And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
The vision is a courtroom scene. A priest stands in God's presence, and an accuser stands beside him. The question is not whether the charges are true. It is who will speak when the accused cannot.
Everything in the vision turns on who is standing there.
There are three parties in this striking scene — Joshua, the angel of the Lord, and Satan. Joshua the high priest, as already said, stands for the people. He is clothed in filthy garments (v. 3), and they show the guilty condition of the people before God. The angel of the Lord is really Jehovah — Jehovah as He had revealed Himself among Israel... Satan means the adversary: the adversary to God and to man... Satan, then, had grounds for resisting Joshua and for opposing God's purposes of grace towards His people. They were guilty, and Joshua's garments proved it. So the problem was this: how could God righteously bless His people while they were in this condition?
The priest's job in this scene is not the one you might expect.
Joshua, the high priest, represents the people. He is not interceding for them here; he is answering for them. He stands before the presence of Jehovah — before "the angel of his presence," that is, before God as He showed Himself in Israel after they left Mount Horeb. Satan, the adversary to the blessing of God's people, stands there to resist him. Who could answer this? Joshua could not. He was clothed in filthy garments.
One commentator points to where else the high priest acted in this way.
The high priest acts here as the people's representative. He is not going inside the veil. He is much more like the same high priest when he confessed the sins of Israel over the head of the goat chosen for the people — the live goat sent away into the land of forgetfulness. Remember that the high priest had two roles. He represented the people outside the veil, and he interceded for them inside it.
The title given to the one Joshua faces needs explaining.
The "angel of Jehovah" is a very unusual title. The angel of Jehovah is the way the Old Testament often speaks of the Lord Jesus — not the only way, but a very common one. Again and again the angel of Jehovah turns out to be Jehovah Himself.
Satan stands there for a reason. His target is the mercy God shows.
Not only was Joshua in the divine presence; Satan was there also, "standing at his right hand to resist him." It was the great adversary objecting to God showing mercy. He denounces men before God with energy. He stresses their sin and guilt, and protests against showing favour to anyone. No one presses the claims of righteousness harder than Satan, when it suits him to play that part.
Even his name tells you what he is doing.
Satan, the accuser — that is what his name means — is no doubt resisting with the accusations he can bring because of Israel's sins.
The vision does not present Satan as lying. That is what makes the moment so serious.
What answer could he make to the accusations of Satan? The garments were proof against him, and he could not deny it. The enemy did not need to invent a charge to make conviction more likely. Most likely everything Satan said was true. There was no reason to exaggerate even one offence. No one lies or exaggerates when the charge is too plain to be answered. Joshua's garments were enough. If everything depended on his own defence, he was certain to be convicted.
The accused never speaks. Someone else answers for him.
Joshua clothed in filthy garments, and Satan at his right hand. What could Joshua say? Nothing! But Jehovah answered for him, and Satan was defeated. He tried to accuse God's work, and could not. If God was for Joshua, that settled the whole thing.
The same two figures still stand in the same places today.
As accuser of the saints the enemy still has access to God. But the Lord has taken up the defence of His people. Today's believers, God's people now, also have an accuser at their right hand — one who gained rights over man through sin.
- Three stand there. A guilty representative, an accuser at his right hand, and the Angel of the LORD who is Jehovah Himself.
- The accuser is right. The filthy garments are real evidence. Satan needs no lie, and Joshua cannot answer the charge.
- The accused is silent. Joshua offers no defence and no excuse. Everything depends on someone else speaking for him.
- The Lord answers. The One Joshua stands before takes up the case for him, and Satan loses without a word from the accused.
- The scene repeats. Commentators apply it to Israel's future cleansing and to believers now. The accuser still stands at the right hand — and still loses.
And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan! Yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Zechariah 3 opens like a courtroom: a high priest stands before God in filthy clothes, and an accuser stands beside him with a case no one denies. The verse does not settle whether Joshua is guilty; it settles who speaks for him, and on what ground a holy God can silence the charge.
Only three figures stand in the scene. One writer names them, says what the man in the middle stands for, and explains the accuser's name.
There are three parties in this striking scene — Joshua, the angel of the Lord, and Satan. Joshua the high priest stands for the people, as already said. His filthy garments (v. 3) show their guilty condition before God. The angel of the Lord is really Jehovah — Jehovah as He had made Himself known among Israel. Satan is, as the margin gives it, the adversary — the adversary to God and to man. Satan has gained certain rights over man through man's sin. So he is spoken of as having had the power of death, which he wielded over man as God's just judgment against sin.
Satan is not lying here. That is what makes his defeat so striking.
