Standing Before The Throne | Zechariah 3:1-10

Introduction

Have you ever found yourself scrolling through the internet and you come across a video that someone shared (bless their heart) and the title reads something like this: “WOW! You Will Never Believe What Happened Next”?

Well, a couple of weeks ago I found myself taking the bait and I pressed play on a video which then sucked me into viewing a scene from a courtroom where there was a man on trial for murder.

The prosecutor was at his seat next to the defendant prepared to bring his accusations. The judge sat before the accused man at his stand. The family of the victim sat by awaiting the assumed verdict that was going to come. One of the brothers of the victim was given a chance to speak, and as the title primed me for, I wasn’t ready for what was going to happen next.

The brother approaches the microphone with tears streaming down his face and goes on to speak about how he will miss his brother and he proceeds to talk about the good memories that they had shared. He then addresses the man on trial saying, and I summarize:

“Nothing that we do here today will take back what you have done to our brother and how that has affected our family. You will have to face the punishment that the court gives you today.”

And then he looks up from the podium: “But I want you to know that Jesus saves sinners just like you and me if you confess your sins to him. Jesus died on the cross to pay the punishment for our sins that we deserved. I love you and I wanted you to know that.”

This man on trial knew the crime he had committed. He knew of the punishment that he would have to face for what he had done. But, as the title of the video said, I don’t think he knew what was going to happen next when this Christian brother who was suffering such loss stood there and shared the hope of the gospel with him.

It’s this same kind of twist in the story that we are presented with in our passage today. What we are going to see is also in a courtroom. What we are going to see is also a rather hopeless situation. But we are also going to see something that is completely surprising.

So, I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Zechariah which is found near the end of the Old Testament right before Malachi which closes the first half of Scripture.

We will be in Zechariah chapter 3, verses 1 through 10.

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, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “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.” —Zechariah 3:1–10, ESV

Let me set the scene before we dive into our passage. Zechariah was a post-exilic prophet and priest meaning that his ministry was in the time following the Jews exile in Babylon. The Jews returned from that captivity by decree of Cyrus, King of Persia, into the promised land to rebuild the temple. But they faced external opposition and quit rebuilding the temple.

It was therefore the job of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai to encourage the people to continue in their work of rebuilding the temple. And in this chapter Zechariah is shown a vision. The book of Zechariah consists largely of apocalyptic literature. When we think of this apocalyptic genre we often think of confusing symbols and chaotic references. But the point of apocalyptic literature is not to confuse, but rather to reveal.

Imagine that! God doesn’t give us the apocalyptic literature in our Bibles to confuse us, but rather to reveal truth to us! Today God is helping us to understand his Word through this vision to Zechariah.

How was God wanting to use this vision in the lives of the original audience and how is God wanting us to be confronted by the realities of this vision this morning? The people have been in exile for 80 years. They have been removed from the land of promise. They have been brought back, but they knew they were guilty. They not only have the guilt of their sin weighing on them, but also they have failed at what God has called them to do.

They are haunted by the questions, “Is there any hope for my future in light of what I have done? Is there any hope for our nation in light of our sin?”

So these are a people who, yes, have been restored. Yes, they are back in the land. But it is not what they had hoped for or envisioned. They are laboring under a burden of guilt and in light of an uncertain future. Can they be forgiven? Is there a hopeful future for them?

We can have the same questions. “Is there any hope for me in light of my sin that won’t seem to go away? Is there any hope for me when I can’t see what the future holds, let alone what tomorrow might bring?” That’s what this text is going to speak to.

I believe that the main point of Zechariah 3 is that God saves sinful people so that they can stand confidently before Him.

We will proceed by unpacking three facets of our salvation from this text. First, Our Undeserved Salvation. Next, Our Complete Salvation. And finally, Our Coming Salvation.

Our Undeserved Salvation

As Zechariah is given a tour of heavenly scenes in chapters 1–6, he is shown a picture of the heavenly throne room here in chapter 3 where a case is being tried before the throne. If you look at verse 1 with me it tells us who the parties are that are present in this case.

Joshua the high priest is seen to be standing as the defendant, the person on trial. Standing by at Joshua’s right hand is Satan prepared to accuse him before God. Before Joshua is the angel of the LORD, who is simply called “the LORD” in verse 2, representing God as judge.

In verse 2 we jump straight into the action of the courtroom and before Satan has any chance to bring a charge against Joshua, the LORD says to him, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

Satan, the name meaning the Accuser, is prepared to state his case against the high priest. But God is on the offensive and rebukes him for even thinking he had a chance to bring anything against Joshua. And what is God’s reason for rebuking Satan? Why would God intervene here for Joshua the high priest?

