Zechariah 3:5, commentary and pictures

Zechariah 3:5 belongs to the heavenly court where Joshua the high priest stands in filthy garments before the Angel of the Lord with Satan at his right hand to resist him, and after his iniquity is caused to pass away he is clothed with clean raiment and given the fair mitre of consecration inscribed Holiness to the Lord while the Angel stands by as witness. The change of raiment is Christ's imputed righteousness freely given to every penitent believer, not a robe man prepares to cover deformity, by which God removes transgression, writes pardon against the name in heaven, and clothes the sinner with salvation. Christ as compassionate High Priest, Advocate and Mediator answers the accuser who revives past sins and demands the sinner as prey, rebukes Satan with kingly authority as the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, and claims the repentant one as a brand plucked out of the fire. Joshua represents all who confess, repent and forsake sin and trust wholly in Christ's merits, and the restored clothing and mitre honor them as kings and priests on condition they walk in God's ways and keep His charge in wholehearted obedience. The vision applies with peculiar force to the remnant keeping God's commandments in the closing of the great day of atonement, when, conscious of unworthiness and accused to the uttermost, they plead through Jesus alone until filthy garments are removed forever and the mitre becomes diadems of glory and white robes richer than earth ever wore.

Vision Setting and Symbols

The verse belongs to a heavenly court controversy over Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord in filthy garments with Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. That standing pictures the position Satan now occupies toward every church and toward ministers of the gospel in their official work of the ministry of the Word, resisting the Lord's working in behalf of His people. Joshua represents the church and backsliding Israel, and in like manner those who have had great light and made void God's law by wrong principles, especially backsliders at the head of the work who made a man's voice as God's voice. After leading men into wrong positions Satan stands as adversary to resist every effort to save the purchase of Christ's blood, persecutes those he has caused to sin, charges God's people with sin and clothes them with his own filthy garments, and accuses them before God day and night. The Lord comes in pity to the relief of His afflicted people in answer to intercession and works for them through Messiah the coming Branch, rebuking Satan as the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem and claiming Joshua as a brand plucked out of the fire.

The visions were given when the Jews feared permission to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple might be withdrawn, to assure them of God's compassion and love and sustain those advancing His work. The Joshua vision was personal encouragement to him and the people, picturing heavenly realities and glory beyond the spiritual darkness that clouds sight. It comes immediately before the message regarding Zerubbabel about the golden candlestick and the two olive trees.

The fair mitre set upon his head is a clean turban or priestly headdress inscribed Holiness to the Lord, or Holiness unto the Lord, marking consecration and restored standing. Its placing with the garments solemnly invests him with the dignity of the priesthood. It signifies that notwithstanding former transgressions he is now qualified to minister before God in His sanctuary. His unworthiness is not denied; he is restored because God has bought him with a price.

The garments and change of raiment are Christ's righteousness imputed to Israel and to every penitent believer who comes to Jesus in penitence and faith. The filthy garments of disobedience and transgression are first taken away and iniquity is caused to pass from him, and then he is clothed with Christ's garments of righteousness, bought with a price and not placed over sin. God removes sin and clothes the sinner with salvation and righteousness. Christ by this answers Satan's accusations, for Satan seeks to cover repentant, believing, commandment-keeping people with defilement and condemn them by pointing to their filthy garments.

The Angel of the Lord standing by is the heavenly presence witnessing justification, watching over and strengthening tempted people while they are clothed. After guilt is removed and Christ's righteousness is imputed, God clothes the forgiven person with honor and appoints to sacred service under the Angel's presence. The restored clothing signifies that the punished, repentant people, though having imperfections that Satan accuses, are forgiven upon repentance, accepted through Christ's righteousness, cleansed and restored to service.

The order is fixed: filthy garments are first removed with the word that iniquity is caused to pass away, then he is clothed with clean raiment and at the prophet's word a fair mitre is set on his head while the Angel stands by. Christ does more than remove guilt and impute His righteousness; He also places the fair mitre and clothes with honor, changing the appearance from sin-clad to clean and writing pardon against the name. Those so represented have used probation to confess sins with contrition and put them away, vexed their souls over corruption, sighed and cried over abominations without mixing in them, and washed character robes white in the blood of the Lamb, while those who have not ceased to sin and sought pardon are not in that company. After the cleansing Joshua is then charged that if he will walk in God's ways and keep His charge he will judge God's house and keep His courts and be given places to walk among those standing by.

