Zechariah's Fourth Vision: Qualified For Service Series

Today we will begin examining Zechariah’s fourth vision recorded in chapter 3. The vision can be divided into two-parts: I. Verses 1-5 is a revelation of God’s way of qualifying his people for relationship with him and for service to him. II. Verses 7-10 contains an admonition to faithfulness followed by a revelation of Messiah as the one who will bring God’s plan to pass. We will only have time today for the first section.

The theme of the first three visions has been God’s promise to bless his people: the nation of Israel and by extension Christians. According to Romans 11 we Christians been grafted into the olive tree and have become partakers of the covenant promises.i While the promises in this book are to the nation of Israel, those promises are extended to you and me as well. That’s why this study is so important, especially in these last days.

As a reminder of the magnitude of blessing God has extended to his people, we will read Zechariah 2:10-12. In this vision Jerusalem is symbolic of God’s people. God has promised to be a wall of fire around us and the glory within.ii Then in verse 10 he says, “‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,’ says the Lord. 11 ‘Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.’” iii The extent of these glorious blessings is staggering.

Pondering the goodness of God to believers, Peter declared, “. . . His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him [Christ] who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises . . .” (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Like Peter, we stand in awe of the height and depth of God’s promises to us. Likewise, Zechariah must have been in awe of the glorious future God is showing him.

But keep in mind that Zechariah was a priest as well as a prophet. He was very aware of the uncompromising holiness of God. He knew the demands of the law written by Moses. Coming out of the Babylonian captivity also realized the judgment that comes when God’s holiness is violated. As a mortal man, he knew his own propensity to sin. So conundrum that emerges is this: How can this holy God bless people who sin and come short of his glory?iv How can God remain uncompromising toward sin and at the same time fulfill these great promises that have been presented in the first three visions?

This fourth vision answers that concern. It addresses the sinfulness of man, then reveals God’s solution for the problem. Consider first:

I. The PROBLEM as presented in this vision:

Zechariah 3:1-5 says,

“Then he [God]v showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 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?’ 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him." And to him He said, "See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.’ 5 And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.”

This is the first time in this book that we encounter the high priest in Zechariah’s day named Joshua. He will appear again in the last vision in chapter 6. He is a key figure in the restoration of the temple. Don’t confuse him with the more familiar Joshua who led Israel into Canaan after Moses’s death hundreds of years earlier. The Joshua in our text worked with Ezra in the rebuilding of the temple after the seventy-year captivity in Babylon. Ezra 5:1-2 lists Ezra’s contemporaries who were the primary leaders at that time. The list includes a man named Zerubbabel whom we will encounter in the fifth vision in Zechariah 4. We will discuss him when we get to that vision. But notice this Joshua in the first two verses of Ezra 5. “Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua [this is a variant spelling of the Joshua in our Zech. 3 text]vi the son of Jozadak [this is the contracted form of Jehozadak used in Haggai and Zechariah]vii rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.”