The scripture reading this evening comes from Zechariah chapter 3. It's right before the New Testament, it's page 944 in the Pew Bible, 944, Zechariah chapter 3. The book of Zechariah opens with a series of visions, and chapter 3 is one of these visions where the prophet Zechariah is getting a vision of Joshua the high priest in the courtroom of God. So let's give attention to God's word, Zechariah chapter 3, the whole chapter.
"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you! oh satan the lord who has chosen jerusalem rebuke you is this not a brand plucked from the fire now joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments and the angel said to him to them to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him, And he said to him, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
"And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, Thus says the Lord of hosts: if you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign. Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.
This is the reading of God's holy and inspired word.
Our God has so ordered creation and human beings and society that we might know justice, that we might know His justice. And in society, we have a justice system. And we're all familiar with courts and courtroom language because many of us have served on juries or perhaps the judges and lawyers and sheriffs have been in court for various reasons but also we've all seen some sort of television show or movie that depicts a courtroom where the judge presides and there's a defendant and a lawyer to defend him. And there's a few times in scriptures where we get a glimpse into the heavenly courtroom, into God's courtroom, where He sits as judge. You'd think of the early chapters of Job there's a glimpse of satan accusing job before the Lord. And here in Zechariah, in his vision, we get a little glimpse into the courtroom of the Lord.
We'll first look at verses one through three, that set the scene for this courtroom. And then in verses 4 through 5, justification is dramatized in this exchange of robes. We see repulsive rags exchanged for righteous robes. And then in verses 6 through 10, we see the obedience of the high priest.
So, verses 1 through 3: the courtroom vision. Verses 4 through five repulsive rags for righteous robes. And in verses six through ten the obedience of the high priest.
Starting first in verses one through three, there's characters in this vision, and we have to remember that this is a vision it's through the eyes of Zechariah that we're watching this scene. Now, there's, I guess, four characters if Zechariah is counted, but he's mostly sidelined, watching the scene happen. And the first character we see is Joshua the high priest. Joshua was the high priest at the time of the return from exile, when Israel's being restored to the land and when they're rebuilding the second temple. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, Joshua is mentioned. And Joshua, as the high priest, represents the people of God in this vision in the same way that a high priest represents God's people when he comes before them, comes before the Lord in the temple, representing the people. So we have Joshua, the high priest.
And our second character is Satan, the accuser. It says Satan was standing by to accuse Joshua. And Satan loves to accuse God's people. He loves to tempt us into sin, to cause us to fall, and then he rubs our nose in it. He likes to mock us and show us our sin and then bring that sin before the Lord, that he might condemn us, as Satan's been condemned. And the sad thing is that Satan has a lot to point to. As in this vision, Joshua the high priest is before the Lord filthy. And the same can be said about the church at times that the church has sin, the church has scandal and rivalry and sin plainly for the world to see. And Satan wants to accuse God's people and bring them before God and say, "Judge and condemn these people for their filthy and sin!"
At the time of the exile, God's people were in grave moral sin, abandoning His laws. The priests were intermarrying with foreign women. They had forsaken God. And Satan brings them before the throne room to say, "Judge them and condemn them." But we have this third character: the angel of the Lord.
Now, the angel is standing in judgment, presiding over this courtroom scene, but the angel also acts not only as a judge but as an advocate, as a defender of Joshua. In this angel, we must remember: when the Bible says "the angel of the Lord," especially in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord isn't just any old angel. It's Jesus. It's the second person of the Trinity. The angel of the Lord is identified with Yahweh, the covenant God, again and again in the Old Testament, and even here in this passage. Notice that when the angel speaks, the Bible says, "The Lord said to Satan." So when the angel speaks, the Lord is speaking. And the Lord says, "The Lord rebuke you." He rebukes Satan.
So this angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Son, standing as judge but also as defender. And as Jesus defends His people like a defense attorney, he's not saying that Joshua or God's people haven't committed any crimes. He doesn't say, that no, he's not filthy. He sees that he's filthy. he knows that Joshua is sinful before the Lord, but He rebukes Satan. He defends His people because they are His chosen people.
And I'm sure Joshua's so grateful to have a mediator, to have an advocate, a defender before the Lord. And likewise, we can thank God that we have a mediator. Because as Joshua sits there, filthy before the judge, it's like he's in a courtroom with blood still on his hands caught red-handed, literally dead to rights. They have the fingerprint evidence, eyewitnesses, video footage of him committing the crime. There's no way he's getting out of this one. But he has an advocate someone to defend him. And Jesus rebukes Satan.
