Purification of Israel

Zechariah 3:1-10

Purification of Israel!

Zechariah 3:1-10, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” ³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. ⁴ Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” ⁵ And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. 6 Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. ⁸ ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant

the BRANCH. ⁹ For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ¹⁰ In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbour Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”

Romans 11:1-2, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

Romans 11:25-29, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; ²⁷ For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” ²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Paul is saying that wonderful reiteration of the promise of God.

God has not changed toward Israel and the people which He predetermined to love, toward His election nation. God will save them. His promise is valid and will not change.

Salvation is coming to Israel through the Deliverer that comes out of Zion, none other than the Messiah the Christ. The great restoration of Israel is a reality. God has indeed made this promise. The first Zionist Congress was convened at Basel.

The first colony had arrived in the land of Palestine by 1873, and by 1914, there were 90,000 Jews in the land. Everything went very well. It became a popular place to be, and it grew, and colonization occurred. Then in 1941, World War II hit, and six million Jews were exterminated. Some people thought it was the end, but it wasn’t.

About 16 million people live in the world and about 7.3 million people live in Israel as of 2024. God has a marvelous future for God’s special people Israel. No book of the Bible makes it clearer what this future is than the book of Zechariah.

God gives eight visions to Zechariah. All eight of them concern Israel’s future restoration.

They relate to the time in which they were penned, but they have a future significance also. They are all millennial or kingdom or Messianic as well as being historical. As we have been looking at these visions. We come to the fourth of the eighth visions.

Reminder of the first three visions. The purpose of God was revealed in three areas. ➢ The people will be restored. ➢ The enemies will be judged. ➢ The city will be built. Summing that up, we could say that the first three visions dealt with the externals. They dealt with the physical elements, the restoring of the people, the building of the city, and the judgment of the enemies.

These visions had a historical significance in the time of Zechariah but has a prophetic significance way into the future that is far more exciting and yet to come. But a crucial question arrives after the third vision, at least in the mind of anyone who studies carefully.

Because history tells us that the reason God sent them into captivity was because of their sinfulness.

While they were in captivity, there wasn’t necessarily any great sweeping revival, although there were some in the beginning. They came back to the land which is still rubble for all intents and purposes by Zechariah’s time, and the efforts to rebuild the temple are moving along a little faster now, but there isn’t much progress there.

The people are somewhat discouraged, and despairing, and wondering whether their country will ever be what it once was and ever again know the glories of Solomon. God comes along and says, in those first three visions, “I want to comfort you with the promise your city will be rebuilt, your people will be restored, your enemies will be judged, both now and in a great future fulfillment.”

But the question that immediately arises is, How can God do this to a sinful people?

Are there no conditions involved? How can a holy God restore a sinful, unbelieving people and be consistent with His own righteous character in so doing? The fourth vision answers that question. Precisely at this juncture the fourth vision in chapter 3.

We have the transformation of the nation Israel from sinfulness to righteousness that allows God to fulfill His covenant promise.

✓ God is going to save Israel. ✓ God is going to rebuild and restore Israel. ✓ God is going to judge the enemies of Israel in the great final conflagration that is known as Armageddon. But that can’t happen, God can’t move in to fulfill His covenant, Until Israel’s righteousness occurs.

There must be salvation in the land before there is going to be restoration to the land. Precisely that is what discussed in the fourth vision, the third chapter of Zechariah.

Exodus 19:6, And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” You are going to be the connection between God and man. You are going to be the priestly nation. As a priest connected God to man, a priestly nation connects humanity to God. Israel was to be the channel through which God’s Word came to man, through which access to God was made available.

They were to be preaching, proclaiming, witnessing nation. They were to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests.

Condition for them to do.

Exodus 19:5, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. As long as Israel was obedient, and faithful to the promise that Israel was a priest and holy nation. Israel will be a holy nation. Israel will be God’s priests in the world. But it won’t be until they obey His voice and until they keep His covenant.

It won’t be the old covenant but the new covenant. They haven’t done it today. Israel is not a religious nation. Their God is the God of armies, the God of strength, the God of surprise, the God of might, the God of racial identity, which is the big thing, but not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

For a time, Israel is not God’s priest nation. Now it has been replaced by the Church. Now the liaison between the world and God is the Church. We are priests.

1 Peter 2:5, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;

We are a holy priesthood. We are a royal priesthood. We are the ones now who stand for God in the world, not Israel. But the day is coming when the Church is raptured. After that God redeems Israel, and Israel becomes again a holy nation, a priest nation.

