Zechariah 3:2, commentary and pictures

The Lord rebukes Satan as he stands to resist Joshua the high priest, who represents the sinful, afflicted people and church, and the brand plucked from the fire is Jerusalem and Israel rescued from captivity, destruction and the furnace of affliction. Satan accuses them of real sins and defects, many he himself led them into, claiming them as his property to destroy and make their case appear hopeless, but the Lord silences him and refuses to hand them over, on the ground not of their own worthiness but of divine choice and Christ's atonement, blood and merits. That defense covers those who have sinned but sincerely repented, confessed and put away sin and trusted in Christ, whom He pardons, justifies and clothes with His own righteousness and change of raiment, while those who continue in sin without repentance are not included. The same scene depicts Christ in the heavenly review of names in the investigative judgment and the closing time of trouble, answering Satan's accusations against the penitent remnant keeping the commandments whose only hope is mercy and prayer through Jesus the Advocate. Believers and ministers must therefore not take Satan's side by accusing and condemning the tempted and erring, but plainly rebuke sin while laboring with tender sympathy and compassion to wrench souls as brands barely pulled from the flames.

Vision Setting and Terms

The visions belonged to the time when the Jews lived in uncertainty and feared that permission to rebuild Jerusalem would be withdrawn, and they were given to sustain and encourage the people by revealing divine compassion and love. The vision of Joshua and the Angel was personal encouragement to Joshua and to all the people. It comes immediately before the message about Zerubbabel with the golden candlestick, seven lamps and two olive trees.

The Lord speaks to Satan, rebuking him in the name of the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the chosen people and church. Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel with Satan at his right hand to resist him represents the sinful, afflicted, backsliding people, the church, its ministers and congregations, and every repentant sinner.

The brand plucked out of the fire is Jerusalem and Israel rescued from destruction, danger and captivity. The people had sinned and become captives and had nearly been consumed in the furnace of affliction through sin and the destructive efforts of Satan and his agents and the cruel power of the heathen. But God acted to bring them out, to bring them back from Babylon to favor, and not to abandon penitent people to enemies.

Joshua's filthy garments picture the unrighteousness, iniquity, defective characters, weakness, ingratitude and unlikeness to Christ of tempted and overcome people, including ministers and congregations. The surrounding scene shows iniquity taken away, filthy garments removed and clean garments and change of raiment given. This is forgiveness and the gift of righteousness.

Accuser Confronted and Silenced

Satan stands at the right hand to resist Joshua the high priest, Christ Himself, the church, ministers in their work, and every soul Christ draws to Himself. He accuses them before God of real sins, defects, failures and polluted garments, charging God's people with the very sins he instigated and led them to commit and clothing their characters with his own filthy garments of sin. He then claims them as his subjects and property, demanding power to torment and destroy them and insisting they be handed over to his cruel control. He revives even repented and pardoned past sins to place the accused in a false light before watchers looking for defects, to shame them, make their case appear hopeless, destroy faith and confidence and loosen their hold on heaven. In this way he portrays their failings as characteristic of commandment keepers, argues divine protection is forfeited, and contends all deserve exclusion as he does.

The Lord answers by rebuking Satan on behalf of chosen Jerusalem, silencing accusation and refusing to hand over the accused. The ground is not human worthiness or own righteousness, for their lives have been faulty and they stand unworthy and guilty of sin. It is divine choice and rescue, Christ's atonement, blood and merits, perfect obedience and death on the cross, wounded hands lifted before the Father and angels, knowledge of each by name, and oneness with humanity through human nature and with God through divine nature bringing help within reach. Those who confess their sins and trust in Christ are received, pardoned and restored through His righteousness, who resisted every device of the enemy, and the Lord continues His redeeming work in them as they keep trusting Him.

Christ as Mediator, Advocate, Defender, Intercessor, Redeemer and Restorer resists the adversary, pleads for blessing and favor, and intercedes according to the will of God. He regenerates the sinner, obtains recorded pardon, removes guilt, clothes in His own righteousness, and leads willing followers step by step upward into light and safety under the Sun of Righteousness. He stands ready to help and protect tempted, repentant believers against Satan's resistance, declaring what He will do in pardoning iniquity and clothing with change of raiment. His answer gives no railing accusation, harshness or retaliation even under provocation and misrepresentation, giving no occasion for misrepresentation and setting the example for dealing with others.

The rebuke establishes Satan cannot prevail against those God has chosen, driving him back behind Christ so light and righteousness can shine into the heart. Christ's rescue is like reaching into the fire to save them, uplifting before the armies of heaven and of Satan the blood-stained banner of the cross and claiming the chosen sinner as a brand plucked out of the fire. Those who remain faithful to God and cling to Jesus by living faith, seeking God as Joshua pleaded with the Angel, are protected by heavenly angels from destroying power, while those who separate themselves from Christ through sin are in great peril. The rescue is bound up with Christ's cross and His work as the Sin-bearer, at a cost known fully only to God and Christ. Satan acts as accuser and Christ rebukes him.