Cleansing and Justification Gift

The verse shows full pardon for Joshua's own sins and those of his people, for after iniquity is taken away the fair mitre is set on his head and he is clothed with clean garments. Christ changes the raiment of repentant believers, clothing them in His robe of righteousness and His perfect justification, writes pardon against their names in heaven and records it there, and confesses them as His before the heavenly universe. Satan claims them as his property by pointing to their filthy garments and to sins not yet blotted out which he tempted them to commit, but his accusations cannot undo that pardon. Those so represented have used probation to confess sins with contrition, put them away, vex their souls over corruption, sigh and cry over abominations without mixing in them, and wash their character robes white in the blood of the Lamb, so their appearance is changed from sin-clad to clean; those who have not ceased to sin and have not repented and sought pardon are not in that company. The angel of the Lord stands by to witness their justification and their victory over Satan and sin, and in the time of trouble God's people have pardon recorded, are clothed with Christ's righteousness, and receive this sign of acceptance while Satan seeks their destruction.

The clothing is God's gift, not man's striving to prepare a robe of righteousness to cover deformity and sin. The sinner is to come just as he is and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour, and the forgiving Father brings forth His best robe to array His returning child. Joshua represents all of God's people who repent and believe and accept Christ as their sin-pardoning Saviour, standing before the Angel of the Lord with Satan at his right hand to resist him, charging them with sin and clothing them with his own filthy garments. Christ hears the prayers of the repenting soul and makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God, regenerates the sinner, writes pardon against his name, clothes him with change of raiment, and lets His light and righteousness shine into the heart against Satan's hellish shadow. This gives courage and hope and light and increased faith with evidence of acceptance, answering the desire to be clothed with Christ's righteousness instead of laboring in human strength clothed with filthy garments of selfishness. To appear before God a person must be so clothed, walking humbly and depending wholly on the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, for the rebuke of God is upon all self-sufficiency, and the removal of filthy garments is the destruction of self and the acceptance of Christ's righteousness.

The scene depicts Christ's mediation for the repentant sinner and illustrates Satan's opposition, Christ's work, and the Mediator's power to defeat the accuser for the comfort of God's people. The high-priest imagery points to a compassionate and faithful High Priest, Advocate, and Mediator who understands human weakness, hears prayer, intercedes for the tempted, helps those assailed by Satan, defends against accusation, and restores the person after guilt is removed. God restrains the powers of darkness and preserves the person from Satan's destructive power, leaving opportunity for forgiveness and acceptance despite disloyalty. After iniquity is taken away the sinner, represented by Joshua, is clothed with new clean garments and given a fair mitre while the angel stands by, portraying cleansing and restoration under the angel's presence.

Christ does more for the repentant sinner than remove guilt and clothe him with imputed righteousness. He also places the fair mitre on the head and clothes the forgiven person with honor and salvation, appointing to sacred service while the angel of the Lord stands by as witness. The fair mitre and garments picture the honor and salvation given to those who come to God for forgiveness after filthy garments are removed and iniquity is pardoned. The person God honors is made resplendent and glorified in connection with doing justice and judgment and obeying God, and the restored standing is connected with walking in God's ways and keeping His charge.

The clean headpiece and garments fit the perfectly holy Christ taking humanity's defilement as substitute so sinners may be clothed in His glorious righteousness. Though innocent and undeserving of punishment, He bore the curse and condemnation due to them.

Christ Answers the Accuser

Satan resists Joshua by reviving the past sins of Joshua and of God's people to destroy their confidence in God and their hold upon heaven and to place them in a false light by apparent defects and failures. He points to the filthy garments as defective characters, weakness and folly, sins of ingratitude, unlikeness to Christ, selfishness, malice, hatred, love of self and the world above God, and lives marked by failure to keep the precepts they profess. He declares that by those sins they have forfeited divine protection, have the right to be destroyed as transgressors, are just as deserving as himself of exclusion from God's favor, and should be given into his hands as his prey to destroy. He urges his accurate knowledge of the sins he himself tempted them to commit, presents them before God in exaggerated light, and demands that justice requires sentence against them rather than forgiveness for them while he and his angels are banished. He questions whether such guilty ones are to take his place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with him.

After leading men into wrong positions he stands as adversary to resist every effort made to save the purchase of the blood of the Lamb. He persecutes those he has caused to sin and accuses them before God day and night, seeking to retain control over souls and to keep them in depression, sorrow, weakness and suffering. He seeks to frighten them with hopeless defilement until they yield to temptation, turn from allegiance to God, and receive the mark of the beast. He stands against Christ's kingdom to cast reproach upon it and to clothe His church with filthy garments, resisting ministers in their official work of the ministry of the Word and resisting the Lord's working in behalf of His people and blocking the work God is about to do through Messiah the coming Branch. He complains because he is prevented from destroying them as he is determined to do, pointing to their filthy garments as the reason he should destroy them.

The Lord rebukes Satan as the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem. He claims Joshua as a brand plucked out of the fire and with kingly voice and authority does not permit Satan to destroy him. He commands the filthy garments to be taken away, causes iniquity to pass away, pardons repented sin, and clothes with change of raiment and sets a fair mitre upon the head. This clothing declares what Christ will do for Joshua and for all who like Joshua seek to stand justified before Him, while the time for glorification has not yet come.

