Longing For The Righteousness Of God

Zechariah 3:1 NKJV

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.

Longing For The Righteousness Of God

Zechariah 3:1-5

John Wesley never forgot a terrible night of his childhood. He was only six years old at the time, and he had awakened in the family’s old rectory to find it ablaze from top to bottom.

Everyone else had been dragged from the building, but by some extraordinary oversight he had been forgotten.

At the very last moment, just before the roof fell in with a crash, a neighbor climbed on another’s shoulders and pulled the terrified child from a window.

Later that scene was drawn for Wesley, and he kept it until the day of his death.

He wrote under it a verse taken from the third chapter of Zechariah: “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (v. 2b, kjv).

Wesley’s experience in being literally saved from fire was unusual, but all of God’s people experience it in a far more important sense. Jesus Christ has rescued us from the fires of hell.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 500–501.

The verse that meant so much to Wesley occurs in the middle of the fourth of Zechariah’s visions, seen on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the second year of King Darius.

There had been three visions before this: (1) a man seated upon a red horse among some myrtle trees (1:7–17),

(2) four horns and four craftsmen raised up to terrify and scatter them (1:18–21), and

(3) a man with a measuring line going out to measure Jerusalem (2:1–13). These were encouraging.

They showed that God was again among his people, intending to bless and prosper them;

Zechariah 3:1-5

The vision opens with a glimpse inside the divine courtroom. The divine council is in attendance, and on trial is Joshua the high priest.

Playing the part of the prosecutor is the Accuser who is standing at Joshua’s right side ready to accuse him (cf. Job 1:6–2:7).

In Joshua’s defense is the angel of the Lord. Interestingly, the dialogue begins with a rebuke to the Accuser, not with a report of the accusations.

Either the Accuser had already made his accusations before the vision began or else he is cut off before he can verbalize them. Nevertheless, we can infer what the accusation would have been.1

1 Bryan R. Gregory, Longing for God in an Age of Discouragement: The Gospel according to Zechariah, ed. Tremper Longman III, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010), 75.

Presumably the Accuser had come to lay blame on Jerusalem but more specifically on the high priest, Joshua (vv. 1–2).

The accusations apparently were not baseless since Joshua appears in court dressed in soiled garments, an image of great scandal to those familiar with the sacrificial system.

Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies in the temple and offer sacrifices for himself, his household, and for all the people (Lev. 16).

Before the high priest could enter into the sacred presence of God in the very inner compartment of the temple, he would put on clean, sacred linen garments in order to symbolize the need for the mediator to be holy (Ex. 28:42–43; cf. Ps. 24:3–4).

Consequently, for Joshua to be dressed in filthy clothes was a grave situation.

In fact, the Hebrew word for “filthy” (tso’im) is derived from the root for human excrement (cf. Deut. 23:13; Ezek. 4:12), leaving the reader with a particularly graphic image of the uncleanness.

Joshua said nothing. Presumably he had nothing to say. He was sinful and, being sinful, was unworthy.

Joshua stood before the Lord as a representative of Israel, a people He had called to be a holy nation of priests (Ex. 19:5–6).

He wore filthy clothes, not because of just his sin, but because the people had sinned and were unclean in God’s sight.

The emphasis here is on the nation collectively and not on Joshua individually, for both Joshua and Zerubbabel were “men symbolic of things to come” (v. 8, niv).

God had chosen Jerusalem and had plucked the Jews out of the fire of Babylonian Captivity (v. 2).

What God did for Joshua symbolically He would do for Israel personally: the iniquity of the land would be removed in a day (v. 9).

To “stand before the Lord” means to be in a place of service (Gen. 41:46; Deut. 10:8; 1 Sam. 16:21), so the Jews became defiled while they were attempting to serve the Lord.

Since the priests were commanded to keep themselves clean at all times, on penalty of death (Ex. 28:39–43; 30:17–21),

Joshua’s wearing filthy garments would be a terrible personal embarrassment and an offense against God’s law.

