The Priest, The Serpent and the Saviour

Oftentimes a good book elicits or draws out a response from us. Often that response is regarding a character. We laugh or shudder at the state a character is in. We scoff at their character and smirk at their circumstances. “What a poor soul that is” we may remark. I’m sure we’ve all read books like that; some foolish character makes a poor choice which ends up messing everything up. We laugh because of the humanity of such characters. We see ourselves in them.

As we come to this passage before us this morning, we are struck initially by the poor state of Joshua. As one who symbolises a nation weary from exile. Weary from their own sin that caused God to call Israel “Lo-Ammi, not my people.” After spending 70 years in Babylon the nation, much smaller, has come back to the Promised Land and seeks to rebuild the temple. Attacked from various sides, the people are tired. John Calvin writes, “We have said at the beginning that Zechariah was sent for this end—to encourage weak minds.[1]”

We see in Joshua a picture of ourselves. We see the humanity of this vision. Weighed down by sin and dirtiness, Joshua has no hope. Guilt and shame are piled upon him as Satan accuses him before the throne of God.

As we walk through this text we will see in this vision, an encouragement for our weak minds.

We will look at this text under 3 headings, The Priest, The Serpent and The Saviour.

The Priest

Read 3:1a

As Zechariah is shown his fourth vision, he is shown the image of a man, Joshua the High Priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord. Now, Joshua was the High Priest of Israel currently and was instrumental in the worship of Israel after their return from exile. Ezra tells us that Joshua rebuilt the altar and instituted proper worship in Israel again. He was an important man. As he was going about his ministry before the Lord, he was confronted by Satan.

As one commentator says, “what began as ministry, ended up as trial.”

Because Joshua was the High Priest, he represents covenant Israel. His work is before the Lord on behalf of the people. This is symbolised by the vestments that were to be worn, Ex 28:29,

“So, Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgement on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord.”

As one who was to represent a people, we can feel the tension in this vision. Imagine Zechariah looking on, he knew what all this meant. He knew who Joshua was. He knew that the verdict passed on Joshua meant a verdict passed on the rest of the nation.

So, seeing that Joshua was standing there “clothed with filthy garments,” must have really put Zechariah on edge. The one who was supposed to wear pure, clean garments, is standing before the Holy Judge dressed in the soiled clothes of a broken covenant.

Application

Though this vision was given to Joshua for the benefit of those in his age, as a typological priest, one who pictures Christ as the True Priest, this vision then concerns all the elect who are represented by the true High Priest.

In the immediate context, Joshua stands in garments soiled by a broken covenant at Sinai. More importantly, in the wider context, those garments are soiled by a broken covenant of works, as one who descends from Adam, Joshua’s sin is ultimately what gets in the way of being accepted before the Holy God. Joshua is not merely tarnished here and there but is a veritable sewer of pollution.

This too is our problem; we stand condemned under a broken covenant for we are natural descendants of Adam and inherit the sin that comes with that. We see that the sin we stand under, the garments that we dress in are so corrupted and dirty. Our own works condemn us. What hope is there?

Monopolising this state of Joshua, we find Satan standing next to him.

The Serpent

Read 3:1b

Scripture has many things to say about Satan but one of the roles we find him occupying often is the “Accuser of the Brethren.” Here Satan stands, pointing an accusatory finger at Joshua exclaiming to God, “How could you let someone like this in here!?”

Purpose

Satan does this because he hates God and so lashes out and attacks the people of God (Rev 12). When Satan is accusing God, the Gospel is at stake. Ultimately Satan is seeking to undermine God as saviour, from whom all goodness, truth, and mercy flow. Satan is attacking God as the true God, the creator, God of all truth and therefore His claim to be both just and the justifier.

You see, he seeks to attack the very character and nature of God. We saw this in the Garden. To Eve Satan sidles up and says, “did God really say you couldn’t eat this?” Reading between the lines, we can hear Satan say, “I thought God was supposed to be good? He seems to be withholding something good from you. Surely you won’t die.” In the garden, Satan accuses God before man; here, Satan accuses man before God. The very law that Satan sought to disregard as unkind, unjust, and unloving, is the same law he feigns holiness in upholding.

This is Satan’s favourite weapon. He loves to accuse us. Martin Luther writes,

“That is the way of the devil: he greatly inflates one’s sin and magnifies it and makes God’s judgments horrible, even as Rev. 12:10 tells us that the old dragon accuses the saints day and night before our God.”

As Satan rages against God, he attacks the Church. The same accusatory finger pointed at Joshua, Satan points at us. He points at your sin saying, “you are no saint! How could you claim to be a Christian, have you seen yourself?” That Old Dragon snaps his great jaws at us intending to tear us down, to destroy the body of Christ, to cast doubt and knock out our foundations, the faith that we have in Christ.

The Saviour

So, we are left on the edge of our seats. As ones anticipating the outcome of the trial, awaiting the verdict of the judge.

“The outcome of the ordeal between the messianic Servant and the diabolical serpent turns on the question of Joshua’s fate in the divine judgment: will this representative sinner be condemned and abandoned to the dominion of the devil, or will he be justified and consigned as a holy minister to the service of the God of glory?”

We hear the verdict thundering from the mouth of the Lord,

- “The Lord rebuke you!”

