'And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel
of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2.
And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even
the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a
brand plucked out of the fire? 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the Angel. 4. And He answered and spake
unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with
change of raiment. 5. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon
his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him
with garments. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. 6. And the Angel
of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, 7. Thus saith the Lord
of Hosts, If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My
charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My
courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand
by, 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows
that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I
will bring forth My servant The BRANCH. 9. For behold the stone
that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes:
behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of
Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10.
In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, shall ye call every man his
neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree.'--ZECHARIAH iii.
1-10.
Zechariah worked side by side with Haggai to quicken the religious life
of the people, and thus to remove the gravest hindrances to the work of
rebuilding the Temple. Inward indifference, not outward opposition, is
the real reason for slow progress in God's work, and prophets who see
visions and preach repentance are the true practical men.
This vision followed Haggai's prophecy at the interval of a month. It
falls into two parts--a symbolical vision and a series of promises
founded on it.
I. The Symbolical Vision (vs. 1-5).--The scene of the vision is left
undetermined, and the absence of any designation of locality gives the
picture the sublimity of indefiniteness. Three figures, seen he knows
not where, stand clear before the Prophet's inward eye. They were shown
him by an unnamed person, who is evidently Jehovah Himself. The real and
the ideal are marvellously mingled in the conception of Joshua the high
priest--the man whom the people saw every day going about
Jerusalem--standing at the bar of God, with Satan as his accuser. The
trial is in process when the Prophet is permitted to see. We do not hear
the pleadings on either side, but the sentence is solemnly recorded. The
accusations are dismissed, their bringer rebuked, and in token of
acquittal, the filthy garments which the accused had worn are changed
for the full festal attire of the high priest.
What, then, is the meaning of this grand symbolism? The first point to
keep well in view is the representative character of the high priest. He
appears as laden not with individual but national sins. In him Israel
is, as it were, concentrated, and what befalls him is the image of what
befalls the nation. His dirty dress is the familiar symbol of sin; and
he wears it, just as he wore his sacerdotal dress, in his official
capacity, as the embodied nation. He stands before the judgment seat,
bearing not his own but the people's sins.
Two great truths are thereby taught, which are as true to-day as ever.
The first is that representation is essential to priesthood. It was so
in shadowy and external fashion in Israel; it is so in deepest and most
blessed reality in Christ's priesthood. He stands before God as our
representative--'And the Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of
us all.' If by faith we unite ourselves with Him, there ensues a
wondrous transference of characteristics, so that our sin becomes His,
and His righteousness becomes ours; and that in no mere artificial or
forensic sense, but in inmost reality. Theologians talk of a
_communicatio idiomatum_ as between the human and the divine elements in
Christ. There is an analogous passage of the attributes of either to the
other, in the relation of the believer to his Saviour.
The second thought in this symbolic appearance of Joshua before the
angel of the Lord is that the sins of God's people are even now present
before His perfect judgment, as reasons for withdrawing from them His
favour. That is a solemn truth, which should never be forgotten. A
Christian man's sins do accuse him at the bar of God. They are all
visible there; and so far as their tendency goes, they are like wedges
driven in to rend him from God.
But the second figure in the vision is 'the Satan,' standing in the
plaintiff's place at the Judge's right hand, to accuse Joshua. The Old
Testament teaching as to the evil spirit who 'accuses' good men is not
so developed as that of the New, which is quite natural, inasmuch as the
shadow of bright light is deeper than that of faint rays. It is most
full in the latest books, as here and in Job; but doctrinal inferences
drawn from such highly imaginative symbolism as this are precarious. No
one who accepts the authority of our Lord can well deny the existence
and activity of a malignant spirit, who would fain make the most of
men's sins, and use them as a means of separating their doers from God.
That is the conception here.
But the main stress of the vision lies, not on the accuser or his
accusation, but on the Judge's sentence, which alone is recorded. 'The
Angel of the Lord' is named in verse 1 as the Judge, while the sentence
in verse 2 is spoken by 'the Lord.' It would lead us far away from our
purpose to inquire whether that Angel of the Lord is an earlier
manifestation of the eternal Son, who afterwards became flesh--a kind of
preluding or rehearsing of the Incarnation. But in any case, God so
dwells in Him as that what the Angel says God says and the speaker
varies as in our text. The accuser is rebuked, and God's rebuke is not a
mere word, but brings with it punishment. The malicious accusations have
failed, and their aim is to be gathered from the language which
announces their miscarriage. Obviously Satan sought to procure the
withdrawal of divine favour from Joshua, because of his sin; that is, to
depose the nation from its place as the covenant people, because of its
transgressions of the covenant. Satan here represents what might
otherwise have been called, in theological language, 'the demands of
justice.' The answer given him is deeply instructive as to the grounds
of the divine forbearance.
Note that Joshua's guilt as the representative of the people is not
denied, but tacitly admitted and actually spoken of in verse 4. Why,
then, does not the accuser have his way? For two reasons. God has chosen
Jerusalem. His great purpose, the fruit of His undeserved mercy, is not
to be turned aside by man's sins. The thought is the same as that of
Jeremiah: 'If heaven above can be measured ... then I will also cast off
all the seed of Israel for all that they have done' (Jer. xxxi. 37).
Again, the fact that Joshua was 'a brand plucked from the burning'--that
is, that the people whom he represented had been brought unconsumed from
the furnace of captivity--is a reason with God for continuing to extend
His favour, though they have sinned. God's past mercies are a motive
with him. Creatural love is limited, and too often says, 'I have
forgiven so often, that I am wearied, and can do it no more.' He _has_,
therefore he _will_. We often come to the end of our long-suffering a
good many times short of the four hundred and ninety a day which Christ
prescribes. But God never does. True, Joshua and his people have sinned,
and that since their restoration, and Satan had a good argument in
pointing to these transgressions; but God does not say, 'I will put back
the half-burned brand in the fire again, since the evil is not burned
out of it,' but forgives again, because He has forgiven before.