Those garments were “for glory and for beauty” (Ex. 28:2, 40), but the Lord saw neither glory nor beauty as He beheld His servant.1

1 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Heroic, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: ChariotVictor Pub., 1997), 97–98.

Zechariah has described a courtroom scene, in which Joshua is the defendant, God is the Judge,

Satan is the prosecuting attorney, and Jesus Christ is the defense attorney, the Advocate of God’s people before the holy throne of God (1 John 2:1–2).

The word “Satan” means “adversary” and refers to the enemy who resists God’s work and God’s people.

Satan has access to the throne of God (Job 1–2) where he accuses God’s people (Rev. 12:10).

When Satan talks to us about God, he lies, but when he talks to God about us, he tells the truth!

But God spoke, and his words were a rebuke to Satan: “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!

The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Then Joshua’s filthy clothes were taken away, and rich garments and a clean turban were put on him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.

The angel of the Lord defends Joshua with a declaration of his power to redeem. He points out that Joshua was a “burning stick plucked from the fire.”

The phrase is an echo of Amos 4:11, which tells of some Judeans who were narrowly rescued from God’s destructive judgment.

They were a burning stick snatched from the fire, pulled out at the last possible moment before being consumed by the flames.

In the same way, though the judgment of the exile and the defilement of the people may have lead some to think that all was lost, God took action before it was too late.

God was plucking Joshua (and the people) out from the fire and restoring them.

The angel of the Lord then dramatically acts out the Lord’s intention to cleanse Joshua (and the people) from their soiled past.

Joshua’s filthy garments are taken away and replaced with a ceremonially clean turban and festal robes.

These garments are the clothing of the high priest, as described in Exodus 28, when he represented the people before the Lord.

The four items named are the ephod, the breastpiece, the special robe, and the turban. Fastened to the turban was a gold plate engraved with the words “Holy to the Lord.”

It was to be on the high priest’s forehead when he bore the people’s guilt involved in the consecration of their sacred gifts (Ex. 28:36–38).

Therefore, the replacement of Joshua’s filthy clothes with a festal robe and a clean turban symbolizes the removal of guilt, both his and the people’s (cf. Lev. 16:3–22), and the reinstatement of a purified priesthood.

He gave a word of assurance to Joshua: “See, I have taken away your sin” (Zech. 3:4, niv).

Believers today know they are forgiven when they confess their sins, because they have the assurance of His promise.

According to 1 John 1:9, God is not only faithful [to His promise], but He is also just [toward His Son] and will not condemn His people for sins for which His own Son had already been condemned.

But God in His grace goes beyond forgiveness and clothes us in His own righteousness. “I will put rich garments on you” (Zech. 3:4, niv).

Adam and Eve tried to hide their guilt under garments of their own making (Gen. 3:7), but God killed animals and clothed them in skins (v. 21).

Blood was shed that sin might be forgiven. “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” (Isa. 61:10, nkjv; see Luke 15:22).

More important than any of these other doctrines, however, is the picture of salvation presented by the clothing of Joshua in clean garments.

This taps into a rich stream of biblical imagery.

In Isaiah 64:6, in a passage that would no doubt be known to Zechariah and the biblically literate, returning exiles, Isaiah wrote:

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”

Job said, “I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban” (Job 29:14).

The question posed by this vision is whether we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness and are therefore found fit to appear before God or whether we are still clothed in the filthy robes of our own righteousness, which makes us unfit and will eventually condemn us.

A Charge To Keep

Zechariah 3:6-7

The story of the justification of Joshua does not stop with the priest’s change of clothing, for immediately after this the angel of the Lord gives Joshua this charge:

“This is what the Lord Almighty 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’ ” (Zech 3:6–7).

It brings to mind something Jesus did during the days of his earthly ministry.

On one occasion the enemies of the Lord brought him a woman they had trapped in adultery.

Everyone knew that the ministry of Jesus had been marked by compassion and that he could be expected to forgive the woman’s sin.

But the law of Moses had fixed the penalty for adultery as death.

