ZECHARIAH 3
Joshua the high priest is introduced here as representing the people in their actual state; even the priesthood had become defiled and unsuitable for holy service. There was an unclean state which God could not overlook, for He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. But if He had chosen Jerusalem, and had returned to her with mercies, He must needs undertake to remove the defilement, and to bring in suitable conditions for His service to go on. There can be no doubt that much has come in amongst the people of God which is contrary to His thought of the holy priesthood. This scripture suggests that priestly habiliments may be defiled even amongst a returned remnant. Though outwardly delivered from the captivity and corruptions of Babylon, there was a defiled state which rendered it impossible for God to be [p. 92] served in the beauty of holiness. But God in His wondrous mercy undertook to deal even with such a condition, because it was His thought to have His portion in His people, and in their acceptable service.
It is to be observed that Satan is brought personally into this matter; God is lifting the veil and exposing the very source of the evil which has come in. We are shown, too, that the one who was the source of the evil would do all that he could to frustrate the designs of mercy. But there is also another Person in the scene who is spoken of as “the Angel of Jehovah”. I believe that when this term is used in Scripture it always has reference to Christ. Joshua was standing before the Angel of Jehovah; that is, he was in presence of God’s mighty intervention in Christ. That is where faith puts us, however defiled we may be, or rather it is where infinite mercy puts us. If that is so, whatever Satan may wish to do, he is rebuked. It is a question of God’s sovereignty; He has chosen Jerusalem, and He has a right of way. As regards Joshua Jehovah says, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” In presence of Satan God asserts His right to do what He will in mercy; if He is minded to pluck a brand out of the fire He will do it in spite of Satan. And the more simply and fully we are prepared to take the place of being brands plucked out of the fire the more we shall learn the surpassing riches of God’s grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. People who realise that they are brands plucked out of the fire have done with all thoughts of self-worthiness. I do not think any of us get rid of our filthy garments without standing in them in the presence of Christ. Joshua must have felt what a contrast there was between the Angel of Jehovah and himself.
We must bear in mind that what is dealt with here is not the ungodliness of a man in the world, but a defiled condition of things in the priesthood; it is a man defiled even while in the highest possible position of service Godward. It sets before us the fact that even our religious ways and associations may be filthy garments which render us unsuitable for the service of God. God would in mercy divest us of such things, and I believe He uses the ministry of the word to free us from anything that hinders the spirituality of our service Godward. It is “those that stood before him” who are told to take away the filthy garments from off Joshua. I believe Paul was taking away the filthy garments from off the Galatians when he wrote his epistle to them, and from the Corinthians when he wrote his first epistle [p. 93] to them. Ministry comes in to help, but it is only those who are before God who can really help us, for they are the only ones who know what is suitable to the service of God. We may learn from Scripture that the Jewish elements which were brought into the assembly in its early days, and against which the apostle Paul had so constantly to contend, were really “filthy garments”. Circumcision, law-keeping, observing days and months and times and years, and the whole round of what was Jewish, were things which defiled when God’s mind had been made known in Christ. Those that stand before God know that everything connected with man as in the flesh is defiling, for God has had to remove it from before His eye in the death of His Son. Man as in the flesh can have no place before God or in His holy service. Christ having died for all is the proof that all were dead, and we cannot bring before God in His service that which He accounts dead. Philosophy and vain deceit and doing our own will in humility are “filthy garments;” because, however, commendable in the estimation of men, they are not Christ. Paul’s great service was to announce Christ, “to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”, Colossians 1: 28. How many things have come into the professed service of God which are “not after Christ”! They are all “filthy garments” which disqualify for holy service. The human mind, as such, is essentially unholy, for it cannot rise above the measure of man, and man is unholy as having departed from God. So we have all to stand in the presence of God’s great intervention in Christ, and to see how God has provided for His own pleasure in us by investing us with Christ in the character of “festival-robes”.