The sentence is followed by the exchange of the filthy garments
symbolical of sin, for the full array of the high priest. Ministering
angels are dimly seen in the background, and are summoned to unclothe
and clothe Joshua. The Prophet ventures to ask that the sacerdotal
attire should be completed by the turban or mitre, probably that
headdress which bore the significant writing 'Holiness to the Lord,'
expressive of the destination of Israel and of its ceremonial cleanness.
The meaning of this change of clothing is given in verse 4: 'I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.' Thus the complete restoration
of the pardoned and cleansed nation to its place as a nation of priests
to Jehovah is symbolised. To us the gospel of forgiveness fills up the
outline in the vision; and we know how, when sin testifies against us,
we have an Advocate with the Father, and how the infinite love flows out
to us notwithstanding all sin, and how the stained garment of our souls
can be stripped off, and the 'fine linen clean and white,' the priestly
dress on the day of atonement, be put on us, and we be made priests unto
God.
II. The remainder of the vision is the address of the Angel of the Lord
to Joshua, developing the blessings now made sure to him and his people
by this renewed consecration and cleansing. First (verse 7) is the
promise of continuance in office and access to God's presence, which,
however, are contingent on obedience. The forgiven man must keep God's
charge, if he is to retain his standing. On that condition, he has 'a
place of access among those that stand by'; that is, the privilege of
approach to God, like the attendant angels. This promise may be taken as
surpassing the prerogatives hitherto accorded to the high priest, who
had only the right of entrance into the holiest place once a year, but
now is promised the _entrée_ to the heavenly court, as if he were one of
the bright spirits who stand there. They who have access with confidence
within the veil because Christ is there, have more than the ancient
promise of this vision.
The main point of verse 8 is the promise of the Messiah, but the former
part of the verse is remarkable. Joshua and his fellows are summoned to
listen, 'for they are men which are a sign.' The meaning seems to be
that he and his brethren who sat as his assessors in official functions,
are collectively a sign or embodied prophecy of what is to come. Their
restoration to their offices was a shadowy prophecy of a greater act of
forgiving grace, which was to be effected by the coming of the Messiah.
The name 'Branch' is used here as a proper name. Jeremiah (Jer. xxiii.
5; xxxiii. 15) had already employed it as a designation of Messiah,
which he had apparently learned from Isaiah iv. 2. The idea of the word
is that of the similar names used by Isaiah, 'a shoot out of the stock
of Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots' (Isaiah xi. 1), and 'a tender
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground' (Isaiah liii. 2); namely, that
of his origin from the fallen house of David, and the lowliness of his
appearance.
The Messiah is again meant by the 'stone' in verse 9. Probably there was
some great stone taken from the ruins, to which the symbol attaches
itself. The foundation of the second Temple had been laid years before
the prophecy, but the stone may still have been visible. The Rabbis have
much to say about a great stone which had been in the first Temple, and
there used for the support of the ark, but in the second was set in the
empty place where the ark should have been. Isaiah had prophesied of the
'tried corner-stone' laid in Zion, and Psalm cxviii. 22 had sung of the
stone rejected and made the head of the corner. We go in the track,
then, of established usage, when we see in this stone the emblem of
Messiah, and associate with it all thoughts of firmness, preciousness,
support, foundation of the true Temple, basis of hope, ground of
certitude, and whatever other substratum of fixity and immovableness
men's hearts or lives need. In all possible aspects of the metaphor,
Jesus is the Foundation.
And what are the 'seven eyes on the stone'? That may simply be a vivid
way of saying that the fulness of divine Providence would watch over the
Messiah, bringing Him when the time was ripe, and fitting Him for His
work. But if we remember the subsequent explanation (iv. 10) of the
'seven,' as 'the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole
earth,' and connect this with Revelation v. 6, we can scarcely rest
content with that meaning, but find here the deeper thought that the
fulness of the divine Spirit was given to Messiah, even as Isaiah (xi.
2) prophesies of the sevenfold Spirit.
'I will engrave the graving thereof' is somewhat obscure. It seems to
mean that the seven eyes will be cut on the stone, like masons' marks.
If the seven eyes are the full energies of the Holy Spirit, God's
cutting of them on the stone is equivalent to His giving them to His
Son; and the fulfilment of the promise was when He gave the Holy Spirit
not 'by measure unto Him.'
The blessed purpose of Messiah's coming and endowment with the Spirit is
gloriously stated in the last clause of verse 9: 'I will remove the
iniquity of that land in one day.' Jesus Christ has 'once for all' made
atonement, as the Epistle to the Hebrews so often says. The better
Joshua by one offering has taken away sin. 'The breadth of Thy land, O
Immanuel,' stretched far beyond the narrow bounds which Zechariah knew
for Israel's territory. It includes the whole world. As has been
beautifully said, 'That one day is the day of Golgotha.'
The vision closes with a picture of the felicity of Messianic times,
which recalls the description of the golden age of Solomon, when 'Judah
and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his
fig-tree' (1 Kings iv. 25). In like manner the nation, cleansed,
restored to its priestly privilege of free access to God by the Messiah
who comes with the fulness of the Spirit, shall dwell in safety, and
shall be knit together by friendship, and unenvyingly shall each share
his good with all others, recognising in every man a neighbour, and
gladly welcoming him to partake of all the blessings which the true
Solomon has brought to his house and heart.