Zechariah 3: The Vision of Joshua and Satan and the Vision of the Branch

1. Introduction.

As we continue in Zechariah, as you have seen, we are clearly in a highly figurative section of God’s Word, and I believe God inspired Zechariah to write in such a manner that if you were going to know what God was trying to say that you would have to intensively study what God was saying in order to understand it.

Now, we said that Zechariah’s visions should be considered together as focusing on one particular message, and that message is that God has a plan for Israel.

The visions of Zechariah are both Messianic and Millennial, and you must keep that in mind, and you must remember what Peter said.

2 Peter 1:20–21 “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

Prophecy is to be looked at holistically, and the understanding of prophecy is linked to knowing Jesus Christ. Now, I personally believe that many of the outlandish prophetic ideas that are put forth today are done so because the person putting the nonsense out does not know Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I do not know that you can understand any of the Bible without first knowing Jesus Christ.

To me, the perfect example of what I just is found in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They knew what the Scriptures said, but they did not understand what the Scriptures meant. They could not understand because they did not know Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Prophecy must be looked at in totality if you are going to get the overall picture. Prophecy in the Bible begins in Genesis Chap. 3 and goes through Revelation Chap. 20. How can you possibly pick one passage out of that much Scripture and make it your eschatological viewpoint?

By the way, 1/3 of all the prophecies in the Bible are yet to be fulfilled, and 27% of the Bible is dedicated to prophecy. God wants us to know what is coming in the future so we can live in confidence today.

2. The Vision of Joshua and Satan.

Zechariah 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.”

Zechariah is wide awake as God shows him another vision. This is not the Joshua that led Israel into the Promised Land. Let’s take a closer look.

A. The Setting.

Zechariah is shown the heavenly court which underscores the seriousness of the situation. Joshua, which means Jehovah saves, is the high priest of the returning remnant.

Joshua was seen by Zechariah standing by the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Jesus Christ.

Satan is also present in this heavenly courtroom. His purpose there is to bring charges against Joshua. The Bible says that Satan is there to oppose Joshua.

Satan is the great accuser of the brethren, and there is a great verse in the New Testament that describes the dynamic between our Advocate, Jesus Christ, and our accuser, Satan.

1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

If you are saved, Jesus Christ is your Advocate before the Father.

In the Bible, an advocate is one who pleads another’s cause, one who defends another, or one who comforts another. As you can see, Jesus Christ is our Advocate, but this question arises.

Why does a Christian need an advocate?

Revelation 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.”

Here is what happens, as you obviously see that Satan does not tire or grow weary of accusing you or me.

Anytime we sin, Satan brings to God’s attention, and when he does, Jesus Christ pleads our case and defends us before the Father. He is our great Advocate. Satan never grows tired, but Jesus Christ is our eternal Advocate, and He will always plead our case even when we sin. Why? Because a true Christian has accepted Christ’s covering for their sins.

So, our setting is Joshua, the high priest of the returning remnant, Satan, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly courtroom.

B. The Action.

Zechariah 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?””

You must always remember this in your daily life and in your Bible studies.

Even though Lucifer was magnificently created, and even as Isaiah says that Satan is the son of the morning, only God is sovereign. Satan is not all-powerful. Satan is a created being.

Satan was probably the highest and most magnificent creature ever created, and he was given great authority.

Ezekiel 28:14 ““You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

Ephesians 2:2 “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,”

Satan has great authority and power, but he is not all-knowing, and he is not all-powerful. Only God is sovereign.

Satan was created in perfection with a free will, and in his free will, he chose to sin. Isaiah says that Satan turned to his own way, and that’s what all of us do.

In our heavenly scene, the Lord rebuked Satan. WHY? __________________________________________________________________________

Because Satan was bringing accusations against the high priest, Joshua.

Now, pay careful attention to what I am about to say.

As in his accusations against us, Satan did not make up the charges against Joshua. The accusations he made were legitimate just as the accusations he hurls our way are legitimate.

Pay attention to what God says.

“The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!”

God’s rebuke of Satan was not on Joshua’s behalf but on account of Jerusalem. God rebuked Satan because it was God who had chosen Jerusalem, and then the Lord says something really interesting.

“Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

It looked as if Jerusalem could never be rebuilt after the destruction caused by Nebuchadnezzar. The city lay in ruins and ashes for 70 years. Then out of the ruins, the city is rebuilt, plucked out of the burning.

Do you know who else was a brand plucked out of the fire? ________________________

Jimmy Joe Clendenin was a brand plucked out of the fire in the Spring of 1979 because Jimmy was chosen to be part of the body of Christ, and even though his life was in ruins, new life sprang forth as he was born again, and in a moment in time, life sprang forth just as it did for Jerusalem after it lay in ruin and ashes for 70 years.

Are you a brand that has been plucked from the fire? My prayer is that you have been.

Now, I need you to put your thinking caps on as we conclude this vision. Let’s read the verses.

Zechariah 3:3–7 “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 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.” 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. Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here.”

Now, this vision of Joshua goes beyond the man himself.

Joshua, the high priest, represented the people before God, and like the people, his garments were stained with sin.

Joshua was to represent the nation, but he was stained with a filthy garment. Now, if you know the Bible and The Chosen, you know the high priest had to dressed spotlessly or else he would not be permitted to serve God.

Well, Joshua was not spotless, and neither was Judah.

J. Vernon McGee says this about Joshua.

“He (Joshua) represents and practically impersonates Judah in his holy office. For the nation he prays; for it he enters the holy place; he bears the nation’s guilt.” (J. Vernon McGee)

What an incredible statement! Dear friend, we are quick to blame the sinful world for what is going on around us, but we bear the guilt too. Time and time again throughout the Bible, before God blessed Israel or Judah, the prophets or God’s people owned the nation’s sins. Well, we are hesitant to do that today, and it seems like God is not acting. Maybe and probably, God is waiting on His people to own the sins of the nation before he acts. We do not even like to own our own sins. That is why we will not go to a brother or sister to apologize for losing our tempers. That is why we will not confess our sins before God the Father, and that is why our fellowship with God the Father is strained.

Did you know that Daniel own the sins of Judah?

Daniel 9:4–7 “And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.”

Dear friend, I really believe that is one one of the missing links in the church. Do you own the sins of the church? Or do you act like a Pharisee acting as if you have no sin? Do you own the sins of our nation? Daniel did, and in Zechariah, God makes it clear that Joshua bore the guilt of the nation’s sins. I think it is an incredible picture of how far we fall in our unrighteousness and in our failure to understand the holiness of God. We are all filthy before God. There is nothing special about us outside of Jesus Christ.

Joshua’s garments, which should have been clean, were filthy. Now, let me tell you something about that word filthy that is used in our passage if you promise not to throw anything at me.

“Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments” Filthy garments are not just dirty garments. Joshua’ filthy garments meant that there was human excrement on Joshua’s garments. Not only was Joshua filthy, but he smelled bad too.

Dear friend, that is the way all sin looks to God. That is why you can have no fellowship with God if you have sin in your life.

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”

Our righteousness is like filthy rags, and now you know that just does not mean dirty. Why do you think God turned His back on Jesus on Calvary? Because Jesus Christ was filthy with the sins of the world, and the appearance of and smell of that sin was repugnant to God.

I am telling you, dear friend, the church is just like Joshua. Too many in the church have filthy garments because we are too proud to confess our sins before God. When we sin, we are filthy before God, and that is when our Advocate goes to work if we confess our filthiness. Dear friend, I really believe there are people who are saved that honestly do not know if they are saved or not, and the reason they do not know is that the filthiness of their sin and their refusal to confess that filthiness has caused God to turn His back on them.

Christians can callously sin and come to church not thinking one minute about it. How dare we! We supposedly are children of the God who absolutely hates and detests the appearance of sin, yet we so casually dabble in it, and we never confess our involvement, and we never own the church’s sin. We never see ourselves as Joshua who was bearing the filth of all of Judah.

Dear friend, there was nothing Joshua could do about his filthiness, but there was something God could do.

Zechariah 3:4 “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.””

Joshua could not stand before a righteous and holy God with filthy garments.

Being filthy gave Satan the opportunity to oppose Joshua. Guess what? When you and I sin, we give Satan the opportunity to oppose and accuse us.

