ZECHARIAH
Fourth Vision: Focus on Joshua, the Chief Priest
Up to this time Zechariah has been focusing first on the fate of the nations which did such harm to Jerusalem, the return of the Jews back to Jerusalem, and the glorious future which awaits those Jews who do return. Moreover, focus up to this point has been on rebuilding the Temple and the future which awaits that Temple.
It's one thing though to speak about rebuilding the Temple and another to speak about what goes on in that Temple. They can rebuild the Temple and make it as beautiful as they want; however, that alone is not enough. If a beautiful building was all that God was concerned about, then He would have never let the Babylonians destroy Solomon's Temple which was definitely much more glorious than the Temple the returning exiles would build. God ultimately more was concerned with what would go on inside the Temple than the building itself. As a result, God in this chapter is going to focus on the main character in the Temple itself, the chief priest, Joshua.
It is at this time that we see a major shift in the way the Jews operated. For the first several hundred years of Israel's existence as a nation, the judges (Gideon, Samson, Samuel, etc.) served as Israel's primary leaders. With the ascension of Saul to the throne, the focus shifted from judges to kings. The Babylonian invasion of 586 B.C. though has wiped out the kingdom. Zerubbabel is in line to the throne; however, the Persians are going to make sure that no descendant of David is going to lead the Jews because of the possibility of revolution. The day of the prophet is almost gone. In fact in another 100 years prophecy will be silent. Into this vacuum emerges the chief priest, or the high priest. He—and not king, judge, or prophet—will become the leading figure in Israel.
Furthermore, the chief priest will become so important that he will not only serve as chief priest, he will also assume kingly duties. We will see the merging of king and priest. This climaxes during the chief priesthood of Hyrcanus II who not only was chief priest but also king of Israel (63 B.C.). This experiment ended in disaster; however, it pointed to a future high priest who one day would combine the office of high priest with that of king, Jesus.
INTRODUCTION (3:1-2)
This vision opens up with Satan accusing the high priest Joshua before God. At this point OT scholars debate the identity of this person, Satan. Is he the Satan of the NT? Since his name literally means "the accuser," many will claim that he is not but that he is instead someone in heaven just accusing Joshua. That is pure hypothesis. No one can say definitively if this is the Satan of the NT or not; however, there is absolutely nothing which prevents him from being that person, except for a person's own personal bias, which is NOT evidence.
Apparently this Satan is accusing Joshua before the Lord because of Joshua's state of ungodliness. If Joshua is unholy, this would pose a problem for him since he is supposed to be a holy priest who represents the people to God and God to the people.
At this point the Lord actually rebukes not Joshua BUT Satan. Why? Because Satan was mistaken about Joshua? Was Joshua holy and pure after all? No. The Lord rebukes Satan first because He has chosen Joshua and second because God is about to change Joshua's condition. God had chosen Joshua, pulling him out of Babylon like "a brand plucked from the fire." When Satan attacks Joshua for being high priest, he is actually attacking the God who chose him to be high priest. Moreover, God isn't blind to our faults. He knows them better than we do, even better than Satan does. It's just that God is not going to leave Joshua nor us in our fallen state. He is about to do something to Zechariah which WILL make him qualified to serve as high priest; He will cleanse him Himself.
PURIFICATION OF JOSHUA (3:3-7)
At this point the Lord orders for the angel to remove Joshua's filthy clothes from him and clothe him with the purest and whitest garments. What does these clothes represent?
First, the word translated "filthy" actually means "excrement." This is not mere dirt that is on Joshua's garments; it is dung. He is totally polluted. Now how did the high priest and the Jewish people he represents get into such a sordid situation? By living in the heathen land of Babylon for the past 70 years. They would have become ritually or ceremonially unclean because they had been in constant contact with pagans who were considered ritually unclean. (For example, pagans were known to come into contact with the dead and women who went through their menstrual cycles. Since these Babylonians didn't purify themselves at the temple, they were still unclean. Their uncleanliness had spread to the Jews they came into contact with.) Joshua and the Jews though naturally had to some extent become morally unclean because they would have understandably been influenced by the Babylonians and their lifestyle.
At this point though something interesting happens. Too many people claim that God saved people in the OT a different way than the way He saved them in the NT. They claim that He saved them in the OT by works of the law, whereas He saved them in the NT by grace. This episode undermines that erroneous claim. Joshua does NOTHING to purify himself, to cleanse himself. God sends the angel to remove Joshua's unclean clothes from him and to clothe him with pure garments. Because God is consistent, He not only removed OUR sin, He also removed Joshua's and the people's sin.
