Zechariah 3:1, commentary and pictures

The vision shows Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel, who is Jesus Christ ministering as Advocate, with Satan at his right hand to resist and accuse him before God. Joshua stands as representative of God's people, the church and remnant, and also of the individual repentant sinner, clothed in filthy garments of sin and unable to defend himself. Satan's special work is to point to those sins, revive and exaggerate them, claim the tempted as his property, and argue that guilt has forfeited divine protection and requires condemnation. Christ answers not by their merits but by His own sacrifice and obedience, rebuking Satan, restraining his power, causing iniquity to pass, and clothing the repentant with His righteousness. The scene applies especially to God's faithful in the closing time of trial and investigative judgment, when conscious of unworthiness they plead for pardon, and calls them to repent, confess, and trust in Christ without delay rather than accuse one another.

Vision Setting and Figures

The vision belongs to a series of symbolic visions given when the Jews who had returned from exile faced uncertainty about whether they could continue rebuilding, and it was given to sustain and encourage those advancing God's work by revealing His compassion and love. It was a personal encouragement to Joshua and at the same time a testimony of encouragement for all God's people. In the order of the visions it comes immediately before the message regarding the work of Zerubbabel.

The scene concerns Israel after disobedience, captivity in Babylon, repentance, and the return of a remnant to its land. Joshua the high priest stands before the Angel of the Lord pleading for mercy on behalf of his afflicted people and for the fulfillment of God's promises to them. Satan stands at his right hand to oppose him and resist their restoration, pointing to Israel's sins and transgressions as grounds to deny their return to favor. He claims them as his prey and property, demands that they be handed over to him for destruction, and seeks to use the heathen nations to destroy the remnant that had returned. The setting is Jerusalem as it is to be rebuilt, with the people repentant and turning to obedience. God comes to the relief of His afflicted people in answer to intercession and in pity toward them.

What is shown is a controversy in the heavenly court in which evil forces resist God's work. The Angel is Jesus Christ, the Saviour, in actual ministry for His people as their Advocate, just as Joshua ministered on the day of atonement in behalf of the children of Israel, and that ministry continues in Christ's ministry for His people. As Joshua pleaded, so the picture holds those true to God pleading for pardon and deliverance. The figure called Satan may have been a person possessed by Satan's spirit and speaking words Satan supplied.

The chapters of the vision are to be understood and received as a call to advance work for people hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Read with the following chapter, the portrayal of Satan opposing Joshua before the Angel points toward work that helps those whom God is leading to understand truth move forward and upward, even while Satan's angels work to confuse judgment and place obstacles before them.

Joshua Represents God's People

Joshua the high priest stands as the representative of God's people, the church, Jerusalem and Israel, including those who keep God's commandments, the remnant, and ministers over congregations in their sacred office. His standing before the angel while Satan stands at his right hand to oppose and accuse him pictures Satan's resistance to every church and to gospel ministers in their work of preaching the Word, seeking to hinder the Lord's work for His people and to keep them in distress. Satan opposes Joshua by reviving his past sins and the past sins of God's people, invoking them to claim power over those who honor God and to make Joshua lose confidence in God and his hold upon heaven. Yet the Lord comes to their relief in answer to intercession and in pity for them, even though the church has dishonored God by yielding to temptation and disobeying His commandments, for it is on trial and called to repentance and obedience while God is about to work for His people through the coming Messiah, the Branch.

He also pictures an individual sinner, tempted and repentant, for whom Christ is mediating and seeking to bring to repentance. Joshua represents people whose religious lives have been faulty and who have been overcome by temptation after being misled by Satan, and Satan points to their imperfections, portrays them as undeserving of God's care and mercy, claims them as his subjects, and seeks their destruction. He claims the person as his own because that person chose him as ruler, standing at the Advocate's right hand to resist Christ's work and to oppose Christ as He helps and protects these souls. But Christ is the sinner's advocate and restorer, stronger than Satan, answering Satan's claims, so that those who confess their sins and trust in Christ's merits as their personal Saviour are not forsaken and His accusations do not prevent Christ from rescuing them.

He stands before the Angel in filthy garments, which are unrighteousness, sin, selfishness, defective character, weakness, ingratitude, and unlikeness to Christ by which the Redeemer has been dishonored. Satan points to those garments, presents weakness and folly and guilt, exults over people caught in sin, complains that he is prevented from destroying them as he is determined to do, and argues from their selfishness and laboring in human strength and spirit and way and will that they deserve destruction and are his own. He tries to frighten them with the thought that their case is hopeless and the stain of their defilement will never be washed away, hoping so to destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from allegiance to God. As their representative Joshua bears their sins, symbolized by those garments, cannot defend himself or Israel against Satan's accusations, and does not claim they are without fault.

