Zechariah’s Fourth Vision

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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In Zechariah 3, Zechariah sees a 4th night vision, in which the prophet sees Joshua the High Priest standing before God
¡Joshua is dressed in filthy rags. At the same time, Satan stands at his right hand to accuse Joshua. The Lord Himself responds to Satan with a sharp rebuke!

The filthiness of Joshua’s rags reference Israel’s stain of her national sin. Joshua stands in for Israel the way Jesus stands in for us now. Interestingly enough, God removed Joshua’s guilt and Satan is silenced. He has no rebuttal because he clearly understands that God fully pardons Joshua the way He will fully pardon Israel’s sin in the future as God pardons the sins of the unbeliever who comes to God in faith in the finished work of Jesus on Calvary’s cross. Satan cannot dispute this.

In this vision, Israel receives a new ministry with the watchword: holiness unto the Lord (see also 14:20). The vision about Joshua evidences Israel’s complete restoration at some point in the future after having undergone the upcoming Tribulation period.

It is clear that this vision regarding Joshua has shades of Jesus. In essence, Joshua is a type of Yeshua/Jesus. As God promises to remove Israel’s national sins, Jesus removes our sin when we come to Him in faith. The vision prophesies that Israel will BE the royal people of God during the Millennium. This is why God created them in the first place; to be a witness/light to the entire world. This, unfortunately, is something that Israel failed to do repeatedly, but a day will come during the upcoming Millennial Kingdom where God will fully reverse Israel’s failure to remain true to Him. Jerusalem will actively become the center of the world during the coming Millennium.

Zechariah 3 describes how this will happen. Moreover, it points to Jesus as the Branch of which Joshua is a branch. This vision points to the glorious day when Israel will fulfill the role as light to all nations. Today we see the tremendous growth of anti-Semitism throughout the world because Satan is once again, mustering his troops (in the physical realm and the spiritual), to come fully against Israel. This will ultimately lead to the revealing of the coming man of sin (Antichrist; 2 Thessalonians 2), who will gain the trust of Israel’s leaders and lead them to accept a seven year covenant he will confirm (Daniel 9:24-27).

The vision of Joshua symbolizes the removal of sin all in One Day (3:1-10). The first three visions promise the following:

• The overthrow of the Gentile powers (1:18-21)
• The restoration of the Jewish Diaspora (1:12; 2:4)
• The future habitation of Jerusalem (2:4), and
• The restoration of the spiritual relations between God and His people (2:5, 10, 11)

The vision in Zechariah 3 focuses on the last bullet – the restoration of the spiritual relations between God and His people.

The vision of Joshua highlights and settles the problem of sin and the only remedy fore it. But how can a morally defiled and sinful people be made fit to appear in the Presence of God? How can these same people be qualified to be priests and ministers for the Holy One who inhabits heaven (Exodus 19:6)? The only way is found in GOD, because with man, it is impossible. God mercifully forgives sin and promises to fully restore Israel.

The High Priest – Joshua – (who returned from exile with Zerubbabel, the governor), stands before the “Angel of the Lord,” who is undoubtedly the (3:1) preincarnate Christ. Joshua stands before Jesus and was to minister to the Lord here because the High Priest was the mediator between God and Israel. Of course, as noted, Satan is right there to “oppose” Joshua (v 1d).

This is what Satan does as the sworn enemy of Israel and the Church, Satan acts as our adversary and accuser (Job 1:6-10; 2:1-7; Rev 12:10). But Jesus pleads Israel’s cause (and ours) based on faith in His redemptive work. The Lord is on hand to fully rebuke Satan. Jude echoes numerous aspects of Zechariah (Jude 23).

The Lord’s response to Satan: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (v 2). Israel was/is chosen as a brand plucked from the fire by God Himself (cf. Amos 4:11).

God’s mercy alone kept Israel from being fully destroyed and exists to this day. This is not an accident of history as some believe (Ezekiel 37). Joshua represents the people of Israel and Satan’s accusations are against all people, not just Israel, but God’s mercy exceeds all accusations. The Lord chose Zion and He will not recant or back down from His promise! The only way anyone can arrive to the point of embracing what is known as Replacement Theology (where it is taught that the Church has fully replaced Israel), is by allegorizing the literal nature of God’s promises to Israel away.

Notice Joshua is before the Lord in “filthy garments” (v 3), which is a picture of all of us, not just Israelites, but since Joshua was the High Priest of Israel in this vision, it is clear that God is specifically referencing Israel and Jewish people here (Isaiah 64:6a). In response to Joshua’s filthiness, God’s command is simple: “Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” (v. 4b)

This speaks of God’s free, gracious forgiveness of and removal of sin from all who confess their sin to our Lord! Joshua had no ability to cleanse himself, nor can we.

The rich robes placed on Joshua (and us) are the robes of salvation and Christ’s righteousness. Joshua was reinstated and reconsecrated by this act of God’s mercy. Salvation assures us of complete cleansing for all sin. Further, verse 9 says that God promises to remove the sin “from the Land” and He’ll do that in one day.

This entire vision speaks to the fact that the nation of Israel and all believers are to become priests unto the Lord (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5; Rev 1:6). Just as Joshua was clothed in festal attire, so too will all believers be so clothed and we will celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb (Matt 22:1-14; Rev 19:6-18).

In verse 7 we see God admonishing Joshua to do the following:

• Walk in God’s ways
• Keep God’s commands

Doing those things will result in judging God’s house (His people; Numbers 12:7; Hebrews 3:2). Obedience results in greater responsibility. This applies to the Jew and the Christian. We can be “believers” but the proof of our new life is in how we live. Are we living obediently before God? We are told that faith without works is…? (James 2:26) Obedience also provides the following privilege: “I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” (7c) What does that mean?

It appears to mean free access among the angelic beings, which also includes direct access to God! The Jewish Targum (spoken commentary by rabbis) says the following: “In the resurrection of the dead, I will revive you and give you feet walking among the seraphim.”

This promise then extends to all who kept God’s charge and lived according to His Word through faith. These would have the honor of being transplanted to higher service in heaven after their walk on earth was done, to literally walk among the angels!
Our pardon/justification are free gifts from our Lord, however, the honor and privilege of future reward is directly predicated on our obedience and faithfulness here and now!

God speaks of His “Servant, the Branch” (v. 8), which is a double title for the Messiah. It represents four aspects of Messiahship in Jesus:

1. King (Matthew)
2. Servant (Mark)
3. Man (Luke), and
4. God (John)

Zechariah also saw in the vision a “stone . . . set” in front of Joshua (v. 9). “Stone” is a common figure for God and Messiah found throughout Scripture (10:4; Exod. 17:6; Num. 20:7-11; Ps. 118:22, etc.). This “stone” had 7 eyes – signifying God Himself as Architect of universe (omniscient, omnipresent, etc.).

The phrase “In that day…” (v. 10), means that, among other things, societal division will no longer exist. Gentiles will be welcomed by Jews. There will be peace throughout the earth. God will remove the curse He placed on Creation at the fall of humanity.

Summary of Zechariah 3:

• This vision describes day of redemption…
• Cleansing of Israelites
• Position of Israel restored
• Paradise lost will become paradise gained

Next time, we will get into Zechariah 4.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/10/07/zechariahs-fourth-vision/