Satan's opposition casts a hellish shadow between the repenting, believing soul and Christ, obstructing the view of God and heaven, dampening faith, eclipsing love and acceptance and pardon, making the words of God of none effect, and driving man to strive to prepare his own robe of righteousness. Faith pierces that darkness to see Christ as the Advocate God has prepared for His people, calling the sinner to come just as he is, believe in Him as personal Saviour, welcome Jesus into the heart, shut out Satan, seek clearer light and strength in His righteousness, cleanse the heart of selfishness, and prepare for the latter rain.

Repentance Pardon and Righteousness

The rebuke protects those who have sinned yet have sincerely repented, humbled themselves, confessed with contrition and put away their sins in the time of probation, seeking God and trusting in Christ and His righteousness. Though faulty, unworthy and guilty, their past transgression gives Satan no right to control or condemn them, for having repented they are accounted justified, received, pardoned, restored and accepted through the righteousness of Christ who resisted every device. Satan seeks to shame and humiliate them over repented sins and to defile them by reviving what is pardoned, but that attempt to keep them in shame is rejected and his accusation does not undo their pardon.

That company does not include those who continue in sin without repentance and without seeking pardon, for they are not represented in the scene. The only hope for backsliding and defective people who have had great light is reconversion, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as made unto them righteousness and sanctification. This requires thorough work, a decided change of wrong principles of action, avoidance of repeating transgressions, and standing in repentance unto obedience, since perversion of right principles is transgression of the law and the righteousness of Christ cannot cover one unconfessed sin. The defended company are those who vex their souls over corruption and iniquity, mourn over corruption, sigh and cry because of abominations done in the land rather than mixing in them, wash their robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, and confess and forsake sins instead of covering them while seeking a living connection with heaven.

The brand also pictures any sinner, even the worst, disobedient and standing under Satan's banner, whose life is preserved by divine patience with destruction restrained so that opportunity for forgiveness and acceptance still remains. God welcomes and pardons even the most guilty, delivers captives, lifts those degraded and stained by sin from the deepest misery and degradation through mercy in Christ, and rescues the helpless and unworthy from Satan's snares and power. That rescue is offered, not forced, and must be chosen and cooperated with by coming just as one is, believing, and receiving Christ's righteousness. Refusal of the invitation leads to perishing, and mere conviction or promises to act later cannot save.

Christ does not excuse sins but presents penitence and faith and claims forgiveness, full pardon and justification for those who seek to stand justified before Him. He declares what He will do in pardoning iniquity and clothing with change of raiment and a fair mitre, clothing the faithful with His own righteousness to be presented spotless to the Father. Their names are kept enrolled in the book of life, they are sealed with His signet, and they are presented without spot or wrinkle as worthy to walk in white.

Judgment and Final Remnant

The rebuke is spoken in the sanctuary above during the heavenly review of names in the book of life, where Christ as intercessor answers Satan's accusations against penitent believers and claims them for pardon. Satan claims them as his subjects because of defective characters, unlikeness to Christ, and real sins he himself tempted them to commit after seeking to lead them into skepticism, distrust, separation from God's love, and lawbreaking. Christ does not excuse their sins but presents their penitence and faith, lifts His wounded hands before the Father and angels, declares He knows them by name and has graven them on His hands and holds them fast, and appeals to God's acceptance of a broken and contrite heart. The ground of the rebuke is God's choice of Jerusalem, and the brand plucked from the fire is faithful people rescued from destruction to receive full pardon and justification, to be clothed with Christ's own righteousness and presented without spot or wrinkle, to be sealed with His signet, to have their names kept in the book of life as worthy to walk in white.

The same rebuke belongs to the closing events of the great day of atonement and the time of trouble, when the faithful remnant and little company keeping the commandments are opposed, accused, menaced, denounced, and threatened with destruction. Satan counts the world as his subjects and if he could wipe this company from the earth his triumph would be complete, so he stands as accuser before God as he accused Jacob, presenting in exaggerated form the exact sins he tempted them to commit, saying they deserve to be shut out from favor just as he is and that God cannot in justice forgive them and still destroy him and his angels, claiming them as his prey and demanding they be handed over to him to destroy. He is permitted to test them to the uttermost so that their confidence, faith, and firmness are severely tried, and he tries to terrify them into believing their cases are hopeless and their defilement can never be washed away, hoping to destroy their faith so they will yield to his temptations and turn from allegiance to God. Looking back they see little good and feel fully their weakness and unworthiness, yet with brokenness and unfaltering faith their only hope is mercy and their only defense is prayer pleading through Jesus the Advocate for pardon and deliverance, having sinned but not surrendered to evil, having put away sins and sought the Lord in humility and repentance, for whom Christ gave His life and whom He keeps in His care while holy angels guard them though their cases have already been decided in the sanctuary above.

The vision gives a faint description of the reality of the near end, when evil springs forth and Satan drills his army to develop strong parties ready for the great battle of the last great conflict, in which wisdom will be needed. The people of God are in that same place now, resisted by the enemy yet rebuked and rescued by the Lord as a brand plucked from the fire, and therefore they are called to know where they are, to want the Lord alone, to pray and seek God, to put away doubts, unbelief and Christless surmisings, to open their ears to truth already given, to drink of the clear waters of the streams of Lebanon, and to get a fitting-up to be ready for the great day of salvation and to get others ready with a message that cuts through the fleshy heart. These chapters, when understood and received, lead to an advance work for those hungering and thirsting for righteousness, presenting God's chosen people as rescued from danger and given hope. When the lost finally see clearly they will understand what they rejected when told to depart.

