Deeper Commentary
Zechariah Chapter 3
Zechariah 3:1 He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh- The altar was rebuilt before the temple in Ezra's time. Perhaps we are to envisage Joshua standing before Yahweh in that he was present before His appointed place of worship. The prayers offered by Joshua the high priest were represented by an Angel presenting his case; whilst the satan Angel opposed Him, representing whatever groups in opposition to those prayers. Zechariah 3:8 clearly tells us that the characters of verses 1 and 2 are “men of sign” (A.V. margin), i.e. we have to interpret them and see them as representative of others.
A theme of Zechariah's early prophecies is the opposition between groups of people, individuals or Angels who want to rebuild the temple and restore Israel, and adversaries to them. Thus in chapter 1 there are the carpenters opposed to the horns, and the Angel who wants to measure (judge) Jerusalem being countermanded by the Angel who decrees that Jerusalem is to be inhabited in chapter 2. This is continued in chapter 3:1 by the vision of Joshua and satan standing before the Angel. It is suggested that this 'satan' is an Angel (we are familiar with satan Angels from 1 Chron. 21:1 and Num. 22:22 at least); this is because groups of people, even evil ones, have their viewpoint represented or brought to the notice of the court of Heaven by a satan Angel- a 'devil's advocate', as it were! Although as I have laboured at length in The Real Devil, Angels themselves don't sin. The satan Angel "resists" the Angel representing Joshua. The resisting was during the 21 year period when the temple rebuilding was suspended (Ezra 4:24). This corresponds to the 21 days (years), during which the Angel prince of Persia resisted Gabriel's work of rebuilding (Dan. 10:13). Taking this further, this 21 day-year period is the same as the three weeks (21 days) which Daniel spent praying for the rebuilding to commence. Somehow the period Daniel spent praying was over-ruled; there is a sense of time in the court of Heaven, and probably will be in the Kingdom too (e.g. Zech. 14:16), even if we are ourselves outside of that dimension. His prayer was answered from the first day he prayed (Dan. 10:12), but despite one Angel being eager to answer it, another opposed it on account of representing those humans who opposed it. For God never treats people as puppets, never forces, but works along with human freewill and respects it, even if it is contrary to His will.
The returned exiles were very influenced by
Persian and Babylonian thinking and language.
It has been shown that the Babylonians believed that each person has a god
who accuses them (Rivkah
Scharf Kluger,
Satan in the Old Testament (Evanston: Northwestern University
Press, 1967), pp. 134,135). As elsewhere, Zechariah and the
prophets allude to contemporary beliefs and deconstruct them, i.e. they
show the truth about these matters as Yahweh wished His people to
understand them, just as Moses alluded to creation myths in order to show
what was false and to explain the truth about some of the matters they
touched upon. So here Zechariah is making the point that the truth is that
in the court of Heaven, Angels represent human beings and organizations
and their positions and accusations against God’s people; and it is God
who judges those accusations, and sends forth His Angels to implement His
subsequent judgment of the cases upon earth. Paul may have this in mind
when he exults that if God and Christ are on our side, we now have no
accusers – for they are the only ones who can bring valid accusation
against us. And even if we have accusers, the fact that
they
are our justifiers means that effectively, no such accusation is of any
power (Rom. 8:33,34).
And Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary-
Zechariah speaks of the Angels in the time of the exile and restoration
from Persia “running to and fro in the earth” on God’s behalf (Zech.
1:10,11; 4:10). The 'satan' in Job likewise does this. The references to
‘wandering about on the face of the earth’ have great similarities with
the language used to describe the Persian empire’s spies, called “The
King’s Eye” – a kind of agent of the King who wandered around picking up
information and reporting back to him. But of course, “The King’s Eye” was
on the King’s side and not working against him! Satan’s walking / running
“to and fro in the earth / land” and reporting back to God about an
individual is thus very much taken from the Persian idea of the King’s
“evil eye”, “the eye of the King”, a kind of
agent provocateur,
a secret police–type agent, travelling around the Kingdom and reporting
back to the King about suspect individuals. The implication of course was
that God and His Angels, and not the Persian King and his agents, were the
ones really in control of the land. It’s maybe significant that the
Septuagint translates “going to and fro” in Job 1:7 with the word
peripatei
– and we find the same word in 1 Pet. 5:8 about the adversary of the early
Christians ‘going about’ seeking them – a reference to the agents of the
Roman and Jewish systems. I have elsewhere demonstrated that much of the
Hebrew Bible was rewritten [under Divine inspiration] in Babylon, to bring
out relevant issues for the Jewish exiles in Babylon (See
my Bible Lives
Chapter 11). This includes the book of Job. It can be understood as
an allegory – Job, the suffering servant of the Lord, becomes a type of
Israel, the suffering servant of Isaiah’s later prophecies.