Instead he confesses guilt, points to repentance and humility, pleads for a blessing while they are in great affliction, and relies in faith on God's promises and the mercy of the Redeemer who forgives sin. Satan points to their sins, faults, failures and transgressions to make their case appear hopeless, to keep Christ from helping them, and to demand that they be handed over for destruction. The scene concerns those who have improved probation to confess sins with contrition of soul and put them away, with pardon written against their names by Jesus. They grieve over surrounding corruption, vex their souls over abounding iniquity, sigh and cry because of abominations done in the land, have not joined in corruption nor corrupted their ways before God, but have washed their robes of character and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and Joshua is thus accounted in heaven as a justified sinner whose hope in defection is reconversion, repentance toward God, and faith in Jesus Christ as righteousness and sanctification. Those who continue in sin without repentance, who have not ceased to sin and have not sought pardon for their transgressions and have corrupted their ways, are not represented in this company.

Satan's Accusing Work

Satan stands at Joshua's right hand to resist, oppose and accuse him before God, and he occupies this same position toward every church, every gospel minister and every soul Christ seeks to draw to Himself. Accusing the brethren before God day and night is his special work, and after he leads men into wrong positions he takes his place as their adversary to resist every effort made to save those bought by the blood of the Lamb. His opposition extends to the Church and its ministry of the Word, resisting the work of the Lord and the ministers who serve His people.

He was accusing backsliding Israel, and in the same way he points to the unprincipled course, backsliding, defects and disregard for God's commandments of those who have had great light in the last days, especially those placed at the head of the work. He stirs persecution against those who keep God's commandments and refuse to worship the papal institution, with a hatred like that stirred against Christ when the people demanded Barabbas be released and Jesus rejected. He works through those who reject God's standard while God's faithful remain loyal to His holy law amid widespread lawlessness, until God intervenes to vindicate His name by magnifying His law as holy, just, good and unchangeable.

He points to sins, faults, failures and filthy garments to make the case appear hopeless and to keep Christ from helping. He revives past sins of Joshua and of God's people so they will lose confidence in God and hold upon heaven, presents rebellion and disobedience to God's law as his claim, and demands power over sinners because of their sins. He claims they belong under his control, that God should not give them power to resist him, and that they should be handed over for destruction.

Having first tempted people into sin and brought them under his control, he then accuses them of the very sins he instigated, clothes their characters with his own filthy garments, persecutes those he caused to sin, and seeks to keep authority over them and prevent their rescue. He accuses even those who have repented and received pardon, claiming a right over them because of transgression he enticed them to commit. His accusations are driven by enmity toward Christ, not concern for sin, using transgression of God's law to claim souls as captives and discourage them from seeking pardon.

He uses their guilt to assert a right over them, declaring that by their sins they have forfeited divine protection and that he has the right to destroy them. He pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God, challenges their claim to take his place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with him, and charges that while professing to obey God's law they have not kept its precepts but have been lovers of self more than lovers of God, placing their own interests above His service, loving the things of the world, and marking their lives with selfishness, malice and hatred of one another. He demands that justice requires sentence to be pronounced against them, arguing God cannot in justice banish him and his angels and yet reward those guilty of the same sins, claiming them as his prey and demanding they be given into his hands to destroy, numbering the world as his subjects. He has accurate knowledge of the sins he tempted them to commit and presents them before God in the most exaggerated light, though he does not know their cases have been decided in the sanctuary above.

He tries to frighten them with the thought that their case is hopeless and the stain of defilement will never be washed away, holding up past unworthiness and mistakes to make them believe they have separated themselves from God. He steps between the soul and Christ to cast his hellish shadow, dampen faith, eclipse Christ's love and acceptance and pardon, make the words of God of none effect, and rob them of their rights, while evil angels seek in every way to discourage those striving for victory over sin. His aim is to destroy confidence and faith so they will yield to temptation, turn from allegiance and loyalty to God, and strive to prepare their own robe of righteousness instead of coming just as they are to believe in Christ as personal Saviour.