Now, he doesn't defend Joshua because Joshua is innocent. He defends Joshua because he's his. The Lord rebukes Satan, saying that we are chosen, elect. He says this about Jerusalem: "The Lord rebuke you, oh Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!"
This is God's chosen people. And we, as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, are God's chosen people. He says, "This is a brand plucked from the fire."
If you've ever been camping and you've made a wood fire, you know that sometimes you need to stoke the fire to keep it going. And maybe you'll keep a stick on the edge so you can turn around the coals a little bit. That's a firebrand sitting at the very edge of the fire, smoking and smoldering, but not quite cast into the fire. And that's what God's sovereign election looks like. That we were in the fallen mass of humanity, liable to the fiery hell of judgment. But God, in his great mercy, has plucked us from that fire. We would have burned up with the rest of the wood all the same, but God has plucked us out of that fire. And that is why he has defended Joshua, because that is his chosen people. He has chosen Israel not because Israel's good, not because Joshua was the best high priest, not because he's perfect, but because of his great mercy and love.
So as we get this vision of the heavenly courtroom, Satan, our accuser, trying to indict us before the Lord, we can thank God that we have Jesus Christ, our advocate, that he's before the throne of God condemning Satan and pleading our case. What a great comfort, that he has sovereignly chosen us! We can praise God for his sovereign election that it is not because of anything good in us but because of his good pleasure. Thank God that he has chosen us and given us this defender.
Especially as we look at verse 3, and we just are brought to the realization that Joshua is standing before the angel of the Lord in filthy garments. He is all the more in need of a mediator. And when it says "filthy," it means defiled. It's a word that's used to describe excrement and vomit and disgusting spew. Joshua wasn't just dirty. He was disgusting before the Lord.
As Isaiah says, "Behold, you are angry and we sinned. In our sins we have been a long time. And shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment."
Even the very best thing that we can offer the Lord, our own goodness, our own righteousness, whatever we can muster up in this life, is disgusting before the Lord. Because the righteousness which can pass God's judgment must be entirely perfect and entirely unstained by sin because He is perfect and unstained by sin. To be in His presence, you need to be perfect. And all of our good works are stained.
And that's why the high priest is the ultimate picture here and it's all the more shocking that it's him because the high priest was to be the most holy, the most righteous of God's people, the most set apart and pure. Yet before the Lord, on his own, he's filthy.
And this leads us to the question: How can we stand in God's presence? How shall we come before the Lord? How can God even defend us when we're that filthy before Him? What can be said on our behalf?
As the psalmist says in Psalm 130, "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Who can stand in the judgment?"
And the answer is found in verses 4 and 5. The answer is that there's an exchange of garments, repulsive rags for righteous robes. The repulsive rags of Joshua are removed from him. And this scene is a picture of justification. Simplified, that it's as simple as this: sin is removed and righteousness put on. The theological language is imputed the righteousness is given or imputed to us; sin removed, guilt taken away, and righteousness is put on. That's the basics of justification. When you believe in Jesus Christ, your sin and guilt is removed from you, and you are given the obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's the very core of the gospel.
The good news is that by faith in Jesus Christ, you can have the forgiveness of sins, and you can have a righteousness which can stand in the judgment, that you can have eternal life with that Lord Jesus. That's the very core of the gospel. Cleansed of all unrighteousness, all self-righteousness, anything that keeps us from the presence of God. Jesus purifies us, spotless and blameless before our God, removing those repulsive rags.
Jesus then gives Joshua pure garments, pure robes. It's, I think, crucial to notice how Joshua does not stand before the Lord in his own garments. Jesus doesn't just take those dirty rags and launder them and then put them back on Joshua. But he needs them removed and cast away. And he needs robes that are not his own, robes that he didn't clean himself, robes that he didn't make himself put upon him. And these robes are to represent the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus removes the robes, he says to Joshua, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you." The iniquity is gone, and the righteousness is given to him. And when we say righteousness, we mean good works, obedience, merit, given to Joshua the high priest.
And it says a clean turban is put on his head. This is the garments of the high priest. He wore robes and a turban. That's why he needs the turban. It's part of the high priest's garments that represent ritual purity and holiness and righteousness. Pure, rich, white, festal garments.