Look again in verse 2: “The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!” It is because of God’s choosing, his electing purpose that he turned away Satan before the accusations were able to slither out of his mouth.

‘The LORD who chooses Jerusalem’ is a theme that has continual prominence in these visions.

Look at Zechariah 1:17: “Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”

And now go to chapter 2:12: “And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”

It is because God has chosen his people that he prevents any attacks from Satan to come their way. He depicts them as a brand plucked from the fire (vs. 2). This is a reference to Amos 4:11 and describes a small stick or log that is on fire. He has pulled Joshua the high priest out of the fire to prevent him from being further burned and ultimately consumed by the flames.

Israel’s enslavement in Egypt was referred to as an “iron furnace” in Deuteronomy 4:20 and Jeremiah 11:4 where God was the one who delivered and “plucked” his chosen people out of their enslavement in Egypt.

This picture helps our understanding of what the LORD is saying here. This is a privileged deliverance that Joshua and the people he represented will experience just like the Israelites experienced a privileged deliverance from Egypt because they were God’s chosen people.

God gives Zechariah this vision showing him what His heart is towards his people. We see that God’s heart is still for his people. His patience with them has not run dry.

Time after time, deliverance after deliverance, God was calling his people to obedience that they might receive his promised blessing for them. Yet in unbelief, God’s people did not obey his voice and they turned after other gods, delighting in what would only cause them destruction. So Jerusalem was destroyed, they were conquered, and carried into captivity.

Maybe you’ve reached a point in your life where you think you’ve amounted so much sin in your life that God couldn’t possibly continue loving you. “God’s patience with me in my sin must have reached its end by now. I’ve turned my back so many times on God in my sin that there is no way he could care about me now.“

Friends, let me assure you: this is not who God is. God’s purpose in saving you remains unchanged. So press on in faith and repentance, God is pleased to be working in you.

So though Jerusalem was destroyed, though they were conquered, though the people of God were carried into captivity, God would bring them out of their exile. And in this vision we are shown that God’s electing purposes remain unchanged.

The people of Israel did not deserve this kind of steady, unchanging commitment to them. Joshua the high priest did not deserve this, nor do we here today deserve God’s purposes in choosing us and guarding us from the accusations of Satan.

We are reminded of the LORD’s purpose in Deuteronomy 7 where it says, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who were on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

For all of us here who know Christ, if we were to ask ourselves, “Why am I saved? Why am I chosen?” Don’t look inside! It is nothing you did. It is nothing you earned. We are not special. We are here because God made a decision. He decided to set his love on us.

There is no grounds for boasting regarding this protecting election that God seals us with. The appropriate Biblical response is to be amazed and humbled that God would even give a thought to us.

While the Lord protects Joshua by reminding Satan the accuser that he has chosen Joshua, we can’t proceed any further in this passage without being faced with a grave problem.

Consider the tension between verse 2 and verse 3: “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?’ Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.”

In verse 2 God chooses Joshua, pulling him from the fire so that he wouldn’t be consumed and in verse 3 you have Joshua the high priest standing filthy, vile, and condemned before God. Satan stood there to accuse Joshua of just this. The high priest is standing before God in filthy garments, stained with sin. Satan’s accusations are warranted. The evidence is there. Nobody can stand before our holy God filthy in unrighteousness.

Notice with me that throughout this whole vision Joshua is silent. He doesn’t say a word. And particularly here in the first couple verses Joshua’s silence shouts at us.

Joshua’s silence regarding his filthy garments shows us that there is nothing that he can say in his own defense. His uncleanness is visible before God. He is guilty because of his sin and deserves to be cast out of God’s presence. He not only stands there silent, knowing his sin, guilty of his sin, but he also is standing there unable to help himself.

This is where we tend to differ from this picture. We definitely stand guilty before God in filthy garments stained with our sin as well. But if you are like me—and I am guessing that you may be—I don’t tend to be silent before God as Joshua is. We can be so quick to speak up and start justifying our sin to God.

“God, I know I was bitter towards this person but you just don’t understand how hard they are to relate to.”

“God, I know that I barked at my spouse today but she just didn’t understand how long a day at work I had.”

“God, I know that I doubted your provision for me this week, but don’t you see my circumstances?”

Our attempts to justify or rationalize our sin before God gets us nowhere. It only adds more stains to our garments. When standing before the throne of God the evidence of our sin condemns us and leaves us unable to speak or help ourselves. We need a mediator.

The high priest—Joshua in this case—was the representative mediator between God and the people. So in this vision Joshua stands before the throne of God on behalf of all the people, seeking to make atonement on behalf of all of God’s people, and he stands there filthy.