Nothing in this world is so dear to God as His church, which He guards with jealous care and has not forsaken. The Lord comes to the relief of His afflicted people in answer to intercession and in pity toward them. It offends Him for Satan's servants to rob His people of their rights, to point to their mistakes to make them believe they have separated themselves from God, to hold up their past unworthiness to discourage those striving for victory over sin, and to represent their case as hopeless. There is an all-powerful Redeemer to succor repentant ones convinced of the sinfulness of sin, a high priest touched with the feeling of infirmities yet tempted without sin, endowed with power to minister to all who accept Him.

Those who misinterpret and misrepresent place an entirely wrong meaning upon words spoken for God and set forth figures and interpretations that Satan has worked out for them. While claiming to be Christ's children as Judas did, they stand on the accusing side with Satan and are educated in Satan's school of misstating, and will continue to betray sacred trust in a spurious way. Those who denounce, accuse and condemn the church militant help Satan in his work to clothe the church with filthy garments instead of working as laborers together with God to seek and restore the erring. They urge the church into false positions by taking the reproofs and corrections God gave to show sin and turning them into accusations, whereas God's work is to restore, not to tear down, discourage and destroy.

Honor and Future Promise

The setting of a fair headpiece upon Joshua after his soiled clothing is taken away changes how the pardoned look, and it pictures Christ stripping away the sin-soiled garments of the church and dressing His faithful, obedient children in coronation robes. The restoration is both clothing and crowning, the priest made clean and then invested with dignity for service before God.

Those thus clothed and given the headpiece are honored as kings and priests of God, accepted, kept from defilement, secure from the tempter, and counted among the faithful. They are people invested with Christ's Spirit and commissioned to minister to others, given means to plead with God with promise that their prayers will be answered. Their honor rests on pardon and on being clothed in Christ's righteousness, carrying eternal security with it.

That change is made on condition of obedience, that if they walk in God's ways and keep His charge, which is the Ten Commandments, they will judge His house and have places among the angels. The filthy garments of disobedience and transgression are first taken away and iniquity is caused to pass away, and only then is the clean clothing given, not placed over continuing sin. Those represented have used probationary time to confess sins with contrition of soul and put them away, vexing their souls over abounding corruption, sighing and crying over abominations without mixing in them or corrupting their ways, and washing their robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb. Those who have not ceased to sin and have not repented and sought pardon for transgressions are not in that company.

The promise to the cleansed is to judge God's house and keep His courts and to be given places to walk among those standing by. That means accompaniment by angels in this life and at last standing among the angels around God's throne. The clean headpiece set on while the Angel stands by marks cleansing and restoration before that conditional promise is spoken.

Final Time of Trouble

The vision belongs with peculiar force to the closing of the great day of atonement, when the remnant church that keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus faces severe trial as Satan and earthly powers oppose, threaten, persecute and seek to destroy those who refuse human commands that violate God's law. As Joshua stood pleading before the Angel while Satan stood to resist and accuse him, pointing to filthy garments as defective characters, weakness, folly, ingratitude and unlikeness to Christ, so the faithful plead through Jesus their Advocate. The accuser declares they have forfeited divine protection by sin, deserve exclusion from favor as he does, claims right to destroy them as transgressors, and seeks to frighten them with hopeless defilement until they yield, turn from allegiance and receive the mark of the beast.

Like Joshua, the true in the last days will be menaced, denounced, proscribed and betrayed even unto death by parents, brethren, kinsfolk and friends. With broken heart and earnest, unfaltering faith they will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate, fully conscious of sinfulness, weakness and unworthiness until ready to despair. Mercy is their only hope and prayer their only defense. As they review the past their hopes sink, for they see little good in their whole lives, and Satan endeavors to terrify them that their cases are hopeless and the stain will never be washed away, hoping to destroy faith so they yield to temptation and turn from allegiance.

In that trouble Satan accuses as he accused Jacob and Joshua, stirring the wicked to destroy God's people as he moved Esau against Jacob. He numbers the world as his subjects, but the little company resisting his supremacy must be blotted out for his triumph to be complete. He sees holy angels guarding them and infers their sins are pardoned, yet does not know their cases were decided in the sanctuary above. Having accurate knowledge of sins he tempted them to commit, he presents them in exaggerated light, represents them as deserving exclusion as himself, declares God cannot in justice forgive them yet destroy him and his angels, claims them as prey and demands them to destroy, while the Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost so confidence, faith and firmness are severely tested.