And this is true for us. If you believe in Jesus Christ, your filthy rags are taken away. All your iniquities removed, that you might stand before God as the bride of christ pure sinless, spotless, and righteous. It's not just enough to have the sin removed; we need the positive righteousness of Christ, the obedient life that he lived to the Father, all of his good works, need to be given to us that we might stand in the judgment.
Isaiah sings of this blessed justification in Isaiah 61. He says, "I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God. He has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels."
As we sang earlier, that is our beauty before the Lord: only Christ's blood and righteousness. That is the only way we can stand before the Lord. This is one of the most cherished truths that we Christians hold to. Again, the core of the gospel, this truth of justification.
We confess it in our confessions. In the Belgian Confession, we say, "Jesus Christ Christ is our righteousness, crediting to us all his merits and holy works that he has done for us and in our place." And in the Heidelberg Catechism, "Without any merit of my own, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner."
So Joshua now stands before the Lord, cleansed of his iniquity. The mouth of the accuser is stopped. There's nothing more to say. He's no longer filthy before the Lord because Jesus the advocate has put his righteous robes on the high priest.
And in verses 6 through 10, there's a charge given to this high priest. The vision then reveals our understanding of Christ's obedience in the high priest.
The angel says to joshua says he solemnly assured him or charged him thus says the Lord of hosts: if you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule in my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here."
Who's standing before the Lord? It's angels. You want to stand in the holy courtroom with the holy angels? If you want to stand before the Lord, he's requiring obedience. These are conditions for Joshua: if you'll walk in my ways, if you keep my charge. That's the only way to have access to god is with a positive obedience.
And throughout the scriptures, the phrase "walk in my ways" expresses personal obedience to God's law and commandments. Joshua is charged with personal obedience. "Keep my charge. Execute judgment in my house. Keep my courts." This is regarding faithfulness and his priestly obligations. To keep all these duties are the particular command to the high priest: governance and guardianship of the temple courts. He's to be faithful in God's house.
But there's an interesting turn. He gives him this charge. And then in verse 8, Joshua's friends are the other priests. It's the priesthood in Israel. He gives the priest this charge, and then he says, "Guess what? You're a sign. and it's a bad sign. He gives them this charge, but they failed. Joshua failed. The priesthood failed. Israel failed. But the true high priest, Jesus Christ, prevailed.
In this way, Joshua is a negative type of Christ. Someone who's supposed to be the high priest and supposed to fulfill all these obligations, but he failed. And this is really what the book of Hebrews is about. The priests had to offer for their own sins first. So God points us to the true high priest, the heavenly high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus Christ.
This is what he says: "Behold, you and your friends before you they are men who are a sign," a bad sign, because of their failure. "Then this is what he says: behold I will bring my servant the branch
So God's going to resolve this. They need obedience. They do not obey as they should. But God's going to send His servant the Branch. And the Branch is all over the prophets. This term "the Branch," especially Isaiah and Jeremiah use it.
Isaiah, in Isaiah 11, says, "...side with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins." Here, the Branch is the judge. The Branch is the one who's coming, who will be righteous and faithful.
And this coming Branch is also picked up by Jeremiah, even more explicitly: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He's a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." These are the very charges given to Joshua and the priests: this executing judgment, justice, and righteousness, and ruling in the land. "And in his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: the Lord is our righteousness
This coming Branch will be called "The Lord is our righteousness." Here it's just clarifying this passage: that the only way you can stand in the judgment, the only way you can have access to God, is if the Lord is your righteousness. If you put your faith in God's servant, the righteous Branch who is our righteousness, only clothed in his righteousness can you stand before the Lord.
He is the one who's perfectly walked in God's ways. He fulfilled all the duties of the high priest. He offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. He was the sacrificial Lamb. He was faithful in God's house as a Son. And he judges with perfect judgment.
And this Jesus Christ gives us his obedience that we might stand before God, robed in his righteousness, so that when God looks at his people, he sees Christ's righteousness. When God looks at us, we're protected by the robes of Christ. So we are not consumed by his holiness and justice. We only have access to God through Christ.
And we confess this again. I was reading the Belgic Confession, and we say, "We believe that we have no access to God except through the one mediator and intercessor, Jesus Christ the righteous. Otherwise, we would have no access."
So we're all going to stand before this judgment seat. The judge who sees and knows everything will be presiding. And you are either in your own repulsive rags, or you are in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ.
If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you will not have access to God. You will be cast out of his presence into the fires of hell. So I implore you: if you do not believe tonight, put your faith in Jesus Christ. Know that he can cleanse you from your iniquity. As in the Gospels, the leper comes to him and says, "Lord, if you will, make me clean." He can remove those repulsive rags from you and give you his righteousness, his perfect obedience, that you might stand in the judgment and have access to God and all of his glory and holiness and beauty and joy.
