“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 unto 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? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. And He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, 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. And I said, Let them set a fair miter upon his head. So they set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.” Verses 1–5.
FROM the time God chose the descendants of Jacob to represent Him in the earth, and to stand for His truth, Satan, the adversary, has sought to destroy them; and thus to gain complete control of this world. But the degree of power which he could exert over Israel was measured by their distance from God. As long as they were wholly loyal to Him, Satan could have no power over them; but when they sinned, thus yielding obedience to him, they thereby chose him for their master, and he could exercise authority and power over them, even to putting them to death; for “to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.” Under this principle Satan would have utterly destroyed them, had not God, by a right reserved in Himself as Creator, held Satan’s power in check.
The captivity of Israel was permitted by the Lord, but when they turned to Him with penitence of heart, He overruled, and gave opportunity for their return to their land. But the accuser was ever on the alert, and when the remnant, who were rebuilding the temple and city, sinned, Satan was ever ready to claim them as his subjects. He moved upon the heathen nations round about to hinder their work, and if possible to destroy them. But God, in mercy and love, was looking on His afflicted but wayward people, and shielding them from Satan’s malicious designs.
In the scripture above quoted, Joshua the high priest, clothed with filthy garments, represents the people laden with their sins and shortcomings. As they stand in the presence of a holy God, surrounded by holy angels, they are made painfully conscious of the truthfulness of the accusations of the adversary. But God has laid help upon One who is mighty and able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. The Deliverer speaks, saying, “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?” A command is then given to the angels which stand by to take away the filthy garments and clothe him with a change of raiment. And to Joshua the comforting words are spoken: “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” God would clothe the whole house of Israel with the robes of righteousness. He would set a fair miter upon their foreheads; thus inscribing upon their minds the miter inscription, “Holiness to the Lord.”
“With ‘Holiness to the Lord’ written upon their minds, they would reflect in their lives the character of God; and thus they would reveal God to the world. Then follows the charge and promise:—
“And the Angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee; for they are men wondered at; for, behold, I will bring forth My Servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.”
“If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by,” that is, among the angels. What a wonderful charge, setting before them an exalted privilege, and backed up by a glorious promise! Does it not seem that this would have inspired them with zeal and courage to go forward? God would clothe Israel with His own righteousness, write “Holiness to the Lord” upon their minds, so that they would constantly be a revelation of His character. Then, indeed, would they be “men wondered at,” and among them, and by them, and through them, God would bring forth His Servant, the Branch, or Jesus would be manifested to the world.
Altho that people were unfaithful, yet God did bring forth among them the Branch; and, behold, that Branch was the Stone laid before the people, and upon that Stone was seen the seven eyes and Jesus anointed with the oil of gladness (Holy Spirit) above His fellows, and went among them with the “seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God” (Rev. 5:6), or all the fulness of the Spirit in its searching power, which searched out and revealed to them their sins. Some of them fell upon that Stone, and were broken, but to many He became a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. And, behold, upon this Branch was the fair miter, Holiness to the Lord, so that we “beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And He was “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.”
The engraving upon the stone was the will of His Father enshrined in His mind, so that He could say, “Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” And in His life the law appears, drawn out in living characters. As He trod the hills and vales of Judea, as He went from city to city, and from village to village, He was a man4wondered at. He was the One by whom God would cleanse the iniquity of the land in one day. But Israel was too proud to accept as their Deliverer a man who had not where to lay His head, and so “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” But as many as did receive Him, to them who humbly fell upon the Stone and were broken, to them gave He power to be sons of God, even to them that believed in His name. Upon these He placed the robes of righteousness, and decked their brows with the fair miter. He wrote His law upon their hearts. He anointed them with the seven eyes, and sent them out to be men wondered at; for it is written, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given Me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion,” and this remnant took up the work which all Israel might have engaged in.
While we see that this prophecy had an application to the natural descendants of Jacob as the chosen people of God, yet it has more specific reference to each child of God, and to the remnant of God’s people living in the great antitypical day of atonement, when Jesus blots out all sin. Every sinner who is fitted for the kingdom of God must and will pass through the experience of Joshua. Clothed with his filthy rags of self-righteousness, he will stand in the presence of a holy God; and like the prophet Isaiah will exclaim, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” Even tho like Job he may have been a good man, yet will he say, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Every one must come to know that in himself, that is in his flesh, dwells no good thing, that he of himself can do nothing. He must realize that the words of the accuser are too true, and he will see himself absolutely helpless. Then how precious will it be to know that he is a brand plucked from the burning! How comforting to hear by the ear of faith the words, “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment.” How gladly will he receive by faith the fair miter which the angels are to place upon his brow! How circumspectly will he walk in the presence of his God, with holy angels as his companions! As he grasps this deliverance from the bondage of sin, and steps out into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and sees the accuser put to shame and silence, as his malignant spirit is placed in contrast with the loving and forgiving spirit of Jesus, he will sing in loudest strains, “All to Christ I owe.”
But this scripture applies with peculiar force to the remnant in the closing hours of the great day of atonement. The people of God will realize that mercy’s door is about to be closed; that the Judge is about to decide every case for weal or woe; that Jesus will soon cease to plead for the guilty. As this thought is forced upon their minds Satan seeks utterly to discourage them by his accusations. Standing thus face to face with their sins, face to face with the Judge, face to face with eternity and its consequences, how absolutely hopeless will appear their cases!
Satan has deceived the world, and all have been led to worship the beast or his image, and to receive his mark, excepting those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 13:8); and now he goes to make war against the remnant of the seed of the woman, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12: 13). This little company have resisted Satan’s power, and have not acknowledged his supremacy, and now they know the dragon’s wrath. He is determined to overcome them or to blot them from the earth. Every possible deception is brought to bear upon them. They have heard no audible voice from heaven declaring them to be brands snatched from the burning, and assuring them that their iniquity has been cleansed, and their raiment changed. All the assurance they have is based upon God’s written Word, and is grasped by faith. They do not know that they are shut in with God. They can not see the band of holy angels, who with earnest, radiant faces and arms moved by infinite power, are guarding them. They can not see the smiling face of God as He views them clothed in the righteousness of His own dear Son.
Now Satan moves upon the nations to destroy them, and a decree of death is passed upon them. “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Rev. 13:15.
Burdened with a sense of their own unworthiness, the sentence of death hanging over them, and eternity upon them; they are plunged into the time of Jacob’s trouble. But they shall be delivered out of it. Day and night they cry to God for deliverance. During this time the angels have been placing the seal of the living God upon the brow of each faithful one, and the number is made up. The hour of their deliverance has come. Before the decree of death is executed, suddenly the sons of God are manifest as the saints are clothed with the glory of God, and their crying gives place to a shout of victory. At this change the wicked are filled with consternation, and now they return, and “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” Mal. 3:18. In the presence of this manifestation of power they come and fall at the feet of the remnant, and acknowledge that God has loved them. Rev. 3:9.
At this time the remnant truly become men wondered at, and in the presence of this glad, triumphant company, and to their eternal joy, shall God bring forth His Servant, the Branch, for Jesus shall appear in the clouds of heaven, accompanied by all the holy angels, and the remnant shall hail Him as their Deliverer and Redeemer. The prophet closes with the promise of the one earth, where every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, where all shall be neighbors in very deed. Then “shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” Together with Christ they inherit all things.
[The next article is “Olive Trees, Oil, and Candlesticks” (chapter four.)]