Those whose names are in the book of life are pardoned, have pardon recorded in heaven, and after iniquity is taken away receive clean clothing and the fair mitre as the change of raiment. The clothing is Christ's righteousness given to all who come in penitence and faith, marking them as His own and as accepted while Satan seeks their destruction. Those who seek approval through repentance and faith, confess and plead through Jesus, obey the commandments and are clothed and given the mitre, are prepared to give Him all the glory for salvation. The mitre with the garments is God's approval, acceptance, honor and salvation under the Angel's presence.

After iniquity is caused to pass away and the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness is placed upon the tried, tempted, faithful despised remnant who afflict their souls pleading for purity of heart, the fair mitre is set upon their heads. It means glorious apparel nevermore to be defiled by worldly corruption. Their names are retained in the Lamb's book of life enrolled among the faithful of all ages, they have resisted the deceiver's wiles and were not turned from loyalty by the dragon's roar, they are now eternally secure from the tempter's devices, and their sins are transferred to the originator of sin.

The final vindication comes after great tribulation over enforced worship of the beast and his image, when the saints emerge from mountains, rocks, dens, caves, dungeons, prisons, torture chambers, hovels and garrets after sore affliction, deep self-denial and deep disappointment. The filthy garments are the reproach and contempt with which the wicked delighted to clothe them, making them sport and ridicule and mean and sorrowful in despisers' eyes, and their removal means the righteous are never again to be despised, ridiculed, sorrowful or mean. The change of raiment is white robes of righteousness, richer than earthly beings ever wore, and the fair mitre is diadems of glory such as human beings never saw. This ends suffering, reproach, want, hunger and weeping, issuing in loud, clear, musical song with palm branches of victory, Salvation to God and the Lamb. Zechariah 3 will become a living reality when evil springs forth at the end, Satan drills his army to develop strong parties for the last great conflict, men in high places supposing themselves wise block the way, and the call is to clear the King's highway.

Repentance and Holy Living

Joshua stands for every one of God's people who repents and believes and accepts Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, coming just as they are without preparing their own robe to cover deformity and sin to receive the forgiving Father's best robe. In that standing before the Angel with Satan at his right hand to resist him, charging them with sin and clothing them with his own filthy garments, Christ hears the prayer of the repenting soul and makes intercession for the saints according to God's will, regenerating the sinner, writing pardon against his name, clothing him with change of raiment, and letting His light and righteousness shine into the heart against Satan's hellish shadow. The restored Joshua so represents those whose religious lives have been faulty and who have been overcome by temptation, received and restored through faith in Christ not because they deserve favor but because they trust in Him for forgiveness and His righteousness. He represents ministers and congregations as they humble themselves, repent and seek pardon to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ in clean clothing, and represents God's ministers and church members needing revival, reformation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit in wholehearted obedience and dependence on Christ's merits and atonement, with Christ formed within as righteousness and truth. The same vision portrays Satan accusing backsliding Israel and in like manner pointing to the unprincipled proceedings of those with great light in the last days who have made void God's law by wrong principles, applying especially to backsliding at the head of the work where the voice of the General Conference president was represented as the voice of God, showing that after leading men into wrong positions Satan stands as adversary to resist every effort to save the purchase of the Lamb's blood, persecutes those he caused to sin, accuses them before God day and night, while the Lord rebukes him and claims Joshua as a brand plucked out of the fire.

When sinners confess, repent, forsake wrongdoing, humble themselves and seek pardon, Christ forgives and cleanses them, removes defilement and filthy garments, gives clean clothing and sets a fair mitre on the head in restoration. That change of clothing and mitre prepares a pure, holy character fit to stand when every case is decided and in the judgment, and refusing to turn from sin and iniquity prevents that transformation and leaves no such character formed. The removal of filthy garments and clothing with clean garments and fair mitre is putting away a sin-stained character and putting on Christ's righteousness, by which people are led from pollution into a pure and holy life through faith in Christ.

Restoration is not a covering for continued wrongdoing, for sins are forgiven through faithful repentance and God honors faithful service, and those seeking God's approval through repentance and faith receive Christ's robe of righteousness to obey God's commandments and when clothed and given the mitre give Christ all glory for salvation. Those who have sinned but sincerely repented and received the Lord's forgiveness and pardon, with filthy garments replaced by clean garments and fair mitre while angels stand by, are no longer to bear reproach and shame for forgiven sins, though Satan seeks to shame and humiliate them and others repeat former wrongs to accuse them. The imagery calls sinners to cast away sin-stained character, trust Christ, receive cleansing from sin, put away pollution, and live pure and holy lives.

The same image applies to clearing a guiltless servant of God from false accusations by removing the filthy garments of reproach with which he has been clothed. Clinging to those filthy garments as if precious pictures clinging to sin that must be put away, and leaves a person unfit to enter heaven to the loss of eternal bliss.