He stands to resist Christ's work, prayers for favor, intercession and ministry, obstructing Christ when He is about to show favor and opposing prayers offered for His people. He seeks to hinder the Lord's working in behalf of His people and to keep them in distress, confusing judgment, placing obstacles before those being led to truth, feeding falsehood, hindering those entrusted with the final message of mercy, and seeking to paralyze every effort. He stood between Christ and Peter as he stands between Christ and every repenting, believing soul, casting doubt and weakening faith, yet his accusations do not prevent Christ from rescuing those who trust Him.

When temptation overcomes those who claim to follow Christ, he uses their failures to accuse them and present them as defiled, making their defects appear to characterize God's commandment-keeping people. In this way he tries to bring reproach on people who seek to serve God and exults over their guilt before God, pointing to defiled garments. His grounds are the sins and defects of ministers and church members, yet God does not abandon His people to his temptations nor leave the repentant under the charge of their sins.

Christ's Defending Work

Christ stands as High Priest, Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate and Defender, pleading for His people before the Father against the powers of darkness. Satan is the mighty general of those dark forces, claiming men on the ground of rebellion and disobedience to God's law. His accusations spring from enmity toward Christ rather than concern for sin, using transgression of the law to claim the guilty as captives and to discourage them from seeking pardon. Christ answers the accuser by His perfect obedience and death, offering the merits of His own sacrifice to claim mercy, reconciliation, pardon and the robe of His righteousness for those who repent and trust Him. Those who rely on Him remain under His protection, with angels accompanying them, and He leads all who are willing upward step by step to where the clear light shines.

The vision reveals marvelous love and great care to resist Satan's power to afflict and destroy. Nothing is so dear to God as His church, which He guards with jealous care and has not forsaken. Satan's resistance means accusing God's people, pointing to mistakes, holding up past unworthiness, trying to make them believe they have separated themselves from God and their case is hopeless, striving to rob them of their rights, while evil angels seek in every way to discourage those striving for victory over sin, and such work greatly offends God. Against this stands an all-powerful Redeemer who came from heaven in humanity to live the principles of righteousness, was tempted in all points yet without sin, is touched with the feeling of human infirmities, and is endowed with power to minister to all who accept Him and to succor repentant ones convinced of the sinfulness of sin.

Those who confess their sins and trust in Christ's merits are not forsaken nor left under accusation. Joshua represents people whose religious lives have been faulty and who have been overcome by temptation, including ministers and church members whose sins and defects give Satan grounds to accuse. Satan points to their imperfections and filthy garments, complains they deserve destruction, seeks their destruction and argues they should be handed over to it. Yet God receives the repentant, forgives them and does not leave them under the charge of their sins, but receives them, rebukes Satan, restrains his power and will not permit their destruction even though the church is still faulty and imperfect.

The accused cannot answer Satan's charges by their own merits, and their hope is in God's mercy rather than their own worthiness. This calls for humility and searching of heart rather than confidence in personal purity, for as they are purified by obedience and look at Christ's spotless character they see their need more clearly. Christ alone can plead effectively for them, silencing the accuser on the strength of His own merits. He takes their guilt upon Himself, and through His merits God justifies those who believe in Jesus and delivers them from condemnation.

Christ hears prayers and makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God, regenerating the sinner and having pardon written against his name. Satan charges God's people with sins he himself instigated, reckons every misdeed, clothes their characters with his own filthy garments of sin, steps between the soul and Christ to cast his shadow, dampens faith, eclipses Christ's love and acceptance and pardon, makes the words of God of none effect, and drives men to strive to prepare their own robe of righteousness instead of coming just as they are to believe in Christ as personal Saviour. Christ rebukes Satan and bids him depart, letting His light and righteousness shine into the heart, and as a forgiving Father bringing forth His best robe He commands the filthy garments taken away, causes iniquity to pass, and clothes with change of raiment, a fair mitre and coronation robes. That change represents the righteousness of Christ, giving courage and hope and light and increased faith and evidence of acceptance with God to those who desire that clothing, while the faithful obedient children receive robes of honor. To all who repent and believe and accept Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour comes the conditional promise that if they walk in God's ways and keep His charge they shall judge His house and keep His courts and have places to walk among the angels that stand by.

Joshua is a brand plucked from the burning, his life and opportunity for forgiveness and acceptance preserved through God's patience and forbearance rather than freedom from guilt. God restrains Satan's power and holds back the destruction Satan argues for against the disloyal, leaving room for repentance. The Lord permits Satan to try His people to the uttermost, so that confidence in God and faith and firmness are severely tested. In that testing Satan endeavors to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless and the stain of defilement will never be washed away, hoping to destroy faith so they will yield to temptation and turn from allegiance to God. Yet the larger scene presents the Lord defending rather than cutting off, pleading for the sinner, taking away sin and imputing His righteousness so Satan will not triumph.

