seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Zechariah 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
5 Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8 “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes[b] on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
10 “‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
a. Zechariah 3:1 Hebrew satan means adversary.
b. Zechariah 3:9 Or facet
This is from the easy English site.
The first three visions were outside Jerusalem. This one is in a court of law in heaven. The angel of the LORD (who becomes the LORD himself in verse 2) is the judge. Satan (‘the satan’ in the Hebrew Bible) accuses Joshua. He says that he has done something wrong. The Hebrew words ‘the *atan’ mean ‘the accuser’. Joshua is the chief priest of the Jews. He was there on behalf of all the Jewish people.
The Jews that lived in Egypt about 200 B.C. made a translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Zechariah 3:1 in the Greek Bible has ‘the devil’ for ‘the satan’ and ‘Jesus’ for ‘Joshua’. Joshua is one Hebrew form of the English word Jesus. Zechariah was not writing about the devil and Jesus Christ. However, he does help us to understand what Jesus did! Zechariah’s words mean more than he realised. This is often true about the Old Testament prophets.
The very dirty clothes mean the bad things that the priests and the people had done before the exile. In the Bible, a priest should not be wearing dirty clothes. The priest’s clothes should be clean. But Joshua’s clothes were very dirty in the vision because the people had been very evil.
A turban is a hat that people in some countries wear. Zechariah says that they should put the turban onto Joshua’s head. The chief priest wore a special turban, Exodus 29:6. Some translations use the word mitre instead of turban. ‘Mitre’ is another word for a special hat. Notice that the sin was put away but an animal was not offered to God.
The last 3 verses are about what will happen in the future. Joshua’s friends are the priests in the temple in Jerusalem. God had brought them back to the new temple in the vision. They showed what God would do years later. He would bring his servant the Branch to Jerusalem. This means that the Branch would also be a priest. There is more about the Branch in the notes after Zechariah 6:15. Isaiah chapters 40 to 55 also tell us about God’s servant.
Notice the way that the sentence starts with ‘On the same day’. This emphasises the importance of the day. As a result, neighbours will sit and rest under each other’s fruit trees. Vine trees and fig trees are fruit trees. This is a picture of peace, friendship and prosperity. Prosperity means plenty of everything!
This is from the blueletterbible.org site.
I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH: "BRANCH" is used several times as a title for the Messiah (Isaiah 4:2 and 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15). The BRANCH is associated with fruitfulness and life. Jesus used the same image when He said that He was the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5).
For behold, the stone I have laid before Joshua: If a branch seems "weak," then God gives us another picture - a stone, having seven eyes. In the thinking of the ancient world eyes represented knowledge because we learn more through our eyes than any other way. The seven eyes speak of the perfection and fullness of the knowledge and wisdom of the Messiah.
I will engrave its inscription: Early Christians saw the engraving on the stone to be a picture of Jesus' wounds but the engraving could also be a mark of identification or beautification.
Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree: This is a proverbial expression that means prosperity and peace (1 Kings 4:25, 2 Kings 18:31) - ultimately, the peace that the reign of the Messiah brings. This vision and word from Zechariah shows how much God wanted to encourage and strengthen Joshua, and He does it in the best way: setting his eyes on our Messiah, Jesus Christ. That's our best encouragement also.
This one gave me some trouble. I'm not a big fan of Zechariah.... he's really over my head. It's a good thing there are commentaries. I read a few and now it kind of makes a little sense...... there are two things going on here..... the priest and a rock with eyes.It's Sunday morning. Churches are closed because of the virus. What a perfect moment to be reading about cleaning up the priest! Yep Joshua was a priest. In this picture... Joshua was wearing a dirty outfit..... in front of God. Satan was pointing at Joshua and complaining about him to God. Satan accused Joshua. God said.... I can take care of that.... I'll forgive him.
The second story is about the rock with seven eyes. I've always been taught [in church] that seven means perfect in the Bible. At the same time I was told that the rock mean steady.... immovable.... something to stand on. So a rock with seven eyes must mean stability and knowledge. I have to agree now that in the future things are going to change.
Now I don't know if anyone with the virus and a need to talk to God about it would have ventured into the church when the churches were open. Humans do strange things when they are on the last hope. The church is actually drawing more attention being closed that open.... and maybe since the churches are closed.... some will actually go in a grab that old KJV with the gold embossed leather cover they got from the grandmother and try to swear on it. Humans are an odd lot.
At the end of this chapter..... everyone is invited to sit in the shade. Things are going to get better..... something big is coming and then things will get better.... if we just survive...... of course some of us have eternal life and we know we are going to survive.