I
have traced the similarities between Job and Israel, and Job and the
“suffering servant”, in
Bible Lives
Sections 3-1-3, 3-1-5 and 3-3-7. There are many links between
Isaiah’s prophecies and Job – a glance down the margin of most reference
Bibles will indicate that. Just as the returning exiles faced ‘satans’ in
the form of local Arabic opposition, so did Job. The Zechariah 3:1,2
passage uses the word ‘Satan’ to describe this opposition to the returned
exiles. Note that both Zechariah 3 and Job 1 use the idea of a Heavenly
court. As God put a fence around Job (Job 1:10), so He was a “wall of
fire” to the returning exiles (Zech. 2:5). And his final triumph and
restoration, by God’s grace, was intended as a prototype for Judah in
captivity. J.B. Russell mentions a Babylonian document consisting of a
dialogue between a sufferer and his friend (J.B.
Russell, The
Devil (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977) p. 87
The Angel in this vision of the court of Heaven was a satan / adversary by reason of representing the Samaritan opposition
to the rebuilding of the temple.
“The people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and
troubled them in building” (Ezra 4:4), i.e. they acted as Satan –
adversaries – to the Jews. They are actually called “the adversaries of
Judah” in Ezra 4:1. They wrote “an accusation against the (new)
inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem” to the king of Persia (Ezra 4:6).
The Hebrew word for “accusation” is related to that translated “Satan”.
The implication is that the inhabitants of the land, the Satan, were
complaining to God, manifested in the angel, that the new Jewish high
priest was not really valid, as he did not wear the proper clothes (they
had probably been lost during the captivity). The angel tells Satan, “The
Lord rebuke you”, and proceeds to clothe Joshua with a set of priestly
clothes and a mitre (vs. 4,5), thus showing God’s acceptance of him. The
inference behind the complaint was that God had not really chosen
Jerusalem for the Jews to rebuild, and that therefore they were going
ahead with their plans without God behind them. But the angel says that
“the Lord... has chosen Jerusalem”, in the same way as He had
chosen Joshua to be high priest. Thus Joshua represented Jerusalem.
But it is possible that the "Satan", the adversary to the rebuilding, was the Jewish false prophets and the resistance to the rebuilding program noted on Haggai 1. In our notes on Jer. 24:1 we suggested that the two baskets of figs placed before the Angel in the temple laid the basis for this vision. The baskets represented the faithful and apostate Jews. The Joshua Angel would have represented the faithful Jews eager to rebuild Jerusalem, whilst the satan Angel would represent the apostates whose very existence militated against God answering the prayers of the rest of Israel. Does the same principle apply to Israel after the spirit- that the apostasy and apathy of some hinders the answering of the common prayers of the others? And our common prayer is surely for the second coming and the greater restoration of the true temple.
At the time of the restoration, the Jewish opposition to Yahweh's prophets argued that
Israel had been rejected by God and that there could be no High Priest any
more. A convenient excuse to get on with building their own houses rather
than God's (Hag. 1:3,4). It seems to me that it is the Jews who are the 'satan' who is
rebuked in the court scene of Zech. 3:1-10. I have elsewhere traced the
connections between the 'satan' concept and apostate Jews (see "The Jewish
Satan" in The Real Devil). This view
was rebuked in the vision; but the point is that it was the Jews who were
the satan / adversary to the prophets and the faithful minority. Is.
58:1,2 is a criticism of Judah in exile and also of those who did return
to the land- they sought God daily, and yet abused their brethren (Is.
58:6), just as recorded in Neh. 5:15. If they had ceased from their sins,
"Then shall your light break forth as the morning", if
they had fed the hungry etc., then would've been fulfilled the
Messianic Kingdom prophecies of the light of Zion rising above the
Gentiles etc. (Is. 58:10,12 cp. Is. 60:1).
Zechariah 3:2 Yahweh said to Satan, Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!- This passage is alluded to in Jude 9. "Michael the Archangel" there is the "Angel of the Lord" or "Yahweh" here.
The Angel-Lord (Jude 9) says that despite the sins of the bad figs in Israel and the opposition of the Samaritans, His choice of rebuilding Jerusalem will stand. Jude 8-10 lends support to this line of interpretation. Jude says that Michael the Archangel did not "bring a railing accusation" against the satan Angel, nor did He "despise dominion" (another Angel-ruler) or "speak evil of glories" (AV:
"dignities"; the same word is in Jude 24 "the presence of His glory"- the Angels). This marked lack of aggression which Jude emphasizes shows that there was no conflict between the Angels, as may be wrongly inferred from the severity of the English word "rebuke". Our demeanour generally, especially with each other when it is necessary to have divergent opinions, or to correct others' ways of executing God's purpose as they see it, should be done in the same mutually loving spirit. Notice how Jude 8 links the satan of Zech. 3 with a "dominion"- a ruler or 'prince'. The satan Angel who resisted the Joshua Angel for 21 days is "the prince of Persia" in Dan. 10:13. "The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?". Another allusion in Jude (v. 23) interprets this: "Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh". The implication is that
God through the Angel just about decided in favour of saving Jerusalem out of the 'fire' of eternal punishment (cp. Jer. 17:27) for her sins- He had "compassion, making a difference" (v. 22). The "garment spotted by the flesh" must connect with the "filthy garments" worn by Joshua as he came into the Angel's presence.
Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?- Jude continues his allusion to the passage when he writes of "Pulling them [weak believers] out of the fire" of condemnation for sin (Jude 23). The idea is that Jerusalem had been saved from condemnation for the sake of God's grace in hearing a faithful minority; a condemnation Jerusalem rightly deserved.
Zechariah 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was
standing before the angel-
Joshua was without a mitre on his head (:5 implies).
Zechariah 3:4 He answered and spoke to those who stood before him,
saying- These persons have not been mentioned specifically; but we
are to understand that this is a vision of the throne room, the court of
Heaven, and it is Angels who are addressed. Those who stood before Joshua
are his "fellows" (:8); his priestly helpers were also represented by
Angels in the court of Heaven; and the words of :8 are applied to the Lord
Jesus in Heb. 1:9, in demonstrating that He was greater than Angels, above
His Heavenly "fellows".
Take the filthy garments from him. To him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing- See on Lk. 19:24. Joshua was representative of the remnant; they too would be forgiven and cleansed by grace. The same Hebrew phrase is in Mic. 7:14: "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of His heritage?".
Although all was done by God to make Joshua a legitimate High Priest, he disappears from the scene. He didn't live up to his potential. The prophecy was reapplied to another Joshua-Jesus, the Son of God, Mary's Son. The clothing of Him in glory is the theme of Rev. 4 and 5, which describe the important part that the Angels had to play in welcoming Christ into Heaven on His ascension, and in giving Him then His full reward and glory. Verse 8 about Joshua is quoted about the Lord Jesus in Heb. 1:9.
Zechariah 3:5 I said, Let them set a clean turban on his head. So they
set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him- Zechariah apparently
interjects in the course of what was revealed to him, as the prophets
often do. For they were not mere machines of transmission, they were
themselves passionately involved. He was concerned that Joshua lacked even
the high priestly mitre. It was as if this was no barrier for God to
accept Joshua as high priest, because the new covenant package He was
offering the exiles was not exactly the same as the Law of Moses. Thus the
legislation of Ez. 40-48 differs in many points from the Mosaic
ordinances, although similar to it in outline terms. But God as it were
takes on board Zechariah's cultural and legalistic concerns, and so the
vision is added to. A clean mitre is placed on his head.
And the angel of Yahweh was standing by- Does this mean that the Angel commanded other Angels to arrange Joshua's forgiveness and to end his being "polluted from the priesthood" (due to lack of proven ancestry and the high priestly garments,
cp. Ezra 2:62; Neh. 7:64)?
Zechariah 3:6 The angel of Yahweh protested to Joshua, saying- As
noted on Hag. 1:1, the whole prophecy of Haggai was an appeal to Joshua
and Zerubbabel to live up to their potential as the priest and king of the
re-established Kingdom of God in Israel.
Zechariah 3:7 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘If you will walk in My
ways, and if you will follow My instructions, then you also shall judge My
house- "My house" refers to the Angel dwelling again in the
temple. For it is the Angel speaking here. I
submit that the prophecies
could
have had their fulfilment in Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel, or
some other Messianic figure at that time. Everything was made possible to
enable this- Joshua, who couldn’t prove his Levitical genealogy, was given
“a place of access” amongst the priesthood, those who “stood” before the
Lord (Zech. 3:7 RV). Ezra thanked God that they had returned and that they
had “a nail in his holy place” (Ezra 9:8), a reference surely to a Messiah
figure whom he felt to be among them, the “nail in a sure place” of Is.
22:23. According to Mt. 1:12 and Lk. 3:27, Zerubbabel was the Prince of
Judah, and the rightful heir to David’s throne. But due to his weakness,
the fulfilment was deferred to Jesus.
And shall also keep My courts- The "courts" are so often mentioned in Ez. 40-48. But Joshua didn’t. He didn’t keep the courts, but allowed Tobiah the Ammonite to set up his office for subversion in the temple chambers. Likewise Zerubbabel was to hold a measuring line in his hand and rebuild the temple (Zech. 4:10), just as the Angels had held the same measuring line over the temple in Ez. 40 and Zech. 2:1.
And I will give you a place of access among these who stand by- The "places to walk" is the same word in Ez. 42:4 about the walkways in the prophesied temple. Those who stood by were the Angels (:5); the offer of places to walk among the Angels is the same idea as being "made equal unto the Angels" in Lk. 20:35,36.
Zechariah 3:8 Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows
who sit before you; for they are men who are a sign- The priestly
helpers of Joshua were represented or signified by Angels in the court of
Heaven. These words are applied to the Lord Jesus in Heb. 1:9, in
demonstrating that He was greater than Angels, above His Heavenly
"fellows". For Joshua didn't live to his potential, or at best, Judah
rejected him; and so the prophecy was to be fulfilled in another Joshua,
the Lord Jesus.
For, behold, I will bring forth My servant, the Branch- see on Zech. 4:14. The reference is to Zerubbabel,
'branch of God', who could have been
the Messianic ruler at that time; see on Hag. 2:23. According to Ezekiel, the
prince-Messiah offers sacrifice for his own sin, and has children, to whom
He will pass an inheritance. And he has to be warned not to oppress the
people (Ez. 46:18). It is a more comfortable interpretation, surely, to
see him as primarily referring to Zerubbabel or Joshua the High Priest
(Ez. 44:3). But all this huge potential wasn't realized. Dan. 9:25 appears to identify “the anointed one, a prince” with the
restoration of Jerusalem after the return. The Masoretic punctuation of
Dan. 9:25 actually suggests that ‘Messiah the prince’ appears after the
first seven of the seventy weeks- perhaps there was the possibility 49
day-years after the command to rebuild Jerusalem for a Messiah to have
appeared? This would’ve fitted Zerubbabel perfectly. Lk. 3:27 describes
Zerubbabel as the head / chief / leader. The term 'Rhesa' is incorrectly
rendered in many versions as a name. Perhaps Luke’s point was that the
Lord Jesus was the final Messiah, after the failure of so many potential
ones beforehand. ‘Zerubbabel the chief’ would then be a similar rubric to
“David the king” in Matthew’s genealogy (Mt. 1:16). Zerubbabel was the
‘head’ of the house of David (Ezra 4:3; Hag. 2:23; Zech. 3:8; 6:12,13), as
was his descendant Hattush (Ezra 8:1-3 cp. 1 Chron. 3:22). As the grandson
of Jehoiachin, Judah's exiled king, Zerubbabel would've been the
legitimate king of Judah. Potentially, Hos. 1:11 could have come true:
“Judah and… Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for
themselves one head [Zerubbabel?]; and they shall go up from the land, for
great shall be the day of Jezreel” (RSV). And perhaps as head of the house
of David, Zerubbabel was intended to be the “David my servant” who would
be the one king and one shepherd who would lead Israel back to the land
from exile (Ez. 37:22,24). Significantly, Neh. 7:7 describes Zerubbabel as
being at the head of twelve leaders of the returning exiles, who are
called “the people of Israel” (cp. Ezra 2:2).