Christ’s enemies asked him what should be done, knowing that if he said to obey the law and kill her, he would be discredited as a compassionate man, and that if he said the opposite and forgave her, he could be accused of violating the law of Moses.

It was a real problem. Indeed, it was the problem of all problems.

How can God show love to the sinner without being unjust? How can the love of God and the justice of God be harmonized?

We know the story. Jesus told the one who was without sin to cast the first stone at her, and they, being convicted by their own consciences, went out one by one until only the woman was left.

Then Jesus forgave her, undoubtedly on the basis of his imminent death for sinners.

In this he was doing precisely what was earlier done for Joshua. He was clothing her in the robes of his own righteousness.

But then he said, as he also said to Joshua, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).

This command always follows upon forgiveness, for we cannot be justified by God and then do as we please.

We must stop sinning. At the same time, we can be glad the order is as Christ gives it.

He did not tell the woman, “Go now, leave your life of sin and I will not condemn you.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you.… Go now, and leave your life of sin.” No delayed sentence, no probation period, new leaf.

Similarly he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you,” and only after that did he say,

“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.”

If we have experienced God’s forgiveness, we must live for him.

See Zechariah 3:8-10

Building on this great promise, the angel of the Lord paints a hopeful picture of the future in verses 8–10 to Joshua and his colleagues.

Joshua and his priestly associates are a sign of what is to come, namely that the Lord will bring his servant, the Branch.

Isaiah and Jeremiah had spoken in earlier times of the Branch as a righteous Davidic ruler who would come in the future.

For instance, Jeremiah says,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 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. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jer. 33:14–16 esv; cf. Jer. 23:5–6; Isa. 11:1)

The stone” is another image of Messiah found often in Scripture, revealing several aspects of His ministry.

Messiah is the cornerstone (Ps. 118:22–23; Matt. 21:42; Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:7; see Zech. 10:4, niv), a stone of stumbling (Isa. 8:14; 1 Peter 2:8; Rom. 9:32–33), the rejected stone (Ps. 118:22–23; Matt. 21:42), the smitten stone (Ex. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4), and the smiting stone (Dan. 2:34–35).

At His first advent, Jesus was a stumbling stone to Israel who rejected Him, but He became the foundation stone for the church.

At His second advent, He will smite the kingdoms of the world and establish His glorious kingdom.

Within the historical context, this can only mean that God is signaling a fresh redemptive work on behalf of his people; the new age is preparing to dawn.

Joshua becomes a picture of what the messianic age of the Branch will be like. Just as his filthy garments were removed and replaced with clean vestments so the same will be true of the land as a whole.

The removal of iniquity and its replacement with righteousness will be characteristic of everyone’s condition when the promised Davidic Branch comes.

Once that happens, there will be widespread joy and reconciliation in the community of God’s people (v. 10; cf. Mic. 4:4), reminiscent of the idealized golden age of Solomon’s unified kingdom (cf. 1 Kings 4:25).

How Jesus fulfills this:

The emphasis of this paragraph is not on the identity of the Messiah as the Servant, Branch, or Stone, however.

It is on Christ as priest, since the opening words speak of Joshua and his associates as “symbolic of things to come” (v. 8).

The verse is saying that the one who was already known as the Servant, Branch, and Stone will fulfill the priestly function, removing the sin of the land in a single day and thus providing for the very cleansing of Joshua and the others about whom the vision has been speaking.

The Book of Hebrews develops these themes in the fullest measure and is therefore in some sense a New Testament commentary on Zechariah.

It shows that Jesus fulfilled this function in two ways, by offering himself up as a sacrifice for sin (which the Old Testament priests could not do) and by interceding for his people in heaven.

That Jesus is himself the sacrifice for sins makes clear that his priesthood is different from and superior to the Old Testament priesthoods.

There are other differences too. To begin with, the Old Testament priests were sinful and were required to offer a sacrifice for themselves as well as for those they represented.

For example, before the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, which he did once a year, he first had to offer a bullock as a burnt offering for his sin and that of his household (Lev. 16:6).