The Lord’s rebuke thunders forth. The rebuke that calms the seas, forcing their retreat. At the Lord’s rebuke the nations silence their raging. At the Lord’s rebuke, God silences the accusations levelled against you. During trials and tribulations, we have the One who testifies on our behalf.

We hear, as an echo in the valley, reverberations of God’s condemnation of Satan in Eden, “cursed are you!” That thunderous decree, doom for the devil and reconciliation for the people of God. Those words reverberate throughout redemptive history.

The same words leave our Lord’s mouth in His ministry here on earth. At His rebuke, the waves cease their raging (Luke 8:22-25) to which the disciples ask, “who is this?” At his rebuke, demons are cast into pigs (Luke 8:31-33). At His word, Satan Himself is rebuked (Matt 16:23). This is the One who stands beside us. The One who promised the death blow in the garden testifies on our behalf.

Application

Are you weighed down by the weight of your sin? Like the Psalmist who cries out, “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me.” What a wonderful comfort this is to us who are clothed in unrighteousness, we have the promise “But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name’s sake.”

The Lord is a strong tower, a place of refuge. In His rebuke there is comfort. We see the loving kindness of our God on display. The One who is above all, who by the word of His mouth, holds all things together, this one stands beside us amid trials. Though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though we may be accused by Satan who rages against the Church, our Lord’s rod and staff comfort us and lead us. His rebuke silences the attacks of the enemy. As the Apostle Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)

pause

The vision goes on, read rest of vs 2.

God offers here two reasons for Satan to be silent.

1. Election

The response here is amazing. While Satan pointed to Joshua’s sin as the reason why he shouldn’t be accepted, God responded that Joshua’s worth was never the basis for His love to begin with. God’s defence of Joshua is based purely in His own good character. Nothing that Joshua offered merited God’s favour.

David Baron comments, “If Israel’s position as the Lord’s peculiar people depended on their own faithfulness, then there would have been an end of them long ago; but Israel’s hope and safety rest on the immutable character and faithfulness of the Everlasting, Unchangeable God, and that makes all the difference.”

This is our comfort too. Your position as God’s is not founded in your success as a Christian, it rests on the “immutable character and faithfulness of the Everlasting, Unchangeable God.”

2. A Brand Plucked from the Fire

What a wonderful thought this is. We who are deserving of judgement, God, in love, pulled us from the fires of judgement.

How would God go about this? Exodus makes it clear that a priest must be perfectly spotless and clean, Joshua clearly was not. Though God had shown him mercy, there was still the problem of uncleanness to overcome.

His mercy towards Joshua surely means that God will also save him.

Read vs 4a

God has cleansed Joshua of all his sins. He declares to him, “behold I have taken your iniquity away.” For how does he do this but by the perfect blood of true and greater high priest that Joshua typified, Jesus Christ.

The One who would wash away the sins of Joshua, the sins of us, does not do it by the blood of goats and calves but as Hebrews says,

“When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come… he entered once for all into the holy places… by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption,” (Heb 9:11-12).

It is upon this fact that God declares Joshua cleansed. Not by his own works or the blood of goats and calves, but by the One who would come after and fulfil the perfect ministry. Jesus, the greater Joshua would wash away the sins of this Joshua.

What response has Satan to these things? When he attacks and accuses you, what foot can he stand on? For you have been washed by the blood of the perfect, eternal high priest, Christ.

If you do not know this to be yours, if Christ is not your saviour, if you are relying on your own good works to stand before God, know that there is nothing that you can bring that will enable you to stand before God. Turn to Him now, for as he displays mercy to Joshua here, he will show mercy to you also.

There is still a problem. Joshua may well have been forgiven and had his dirty clothes removed. But we know that it is not only forgiveness that is needed, but we also need to be righteous. So, what does God do in response to this?

3: 4 “I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

Christ not only washes us clean with his blood, but in his active obedience to God through His life, He earned for us a righteousness that was to be given to us. Before the beginning of time, God covenanted together for the Father to give the Son a people that will be his. Through the incarnation, Christ fulfilled what Adam failed to achieve, perfect righteousness. In doing so, Christ secured for His people, us, a perfect righteousness enabling us to enter glory after Him. By the obedience of this One, the many were to be made righteous.[2]

It is these garments that we wear at the wedding feast. It is these garments that we come before God dressed in, these garments are ours completely and only by grace through faith.

Application

With a shout of excitement, Zechariah says, “Let them put a clean turban on his head!” That turban is the crown of the priest, the crown that declares the priest and the people “holy to the Lord.” This crown is the crown which our great high priest wears as He worked on our behalf. This crown is the crown that we now come before the Lord under. This crown is now what defines us. The One who worked for us has declared us to be Holy to the Lord. Our lives are now conformed to His image. We are to walk in the way of our Lord, delighting in His law.

As Paul says, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” Be then comforted by this vision, if you are a Christian, to quote one author, “we see ourselves—for we are Joshua—as in ourselves sinners in the hands of an angry God but, as God’s chosen in Christ, sinners in the pierced hands of the suffering Servant-Saviour.”

If you are not a Christian, be also comforted, you are not too far gone, too dirty, or too sinful to be saved. For God extends His grace and mercy to you this day, in Christ, the image of God who is full of grace and mercy.

[1] John Calvin and John Owen, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, vol. 5 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 80.

[2] Meredith G. Kline, Glory in Our Midst: A Biblical-Theological Reading of Zechariah’s Night Visions (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001), 106.