Zechariah 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: Vision of Joshua and Satan; vision of the BranchAs we continue in our study of the ten visions which God gave to Zechariah, keep in mind that we are in a highly figurative section of the Word of God. These ten visions should be considered together as focusing on one particular message. An overall viewpoint will give us a perspective of what each vision is trying to tell us. Also, we need to compare them with other prophetic Scripture passages. As the apostle Peter said, “…no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2Pe_1:20). That is, we are not to interpret it by itself, but compare it with the whole program of prophecy to get the overall viewpoint which reaches from eternity past to eternity future.

Zechariah 3:1

VISION OF JOSHUA AND SATAN"He shewed me Joshua the high priest." Keep in mind that this is not the Joshua who led the children of Israel into the Promised Land. This is the Joshua who served as high priest among the remnant of Israel who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. The name Joshua means “Jehovah saves,” and in the Greek language of the New Testament, the name is translated as “Jesus.” You remember that the angel in announcing His approaching birth said, “…thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mat_1:21). So you can see that the name Joshua is especially appropriate for this high priest and prefigures what the nation Israel ought to have beenthat is, a holy, high-priestly nation. “Standing before the angel of the LORD.” This angel is the Lord Jesus Christ before His incarnation, as we have seen in the previous chapters. “And Satan standing at his right hand.” It is quite obvious that if Zechariah saw Joshua, he also saw Satan, which means that Satan is a reality and a person. In our contemporary culture we see a revival in interest regarding Satan. He pretty much had dropped out of the vocabulary of most people in so-called Christian lands for the past fifty years. They had forgotten about him; or perhaps they felt that by not mentioning him he would go away. But he hasn’t gone away. He is very much a reality. The current interest in the supernatural has turned, unfortunately, to Satan and to demons rather than to God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us, and modern thinking demands, that evil be incarnate, that it be represented by a person. Therefore, many folk have gone off into demonology. Logically, if evil must be personified, then good must also be personified. Good is God, and God is good. God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the final answer to men who are seeking a solution to their own problems and to the ills of the world. “To resist him.” The fact that Satan is standing at Joshua’s right hand could mean that he is there to support him or defend him, but, no, he is there to bring charges against him. This is typical in the workings of Satan. Scripture tells us that you and I have an advocate with God the Father. Why do we need an advocate with God the Father? Because of the enemy who is accusing us. In Rev_12:10 he is called “…the accuser of our brethren …which accused them before our God day and night.” I have a notion that this very day he has made a charge against McGee, and I’m sure it is a valid charge.

And I am confident that he has been making charges against me from the time I became a child of God. When I was in my teens, working in a Nashville bank, I had tried every form of sin imaginable at that time and was one of a very fast crowd. I was the last person in that crowd that anybody would have imagined would ever go into the ministry and become a teacher of the Word of God. After God had saved me and when I felt God was calling me into the ministry, I made that announcement at the bank and resigned from my position. I wish you could have heard the guffaws that went out. “Imagine McGee!” And I suppose that Satan had a busy day accusing me before the Lord"You would be very foolish to let him into the ministry. That fellow is the last person in this entire area who ought to go into the ministry." And Satan was standing at the right hand of Joshua to resist him, to accuse him.

He was probably saying to God, “How can you put up with this manhe is filthy!” Also Satan was the accuser of the nation Israel. He is really an anti-Semite. If you want to know who is the leader of anti-Semitism, it is the Devil himself. However, as God’s children we have an advocate with the Father. John, writing to believers, says, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. [I wish we didn’t, but we do.] And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jn_2:1). And Jesus Christ is the “angel of the LORD” before whom Joshua the high priest is standing in this vision of Zechariah.

Zechariah 3:2

“The LORD rebuke thee” is very gentle, according to my standards. I could think of a stronger rebuke than that, but God respects this one whom He created. Remember that God created him “…Lucifer, son of the morning …” (Isa_14:12), probably the highest creature that He ever created. Then sin was found in him. What kind of sin? Lust or stealing? No. Pride was found in him. He had a free will and set that will against the will of God. My friend, that is sin. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way …” (Isa_53:6). Specific sins such as murder, stealing, lying, adultery all come under the heading of “his own way.” This is the problem of mankind. “Even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee.” This reveals that the rebuke comes not on the account of Joshua the person but on account of Jerusalem, the capital of the nation. “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” It looked as if Jerusalem could never be rebuilt after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it, and it lay in dust and ashes for seventy years. Then out of the ruins the city is rebuilta brand plucked out of the burning. John Wesley called himself a brand plucked out of the burning. I’m of the opinion that many of us today think of ourselves in that way. As I look back, it seems like an accident that I got saved. It just didn’t seem that it could possibly have happened to me. But it did happen, and I know now that it was no accident at all. It can be said of any sinner who comes to Christ that he is a brand plucked out of the fire.

