In the book of Zechariah the
prophet announces the grace that is to be shown to Jerusalem after
all her failure. The city is to be rebuilt, and “shall be inhabited
as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein;
and I, saith Jehovah, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about,
and will be the glory in the midst of her” (Zech. 2: 4, 5). However,
blessing in the future after failure in the past always necessitates
the putting away of guilt. Hence following directly on those
gracious announcements, we have “Joshua the high priest standing
before the Angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to
resist him” (Zech. 3: 1). Now Joshua, as the high priest, was the
representative of the nation before God. What God did for him was to
be regarded as done for Israel. If the high priest was accepted, the
nation represented by him was accepted as well.
What a scene! The central figure was the Angel
of Jehovah, before Him stood Joshua and at Joshua’s right hand was
Satan. In the background, as it were, but witnesses of all that went
on, were others, ministers of Jehovah to do His pleasure (see v4).
So what was Satan about? “To resist him” means
literally to be his adversary.
Satan was doing the work of an adversary to Joshua, and of course,
through Joshua, opposing Jerusalem and Israel. Now how came Joshua’s
garments to be filthy? The nation, which as high priest he
represented, had sinned, and, in a personal way, he himself had, of
course sinned as well. What answer could he then make to the
accusations of Satan? The garments were a proof against him which he
could not deny. There was no need for any false accusation on the
part of the enemy to increase the chance of conviction. No doubt all
that Satan said was true. Nor was there any reason for exaggerating
the offences. Joshua’s garments were enough, and, if all depended on
his defence, conviction was certain.
The devil was there in the character of
prosecutor. Doubtless he had helped on, though he had not begun,
the failure of the people. Man yields to him, and then becomes his
tool. Satan’s activity had surely contributed to the state of those
garments. So did he minimise Joshua’s guilt and plead an excuse on
his behalf? Did he sue for mercy for the sinner? Did he, like the
penitent thief, acknowledge his part in what Joshua had done? We
know he didn’t. As many a man or woman has found, the one who urged
them on in their course of sin is, at the end, proved not to be for
them but against them. It was the same with Joshua and his people.
Satan was not acting as a friend, but an enemy. He was not there to
excuse but to accuse. The devil was not an advocate
for Joshua but a busy
advocate
against him, and he
well knew that here was a man that could not protest anything in
mitigation.
Evidently Satan was allowed to say what he
wished, and all he wished. Joshua was silent—what could he say?
Should Judgment go according to his and the people’s deserts, a
sentence of banishment forever from the divine presence must be
pronounced. Nothing that Joshua could have pleaded would have
altered the justly deserved penalty. What a moment! The sinner in
the presence of the Judge, the sinner’s mouth shut and the adversary
pressing all he could against him.
Joshua remained perfectly silent. At length the
Angel spoke, and His words, the only ones of importance for us to
know, have been recorded. He addressed Himself first to Satan:
“Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan! Yea, Jehovah that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”
(Zech. 3: 2). Were the devil’s accusations false? We have no hint of
that, but rather the contrary. Joshua
was a brand plucked
out of the fire. How this spoke of his danger—plucked out of the
fire. How it spoke,
too, of worthlessness in itself—a
brand plucked out of the
fire! Could nothing more favourable be said of Joshua, and those he
represented? No. He and they deserved punishment. What then,
arrested that judgment? Could a brand pluck itself out of the fire?
Could it arrest the progress of the flame? No more, then, could
Joshua do anything to arrest the judgment which he deserved. But
just as another might intervene, and deliver the brand from the
fire, so God can come in, and righteously deliver from punishment
those deserving it. Silence became Joshua, silence becomes the
sinner. But what a thing to know, that when speechless before God
because we have sinned, He can speak and set us free, and make us at
home in His presence! God convinces of sin that every mouth may be
stopped in order that He may then speak, and announce how He can
justify the ungodly.
After rebuking the devil, and refusing to
listen to his accusations, the Angel of Jehovah spoke to them that
stood by.
In a coming day the Lord will address
the ministers that do His pleasure, and tell them what to do with
the tares sown in the field. Angels will by and by come forth, and
sever the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace
of fire (see Matt. 13: 49, 50). Was this to be Joshua’s portion? Was
this to be God’s instruction to his angels? No, for now the command
went forth, not to take Joshua away, but to “Take away the filthy
garments from off him” (Zech. 3: 4).
With the filthy garments removed, the Angel now
for the first time addresses the high priest: “See, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with
festival-robes” (v4), or as others give it, ‘rich apparel’. All this
proceeded from the Angel. He would do it without reference to what
Joshua deserved. He would do it of His own sovereign grace. And
Joshua and all were to hear it from the Angel of Jehovah Himself.
All that could be urged against Joshua had doubtless been pressed
with an ability, a zest, and a subtlety such as the most skilful
advocate on earth could never equal, but it was all in vain. “Take
away the filthy garments” was the answer to it all. To the charges,
however true, the Angel of Jehovah refused to listen. All could see
that since Joshua was clothed with God’s rich apparel, every stain
of sin must have been forever removed. Who indeed “shall bring an
accusation against God’s elect? [It is] God who justifies: who is he
that condemns?” (Rom. 8: 33, 34). If ability and persistency could
prevail, surely the devil would have succeeded. Joshua’s iniquity,
however, was passed away from him, and he stood there clothed in new
and rich attire, fitted to be in the divine presence. The Angel of
Jehovah has spoken and the devil is silenced.
The reason for the Lord’s action, then not
declared, has since the cross been made plain, for “now without law
righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and
the prophets; righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards
all, and upon all those who believe: for there is no difference;
for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption which [is] in
Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy–seat, through faith in
his blood, for the shewing forth of his righteousness, in respect of
the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the
forbearance of
God; for [the] shewing forth of his
righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and
justify him that is of [the] faith of Jesus” (Rom. 3: 21–26). In
virtue of the then future sacrifice, God could say to Joshua “I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with
festival–robes” (Zech. 3: 4). In virtue of that sacrifice, now
completed and accepted, God justifies the ungodly. Let the sins be
ever so black and the charges ever so true—to none of them will He
listen if the sinner has really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation. Thus God has made known how it is that He is
perfectly righteous in justifying the sinner.
Does any believer on Christ entertain one lingering doubt that
perhaps, after all, he may meet with his just deserts? Let him
that thinks that pause and reflect that never was there a better
opportunity for convicting an offender whom God had chosen, than
when Joshua stood before the Angel in his filthy garments, and
Satan undertook the part of prosecutor against him. Signally
defeated then, he will be as signally and finally defeated in
any similar cause which he may espouse. The Gospel is clear,
simple, and full of encouragement, for through Christ “remission
of sins is preached to you, and from all things from which ye
could not be justified in the law of Moses, in him every one
that believes is justified” (Acts 13: 38, 39).