Even in conflict Christ does not answer Satan with a railing accusation, retaliation or defiance. Satan opposes Joshua's prayers and resists Christ when Christ is about to show favor, seeking to obstruct and accuse. The proper response is The Lord rebuke thee, providing an example of meeting opposition without harshness. The scene is written for present benefit and is to be studied to learn this way.

Seeing this heavenly reality by faith is part of what God has prepared for His people. It clears Satan's shadow from the view of God and heaven. The security of God's people in days of peril is that Jesus makes intercession even while Satan stands at the right hand to resist, standing as Intercessor and Advocate against that opposition. He leads all who are willing to be led upward step by step to where the clear light shines.

Prophecy for Last Days

The scene belongs to God's people in the closing time of trial, the closing events of the day of atonement, the investigative judgment in heaven, and the time of trouble. Then Satan accuses them before God, points to their sins, weakness and unworthiness, and claims they deserve to lose God's favor and protection, while they plead before the Angel for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate. Their hope is in God's mercy and not in their own worthiness, with mercy as their only hope and prayer as their only defense. Fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives and of their weakness and unworthiness and ready to despair, the faithful remnant will plead with brokenness of heart and unfaltering faith when menaced, denounced, proscribed, and betrayed by parents and brethren and kinsfolks and friends even unto death. Satan seeks to make them despair, abandon loyalty to God, and accept the mark of the beast.

As he accused Jacob, so in the time of trouble he will urge his accusations against the little company who keep the commandments of God. He numbers the world as his subjects, sees holy angels guarding them and infers their sins have been pardoned, but he does not know that their cases have been decided in the sanctuary above. Having accurate knowledge of the sins he tempted them to commit, he presents these before God in the most exaggerated light, representing them as just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God, declaring that the Lord cannot in justice forgive their sins and yet destroy him and his angels, claiming them as his prey and demanding that they be given into his hands to destroy. The Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost, so their confidence in God, faith and firmness are severely tested, while Satan endeavors to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless and the stain of their defilement will never be washed away, hoping to destroy their faith so they will yield to his temptations and turn from allegiance to God.

The vision pictures God's faithful people remaining loyal to His holy law amid widespread lawlessness, while Satan resists them and works through those who reject God's standard. The conflict grows as the world grows hostile to the law, and God will ultimately intervene and vindicate His name by magnifying His law as holy, just, good, and unchangeable. The chapter stands alongside the visions of the marked faithful in Ezekiel 9 and Revelation 7, concerning overcomers registered in heaven. It is a warning about solemn events soon to take place and to be fulfilled, and about the need for every soul to prepare.

The chapter gives a faint description of the reality of the near end, when every year Satan is drilling his army to develop strong parties ready against the great battle of the last great conflict, the time when evil springs forth. What it pictures shall become a living reality, met by men in high places supposing themselves wise who block the way, so the King's highway must be cleared. The verse will be understood when the lost see clearly the deception they chose and recognize Satan's work to lead people against God's appointed agencies.

Warning Against Accusing Others

Those who accuse their brethren, condemn those who have made mistakes, and point to their polluted garments take Satan's side as accuser. Believers who do this stand between Christ and the tempted soul and join Satan in resisting Christ's mercy while Christ pleads the case of every tempted soul. The warning reaches those who defend self while condemning others, as at the Berrien Springs meeting, instead of attending to their own faults. Accusing others puts a person in the accuser's role rather than seeking God's help, examining self, relying on Christ's intercession, and seeking victory through prayer.

When liable, erring mortals pronounce upon one humbled in the dust, decide by their own feelings or the feelings of others how much sorrow or feeling must be shown to be pardoned, speak strong condemning words, and hold the fallen off at arm's length with cold Pharisaism, they act Satan's part as adversary of souls. Such dealing leaves the erring to become the sport of Satan's temptations and under his control, and destroys courage and hope of being set right. What took place in the courts of heaven is repeated on earth when the devil links himself in person with professed believers, arm in arm with them though they do not understand it, personifying himself through them to accuse them and keep them from hearing aright. Their sins place them just where Joshua was before the angel, and the scene is acted out again when those who continue in wrongdoing are prompted to taunt the repentant, and when people who refuse to confess their own sins accuse and condemn the repentant as though themselves guiltless, seeking to shame them over sins repented of and to bring reproach upon them.

False accusations place reproach on an innocent servant, pictured by filthy garments that must be removed through cleansing. Claiming to be led by the Holy Spirit can disguise that accusing work as heavenly purity while it acts from Satan's character, and misstating sacred things puts people on Satan's accusing side. Using the reproofs and corrections God gave to show sin as material for denouncing, accusing, and condemning urges believers into false positions, clothing the church with filthy garments and casting reproach upon Christ's kingdom and His church militant. Those who claim to be the remnant must not join Satan in hurling thunderbolts against the church to tear down, discourage, and destroy, but must be wide awake and work together with God to seek and restore the erring among them and those who are ready to die.

Since souls cost the price of the Redeemer's blood, sin must be plainly rebuked and then the erring labored for in faith with tender sympathy, compassion, melting love, and spiritual power. They are to be taken in arms of faith and borne to the cross of Christ to be brought in contact with the sin-pardoning Saviour, helped to gather strength to overcome, refused to be given up until restored to active service, erring if at all on the side of mercy rather than condemnation and harsh dealing. The scene is written for present benefit and concerns present readers, to be studied to learn how Satan works and to follow Christ's meekness by avoiding retaliation, defiance, and railing accusations, answering instead, The Lord rebuke thee. Those criticized need not be discouraged, because Christ claims them as His own by creation and redemption, having graven them on His hands.

Call to Repentance and Faith

The hope for a defiled and backsliding people is reconversion, repentance toward God, and faith in Jesus Christ as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Sinners must come to Christ with their imperfections, for they cannot remove their own defects or blot out the stain of sin themselves, but Christ alone can blot out transgressions and give His righteousness. In this scene Joshua stands as a justified sinner, representing a sinful people accused by Satan as transgressors of God's law, while Christ as sin-bearer and substitute, to whom the types point, takes away the sin of the repentant believer. His ministry for Israel on the day of atonement is joined to Christ's continuing ministry for His people.

Ministers over congregations and the congregations themselves are pictured in the filthy garments, and they are to humble themselves, pray, and repent so that sins may be pardoned through Christ's atoning sacrifice. This calls for humility and searching of heart rather than confidence in personal purity, since Satan's charges cannot be answered by human merit and Christ alone pleads effectively by His own merits to silence the accuser. Those being purified by obedience to the truth see their need more clearly as they look at Christ's spotless character, relying on Him as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

God's people are to pray with living faith, open their hearts to Jesus and shut out Satan, and seek clearer light and strength to stand in Christ's righteousness. They are to cleanse the heart of selfishness in preparation for the latter rain, and to confess and forsake sin without delay rather than put off the work, since Satan resists all who seek God's help and cleansing. Filthy garments picture sin, yet they do not fairly represent those who have repented. Though God's people may have faults and fail, when they repent He forgives them and does not leave them under accusation, so they should not become discouraged under Satan's effort to bring reproach on those who seek to serve God. Satan presents the very sins he led them to commit in order to obstruct Christ's work for repentant believers by casting doubt and weakening faith, but Christ hears their prayers and intercedes for them.

The same adversary who stood beside Joshua stands between Christ and Peter and between Christ and every repenting, believing soul, charging God's people with sins he himself instigated, clothing their characters with his own filthy garments, and reckoning every misdeed even though they have repented and feel humbled and ashamed of sin they cannot remove or cancel. He steps between the soul and Christ to cast his shadow, dampen faith, eclipse Christ's love and acceptance and pardon, make God's words of none effect, and drive sinners to try to prepare their own robe of righteousness instead of coming just as they are to believe in Christ as personal Saviour. Christ hears prayers and makes intercession according to God's will, regenerating the sinner and having pardon written against the name, then rebukes Satan and bids him depart, letting light and righteousness shine into the heart. As a forgiving Father bringing forth the best robe for the returning child, He commands the filthy garments taken away, causes iniquity to pass, and clothes with change of raiment and a fair mitre. Joshua thus represents all who repent and believe and accept Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, to whom comes the conditional promise that if they walk in God's ways and keep His charge they shall judge His house, keep His courts, and have places to walk among the angels that stand by.

The rebuilding and measuring of Jerusalem signify comfort and strength for God's afflicted people. Satan points to flawed character and disregard for God's commandments in order to oppose God's merciful work in their behalf. The Lord tests His people and waits for true repentance while working mercifully for them.