Satan appealed to God's righteousness and His wrath against sin, in order to ruin Joshua and Jerusalem. But he did not know the divine love, and so he was put to shame. The grace that wants to save sinners is completely unknown to him. Satan came to declare that God's holiness could never tolerate a man in filthy garments in His presence. And he was right.
Notice who never speaks in the verse. Joshua has no defence, and God does not ask him for one.
Satan brings his accusations to God, and God answers for us. Faith takes up God's answer, as in Zechariah 3. Understanding this matters greatly for our peace, and for our holiness too. What could Joshua say about the filthy garments he was charged with? and ought we to have our filthy garments? Surely not; he has nothing to say, but God answers for him: This is a brand I have plucked out of the fire, and you want to put it in again.
The answer names a reason: the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem. Satan had read the law correctly and drawn the wrong conclusion.
Satan had read the law correctly — the law God had placed the people under. He had also understood his own power correctly, the power that came from that ministry of condemnation and death. But he missed the hints of grace scattered here and there through the books of Moses and the Prophets. Indeed his evil heart could not understand them. So he concluded that nothing could resist his claims. He was little prepared for the crushing answer, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan!"
The guilt itself still had to be dealt with. One writer shows what makes the rebuke righteous, and not only kind.
Did not their guilt and defilement give Satan a claim against the high priest who represented them? It certainly did, and beyond remedy — if Messiah had not been stricken for the transgressions of the people, and bruised for their iniquities. So the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem can rebuke Satan righteously and say, "Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Righteously too He can take the iniquity away from their representative, clothe him in rich clothing, and set a clean turban on his head.
A brand is a stick already burning. The picture says two things: how great the danger was, and how worthless the stick was in itself.
Joshua was a brand plucked out of the fire. How that 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 a brand pluck itself out of the fire? Could it stop the flame spreading? No more could Joshua do anything to stop the judgment he deserved.
Commentators differ on how far the burning had gone. One writer reads the rescue as final.
That does not mean, as some claim, that he was taken out of the fire after the flames had half burned him. No — when the fire came near him, he was spared and set apart, never to be thrown into it again.
The vision points forward to a nation, and it also reaches the individual reading it now.
No matter how great the guilt and shame of the nation of Israel, nothing is too hard for the Lord. He is able to remove the guilt and stain of sin fully, and to do it righteously. The cross of Calvary already laid the basis for this. Today all who trust in the blessed Christ of God are cleansed from their sins by His great sacrifice.
- Charge. The accusation against Joshua was true. His filthy garments showed the real state of the people he stood for.
- Silence. Joshua offers no defence, because a brand cannot pull itself out of the fire.
- Answer. God Himself replies to the accuser. Faith rests in His answer instead of inventing one.
- Ground. The rebuke stands on God's choice of Jerusalem, a grace Satan never allowed for. It stands too on Messiah stricken for the people's transgressions, so the mercy is also righteous.
- Reach. The picture promised a nation its restoration. It shows the same path by which God cleanses any guilty person and sets him at ease in His presence.
And Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel.
Israel's high priest stands in God's presence in filthy clothes, with an accuser beside him. So what can God do with a man who cannot deny a single charge against him?
Israel's high priest had holy robes to wear. These are not them. One writer compares Joshua's clothes with the robes of Aaron, the first high priest. The dirt tells us about the whole nation after the return from exile in Babylon:
How unsuitable were the "filthy garments" of Joshua for the high office he filled as God's high priest! But the state of his garments showed the low moral condition of the nation and priesthood of Israel after the return from captivity in Babylon. The clothing of Joshua showed nothing of the "glory and beauty" of the holy garments of Aaron. Ruin and decay had marked the nation and the priesthood for so long.
Joshua does not appear here as the priest who goes behind the curtain, into the holiest place. He appears as the man who stands in for the people:
The high priest here stands for the people. He is not going behind the curtain this time. He is much more like the same man when he confessed the sins of Israel over the head of the people's lot — the live goat sent into the land of forgetfulness.
The word "clothed" is worth stopping on. In the older wording this writer quotes, our own righteousness is filthy rags. Sin is a full set of garments.
When it is a question of men's righteousness, you will find the prophets saying "all our righteousnesses." That is not our sins. Our righteousnesses are our efforts to do something, our best performances — "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Not garments; they are not garments at all — rags, "filthy rags." But when it is a question of our sins, God says, "clothed in filthy garments." They are not filthy rags, they are filthy garments — he is covered with them. His filthy garments are his iniquity. Our righteousness does not cover us, but our sins do.
Joshua does not speak in this chapter. Nobody asks him to confess. Nobody asks him anything at all.
