Atonement Plan

Big promises of global influence are Israel's at the end of Zechariah 2. The text ends, foretelling a time when nations will seek to be joined to the Lord and to Israel after her trouble is past. The Lord will again choose Jerusalem, and the land of promise will be restored. 

But how can returned exiles expect such glorious promises to come to pass? Surely they must have felt unworthy. That is the picture we see in Joshua, the high priest, as he stands before the angel of the Lord. 

Zechariah 3:1–2 (ESV) Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

The next verse stipulates the reason for the rebuke. Satan was attacking Joshua's filth.

Zechariah 3:3 (ESV) Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.

As high priest, Joshua represented the nation. The nation was filthy with sin, and its spiritual state had been compromised. Not only are his clothes dirty, but they are also, according to commentators, soiled with excrement. Add to the fact that the high priest's role was to atone for the nation's sins every year on the day of Atonement, and you have a picture of utter ruin for the entire people. Their high priest is filthy; what hope is there for them?

Yet, as was hinted in verse 2 and becomes clear in verse 4, the Lord had a plan to cleanse the high priest, first stopping the accusation of Satan and then commanding the angel to remove Joshua's stained clothes and replace them with pure coverings.

Zechariah 3:4 (ESV) And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

Next, the turban is replaced:

Zechariah 3:5 (ESV) And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.

This was particularly significant, as the priestly vestments in Exodus called for an engraved signet on the high priest's turban to specify his sacredness to God. 

Exodus 28:36–37 (ESV) “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ 37 And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban.

God was restoring the nation by giving them a restored and holy High Priest. It begins there. Without a representative on our behalf before the Lord, we are unclean and hopeless. But God refuses to leave us there. 

Zechariah 3:6–7 (ESV) And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.

Now this promise for Joshua is wonderful. But by the time of Jesus, the high priest family of Annas was completely corrupt, overcharging for sacrificial animals, extracting taxes through violence, and extorting the people through currency exchange systems. We know this from the historical sources relevant to the First Century. 

But once again, God had a plan for when even this restored Temple system devolved into human greed and exploitation. Which brings us to verse 8:

Zechariah 3:8 (ESV) Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.

The Branch is a reference to Jeremiah's words about the coming Son of David, the Christ.

Jeremiah 23:5–6 (ESV) “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’

Notice, the Lord is OUR righteousness. Not our works. Our works will spoil and grow sour, but through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, our works are acts of God's grace giving and loving for His glory and not our own. 

The promise of Christ's atoning work will remove sin from the land in a single day. A true and final day of atonement will be had.

Zechariah 3:9 (ESV) For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

The seven eyes are a picture of completion. Christ will finish the work of making people right with God. 

In Revelation, we read of the Lamb slain with seven horns and seven eyes. 

Revelation 5:6 (ESV) And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And the church will go throughout the Earth preaching the Gospel and bringing others under the shade of God's grace.

Zechariah 3:10 (ESV) In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

Zechariah is a clear picture that, though man's sins spoil and stain, God has always had a plan to deal with them, wipe them out, refuse to let iniquity have the final say, and instead create a holy people for Himself. 

Amen.