Zechariah 3:3

This vision of Joshua the high priest actually goes beyond the man himself. We will learn that this vision gives us the answer to a very difficult question. This is the problem: We have learned so far that God is going to return the nation Israel to the land and that He will dwell in the midst of them. They will be totally restored as His people. That hasn’t happened yet, but He says He is going to do that. He will bless them in that land. How can God do that when the people are far from Him? In the day of Zechariah they were far from God and living in sin. Today the same thing is true. How can it ever be a holy land when sinners are living in it? Unger states the problem in this way: In the preceding visions the marvellous purposes of God’s grace toward Israel appear in the judgment of her enemies and the restoration of both the land and of the people. But a crucial question arises: How can an infinitely holy God accomplish such plans with a sinful and besmirched people? How can the wondrous manifestations of divine mercy to them be consistent with God’s righteousness? (Unger’s Bible Commentary: Zechariah, p. 55). I think the explanation to this problem will become clear as we study the vision. Joshua was to represent the nation. As we read on, we will find him clothed with a filthy garment, very dirty. If you will remember our study of the high priest, you will recall that the high priest had to be dressed spotlessly or else he was not permitted to serve God. Joshua really was the high priest at this time, but in this vision he also represented the entire nation. Joshua as an individual was not a perfect individual. Even though he was God’s high priest, he was described as dirty and filthy. That might have been true of him personally, I do not know. But I do know that the high priest has always represented the nation Israel. For example, on the great Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies for the entire nation. In just the same way, Jesus Christ is our high priest. He is the representative for the corporate body of believers, the church. He appears before God for us today. To see Joshua in the context of all the ten visions of Zechariah and as a prophetic picture of the nation Israel will deliver us from a very limited interpretation. Leupold says of the high priest: He represents and practically impersonates Israel in his holy office. For the nation he prays; for it he enters the Holy Place, he bears the nation’s guilt. We must, therefore, not refer the issues and implications of this chapter to Joshua as an individual, nor merely to Joshua, the high priest. We must conclude that his condition is Israel’s condition, his acquittal a typical way of expressing theirs; the words of comfort and assurance given him apply with equal validity to them (Exposition of Zechariah, p. 64). That is a very fine statement. Leupold is not always one we can follow in his interpretations, but in this instance he is especially good. Joshua was a symbol, a type, a representative. God had chosen him, and God had also chosen the nation Israel. The high priest was to be clothed in fine-twined, white linen undergarments. And over them were to be placed the garments of beauty and glory. Joshua was pictured here as the high priest representing the nation, and his garments, which should have been clean, were unclean. In fact, he “was clothed with filthy garments.” That word filthy means that there was human excrement on them! Not only was he dirty looking, but he smelled bad. My friend, that is the way the sins of the nation Israel looked to almighty God. How can this be remedied? A man with a question called me by telephone from Indianapolis. His question was an old one which has been asked over and over by many people down through the years. It was this: “Have I committed the unpardonable sin?” I told him, “Of course you haven’t. Jesus died for all your sins. Regardless of who you are or what you have done, you can come to Him right now, confessing your sins and trusting Christ as your Savior. If you do that and mean it, He will forgive you. ‘For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth’ (Rom_10:4). So it doesn’t make any difference what you have done, you can come to God through Jesus Christ.”

Zechariah 3:4

This is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful pictures we have in the Old Testament. Joshua could not stand before a righteous, holy God with these dirty garments on. Also his weakness was revealed. You see, being dirty and filthy as he was gave Satan an advantage because the adversary could point his finger at him. Let me give you Dr. Unger’s translation of verse Zec_3:4: “And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel” (Unger’s Bible Commentary: Zechariah, p. 60). Joshua represented not only the nation of Israel, he represents us today. In him we see the sin of the believer. Joshua was a priest before GodGod appointed priests in the Old Testament. In our day every believer is a priest before God, but some of us are standing in dirty garments. “Yes,” you may say, “but I have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.” If you have been saved, that is true. And that is exactly the picture which is given to us here. You see, the dirty garments, representing sin, must be removed from him, and he must be clothed with clean garments, symbolic of the righteousness of Christ.

This pictures your salvation and mine, which makes this such a precious passage of Scripture. Let me refer you to the Epistle to the Romans. In the first three chapters mankind is set before us as a sinner before God. We all stand dirty before Him. And our righteousnesseven the best that we can dois filthy rags in God’s sight. We stand in Joshua’s condition.