And if you believe in Jesus Christ, when God looks at you, he will see the righteousness of Jesus. That's what verse 9 is telling us: it's when God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of Christ.
This verse is a little bit maybe difficult to understand because it's a vision, but let's look at it together. It makes sense on second and closer reading.
"For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts."
My first question was, where did this stone come from? And we need to look back to verse 5 to make sense of it. So in verse 5, they're clothing the high priest. And notice in verse 5, it's first person: "And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. Zechariah, in the middle of this vision, cries out to the angels, "Put a clean turban on his head!" because he knows that that is part of the high priest's vestments.
In Exodus 28, Moses describes what the high priest wears before the Lord: ceremonial pure robes, a turban, and on that turban there's a plate with an inscription. As it says in verse 9, there's an inscription that says, "Holy to the lord an inscription on the forehead of the high priest, on a plate that says, "Holy to the Lord."
Now, this stone is identified with that signet seal on the priest's crown, on the turban. And that's why Zechariah cries out. He knows that the priest needs this. The "Holy to the Lord" is a reminder to the priest of his status in Christ. And symbolically, it's a reminder to the Lord of who we are in Christ. It's a stamp of ownership on the forehead of God's people: You are holy to the Lord. We are God's personal possession, sanctified and holy to Him.
And it's interesting. It says there's seven eyes on the stone. That's not to say that there's seven eyeballs. But in Zechariah 4, there's this "seven eyes of the Lord," representing perfect acute vision. Seven is the number of completion and fullness in the scriptures. So with God's perfect vision, He looks upon the plate on the forehead that says "Holy to the Lord." When God looks at His people, He sees with perfect vision holiness. He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ.
This is such a beautiful picture, because when Satan's accusing us and we know we've sinned and you're consumed by guilt and shame, we get this great comfort: when God looks at us with his perfect vision which sees everything he focuses on this crown that says "Holy to the Lord." We are chosen and righteous in Christ. And that's what God sees when he looks at you: you are his chosen portion. And he's not looking upon your sin, looking to judge you, as Satan wants, but he's a merciful and loving Father who's forgiven your sin and removed your iniquity and guilt. And he wants him. he wants you to come to him
So this informs our our prayers and our worship and coming to public worship and and receiving the sacrament. We shouldn't let our sin and guilt keep us from the Lord. But as our loving Father, we can freely confess and repent to him, knowing that he sees us as perfectly obedient as Christ was for us. He sees us as holy to him. And he implores us to come to him, even though we think we're too filthy to be in his presence. He has resolved that in Jesus christ that we can stand before him in Christ's robes.
And God gives us even further comfort in verse 10. "In that day," or in the end of verse 9, "In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will remove the iniquity of the land in a single day." That's a prophecy pointing forward to the cross, to Good Friday. What's the single day when guilt and iniquity was removed? When Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. But we, as New Covenant Christians, look back on that day. We know that day has already come. That we already have received the forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ. And in that day, we know that the Lord has taken away our iniquity.
And in verse 10, he says, "Every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree." This comes from First Kings, from the days of Solomon, when the land was so rich that every man from Dan to Beersheba sat under his vine and under his fig tree, in the shade and peace, eating fruit and richness and wealth. And Micah describes this vine and fig tree also, saying that we'll have peace and safety and no one will be afraid.
We don't need to fear the coming judgment of God as Christians, believing in Jesus Christ. The judgment is a comfort to us that will be our entrance into blessedness, into true eternal peace and wealth and joy and being with our God face to face.
And that on that judgment day, we won't come before Him filthy, but we'll be in these pure robes. That the judge will look upon us and see Christ's righteousness, see that we are holy to the Lord. And the judge will give us this verdict: "Justified. Not guilty. Righteous in my sight." And he'll say to his people, "Enter into my rest. Well done, my good and faithful servant."
Let us rejoice in this and pray to our God.
Holy Father, we thank you for these truths. We thank you for your scriptures. Thank you for this vision and this picture of justification. Lord, we know that we're filthy, and we thank you that you remove our iniquity and sin from us. And Lord, beyond our greatest imagination, you've given us the righteousness of Christ, that we might stand with you, that we might love you and be with you, that we might withstand the judgment. We thank you that you have chosen us. We thank you for Christ's righteousness. We pray in his name. Amen.