There is not a word spoken by Joshua, nor a question asked of him. There is none to ask. Convicted sinner as he is, the only question is, what has God for a convicted sinner? People get into the presence of God in their sins. Many think, indeed, that they have to put away their sins and then get into the presence of God. No; nobody gets into the presence of God except in his sins, and then he is as dumb as Joshua is.
The charge against Joshua is true. The filth is real. That is what makes the scene tense — until someone else takes up his defence.
What could Joshua say about the filthy garments he was charged with? And ought we to have our filthy garments? Surely not; he has nothing to say, but God answers for him: This is a brand I have plucked out of the fire, and you want to put it in again.
The obvious remedy — strip off the dirty clothes — would leave him worse off, not better.
How could the Lord hold His righteousness and His gracious choice together? God alone could do this. Joshua could not take off his clothes without standing naked before God. That would have meant his condemnation. He had to be clothed in new clothes, worthy of the One before whose face he stood.
The dirt does not cancel the office.
In this vision the high priest Joshua stands as a picture of the sinful nation and her priestly calling. Like Joshua in filthy garments, the nation is unclean and defiled. Yet despite his filthy garments Joshua was still the high priest. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance; Israel, in the purposes of God, is still the priest.
- Represented. Joshua stands for the nation, not just for himself. His clothes show the nation's moral condition.
- Covered. Sin is a full set of garments, not rags. It covers a person; our own righteousness covers nothing.
- Silent. Joshua says nothing, and nobody asks him anything. Sinners come into God's presence in their sins, not after cleaning up.
- Defended. The charge is true, and Joshua has no answer. God answers for him: this is a brand plucked out of the fire.
- Reclothed. Joshua cannot undress himself; he would only stand naked and condemned. God takes the filthy clothes away and gives new ones — and the office is still his.
And he spoke and said unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes.
The high priest Joshua stands before the angel of the Lord in filthy clothes. The adversary is there to accuse him, and this verse is God's answer. It raises one question: how does God make a guilty man fit to stand before Him?
One writer reads the scene as a trial, where the dirty clothes are the charge.
Joshua is not dressed in the garments of glory and beauty. He is not even in the linen garments of daily service. He is on trial, so to speak, like a man suspected of crime… Here it was a matter between God and the adversary, and both knew the guilt of Jerusalem. So we see the strange sight of the high priest dressed in filthy garments… The Lord had seen it all according to His grace, and in sovereign mercy He says, "Take away the filthy garments from him." That sentence sprang from His own love.
But whose sin is he wearing?
Joshua's iniquity appears to be representative and not personal. In other words, it speaks of the sins of the people, not of his own sins: "I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day" (v. 9).
The verse explains its own picture. God calls the filthy garments "your iniquity."
The garments of Joshua represented his iniquity, with which the eye of God saw him covered from head to foot. Nothing gives our God greater delight than to justify the ungodly. A sinner takes his true place before Him, openly confessing his guilt, with not one word to say in his own defence. Then, with joy, He says now as of old, "I have caused your iniquity to pass from you." The cross of Calvary explains this marvel.
The order to strip Joshua comes with a promise to clothe him again. Why both?
God alone could do this. Joshua could not take off his clothes without standing naked before God. That would have meant his condemnation. He had to be given new clothes, worthy of the One before whose face he stood… God delivered Joshua. He dealt with him according to the right He had to cleanse him. He put him into the joy and the glorious privileges of His presence.
First God speaks to the attendants about Joshua. Then He speaks to Joshua himself, and drops the picture language.
"Take away his filthy garments from him." But that was not enough. "And to him He said, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you." How beautiful this direct assurance from God's own lips! He puts it into the plainest possible words instead of picture language, so that it may be fully understood. It is the same in every case: for solid peace the soul must have this direct assurance.
Another writer draws the same conclusion for the awakened conscience: if grace takes the clothes away, it also means us to know they are gone.
So now God gives the certainty to the soul of being cleansed, just as the Lord Himself when on earth assured the woman who was a sinner that her sins were forgiven her; for if grace removes our filthy garments, He would also have us know that they are gone.
Every verb here belongs to God: He removes, He causes to pass, He clothes.
"I have caused to pass," "I will clothe" — all this came from the Angel. He would do it without regard to what Joshua deserved. He would do it out of His own sovereign grace… Every charge that could be brought against Joshua had been pressed, no doubt, with a skill, a zest and a cleverness no advocate on earth could ever equal. But it was all in vain… And since Joshua now wore rich clothing, all could see that every stain of sin was gone for ever, never to be seen again.
What does the new clothing stand for?
This is a picture of God crediting righteousness to the believer. It is the truth of justification: God, as judge, declares the person righteous, the exact opposite of guilty. God has not only wiped out our huge debt. He has also given us, free of charge, a credit of righteousness that delights His own heart. The robe of righteousness is Christ Himself — Christ our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).
