CLEANSED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 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?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 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.”

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.

Zechariah 3:1-5

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we begin the study of Zechariah, chapter 3, we find the prophet having a fourth vision, one that will have three main players: the Lord, Israel, and Satan. Look again at the opening five verses here:

Then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 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?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 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.”

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.  Zechariah 3:1-5

As the scene unfolds, it has the feel of a court setting as Joshua, representing the Israelite nation, and Satan, serving as prosecutor, stand side by side before the Lord. The scriptures tell us that Satan had it in mind to serve as Israel’s accuser but notice he never got the chance. Instead, the Lord, the Supreme Judge over all things, swiftly rebukes Satan with authority and fervor, not just once but twice, while making it clear that He had chosen His people, referring to them as Jerusalem.

Now, note that all this wasn’t because the Israelites were squeaky clean and righteous standing before their divine and holy Judge. They weren’t even close.

In fact, the Lord reminds us in this vision that His people were just recently within the fires of His judgment during the Babylonian captivity and that it was only by His choice that He “snatched” them “from the fire” like a “burning stick”. It was imagery that beckoned us to remember the saving nature of the Lord and I’ll come back to that thought in a moment but before that, we need to see what else the Lord did within this vision.

For after rebuking Satan and essentially dismissing him from the proceedings (we don’t find him mentioned again), the Lord fully turns His attention to the Israelites, His people who were standing before Him dressed in filthy clothes, This was representative of the sinfulness of God’s people and how far they had failed and fallen in being obedient to His will, word, and way.

Now the Lord could have left His people filthy before Him, clothed with the filth of their transgressions, but as we know, the Lord is in the business of helping His people cleaned up, showing us His desire is for all His children to become cleansed. And so the Lord commands that Joshua (Israel) be stripped of “his filthy clothes” and dressed with “fine garments” which included a clean turban on his head.

In other words, the Lord wanted to take away the sins of His people so they could be seen as clean. It was true at the time that Zechariah had his fourth vision and it’s still true today.

For the Lord God Almighty is still rebuking Satan as he tries to come against any of God’s children to accuse, and God continues to take away the sins of His people to cleanse them and wash them white as snow, doing so through the shed blood of His Son Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world by bearing them all in crucifixion on Calvary’s cross.

It was Jesus who modeled Zechariah’s vision in the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-31).

You remember the illustration, right?

The son of a man asks his father for his share of the inheritance before the father had even died. The father gives it to the son who promptly runs off and blows the money within a lascivious lifestyle. Bottoming out, the son finds himself working in a pig sty, so hungry that he wished he could just eat the pea pods intended for the pigs themselves.

Well, in the midst of his poverty, the son comes to his senses, realizes the wrongs of his ways, and decides to return to his father with the intent of apologizing and asking if he could at least be one of the father’s servants. And with that, the son started home.

Before he gets back, we shift scenes in the parable to the father who has been watching and waiting for his son to return. When the son was in view, the father ran to him, embraced and kissed his son. And much to the son’s surprise, the father didn’t rebuke or condemn him. Rather, he called for the finest garments to be placed on the son and for a great feast to be held in celebration for his son who had once been lost had returned, cleansed of his past iniquities by the pardon of his father.

Friends, the parable of Jesus represented the Heavenly Father who made us and loves us as His children. Yes, we sin as it is an affliction we all have, an affliction which has no cure here on earth. But our God is a God of compassion and love and mercy, He is a God who cherished us so much that He did not want us to perish but rather live with Him forever. And so He sacrificed His Son Jesus to die in our place, pay the price for our sins, and in doing so, justify anyone who believes in Him as Savior (John 3:16).

In other words, when we place our faith, hope, and trust in Jesus, our filthy clothes are removed and we are adorned in clean ones, cleansed by the shed blood of our Savior who makes His followers white as snow before the Father, freed from the destruction of the coming judgment.

Thanks be to God for the cleansing provided through Jesus His Son and if you have not yet received your cleansing, won’t you receive Jesus as your personal Savior today?

You’ll never regret that you did.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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