Those who claim that God saves people one way in the OT and another way in the NT have really created a serious crisis of faith, whether they realize it or not. They have made God dualistic. One of the arguments that Paul launches against his opponents is that salvation MUST be only by faith because (1) God saved Abraham on the basis of his faith and (2) God is consistent. Because God is ONE, that is WHOLE, that is NOT SCHIZOPHRENCIC, that is NOT DUALISTIC, then God is always consistent. If He saved Abraham by faith (Paul's argument in Rom. 4:1-8 and Gal. 3:1-5), then He saves us only by faith. This totally undermines the argument that baptism is necessary for salvation. The fact that baptism was not even around until the NT times shows it cannot be necessary for salvation.
Although God has given Joshua and the Jews new clean garments, He goes on to instruct Joshua:
"If you will walk in My ways,
and if you will perform My service,
then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts,
and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here."
Above we just said that it was GOD who saved Joshua and removed his sin and the people's sin. Here the focus shifts to Joshua. JOSHUA is now to take the initiative to be pure. The bottom line is that God commands US to live pure lives; however, we can't do it until God makes us pure. He must always initiate the process. He must transform us into being pure creatures before we can live pure lives; however, once He has purified us, He expects us to live pure lives.
This may seem like a contradiction; however, Paul basically says the same thing: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is GOD who is at work within you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13). It is our responsibility to rely upon God's strength to make real in our lives what God has already done. In other words, because God make us righteous with Him at the time of our salvation, we now need to live righteous lives. If Joshua and the Jews do live righteously, then God is going to bless them enormously.
POINTING TO JESUS (3:8-9)
During the first nine chapters of Zechariah, it almost appears that all these grand promises are going to be fulfilled during Zechariah's day. The truth is that they were not. Why? I'm not sure. It is likely that just as the Jews consistently rejected the Lord BEFORE the exile, they probably consistently rejected Him AFTER the exile. Leopards just simply don't change their spots, even after they've been in exile for 70 years. Although this new experiment will again end in failure, failure will not ALWAYS be the end of God's dealings with Israel. Something NEW, SOMEONE new is going to change all of that. Here God points to this new someone. God informs Joshua that he actually represents somebody else, God's servant, the Branch.
These 2 terms are some of the most important titles for the Messiah in the OT. Isaiah 4 times speaks about the Servant God is going to send to suffer for His people. In fact His sufferings are like birth pangs in that they lead to the creation (birth) of something wonderful, a new heaven and a new earth. The most famous of these 4 passages is Isaiah 52;13-53:12.
The second term "the Branch" focuses on the Messiah's relationship with David, Israel's former king. God had promised David that one of his descendants would reign forever and ever. The family of David was like a huge oak tree, strong and enduring, with many descendants (branches). The problem though was that because of sin this great oak tree had practically been chopped down. You can leave a stump though and the tree not be dead because a new branch can sprout from the living stump. This is the image Zechariah is using here. From a human standpoint the house of David looks completely decimated. Yet the stump is not dead because there are still some descendants from the line of David, Zerubbabel being one of them. Though only a stump remains, it is enough for the Messiah to emerge from.
Now Zechariah changes imagery from the servant and branch to the stone. Aaron had worn an ephod (breastplate) on which were 12 stones, each stone representing one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Zechariah though wears only one stone. Why one instead of 12? Because only the 1 tribe of Judah was left after the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions of 721 B.C. and 586 B.C. Yet this stone made up an essential part of the high priest's clothing because when he walked into the holy of holies once a year to remove Israel's sin, he took that stone with him. Not only then will this Branch, the Servant stand before God as high priest; Judah represented by the stone will stand before God and receive forgiveness. That day came to pass when Jesus our High Priest on the cross entered into God's presence and removed our sin once and for all.
THE RESULT: PEACE (3:10)
Once God forgives Judah for her sin, she will experience a time of prosperity and peace unparalleled in her history. Zechariah paints that day as one in which not only will each Jew sit down beneath his tree but as one in which the Jews' neighbors will come and with down with them beneath their trees.
That might not seem all that significant; however, when you trace the history of the Jewish people, you will discover that the last thing they have ever enjoyed has been peace with their neighbors. They were initially attacked by the Philistines (David), the Canaanites (Deborah), and the Midianites (Gideon). Later on Judah was threatened by the Assyrians (721 B.C.) and devastated by the Babylonians (586 B.C.). When she was not being attacked, she was attacking the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, etc. One of the most ironic names ever given to a city is "Jerusalem." The very heart of the word has in it the name "Salem," which means "peace." The last thing Jerusalem has ever known is peace.
Yet all that is to change. Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to change it. The Israeli Defense Force is not going to change it. Even the president of the U.S. is not going to change it. No one less than the Servant of the Lord, God's Messiah, is going to change all this. When He comes, He will usher in unprecedented peace. Then all the peace and joy that Budweiser Christmas ads promise us will actually come to pass.