Zechariah 3
Notes
Transcript
The Fourth Vision
The Fourth Vision
Here we move into a little different territory. So far every vision has started with “I saw" “I lifted my eyes and saw” and “I lifted my eyes and saw"
This time it starts “Then he showed me" so there is a bit of a difference right from the gate. We also don't get an angelic interpretation. This first portion however is very clear and needs no interpreter to make the meaning clear. So let's get into that.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
The High priest during this time was mentioned in our previous book Haggai which takes place just a short time before where we're at now. Zerubbabel was the governor (descendant of David so potentially king) and Joshua is the high priest.
We get Satan in the picture right away. The word here in Hebrew is ha sa tawn, It's where we get the word Satan in English we're just moving the sounds of the Hebrew to English. Satan just means accuser or adversary, but the ha in front means THE so this isn't just an accuser it is THE accuser. What is very interesting is that we don't hear any accusations. If we compare this to Job's story the accuser says a lot during the whole thing. Here he says nothing it's assumed by the response. There he's identified as an angelic being. Here he's not explained at all It's just assumed. This is a way to make clear the non-importance of Satan. Yes he's there as the accuser but what does that matter if you're chosen by God? That gets re-inforced in the accuser's rebuke.
And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”
So the accuser is rebuked. We don't even hear what the accusation was. Then he's rebuked again but this time with the re-affirmation that the Lord chose Jerusalem. This confirms that covenant the Lord has with is people. It's a re-assurance but in a different way than our first 3 visions. In those first 3 visions we get confirmation that God has every intention of restoring his people and their great city and His great house the temple. But this is like over hearing your buddy defend you before others. It's one thing for a friend to tell you they have your back. It's another to see them have your back against your enemy. Notice who rebukes satan here as well. It is not Zechariah, nor an angel but Yahweh, the Lord with the capital ‘L’ is the one rebuking. A rebuke in this sense is harse, it's the wrath of God harsh. Jude in the new testament brings out who's role this is. And it's the Lord's alone. We get a weird story Jude 9-10
But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
I don't have a lot of time to dive way deep into this but to distill what's admonished here is the rebuking of everything you dont' understand, or don't like. I've known people that just wanted to rebuke everything. That is not advisable. Instead we leave that to the Lord. The Lord rebuke you is where even the archangel Michael leaves it. Okay that was freebie just throwing it out there.
Back to Zechariah where we move past the rebuking and get to the burning stick. Here is one of those sort of references we should pick up on from chewing on the Word a lot. Let's look at a bunch of similar references that might be on the side of your Bible.
But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
The same reference in Jeremiah
that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,
And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
and more recently Amos 4.11
“I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
The brand or burnt stick is a picture of one who is under judgment but saved by God. This type of metaphore is even echoed in the new testament 1 Cor 3.15
If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
So we're talking about Joshua here. Telling Satan don't you see this is a scorched stick I've already pulled from the fire? He's already been freed from Babylon.
Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”
We don't completely grab this context I think. Clothes still reflect on people but not like they used to. We get details and emphasis that we often ignore in passages, Kings and their Royal Robes, Prophets and their mantles, Priests and the vestments. When Haman in the book of Esther thinks he’s going to be honored by the King he says the greatest thing that he thinks can be done for himself. Put him in a robe the king has worn and seat him on a horse the king has ridden and parade him through the city. So for someone who is the High priest to be standing before God in filth it is a shame, it is a horror, it is worse than nakedness. A tie in between the garment and the burning stick comes back to play in Jude 23
save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Snatch them from judgment by pulling them out of judgment by the church showing mercy but keep hating the sin. The garment is their sin.
And then in Rev 3.4 we have the ones who aren't guilty of the same faults everyone in their Church are they're described this way.
Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
So these garments are a big deal. Their tied to the office and role of the person. When you're in filth or soiled garments, it's a picture of your sinfulness. For a priest, especially the high priest they had to be clean, ceremonially clean and wearing the special vestments of the office certainly not some excrament stained clothes. But there is a problem, and everyone knows the problem. There is no path to become ceremonially clean for the high priest at this time. This dilemma needs a resolution. We have the instructions for what he would need to do as a priest in Lev 22:6-7
the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food.
It's not that complicated but this cleansing seems to be more than ceremonial. God wants to picture something else because he has the angel there remove the filth and then says it is iniquity or sin that has been taken away and that now God will cloth him with pure vestments. It is God that has always made man righteous. Even in the old testament when they did things to be clean to enter the temple and worship the Lord their iniquity hadn't been removed just covered. Now he's going to get a new hat and then we'll end the vision and begin the admonishion.
And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
Cleansed from sin and then given a new set of clothes. It is Justification. God has removed sin and granted righteousness.
Now we get to what to do now.
And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.
Very similar phrasing that reminds us of the promise to Israel in the land.
Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
this continues to mirror a Deuteronomy theme as we go to verse 8.
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.
Anyone catch where we’re going here?
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
The shema, the thing everyone knows and memorizes and teaches their children. The defining thing about Israel. But we shift from that and point through the men around him a future blessing. The embodyment of all the priests/friends/colleagues around him as a blessing culminate in His servant the Branch. Anyone have your translation capitalize the word branch? Why?
It is one of the messianic titles the Bible uses.
In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
These prophets all preceded Zechariah so this is not starting a new theme it’s picking one up. God continues his message through the whole Bible and stays consistent. Servant is another messianic title that Christ assumes but it also applies to many others as an honored title. We jump meaphores again very quickly in the next verse.
For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
There are a lot of different views on this. So I want to be clear and up front that I don’t think anyone knows a definitive “this is what this means” when it comes to this verse. At first glance to our Christian eyes we see a picture of the cornerstone of Christ who takes away the sin of the land ina single day on the cross. To the Hebrew the picture of stones fits very well with the new clothes that Joshua as high priest would have received. The breastplate he wore had 12 stones one for each of the tribes of israel and a stone that represented the urim and one the thummim. Those 14 stones would coincide with the 7 pairs of eyes and the description we get ofthe high priest uniform says the stones are inscribed with their name. The high priest did also performe the ritual once a year that covered all the sin for the nation and it was in a single day which also pictures a messianic Christ on the cross. In whatever way this is understood the future promise of forgiveness of sins and the priesthood of God is certainly in view.
In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
Here we have a common phrase in that day which points us to that future eschatalogical end times day. To understand the end phrasing we can look at Micah 4.4
but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
it’s a joyous time of peace and comfort. No one will be afraid they can kick their feet up and relax.