This is a serious predicament that the text presents us with. It’s not just that Joshua is guilty. He is unclean. The very thing that qualified Joshua for his priestly duties, to go into the presence of God on Yom Kippur, once a year, before he enters the holy of holies, he had careful instructions on what he was to wear... Those things, his garments, the one thing that would keep him from being killed in God’s presence, those garments were filthy. What a predicament!

The acceptability of the people of God depended critically on the acceptability of the high priest. So in this passage Joshua not only stands there stained with his own sin and guilt, but also that of all of God’s people as their representative.

We stand before God guilty because of our sin. Our sin makes us unclean and unworthy to be in God’s presence.

Commenting on this passage, scholar Barry Webb reminds us of the nature of our sin when he says, “It is not merely the problem of having done unclean things, but of being an unclean man. Joshua stands before the angel of the LORD turned inside out, with what he really is on full display, covered with shame and condemned in the court of heaven.”

It is not just the sinful things that we do that separate us from God, it is because we are sinful people. It’s not merely the problem of having done unclean things, but of being an unclean man or an unclean woman.

The prophet Isaiah says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

Because we are sinful people we deserve to be taken away by our iniquities like the wind. Our salvation is undeserved. But the vision goes on and here we have our “You won’t believe what happens next” moment.

Our Complete Salvation

Remember the context of this vision that Zechariah is being shown. The people of God had incurred God’s punishment by the penalty of the exile. And as they came back into the promised land from exile, they were still stained with sin. They knew that they needed a way back into the presence of a holy God.

And in this vision we have a vivid picture of what happens. The thing that Joshua likely didn’t know and could never have imagined was that God was not going to punish him and remove him from his presence. That would have been a correct expectation.

Look at verses 3 and 4: “Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’”

Rather than removing Joshua from his presence, God removes all in Joshua that offended his holiness. Joshua’s unrighteousness and all the unrighteousness of the people was dealt with by God. God removes the filthy garments of sin from his people. So here is this promise that God is going to cleanse the people from their sin. There is hope for them. There is a future for them.

Maybe you are sitting here today and you have confessed the same sin for the thousandth time. God must yawn at my confession. God must turn his back to me at this point. Is there any hope for me?

Or maybe you have done something and you regret it and there are consequences and you conclude that there is no fixing this situation. The glass has shattered all over the floor; this situation can’t be put back together. That’s what your sin is like, that is what your situation is like, maybe that is what your life is like. Is there any hope for me?

Oh brothers and sisters, this text says yes. There absolutely is hope for you. God will cleanse you of your sin if you turn to him.

But God doesn’t stop there; this is only part of what he does for his people. God doesn’t just remove Joshua’s iniquity but he also clothes Joshua with garments suitable for presence and service in the heavenly throne room. Notice the emphasis on the agent who works Joshua’s complete salvation in this vision. “I have taken your iniquity away” and “I will clothe you.”

God gives Joshua a gracious salvation. He removes his uncleanness and makes him clean so that he might continue to stand before the throne. God’s representative is now clothed in God’s righteousness.

In the other visions surrounding Zechariah 3, Zechariah always asks a question to the guiding angel to help him gain understanding. Here in chapter 3, Zechariah asks no questions. He speaks up finally in verse 5 saying, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head.”

The lack of a question from Zechariah in this vision should make us stand back and behold the glorious work that is being done. Zechariah was so moved by what he had seen. The meaning of this vision for Zechariah needs no heavenly interpretive explanation... All we need here is a vivid picture of a glorious salvation.

We see in verse 5 that “the angel of the LORD was standing by.” The angel of the Lord stood by approving of and orchestrating the removal of iniquity and the clothing with garments of divine righteousness. God’s righteousness and grace had now been bestowed upon Joshua the high priest. Here is the full picture of what happens when God saves a person: All the filth, all the sin, all of that which God cannot stand, which he must judge, all that keeps us from being in his presence. He takes it away. Cleansed.

You’ve got any sin that you hold on to or you feel marked by? No! There are no stains for those who are believing in Christ.

But, that’s not enough! There is more. What happens when you are cleansed? Do you remember when you were cleansed? That glorious freedom you had when you were saved? What happens next? Maybe you sinned that very next day. It’s not enough to be cleansed. We need perfection to be able to stand before the throne in God’s presence.

So he doesn’t just cleanse us, he gives us a perfection that is not ours. It is someone else’s perfection given to us. The righteousness of Christ. If we were truly honest with ourselves we don’t deserve such grace.

