Who was the Joshua in Zechariah 3:1-10?

Son of Josedech: high priest, who on the return from exile was called upon to be strong in building the temple. Hag. 1:1, 12, 14; Hag. 2:2, 4. He is also referred to as representing the people, clothed with filthy garments, and Satan standing as his enemy. Jehovah rebuked Satan, for He had chosen Jerusalem. Joshua could not make himself fit, but the filthy garments were taken away and he was clothed, and had a fair mitre placed upon his head. 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. Zech. 3:1-9; Zech. 6:11. He is called JESHUA in Ezra and Nehemiah. See JESHUA, No. 3.

Joshua is mentioned several times in Zechariah. He was the first high-priest after the captivity, and is called in Ezra and Nehemiah Jeshua, the name Joshua transcribed into Greek. He and Zerubbabel are prophetic types of our Lord as the King-Priest. Joshua was the son of Josedech (Jehozadak) the high-priest who was taken by the Babylonians into captivity (1 Chron. 6:15), and was the grandson of Seraiah, who was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, after the capture of Jerusalem.

In verse 1 the angel who talked with Zechariah showed him Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. We have seen that the Angel of the Lord is Christ. Joshua, being high priest, is a type of Christ, but seen here as representing Israel. Therefore he is clothed with filthy garments as taking the responsibility for Israel's sins. Satan, the accuser (as his name means, is no doubt resisting by means of the accusations he can bring because of Israel' s sins. How overwhelming this guilt would naturally be!

In chapter 2 the Lord has revealed His purposes of grace in the future restoration both of Jerusalem and of His people; chapter 3, while containing a distinct vision and complete in itself, explains how He will accomplish His purposes consistently with His righteousness. Hence we have first of all the state of the people exhibited in the person of Joshua, the high priest, as their representative: "And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." (v. 1) There are three parties in this striking scene — Joshua, the angel of the Lord, and Satan. Joshua as the high priest is, as already stated, viewed as representing the people, and the fact of his being clothed in filthy garments (v. 3) shows their guilty condition before God. The angel of the Lord is really Jehovah — Jehovah as He had been revealed in the midst of Israel; for as was said to Moses, "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." (Exodus 23:20-21.) This makes it very clear that it is Jehovah Himself who is meant. Satan is, as given in the margin, the adversary, the adversary to God and to man, and hence is known, as the word here etymologically signifies, as the enemy or adversary. But in order to understand the scene, it is necessary to remember that Satan has acquired certain rights over man through man's sin; and he is thus spoken of as having had the power of death, which indeed he wielded over man as God's just judgment against sin. (See Heb. 2:14.) It was Satan, in these rights which he possessed over the sinner, that our blessed Lord, as we learn from the scripture just cited, through His death destroyed or brought to nought, in order to deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage; and this must be borne in mind in the explanation of the Lord's action with reference to Joshua. Satan, therefore, had grounds for resisting Joshua, i.e., for opposing God's purposes of grace towards His people. They were guilty, and this was evident from the very garments with which Joshua was clothed; and the problem here to be solved was, How could God bless, righteously bless, His people, according to His purposes, while they were in this condition, seeing, in fact, that they were amenable to judgment, on account of their iniquity? How could the claims of Satan be discharged, and the people be set in favour and blessing?

But in order that Jerusalem (the centre of God's dealings in Israel) should be thus re-established in blessing, something more than the mere exercise of God's power was necessary. The people were guilty and polluted. How could they be brought into the presence of God, and clothed with glory, in such a condition? Nevertheless they must be there in order to be blessed. Moreover this is the history of every sinner. It is this question, so important, so essential, that is solved in Zechariah 3. Joshua, the high priest, who represents the people (it is not a question here of interceding, but of answering for them), stands before the presence of Jehovah — before "the angel of his presence," that is to say, before God as He manifested Himself in Israel since the departure from Horeb. Satan, the adversary to the blessing of God's people, stands there to resist him. How is this to be answered? Joshua could not do it. He was clothed in filthy garments. It is Jehovah Himself who, unknown to them, undertakes the cause of His people (as He did in the case of Balaam), and employs divine authority against their adversary. Jehovah had chosen Jerusalem — had plucked the people as a brand out of the fire; and Satan desired to cast them into it again. The will of Jehovah was to save them, all guilty and polluted as they were. Nevertheless the defilement existed and was unbearable to God. But God was acting in grace; and thus acting, since He must needs remove the sin from before His eyes (for this very reason, that it is unbearable to Him), He puts away the sin and not the sinner. He makes sin to cease from before Him. He takes it away, and, clothing Joshua with new garments wrought of God, and according to His perfection, makes Him a priest before Him. This will be the position of Israel in righteousness, and in service before God — a nation of priests, clothed in the righteousness which their God has given them. We anticipate them in this in a higher and heavenly way.