Who is this vision for?
Joshua could not make himself fit. Others took the filthy garments away, clothed him, and set a clean turban on his head. What happened to him shows how God will bring Israel into blessing under Christ the Branch. It can also be applied to the salvation of a sinner now.
- Accused. Joshua stands for a guilty people. The adversary presses charges, and God does not deny the guilt.
- Stripped. The filthy garments are his iniquity. God orders others to strip them off, because Joshua could never do it himself.
- Told. God drops the picture language and speaks plainly, so the forgiven man hears it from God's own lips.
- Clothed. Stripping alone would leave him naked. The new robe is righteousness given, and that robe is Christ.
- Kept. Every stain is gone for good. That is the pledge of Israel's blessing to come, and the pattern of a sinner's salvation now.
And I said, Let them set a pure turban upon his head. And they set the pure turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments; and the Angel of Jehovah stood by.
The vision reaches its turning point: the man who stood accused in filthy clothes now receives clean garments and a clean turban. The prophet himself, not the angel, calls for that turban, and its meaning carries the weight of the scene.
The speaker changes without warning. Up to now the words came from the Lord and His angel. Now the prophet breaks in, and one writer sees a lesson about prayer in that.
The change of person in the speaker is worth noticing — "And I," not He, "said." It seems as if the vision he was watching had brought the prophet into such communion with the mind of God that he becomes its voice. He had heard the divine word, "I will clothe you with change of clothing." Entering into what had been promised, he intercedes, as it were, that God would do it at once. In this lies the principle of all prevailing intercession — the soul entering into the thoughts of God and turning them into prayer.
The head covering here is the high priest's. The law of Moses describes it in detail.
This was the headdress of the high priest, made of fine linen. A blue cord fastened to it "the plate of the holy crown of pure gold," engraved with "Holiness to the Lord." This plate came across the forehead. The mitre pictured how the Lord Jesus upholds purity, righteousness and holiness as the Minister of the sanctuary, or holy place.
Older translations call it a "fair mitre"; the ESV says "clean turban." One writer draws two things from it: how God sees the believer, and what the believer is called to.
The fair mitre tells of the way in which God looks on the believer, as being "holiness to the Lord," in the sense of being separated to Himself, and also suggests the responsibility of every such believer to keep himself or herself apart from the spirit of the age, and "unspotted from the world."
Joshua is not left standing bare once the dirty clothes come off. The removal and the reclothing belong together, and the second is what fits him for his work.
Joshua in this vision was not only delivered from his filthy garments, but was clothed in what was clean, with a fair mitre on his head. He was in this way established in his priestly position. God does not only remove evil; He also crowns with good.
The same double action, one writer argues, is how God deals with anyone He saves.
He does not only remove a person's guilt through the power of Christ's work applied to him. Through Christ's death and resurrection He also brings him into a new place and standing, and makes him the righteousness of God in Christ. In that new place and condition the sinner answers fully to the mind of God. He can be in God's presence in perfect peace and freedom.
The turban was not only clean; it marked an office.
The mitre stood for office, so Joshua was qualified to be there on behalf of the people. Two things followed from his receiving the pure garments: he could now stand in righteousness in the presence of the LORD, and he could enjoy continued access there as the ministering priest.
The verse ends with the Angel of the LORD standing by. One writer reads both the turban and that presence as a picture of Israel's future.
The vision mentions a turban for Joshua's head. When someone receives Christ, his whole attitude of mind changes. It will be the same for the nation Israel: receiving their true Messiah will put their thinking wonderfully right (Isaiah 53:4-5). God will have given them their beautiful turban. "And the angel of the LORD was standing by." This pictures the Lord Jesus Himself taking a vital interest in the change of His people Israel.
Joshua was a real person with a real job, but the vision reaches past him.
Joshua son of Josedech was the high priest who, on the return from exile, was called to be strong in building the temple. He is also referred to as representing the people, clothed with filthy garments, and Satan standing as his enemy... Joshua could not make himself fit, but the filthy garments were taken away and he was clothed... His experience represents how God will bring Israel into blessing under Christ the Branch, though it may be applied to the salvation of a sinner now.
- Accused — Satan stood as Joshua's enemy, and Joshua could not make himself fit.
- Cleansed — the removal of the filth was only the first half; God does not merely take away evil, He crowns with good.
- Clothed — clean garments established Joshua in his priestly place, and God brings the forgiven into the same kind of new standing, fit for His presence in peace.
- Consecrated — the turban carried a gold plate reading "Holiness to the Lord," set across the forehead of the man just cleansed.
- Company — the Angel of the LORD stood by through it all, and the scene points on to Israel's blessing under Christ the Branch.