1-6. This vision is the fourth of those eight visions. We call it “Clean Garments for the High Priest” (NIV) or “New Clothes for Joshua”. The vision focuses on Joshua, who was a real person in Zechariah’s time; he was the priest who came back from the Exile to serve as high priest.

And as the vision starts, Joshua is on trial. The LORD (God) is there as judge. The angel of the Lord/LORD (whom I believe is the pre incarnate Jesus) is there as defender. And “satan” (“the accuser”) is there as prosecutor. And his job is fairly easy because Joshua is obviously guilty. His clothes (that is, his garments, his vestments, his high priestly robes) are dirty, filthy.

That dirt/filth represents his sins and the sins of the entire postexilic/remnant. (Joshua, as High Priest, is representing all the people). He represents the shame that they themselves are fully aware of at this time; they are aware/have become aware of what they have done.

He represents their guilt. And Satan is using/exploiting/picking at that sin, shame, and guilt. He’s making sure God sees it and he’s telling God what God ought to do about that. While we don’t actually hear what he says here; Zechariah doesn’t record that; but we can imagine it. We can imagine he is telling God, “Joshua and the people are not good. They are bad. They are defiled and damaged and you ought to get rid of them. You ought to break your relationship with them.”

Now there is some logic to that. That makes sense. That’s seems right. It is right by law according to the Word of the Lord. But that’s not what God does. That’s not what the angel of the LORD allows.

The angel of the LORD does something else. He says to whoever else is in the courtroom, whatever bailiffs or officials are there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Joshua’s filthy clothes were what Satan was exploiting; that sin/shame/guilt was the basis of his accusations, so the angel of the LORD does away with them. He has the court officials take off those clothes, thus taking away his and the people’s sin/shame/guilt, and replaces them with new, clean clothes, new vestments.

The symbolism of that is clear. This is forgiveness; this is, “though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18); this is “as far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). And Zechariah loves it. He understands what he is seeing here, as I said before, and he gets into it. He cries out, “Put a clean turban on his head.”, that is, complete the forgiveness process. And the court officials do that. They give Joshua these new, clean vestments and turban. And with that symbolic act, Joshua and the people are forgiven. They are cleansed. They are pardoned.

Isaiah 61:3 says that God gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

that we might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

With that being said, the trial apparently ended. Satan apparently creeps away. His accusations, though right and logical and reasonable, are nullified by God’s forgiveness, so he has nothing left to say, no accusations left to make. But the vision doesn’t stop there, though.

The Lord Almighty says a few things to Joshua before it is all over.

He makes a prediction of prosperity. He makes a messianic prophecy (8-9; a very strange one). Most important to us today, though, is He makes Joshua a promise of reward.

He says, If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.