ZECHARIAH 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 490] ZECHARIAH 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques Why is it “After the glory” in chapter 2: 8?
CAC After the glory God will judge Babylon — morally, after God has brought in the original thoughts as to the assembly, judgment is inevitable. If God’s thoughts come in and are established in His saints, that is glory in a moral sense, and everything contrary to it must be judged. See verse 13, “Let all flesh be silent before Jehovah: for he is risen up out of his holy habitation”.
If God rises up to secure His pleasure in the remnant of His people (as He has in our own day), that involves the cleansing of all iniquity and setting up instead true characteristics of the holy priesthood — very beautiful to think of.
Rem “In his temple doth every one say, Glory”. In the assembly the character is glory.
Rem It is not here so much what the people get, but God is satisfying His own heart; it is that He might have His portion in His people.
CAC Yes, and that depends on the place that Christ has with us. In the first two chapters God is presenting His thoughts in an abstract way. In actuality the ruin and the state of the priesthood were the exact opposite. But God has to undertake the whole matter.
Ques Why “clothe thee with festival-robes”?
CAC Because God will find pleasure in it, and His people be in full accord. It is things according to the most exalted thoughts of God. Like the “best robe” in Luke 15 — there is nothing to equal it. This passage has often been used in the gospel, but the real application of the chapter is to the saints whose garments have been defiled by unholy associations, and God undertakes to change all that.
This is one of the few scriptures which bring Satan personally into the scene. But Another — the Angel of Jehovah — is [p. 491] brought in here. The Angel of Jehovah, I believe, always refers to Christ. Here Joshua stands in the presence of the mighty intervention of Christ, and we all stand there. What length of time there has been when there has been no exercise with the holy priesthood. It is Christ in chapter 3 and the Spirit in chapter 4. It is a question of God’s sovereignty — so with ourselves, we might have had no idea of the holy priesthood or the house of God. But God does it Himself and He does it through Christ. We are only “a brand plucked out of the fire”. On our side we are nothing else and never shall be. Our blessing depends on our fully and honestly owning it. It is a question of getting God’s estimate of things. Then all thought of self-worthiness vanishes from our minds and Christ comes into view — nothing but Christ.
The priest is the most holy man in Israel. He stands in the presence of the intervention in Christ — God has done it. His robes are changed. It is a wonderful setting. This chapter is for us. None of us could stand up before God and say we had nothing to learn from this chapter. “Take away the filthy garments from off him”. Instrumentality enters into this matter. It is said to “those that stood before him”. It is like Luke 15. God does most of His work mediately, He uses His servants to take away the filthy garments. I think Paul was taking away the filthy garments in Galatians and in 1 Corinthians, though they were Christians and had the Spirit. God throws light into our souls as to what is filthy. Paul was showing this to the Galatians and Corinthians and taking it away through ministerial service. So it was with us, till God showed us the real character of things. ‘Departing from what is not right’ (iniquity) has to go on continuously. “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes”. It is the Angel who does it. It is Christ Himself who removes at His own cost all that defiles.
Ques. Is that John 13?
CAC No, I think it is a little more what you get by being washed. The Lord says: “He that is washed all over needs not to wash save his feet”. Joshua needed something [p. 492] more than feet-washing; all that he was invested with had to go. It is what Christ has effected for us by His death. He has borne the judgment of all that is filthy — all that is not of Himself He has borne the judgment of. If I am going on with it, I am going on with what Christ has died for. If the priesthood is defiled, it is in a religious way.
Rem “And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6: 11).
CAC Very good. Though the Corinthians were not in the good of it, it was ministered that they might enter into it. It shows how necessary is the Spirit.
Ques Why is the Spirit brought in there?
CAC It brings in the need of subjective work. The judgment of the filthy garments has come into the soul by the Spirit. Along with that is the clothing “with festival-robes”. God is very anxious that we should know that we are “in Christ”. God has no pleasure in people who do not know they are in Christ. It is a complete thought — “festival-robes”. It is God’s thought; we come to it, one might say, bit by bit.
“In Christ” is not festival-robes in Corinthians, though there is some thought of it in the second epistle. In I Corinthians they are “babes in Christ” — only babes, though in Christ — that is, in a very small way.
Ques Is it new creation? “Old things have passed away; behold all things have become new”?
CAC Yes. Our first apprehension of it is, we are justified in Christ. It is only a gospel one. We are justified in another Man, not in ourselves. We need to grow in our apprehension of it.
Rem “Now He that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God” (2 Corinthians 1: 21).
CAC Paul has the full idea. Then in 2 Corinthians 12: 2, “A man in Christ”. That is very different from a babe. We come in on our side by steps. We learn we are justified in [p. 493] another Man — that other Man has righteousness for us. Then we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. There is a blessed Man in heaven, we learn, who lives to God. We take account of ourselves alive to God in another Man. Then in Romans 8 we are “in Christ” for deliverance — a further apprehension. None of those thoughts are up to the “festival-robes”. It implies we have apprehended the full thought of the purpose of divine love, we are invested with it. So I think it goes with Luke 15. They are things to pray about, that we might apprehend them — the full thought of God in a glorified Man.
It is all in view of the service of God. What a richness about the worship there would be if we all assembled in festival-robes! The “man in Christ” goes up to the full height of the divine thought. He could go anywhere in that realm — the third heaven — without a sense of disparity. So John 17 is given to us. The Lord is putting the pure turban on our heads there.
Ques Would Ephesians be on the line of setting a pure turban on the head?
CAC Yes. We should be able to address God with priestly intelligence. If brothers did not go beyond their measure, there would never be anything said that was not in priestly intelligence. It characterises the assembly. We should be in the sense of our portion and able to speak to God about it without any disparity between our thoughts and God’s — in ourselves we are only poor things plucked out of the fire. All this enters into our responsible service in the house of God (see verses 6, 7).
Christ is Minister of the sanctuary and His charge would be that we should see that what is suitable to God’s house should be carried out, and so we are able to anticipate the coming of the Lord.
Wherever “the Branch” is mentioned I think it refers to the coming of the Lord. There are four or five scriptures which refer to Him as “the Branch”. The assembly is here awaiting the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ — that is the Corinthian aspect. The Branch (or “the Sprout”) is [p. 494] connected with His growing up out of His first coming in manhood, and is linked together with His appearing. The great objective of all Scripture — of God — is the coming of the Lord. The first prophet spoke of it — Enoch — I do not think anyone awaits His coming or appearing who is not in priestly fitness. It required priestly conditions in Luke. It means that everything that is unsuitable to His rule will disappear.
Rem “In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 33: 15).