Thoughts on Zechariah 3

Today’s reading: Zechariah 3-4; Hebrews 13

I’m incredibly curious if Joshua was experiencing the vision Zechariah saw of him in Zechariah 3, or if that was only a vision rather than happening in reality.

It really doesn’t change anything content-wise either way, but it’s one of those things that my imagination just runs away with the mechanics of it. For Zechariah to show up and see this court proceeding already in progress, sure, that’s fine, but if Joshua is actually experiencing this, how did he get there? This whole vision started in the night (back in Zechariah 1), so was Joshua just blissfully asleep and then suddenly standing on trial before Yahweh in filthy clothes?? It kind of makes me think of Kafka’s The Trial if anybody else has ever read that mental trip of a book.

But one thing I did want to point out here, because it’s something I’ve only learned in the last few years, so I imagine many others are probably unaware as well, is that Satan is not Satan in this chapter. “Satan” is not a proper name in Hebrew, but is a title, and this actually reads “the satan,” not simply “satan,” as though it were a proper name. The satan, “ha-satan” in Hebrew, means “the adversary,” and was a role, not an individual. This refers to someone in an accusatory role, or prosecutorial position, and even the angel of the Lord Himself is even referred to as “ha-satan” in Numbers 22 when He opposes Balaam, so it is not necessarily a bad or evil role.

Here, like in the book of Job, we see a prosecutor standing before God’s heavenly court, bringing charges against God’s man. While Job is vindicated by his personal righteousness and faithfulness (despite wavering under the extreme pressure in the later portion of the book), Joshua is vindicated by the mercy of God for His people. God shuts down the satan here, not because Joshua is such an incredibly upright man, but because He has plucked him from the fire in order to use him to lead and restore the remnant of His people. In this case, the prosecutor is probably right in everything he is saying, and every charge he is bringing, but divine mercy closes his mouth, pulls Joshua from the fire, removes his filthy garments and clothes him, head to toe, entirely in purity.

Zechariah is seeing God’s faithful promise keeping to His people. There may not be a righteous leader among them, but God can raise one up, and that’s exactly what He does with Joshua. He had promised to restore the faithful remnant and draw their hearts to Himself, and Joshua is the instrument that He will use to do it; not because Joshua is so good, faithful, and deserving, but because God is good, faithful, and gracious.

I kind of hope for his sake that Joshua was really experiencing this, because for as jarring as the start might have been, could anything have been more transformative in his life than to witness himself as the recipient of such an incredible act of undeserved mercy and grace?

And what an incredible picture it is to us too of the gospel. Joshua was uniquely plucked from the fire and made pure back in his day, but in Christ, we are all in Joshua’s position, and for each of us too, the adversary is silenced, not because of the great personal righteousness we bring to our defense, but because the mercy of Jesus Christ silences him and makes us clean. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift!