Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 611
Delivered on Sunday Morning, January 22, 1865
“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. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a log plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him He said, Behold, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich robes. And I said, Let them put a clean turban upon his head. So they put a clean turban upon his head and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.” Zechariah 3:1-5.
THE original intention of this vision was to foretell the revival of the Jewish state after its long depression through the Babylonian captivity. Joshua, the high priest, with his tattered garments, must be looked upon as the type of the Jewish people in their deep distress. He was ministering before the Lord in worn and filthy garments, to show at once the sin of Israel and the poverty into which they had fallen. They were so poor that the service of God could not be conducted in suitable apparel, but the high priest himself appeared before the altar in robes unfit for his sacred work.
The set time to favor Zion is according to the visions most near at hand. And Satan, the old adversary of the chosen race, bestirs himself to resist them and turn away the favor of God from them. But that same Angel of the Covenant who led the people through the wilderness and carried them all the days of old, stands before the Throne as their Advocate and at His request Jehovah rebukes Satan and begins to bless the people. Joshua, their representative, receives a change of clothes, in testimony that the people’s sin is forgiven and that God accepts their worship.
The vision then sweeps on to the day of the Lord Jesus and the heart of the Prophet Zechariah is cheered by a sight of the whole land restored to its former peace and happiness under the reign of the glorious One who is called, “My servant, THE BRANCH.” While we have been interpreting the other visions of Zechariah, we have tried to derive present comfort and profit from them. We will endeavor to do so on this occasion. We may very properly take Joshua as a type of all the people of God as they stand in their sense of sin and natural faultiness, subject to the accusations of Satan, but delivered by their ever gracious Lord.
And the change of clothing as setting forth the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of the Savior’s righteousness, which is the joy of all Believers. Let us take each particular separately and may God the Holy Spirit shed a sacred light upon the vision and may we see in it more than Zechariah himself discovered! May we see Jehovah Jesus in all the glory of His love, manifesting Himself to His chosen as He does not unto the world.
I. To begin, then, where the vision begins—with THE BELIEVER HIMSELF REPRESENTED BY JOSHUA. The Believer himself is described as a priest standing before the Angel of the Lord. Let us mark this. He is a priest. Who are the priests? Certain sons of Korah, who take too much upon them, say, “We are the priests, we are the legitimate descendants of the Apostles and a mysterious power distills from our priestly hands.” We reply to them, it is impossible that you should be descendants of the Apostles and yet claim to possess priestly power, for the Apostles never claimed any peculiar priesthood for themselves above other Believers.
They spoke of their Brethren, the Christians of their age, as being on a par with themselves in the matter of priesthood. “You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). If, then, these pretenders to priesthood are priests in any special sense, they certainly are not descendants of the Apostles—for the Apostles claimed no priority of priesthood beyond the rest of their brethren, but said of all the saints, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.”
The fact is they are neither one nor the other—they are not descendants of the Apostles, for they preach not the Apostles’ Gospel and know not their Spirit! Nor have they any priestly office, unless it is that the old Babylonian harlot accepts them as her foster children and gives them a name and a place among those who partake in her abominations. Who are the priests? Why, every humble man and woman that knows the power of Jesus Christ in his own soul to purge and cleanse him from dead works is appointed to serve as a priest unto God! I say every humble man and every humble woman, too, for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female—we are all one in Him.