Zechariah 3
v.1
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
The right side was the place of accusation under the law (Ps 109:6). Satan knows the purposes of God concerning Israel and therefore has always accused the Jews and accusees them still. The tool of his nefarious opposition to Israel has primarily been the Gentile nation—something that will particularly true during the period of Daniel’s seventieth “week.” Satan is the accuser, not only of Joshua (i.e. Israel), but also of all believers. Undoubtedly the accusation here relates to the sinof Joshua (cf. vv.3-4) and is made in hope that God will reject his people irrevocably. But this we know he will never do (cf. Jer 31:36-37).
v.2
The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from fire?”
So it is with the child of God. What is he at the best? Till he is taken up to heaven, he is nothing but a brand plucked out of the fire. It is his daily moan that he is a sinner; but Christ accepts him as he is: and he shuts the devil’s mouth by telling him, ‘Thou sayest this man is black – of course he is: what did I think he was but that? He is a brand plucked out of the fire. I plucked him out of it. He was burning when he was in it: he is black now he is out of it. He was what I knew he would be; he is not what I mean to make him, but he is what I knew he would be. I have chosen him as a brand plucked out of the fire. What hast thou to say to that?’ Do observe that this plea did not require a single word to be added to it from Joshua.
When John Wesley was only six years old, he was trapped in a burning house and was only rescued when one neighbor climbed on another’s shoulders and pulled him out of window. A picture of the scene was drawn for Wesley and he kept the drawing until he died, and wrote under it Zechariah 3:2: Is this not a brand plucked from the burning?
The reference to the stick is an additional indication that Israel, not Joshua, is ultimately in view. Israel was retrieved to carry out God’s future purpose for her (cf. Am 4:11). The “fire” refers to the Babylonian captivity, though it may also look back to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (cf. Dt 4:20; 7:7-8, Jer 11:4) and forward to the rescue from the coming tribulation period (cf. Jer 30:7; Zec 13:8-9; Rev 12:13-17).
v.3
Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
The reason for Satan’s accusation is Israel’s impurity. How can a holy God bless a filthy nation like Isreal? The answer is that he can do so only by his grace. Joshua’s clothes represent the pollution of sin (cf. Isa 64:6). To compound the problem, Joshua (i.e. Israel) was ministering in this filthy condition before the Angel of the Lord.
v.4
The angel said to those who were standing before him, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”
Next, Joshua was to be clothed with rich garments—God’s representative clothed in God’s righteousness. The festive garments speak of purity, joy, and glory; but their chief significance is that they symbolize the restoration of Israel to her original calling (Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6).
v.7
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my houe and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a pplace among those standing here.
v.8
” ‘Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.
v.9
See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the LORD Almighty, and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
“The sin of this land,” not of Joshua but of the people of the land of Palestine, was taken away in a single day, symbolized by the removal of Joshua’s filthy clothes (v.4). Prophetically, the one day is the once-for-all deliverance potentially provided by Calvary—to be actually and finally realized in Israel’s experience at the second advent of her Messiah, when there will be cleansing and forgiveness for the nation as a whole (Zec 12:10-13:1; Ro 11:26-27).