What are we going to do about our plight? Here is God’s answer: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely [without cause] by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom_3:21-24). Why? Because Christ died, shed His blood, that it might be possible for you and me to come in our filthy rags to Him. He will not accept the filthy rags of our own righteousness. He will take them off and clothe us in the righteousness of Christ. When we stand clothed in Christ’s righteousness, nobody, no created thing, can bring any charge against us because we are God’s elect.

Notice what Paul writes in Romans 8: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely [without a cause] give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom_8:31-34). What a Savior we have! When we trust Him as our Savior, He not only takes from us our sins, removes the dirty garment, but He puts on us the robe of His righteousness, and no one can bring any charge against God’s elect. But waitcan God’s child get into sin? Yes. Then what is the child of God to do? Well, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). When you and I are out of fellowship with God, we have lost a great deal. We have lost all joy from our lives. We have lost all power from our lives. And it is possible to lose our assurance. I am of the opinion that many folk lack the assurance of their salvation because of sin in their lives. Another thing we lose is our privilege of being of service to God. You see, if Joshua is to stand before God as His high priest, he must be wearing clean garments. And God provides clean garments. How? By mercy. There was a mercy seat in the temple. And we today have a mercy seat"And he [Christ] is the propitiation [the mercy seat] for our sins …" (1Jn_2:2). How wonderful this is, and what a glorious picture it gives of God’s provision! Now, you may have an objection to God’s choosing the nation Israel. Did He choose them because they were attractive? No. He didn’t choose me for that reason either. I think of Ruth when she asked Boaz, “…Why have I found grace in thine eyes …? (Rth_2:10). Well, I could say to her, “All you have to do is go home and look in the mirror and you will find out why he fell in love with you and why he extended grace to you. You are beautiful. You are lovely.” But, my friend, don’t tell me to look in the mirror. I have already done it, and what did I see? A sinner, a sinner who needs to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

Zechariah 3:5

The adding of this mitre or turban is a little something which is beautiful in its symbolism. The garments of the high priest included a turban, and on that turban were the words: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD, as in chapter 14 verse Zec_14:20. This man Joshua didn’t have a turban because in those dirty old garments he certainly was not holy to the Lord. But a turban is given to him now on which is inscribed “Holiness unto the Lord.” He will be used of God now just as Israel will be used of the Lord in the future. After the church has been removed in the Rapture, Israel will be the witness for God during the Tribulation, and then during the Millennium the entire nation will be a priesthood down here upon this earth.

Zechariah 3:6

The interpretation of this is quite obvious. Joshua had been dirty, but God had a redemption which enabled Him to extend His grace and mercy to him. Now Joshua is saved, but God says, “If you want to be used, you will have to stay clean. You will have to walk in My ways. You will have to be obedient to Me.” Not only is God saying this to Joshua, He is saying it to the nation, and He is saying it to you and me today. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15). Some folk seem to have the idea that if they are saved by grace, they can do as they please. My friend, that is inconsistent. If you do as you please, you are not saved by gracebecause certainly you are going to love the One who died to save you. If you have really accepted Him and are really trusting Him, you are resting upon Him. And if you are resting in Him, you will want to be obedient to Him and do as He wants you to do. It can’t be any other way.

Zechariah 3:8

VISION OF THE BRANCH"My servant the BRANCH” is a marvelous picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. “The Branch” is a familiar figure of the Messiah. Isaiah used that figure to predict His first coming as Savior: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isa_11:1). And Jeremiah used it to speak of Christ’s coming as King to this earth: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jer_23:5). “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee.” God is here addressing Joshua and his fellow priests. Now what is the message He is giving them? Leupold’s paraphrase of verse Zec_3:8 provides the answer: “I shall not let you, Joshua, and your fellow priests be removed from office, nor your office be discontinued, for I have a destiny for youyou are a type of the coming Messiah, who will do My work perfectly (‘Servant’), and who will bring the priestly office to undreamed of glory (‘Shoot’) when He springs forth” (op. cit., in loc.).

Zechariah 3:9

The “Branch” is also the stone, the stone which Daniel saw in the vision of the great image: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Dan_2:34-35). “Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.” Seven is not the number of perfection but the number of completeness. The “seven eyes” indicate that Christ has complete knowledge and wisdom. In the New Testament it is said of Christ, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col_2:3). And the Lord Jesus has been made unto us wisdom because He is all wisdom (see 1Co_1:30). “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” Has that happened in our day? No, it certainly has not happened yet. But it will happen in the future. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He will remove the iniquity of Israel in one day.

Zechariah 3:10

“In that day” refers to the Day of the Lord. “Shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree” means that they will be dwelling in peace and enjoyment in that day.