It was only God who could take away Joshua’s filthiness, and only God can take our filthiness, and He does that through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Dear friend, that is why I believe we will be reminded of Christ’s blood everywhere we look in the New Jerusalem. I believe that is why during the Millennium the Millennial Temple reconstitutes the sacrificial system. It will be a reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us, and I believe from time to time all of us who are saved will witness those sacrifices to be reminded of what Jesus did to take away our filthiness.

Jesus Christ takes away our filthy garments and wraps us in His righteousness.

Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Revelation 19:8 “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Joshua’s filthy garments represent his sins and the sins of Judah, and those filthy garments were removed and replaced by the righteousness of Christ.

Listen to this. This is extremely important to you if you want to have fellowship with each other and with God.

****When we stand clothed in Christ’s righteousness, without sin, no created thing, including Satan, can bring accusations against us.*****

Romans 8:31–34 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!

****When a child of God sins, the Devil has the right to accuse that child of God because that child gave Satan access to his or her life when he or she sinned.****

Ephesians 4:26–27 ““Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

I am telling you, dear friend, sin opens you up to Satan’s opposition, but as long as you are wrapped completely in Christ’s righteousness, he cannot accuse you.

Now, we cannot live in sinless perfection after we are saved, and God knows that which is why He told us what we need to do.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When you and I confess our sins, our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, our High Priest, goes to work restoring our broken fellowship with God and each other.

Why do so many live powerless Christian lives? Because our filthy garments have disrupted our fellowship with God and each other.

I believe there are many people like Lot who are so stained with sin they have no idea whether or not they are saved. They have not lost their salvation if they are saved, but they are not living lives wrapped in the righteousness of Christ. It is God Almighty who provides the clean garments that make it possible for us to stand before Him.

1 John 2:2 “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

It is Jesus Christ who is our covering, our propitiation.

We can clearly see the Messianic element of this vision, but what about the Millennial element of this vision?

As we currently sit here, Israel is filthy before God. Why? ________________________________________________________

Because Israel has not wrapped itself in the righteousness of Christ.

When will that happen? It happens when a remnant of Israel is saved out of the Great Tribulation.

Zechariah 12:10 ““And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

Zechariah 13:8–9 “And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ””

The terrible, sad reality is that it takes the terrible Tribulation for Israel to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

This is an incredible vision, but it continues.

Zechariah 3:6–7 “Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here.”

Now, this is very important, and quite frankly, it is something that too many Christians neglect, deny, or just simply do not believe.

Joshua had been filthy, but God made him clean, and God tells Joshua that if he wanted to be used by God, he had to stay clean, and that message was for Joshua, Judah, and us.

John 14:15 ““If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Dear friend, there is no substitute for obedience. If you are obedient to the commands of Christ, your garments will not become filthy. That does not mean living without sin, but it does mean taking care of your sin as soon as you sin.

3. The Vision of the Branch.

Zechariah 3:8–10 “‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ””

Who is the Branch? ___________________

The Branch is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah used the term to prophesy the first coming of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Jeremiah used the term to describe Jesus coming as King to the earth.

Jeremiah 23:5 ““Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.”

In verse 9, Zechariah references the Stone. Who is the stone? ___________________

Daniel 2:34–35 “You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

The Stone is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, do not get all caught up with verse 9 saying upon the stone are seven eyes because Scripture tells us what that means.

Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

The 7 eyes speak of the complete knowledge and wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is how the New Testament says it.

Colossians 2:3 “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:9 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;”

1 Corinthians 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—”

Jesus Christ is all-knowing and all-powerful because Jesus Christ is God.

I want you to pay close attention to the last part of verses 9 and 10 to see the Millennial element of this vision.

Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor Under his vine and under his fig tree.

Has the iniquity of the land of Israel been removed in one day? NO!!!!

But it will happen in the future as Christ will remove the iniquity from the land in one day as found in Rev. Chap 19 verses 11-21.

Zech. Chap 3 verse 10 says in that day.

To what is that day referring? It is referring to the Day of the Lord, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which will allow Israel to dwell in peace, enjoyment, and fulfillment.

Actually, the Day of the Lord begins with the Rapture of the church and lasts until the end of the Millennium.

What an incredibly deep chapter! I honestly believe that by the time we complete this study of Zechariah that we may read the entire Bible.