Only after that was he able to proceed with the ceremonies connected with the scapegoat and the offering whose blood was to be sprinkled upon the mercy seat within the Holy of Holies.

Again, the sacrifices the priests of Israel offered were inadequate. They taught the way of salvation through the death of an innocent victim.

But the blood of sheep and goats could not take away sins, as both the Old Testament and the New Testament recognize (Amos 5:22; Mic. 6:6–7; Heb. 10:4–7).

Finally, the sacrifices of the earthly priests were also incomplete. They had to be offered again and again.

In Jerusalem, for example, the fire on the great altar of sacrifice never went out; and on a great sabbath such as the Passover, hundreds of thousands of lambs would be offered.

In contrast to this earthly priesthood, the sacrifice of Jesus is by one who is himself perfect and who therefore has no need that atonement be made for him.

The author of Hebrews says, “Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people” (Heb. 7:26–27).

Second, being himself perfect and at the same time the sacrifice, it follows that the sacrifice made by Jesus was itself perfect.

Hence, it could actually pay the price for sin and remove it, as the sacrifices in Israel could not. They were a shadow of things to come, but they were not the reality.

Jesus’ death was the actual atonement on the basis of which God declares the sinner righteous. The author of Hebrews makes this point in chapter 9:

“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he … did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (vv. 11–14).

Finally, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament priests that had to be repeated daily, the sacrifice of Jesus was complete and eternal.

This is confirmed by the fact that he is now seated at the right hand of God.

In the Jewish temple there were no chairs. This signified that the work of the priests was never done.

“But when [Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:12–14).

How does this apply to me:

As one who was soiled by the Babylonian exile, Joshua was unfit for priestly service in the soon-to-be-built temple.

The implications were grave not only for him, but for the whole postexilic community whom he represented. In the process of rebuilding the temple, the need to have a purified priesthood must have been a major concern.

Was the exile too great of an obstacle to overcome? Had it soiled the priests and the people beyond repair? Could they be made clean again? Was there any hope left for a nation that had been soiled as they had?

We too ask the same kinds of questions. We have all done shameful things, and we struggle to understand why we did them.

We all have things in our past that haunt us with a guilt we cannot seem to get rid of.

Perhaps that deep sense of regret leaves us feeling as though we are forever soiled by indelible marks on our record.

So we ask ourselves in the privacy of our own hearts, is my past too corrupted to move ahead? Can I really be clean again? Is there still hope for me?

In answer to these questions, Joshua appears in the divine courtroom. He wears his vocational garments, which are soiled with his and the people’s uncleanness.

But, in a work of purifying grace, God has the filthy garments removed and then cloaks Joshua in pure vestments, symbolizing that he is clean and fit for priestly service.

The significance of that should not be overlooked. God can cleanse any past, no matter how soiled. He can replace filthy garments with clean robes.

No history, whether national or personal, is beyond the reach of his redemptive work.

As the high priest for sinners, Jesus takes our uncleanness upon himself in order to effect an astonishing transfer.

As Paul succinctly puts it, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21 niv; cf. Phil. 3:9).

As Zechariah’s vision had portrayed, our uncleanness is removed and we are clothed in righteousness through the ministry of our great high priest, Jesus (Gal. 3:26–27; Eph. 4:20–24).

Consequently, because of our righteousness in Christ, our great high priest, we are given uninhibited access to the presence of God (Heb. 4:16; 10:19–22).

Sometimes, because of our past we believe that there is no future for us, that God cannot (or will not) use us because it is simply too late.

We are haunted by a soiled past. But we must remember that we have a high priest who has interceded and continues to intercede on our behalf.

And because of his faithfulness in our place, we know that God can cleanse any past, no matter how soiled it is—even our past.

After all, our God is a God who plucks burning sticks from the fire (cf. Jude 23), who removes filthy garments and replaces them with pure vestments, who gives us a future so unlike our past, who washes us clean and purifies us from impurity so that we are immune from any indictment by the Accuser.

So “what, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?… Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Rom. 8:31, 33–34 niv).

Amen and amen.