“And unto him he said, See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes”. It is important to see that it is God who does this; there is no mixture of human work in it. It is brought about that God may have His portion in those whom He thus invests. The delight of God is that we should be consciously in Christ before Him. As saints, called of God, we have indeed no other status; every believer who has the Spirit is in Christ, though many may be only “babes in Christ”; that is, we are small in the apprehension of what it is to be in Him. But a babe in Christ has apprehended that redemption is in Christ Jesus, Romans 3: 24; Ephesians 1:7. There can be no question about that. God has caused our iniquity to pass from us, not by there being anything meritorious on our side, but in the value of the redemption which is in Christ, and in the [p. 94] power of His blood. We are justified in Christ (Galatians 2:17); that is, we are not justified in ourselves but in another Man; it is a matter of faith in Him. I think that our first apprehension of being in Christ is that we see that redemption is in Him, and that we are justified in Him. Then we learn through grace, that there is one blessed Man who has died to sin once for all, but who now lives to God, and on account of this we can, through grace, reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus; Romans 6: 11. There is no other way of being alive to God save as in Him; the best bit of flesh there ever was has death stamped upon it, but Christ lives to God for God’s pleasure so that we might take up the favour of being alive to God in Him. Then there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, for as in Him we judge the flesh and walk according to Spirit, and those who do so find that they are set free from the law of sin and of death.
Wondrous as all that is, it hardly comes up to what is suggested by being clothed with festival-robes. This is something of superlative excellence, like the “best robe” of Luke 15. If God acts according to His own choice in what He does for us, and does it that He may have delight in us, we may be sure that lie will furnish us with what has the very highest degree of acceptability in His sight. So we read that the Father “has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”, Colossians 1: 12. And I He has made known to us that He has chosen us in Christ “before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”, Ephesians 1: 4 - 6. I think this answers, for us, to the “festival-robes” of Zechariah 3.
It is worthy of note that such a precious instruction as this should come out in a day of recovery, in a remnant time. There have been long centuries during which the “filthy” character of man in the flesh has not been realised. It had been thought that by sacraments or religious observances man could be qualified to serve God, but the sense of unfitness has always been there. It has been reserved for these last days of wondrous recovery to make clearly manifest that the man after the flesh can never have any status with God save that of condemnation, but that man as blessed in Christ has a place with God that cannot possibly be improved upon. Not that saints come up to the fulness of this all at once. We begin as babes in Christ, but growth goes on with [p. 95] a view to our coming up to the full thought of “a man in Christ”, 2 Corinthians 12: 2. A man in Christ has come to maturity; he is suitable to entertain the most precious thoughts of God, and to serve Him in a priestly way in relation to them. He is clothed with festival robes.
“And I said, Let them set a pure turban upon his head”. This implies that the service of holy priesthood can be taken up intelligently. God can be addressed in a way that corresponds with the great thoughts of His own love. Much that is supposed to be the service of God is entirely out of harmony with the truth. It encourages man as in the flesh to draw near, though admitting his unfitness to do so, and it obscures, or even denies, all that the saints are according to 1 Corinthians 1: 30. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord”. But God does not give up what He has in His own mind, and all His work in His saints is to build them up in what they are as in Christ Jesus. All the work of the ministry is with a view to this. For it is those who stood before Jehovah who took away the filthy garments, and who set the pure turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments. It is all the work of God, but it is largely wrought into the souls of the saints by ministry.
“And the angel of Jehovah protested unto Joshua saying, Thus saith Jehovah 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 a place to walk among these that stand by”, verses 6, 7. This makes clear that all that had been done for Joshua was in view of his taking up responsible service in God’s house. If Joshua was faithful he would judge God’s house and keep His courts. To be entrusted with the care of God’s house is a wonderful favour, as we must realise, if we know God at all. But it is also a very serious responsibility. We cannot judge God’s house unless we have priestly intelligence of what is suitable to the house, and then we have to apply that intelligence in a practical way. To judge in this sense is to exercise discernment and discrimination so that the standard of what is suitable to God is maintained in all that pertains to our collective service Godward. Then His courts are to be kept; this would imply care as to the kind of persons who are permitted to approach. Some would tell us that only the Spirit knows who is suitable, and that therefore we should leave [p. 96] each one free to act on his own responsibility in relation to approach to God. But this sets aside the whole principle of keeping God’s courts, and would reduce things to the level of every man doing what is right in his own eyes. Every really faithful and intelligent saint must admit that the responsibility of keeping God’s courts is committed to us. The greater the confusion is generally, the more incumbent it is upon us to keep this holy charge.
It is also said of Joshua, “and I will give thee a place to walk (or, give thee goings) among those that stand by”. I think this is a reference to “those that stood before him” in verse 4. The Scripture suggests that there are servants who are near to God, and who are at hand to do His pleasure in regard to Joshua. They are in the knowledge of God’s mind, and are available for any needed service in relation to His house. We may think of the apostles in connections such as this, and no doubt there have been many others. How blessed to have our “goings” among such persons! If any have been a spiritual help to us in relation to the service of God it is the divine intent that we should move with them in nearness to God, and thus in availability for any needed service.