In the vision the sinful church is cleansed and Christ clothes His faithful, obedient children in coronation robes, pointing to their final triumph and restoration when sorrow, death, pain, and night are gone. The brand rescued from burning is God's chosen people delivered from danger and destruction, whom He wants to prepare for the day of salvation by receiving light, putting away unbelief, and helping prepare others. Even those once zealous in Satan's cause, rescued like brands from destruction, follow Christ with deep, intense devotion and in the final scene above the city stand nearest the throne of the Son of God, in front of those who kept the law, the martyrs, and the great multitude.

Other Scriptures and Present Duty

Lot was at last saved as a brand plucked out of the fire. He kept the fear of God in his heart and was a just man whose righteous soul was vexed by the vile talk, violence and crime surrounding him in Sodom. Yet his rescue was bare and terrible, for he was stripped of possessions, bereaved of wife and children, left to dwell in caves like wild beasts, covered with infamy in old age. He left behind not a race of righteous men but two idolatrous nations at enmity with God.

As with Moses after his death, the claim of Satan upon the body because of sin was answered not by dispute but by referring him to the rebuke of the Father, in meekness. Satan had tempted Moses and led him into the sin on which the claim rested, yet Moses had humbly repented so that his name stood untarnished in the heavenly records. Michael raised him before his body saw decay and took him to heaven.

The vision honors those who do justice and judgment, and the glory God gives belongs in this same setting. What took place in the heavenly courts is repeated on earth, where Joshua standing before the Angel with Satan accusing him pictures professed believers placed in Joshua’s position by their sins. Satan in person links himself with men professing to believe the truth, joining arm with them so they cannot hear aright, and stands beside them to accuse them. He exults over them and points to their filthy garments, using sin to accuse and to display the shame and misery wrongdoing brings. Those who misstate and misrepresent sacred things stand on the accusing side and belong to Satan’s school.

The Lord’s rebuke of Satan as he resists Joshua affirms that Jerusalem is chosen and its people are a brand rescued from the fire. Christ defends repentant people from accusation, for Satan recalls past wrongs he himself tempted them to commit, but Christ rebukes him and will pardon rather than condemn those who seek forgiveness. Though garments are polluted and souls are tempted, Christ pleads for the tempted soul, and the polluted garments belong to the scene of accusation answered by His pleading. Believers therefore must not join Satan in condemning brethren, pointing to polluted garments, condemning the tempted, or hurling thunderbolts against the organized body of commandment-keepers. Despite faults, they are not to condemn one another but to recognize need of mercy and restoration, treating poor tempted souls with compassion rather than driving them away.

Justice and mercy and the love of God belong in beautiful harmony, and those who deal with the fallen must not take Satan’s part by abandoning them to become the sport of temptation. They must not pronounce upon the case of one humbled in the dust, decide by their own feelings or the feelings of others how much feeling the erring must show to be pardoned, hold the erring at arm’s length with cold Pharisaism, or pronounce harsh judgment. Plain rebuke of sin must be joined with refusing to give up the sinner, laboring in faith with tender sympathy, compassion and melting love, bearing with the erring and encouraging hope in mercy and in a crucified and risen Saviour. They are to help them gather strength to overcome until restored to active service, erring toward mercy and doing restoring rather than tearing-down work, because souls cost the price of the Redeemer’s blood.

Nothing in the world is so dear to God as His church, and with jealous care He guards those who seek Him and has not forsaken His people. Nothing so offends Him as for servants of Satan to strive to rob His people of their rights, while Satan points to mistakes made and tries to make them believe they have separated themselves from God. Evil angels seek in every way to discourage those striving for victory over sin by holding up past unworthiness and representing the case as hopeless. Against that work the Lord rebukes Satan and claims the sinner as a brand plucked from the fire, for there is an all-powerful Redeemer who came in humanity to live righteousness and has power to minister to and succor repentant ones convinced of the sinfulness of sin. That rebuke expresses marvelous love for fallen man and great care over His people in resisting Satan’s power to afflict and destroy them when Joshua stands before the Angel on behalf of the chosen.

Christ shields the chosen one whom Satan claims as his own, protecting from ruin while mercy is not yet withdrawn because souls were purchased by His blood. Through grace He saves and preserves His servant from Satan’s power and uses him as a light amid moral darkness. The brand barely pulled from flames therefore calls for urgent labor to save sinners in danger of being lost, through personal effort, prayer, medical missionary work and sympathy without contempt, wrenching souls from snares. In that work Jesus is to see the result of His suffering, and those who recognize their own rescue long to help save others. This rescue reaches erring youth, those confused by human theories, those building suppositions as foundation yet sincerely thinking they harmonize with the Word, and a warned individual sought to be saved from abandoning truth, while God defends rights, restrains destroyers by angelic agencies, remains at the helm in control of opposing work, and guards His church.