It’s the picture of Ephesians 2. We were dead in our sins. We were living in the passions of our filthy fleshly garments. By nature we were children of wrath and we had no words to speak before God. We were guilty. But then God acts on us in his love and the gracious crescendo reaches a fortissimo, a loud declaration of what God has marvelously done!

God, being rich in mercy, exactly when we were dead in our trespasses He made us alive together with Christ. And he dresses us in rich royal robes and seats us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Friends, it’s by grace that we have been saved!

Following the display of Joshua’s salvation from all the sin that made him unfit for service to God, Joshua is recommissioned to service where the angel of the LORD lays down two conditions with three results to follow.

Read verses 6 and 7: “And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you 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.’”

What is seen in the recommissioning of Joshua is that far from being condemned and disqualified, Joshua has been appointed to effectively serve as high priest in the temple that will be rebuilt.

What Joshua experienced is not the conclusion. There is more. What we are going to learn is that the text points to a future beyond this vision.

Our Coming Salvation

Beginning in verse 8 the angel of the LORD now calls upon Joshua and his priestly colleagues to pay attention to what all of this will result in.

Look at verse 8: “Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign ….”

A sign! These men in performing their priestly duties would significantly portray the coming figure at the end of verse 8. They are men who are a sign. They are not the full picture. They are not the full realization of a great High Priest. But they would point to the one who was to come.

The angel of the LORD says in verse 8, “behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.” This reference to the Branch is significant based upon earlier prophecy before the exile. Both the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah declared that a Branch would come that would bear much fruit.

Jeremiah 23:5–6a says, “The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.”

You see here in Jeremiah the same thing we see in Zechariah 3:8. The LORD is going to bring and raise up the Branch. He is going to bring him forth to reign as a righteous King for his people, a King who will execute true justice and righteousness in the land. He is going to save and perfectly protect his people.

Look at what he says in verse 9: “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 ….” Remember that apocalyptic literature is meant to reveal meaning to us. It is not meant to confuse or cause distractions that limit our understanding of a text. There are many different ways that scholars interpret what meaning this stone in verse 9 is meant to convey. While there are many good arguments and explanations out there, what is most clear regarding this stone is the promising inscription that it bears.

Back in verse 9, “‘I will engrave its inscription,’ declares the LORD of hosts,” (and here is what the inscription says) “‘and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.’”

What was depicted in the removal of Joshua’s sin and the subsequent clothing of righteousness... that will one day be the reality for all of creation. There will be nothing left in us that will condemn us before God. God’s people will be saved and will dwell securely. It’s in that day, as verse 10 says, that “every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

“That day” refers to the day when the LORD removes sin from the land and then makes all things new. It is in that day that all of creation will be characterized by perfect peace. No more animosity or hostility between fellow men. No more lies whispered by Satan, the accuser seeking to condemn us. No more remaining sin in us that seeks to destroy us. In that day we will be at peace because the Lord has removed all the iniquity that causes chaos in the land. Don’t you long for those days of perfect peace?

This is the full and final salvation that is yet to come for all those who trust in Christ.

Conclusion

We must consider what this text means for us today. I want to share a brief story that I believe drives home what this text is calling us to consider. Pastor Charles Spurgeon during his many years of ministry had numerous hymns memorized that would flow out through his sermons. Towards the end of Spurgeon’s life as he was in poor health he took some time to address a group of friends which would be one of his final public addresses. He said: “Though I have preached Christ crucified for more than forty years, and have led many to my Master’s feet, I have at this moment no ray of hope but that which comes from what my Lord Jesus has done for guilty men.”

He had no hope based off of the numerous sermons that he had preached over the years. He didn’t bank his hope on all the people that he led to know Christ. He did not trust in what he could say or do to free himself from his sin. The only hope he had was in what Christ had done for guilty men like you and me.

Our only hope rests in Christ, who saves sinners. We don’t deserve it. It’s complete. And there is a greater final salvation coming one day when he returns, where he will remove all the remaining sin from the land and he will make all things new so that we might finally have glorious peace.

It was following this short address to his friends that Spurgeon went on to quote the lines from one of his favorite hymns:

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look, and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin

Behold Him there, the Risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace

Friends, we know not only something, but someone that the people of Zechariah’s day following the exile didn’t have the privilege of fully knowing. We know someone that we can look to with confidence who deals with our sin. We know the Lamb who was slain to wash away our sin.

So look to Christ for forgiveness. Trust in Christ that he has borne all the punishment for your sin. Have confidence that when you trust in Christ you are counted as spotless, clothed with the righteousness of the King. And together with all the saints, let us look forward to that day when the LORD will remove all the iniquity of this land in a single day.