Then Joshua is addressed further in verse 8. It would seem that Joshua throughout this book is a representative person in whom the defiled state of the priesthood is seen, and then the recovery of priestly conditions through sovereign mercy. As thus recovered he is seen as having “fellows”. We know that Christ has “companions” or “fellows” (Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9), but here it would appear to be the priest who has been divested of “filthy garments” and invested with “festival-robes”, who has “fellows”. It clearly suggests that there is a priestly company secured on the ground of restoration by mercy, a company who have shared Joshua’s experiences in some measure, and who sit before him to contemplate the priesthood as restored in mercy. Of course, for us, this involves the contemplation of Christ, for we could not get any true thought of priesthood if we did not apprehend it in Him. But the point in Zechariah 3 is that priestly conditions are restored in a remnant day so that the service of God’s house may be taken up in a way that is acceptable to Him. Thank God, there are many who know what it is to sit in the presence of such a recovery today. One would not wish to forget the feebleness of the moment, neither would one wish to minimise the greatness of what God has done in restoring, in some measure,
[p. 97] priestly conditions in these last days. I believe that God would have His people to recognise this. Those in whom it has been effected cannot think anything of themselves, for they are conscious that they are brands plucked out of the fire, but they are constrained to acknowledge what mercy has done. If God is restoring priestly conditions today, who of His saints would wish to be out of it? Let us, at any rate, recognise what God is doing. Those who do so will be marked off from others; they will be “men of portent”, or men to be observed as signs, or types. Those who recognise that God is restoring priestly conditions, and who seek to assemble together and to worship in the light of what God is restoring, are persons whom God would have to be observed. They are, indeed, His signs to all Christendom; they are called to be models for all His people of what is truly priestly in service Godward. They are types of what His service should be universally. Would that we understood this better! What holy exercises would be maintained in our hearts, what attention we should pay to every bit of spiritual help that comes to us in relation to the service of God, what care as to every detail of the service, if we had in mind that God would have us to be such as could be observed by all as expressive of His mind in regard to priestly service. Yet would anything less than this really meet our spiritual exercises and desires?
It is at this point that Jehovah says, “For behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch”. The eyes of Joshua and his fellows are turned to Christ as Jehovah’s perfect Servant. It was as much as to say to them, If you want to build acceptably you must consider Christ. It is suggested here that persons are present who can look at Christ in a priestly way; that is, they can look at Him in relation to God. It is a never to be forgotten moment when we come to this, that instead of thinking of Christ in relation to us we begin to think of Him in relation to God. Not that we lose the first by entertaining the second; it is rather greatly enlarged. But the Branch is Jehovah’s Servant; it is He who will very shortly bring in publicly all that is for the pleasure of God. It is as Man that He will do this: “Behold a man whose name is the Branch”, chapter 6:12. It is He who will build the temple, and, when He does, every whit of it will say, Glory. But then all that Christ will do in the future was to be before the hearts of the remnant in their building in Zechariah’s day. And so it is to be for us. Everything that is right will come in for the pleasure of God when He brings forth the Branch. For He is “a righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23: 5), or, as the word really is, Sprout. There is the thought of freshness and the energy of life in a sprout; it speaks of Christ as bringing in what is entirely new, but bringing it in in a vigorous way so that it secures the full delight of God. Now God would have us to apprehend that nothing is right that is not brought in by Christ. What will result publicly from the bringing in of the Branch is to have place now in the house of God in a spiritual way.
Then another figure is used. “For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua — upon one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof”, verse 9. “A stone” suggests that building is in view, but it is building that is to take character from Christ. I think we see the seven eyes in Isaiah 11:1, 2: “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall be fruitful; and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah”. These are the qualifications of Christ to exercise government in the world to come. How much more is engraven on that Stone than was written on the stone tables of the law! Everything is there that God would have expressed in the Man of His choice, of His delight. When God brings in Christ He will remove the iniquity of His land in one day, and every man will be set free to invite his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree. Every one will be in perfect liberty both before God and with his neighbour. Everyone will have the sense of being possessed of good which he can gladly share with his neighbour. God would have His people to know at the present time that they are perfected for ever by the one offering of Christ, so that they can be free and happy with God in the sense of boundless favour. And He has given us brethren with whom we can share every choice thing with which He has enriched us in Christ. Our neighbours are those with whom we have possibilities of contact; it is well to make them welcome to what we have; it is our joy as well as theirs; it is the true gain of our fellowship.