Zechariah 3:9 For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave its engraving’, says Yahweh of Armies- See on Ex. 25:19. The removal of Joshua's filthy garments, his sin (:4), was therefore to be seen as representative of the removal of the iniquity of all dwelling in the land. This alone ought to have encouraged the spiritually minded exiles to return to that land!
The stone could be a symbol of Messiah, for the Messianic lamb had seven eyes in Rev. 5:6. In this case, we are being told that Joshua could have become the Messiah figure for his time. He failed, and so the prophecy was applied to the Lord Jesus. The language is a criticism and deconstruction of the ideas which Judah had encountered in Babylon which later became the Zoroastrian faith. The allusion would be to the Persian belief in the seven Amshaspands who surround the throne of the Supreme, which is why the Persians referred to the senior servants of their ruler as his eyes and his ears. These ideas are being deconstructed; the One who was all these things would be the Jewish Messiah.
But the stone which flashed with eyes may allude to the urim and thummim, which were two stones which flashed. Ezekiel 42:13 commanded that in the restored temple "The priests that approach unto the Lord shall eat the most holy things”. The same words are found in Ezra 2:63 and Nehemiah 7:65- it wasn’t possible for the priests to eat of the holy things [signifying God’s acceptance of His people], because there was no record of their genealogy. Their names were not written in the “register” in fulfilment of Ezekiel 13:9: “Neither shall they be written in the writing [s.w. ‘register’, Ezra 2:62] of the house of Israel”. Only if a priest stood up with urim and thummim could they eat of the holy things. These were two engraven stones carried in a pouch in the breastplate which flashed out Divine decisions (see H.A. Whittaker, Samuel, Saul And David for an excellent study of this). Zechariah 3:9 prophesies that Joshua the High Priest would have the engraven stone with seven eyes- the urim and thummim. It would thereby have been possible for a priesthood who had lost their genealogy record during the sacking of the first temple to eat the holy things, and thus fulfil Ezekiel 42:13. In a restoration context, Isaiah 66:21 had prophesied that Yahweh would regather Judah, “And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD”. This implies, surely, that He would accept some as Levites who could not otherwise prove they were. Zechariah 6:11,13 speaks of Joshua being crowned with the High Priestly mitre and ‘bearing the glory’, i.e. carrying the urim and thummim in the breastplate. But all this was conditional on Joshua’s obedience: “This shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey” (Zech. 6:15). Because Joshua failed, he wasn't given the urim and thummim, or there was no response from them; therefore no decision could be given about who was an acceptable priest, and therefore the ‘Kingdom’ prophecy of Ezekiel 42:13 was left unfulfilled. So much depended upon that man. And likewise, the eternal destiny of many others depends on us. Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration feature “the servant”- who was a symbol of both the people and a Messianic individual. His success was bound up with theirs. Thus Is. 65:9: “And I will bring forth a seed [singular] out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor [singular] of my mountains: and mine elect [plural] shall inherit it, and my servants [plural] shall dwell there”. His obedience would enable the peoples’ establishment as the Kingdom. And so all these prophecies had to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, seeing the earlier possibilities had all failed.
The seven eyes are interpreted in Zech. 4:10 as the Angels who would rejoice with Zerubbabel if he lived up to his potential.
And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day- Joshua's rehabilitation and forgiveness (:4,5) could have been that of the whole land. But this didn't happen; but it was reapplied to the work of Joshua-Jesus, whose death removed sin for all time in the day of His death.
Zechariah 3:10 In that day’, says Yahweh of Armies, ‘every man will invite his neighbour to come under his vine and under his fig tree’- Under Joshua, the iniquity of the land could have been removed, and the Kingdom conditions realized, re-establishing the situation that was in the early days of the Kingdom (1 Kings 4:25)- instead of the drought and lack of harvest which Haggai and Malachi lament. The Messianic Kingdom could have been brought in, the new covenant accepted by Israel.
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