We would now invite the reader to turn with us to a chapter in the prophet Zechariah which will illustrate this. The Lord, in chapters 1, 2 of that prophet announces the grace that is to be shown to Jerusalem after all her failure. She shall be rebuilt, and shall be inhabited as villages without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein, and the Lord will dwell in her midst (2:4-5). But blessing in the future after failure in the past necessitated the putting away of guilt. Hence following directly on those gracious announcements, which the Lord was so ready and desirous to make known, we have in chap. 3 Joshua, the high-priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan, or the adversary, standing at his right hand to resist him (literally, to be his adversary). Now Joshua, as the high-priest, was the representative of the nation before God. What God did for him was to be regarded as done for the nation. If the high-priest was accepted, the nation represented by him was accepted also.

But then supposing Jerusalem could be thus blessed according to the sovereign choice of God, who never revokes His gifts or His calling — supposing all nations could be thus joined not merely to them but to Him with Jerusalem as their centre — would that satisfy God without putting their hearts and consciences in communion with Him? Impossible. Hence another scene follows to this end in Zechariah 3. "He showed me Joshua the high priest." This, as is evident, touches relationship with God, and brings in not merely the city but the sanctuary. "He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And Jehovah said to Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; even Jehovah that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel." The high priest bears a representative character, not here entering within the veil, but much more like the same personage when he confessed the sins of Israel on the head of the people's lot, the live goat sent into the land of forgetfulness. We must remember that the high priest had not only an intercessory function but a representative character, the latter outside, the former within the veil when the blood was put before and upon the mercy seat.

Here the scene has clearly a representative design. Hence Joshua is seen not clothed in garments of glory and beauty, nor even in the linen garments of daily service. He is on his trial, so to speak, like one suspected of crime. Notoriously the Easterns are as to this rapid in their thoughts and prompt in action. When a man was suspected of crime, it was the common habit to take for granted that he was guilty till he had cleared himself. They do not resemble the Westerns, who take for granted that a man is innocent till he is proved guilty. Here however all stand on solemn ground. It was not a question of Oriental any more than of Western thoughts, but of God and the adversary, who both knew the guilt of Jerusalem. Properly therefore do we see the strange sight of the high priest clad in filthy garments. It was only to be expected that Satan should be there taking advantage of the guilt and the confessed condition of the representative high priest as a reason why God should cast Jerusalem back into fiery trouble again. Why should He pluck such a brand as that out of the fire? Was it better than other brands? Such was Satan's reason; but Jehovah had seen all according to His grace, and in sovereign mercy says, "Take away the filthy garments from him." It was a sentence which had its spring in His own affection. Nevertheless it has a firm ground of righteousness, as we know well, though this be not here brought forward, yet never absent from the eye of God. "And to him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with costly [not merely change of] raiment." Such is His good pleasure, which is not more gracious toward the Jew than glorifying to Himself. "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy," and He has mercy on Joshua as standing for the people. But this is not all. "And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head ;" for he is not content with acquittal merely, but lavishes signs of honour and full favour. "So they set a fair mitre on his head, and clothed him with the garments. And the angel of Jehovah stood up. And the angel of Jehovah protested to Joshua, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways." This solemn declaration was a charge conditional on obedience and even then valid and applicable. Although God put before the people His purpose of grace He did not for the present take them out of government proceeding on the ground of their own responsibility. It was not the new covenant — the Messiah. There was but a sign of the good things coming, but not yet come. The very image could not be beforehand; nor should it be looked for in the past.

The high priest was on this occasion the representative of the people, and so he is in Zechariah's vision. As the representative of the people chosen for God's work he should be arrayed in spotless linen garments because he was in the holy place before the angel of the Lord. But Joshua is not seen in white robes; he is in filthy garments.

Joshua and Zerubbabel stood at the head of those remaining of Judah and Benjamin, whose condition at the time of their return to Jerusalem was one of deep humiliation. They were weak representatives of the priesthood and royalty, but simultaneously forerunners, types, of the Messiah in His future glory.

The high priest Joshua is the subject of the prophet’s fourth vision. His name, “the Lord is Saviour” points already to Him whom he foreshadowed. Yet, in this respect it is important to observe that Joshua can only be seen as type of Christ at the end of the chapter; at the beginning of it this is not the case. The high priest of Israel had a double function. In the first place he was a mediator “established for men in things relating to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1).

The title “Branch” (Isa. 4:2; Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12), and that of “Shoot” or “Tender Sapling” (Isa. 11:1; 53:2) always refer to the Messiah, who will spring forth from the stem of David. It is very remarkable that in this verse God addressed Joshua as the representative of Christ in His priestly service. The Lord announced to him that He would Himself raise up His Servant, David’s Son, the King. In Zech. 6:12-13, where we find a more complete revelation of Christ, the “Branch” and the “High Priest” are one and the same person, and both offices are combined under one head. In the first chapter and in the beginning of the third, Christ was already introduced to us under the mysterious name of the Angel of the Lord. In this portion we see Him in the two characters in which He will at one time reveal Himself, to enable us to consider and value His two distinct offices, so that we would not prefer the one above the other.

The prophet had begun with describing the fall of the Gentile world empires (Zech. 1), so that the restoration of Jerusalem could take place (Zech. 2). After that he had shown (Zech. 3:1-7) that in view of this Jerusalem, represented a person, Joshua, had to be cleansed. Here Zechariah went even a step further, showing that the faithful ones, if they were to share in the blessings of the last days, needed a spotless High Priest, whose companions they will be. He will, however, also be a King out of David’s seed.