Who evangelizes during the tribulation? It’s 144,000 Jews! 12,000 from every tribe. They will be again restored to the place of being God’s priest nation. Precisely this is what Zechariah wants to talk about here. Zechariah wants to show us how the transformation takes place from ungodliness to godliness, from sin to righteousness.

This is important in the time of Zechariah, because the Jews knew they had sinned. They feared there was no basis for which God was to bless them because of their sin. They knew God couldn’t tolerate vile, evil, faithless hearts.

They knew they were guilty. They must be questioning Zechariah. All these visions are good but what and how God’s going to do for a sinful people? Zechariah’s answer comes in the fourth vision. God shows him that God isn’t going to do it with a sinful people, but He is going to save that sinful people, transform them and then do it.

Five elements in this Fourth vision. 1. Choice, 2. Condemnation, 3. Cleansing, 4. Covenant, 5. Christ. Each one is divine. Each one involves God because the only personality in the universe that could ever transform anybody is God.

1. Divine choice. V 1, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Now stop there for a minute. Now here we see Joshua the high priest.

He can refer to interpreting angel again. But another time he is pointed to a vision. This time he sees Joshua the high priest. Please don’t confuse this with Joshua who led the children of Israel into the land. This is different Joshua, the high priest.

Joshua the high priest is mentioned in Haggai 1:1, Ezra 5:2, and in Zechariah 6:11. So, he is a very common name. He was the current high priest at that time. It is indicated in Haggai that he is the high priest, the son of Jehozadak.

Jehozadak was one of the contemporaries of Zerubbabel, who when they came back from the Babylonian captivity had led the people.

So, Jehozadak was the one who came back with Zerubbabel, and here his son Joshua is the high priest at the time of Zechariah. But notice we are not just looking only Joshua the high priest. Because in a vision, just like the rider on the red horse was a symbol. The hammerers and the horns and everything else have had significance much broader than just its own identity.

So, Joshua is a much broader symbol. Joshua stands for Israel. He is the nation, Israel. How can we say that Joshua is representing the nation of Israel?

• a) Rest of the visions.

In the other seven visions, they all have a broad bearing on the nation. None of them has a relationship to one man so that in this situation it is consistent with the rest, this individual symbolized the nation. As a high priest himself, he was totally insignificant. His only significance comes as he has identified in this way.

• b) Representing people.

The high priest is always known as the representative of the people. When the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and makes atonement, he is acting on behalf of the whole nation.

He is identified as if he were the whole people.

• For the nation he prayed,
• For the nation he sacrificed, and
• What happens to him happens to the nation.
• c) Consistency of the scripture.

Verse 1, it talks about Joshua and immediately switches to Jerusalem in verse 2. Jerusalem is one of God’s favorite titles for His people Israel. He calls them by the name of their city. V 2, The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!

Not chosen Joshua. In fact, Joshua just kind of fades away and is identified as Jerusalem in the next verse.

• d) Symbolic.

V 8, ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. The Hebrew word means they are symbolic. They are symbols.

So, Joshua and the other priests are symbols. They are symbols of the nation that Joshua represents. V 2, And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

We see in the scene this Joshua high priest symbolizing Israel. He is standing before the Angel of the Lord. Angel of the Lord is Christ, the second person of the Trinity. The Angel of the Lord, in verse 2, is just called Jehovah, which is wonderful to know, that the Angel of the Lord was Christ and was none other than God Himself.

The Angel of the Lord is also involved in the act of forgiving sin in verse 4, which means again that He is deity.

So then here we see Joshua the high priest representing Israel, standing before the Angel of the Lord. The angel of the Jehovah is all through these visions always standing next to Israel because, ✓ He is Israel’s Deliverer, ✓ He is Israel’s Protector, and ✓ He is the one who will return as the deliverer out of Zion.

Not in the form of the Angel of the Lord but in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the people are encouraged because standing by is the Angel of the Lord. They had not heard a thing about the Angel of the Lord for at least 200 years and now He’s back. Our Protector is back. Our Deliverer is back.

V 1, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, Standing before is very interesting. Here is Joshua standing before the Angel of the Lord. In the Hebrew, are used to describe priestly function.

In Deuteronomy 10:8, in Judges 20:28, Ezekiel 44:15, and 2 Chronicles 29:11 the same exact word is used to describe a priestly function. So, here is Joshua just doing his priestly thing. He is ministering as the high priest before Jehovah.

If we look closely, Joshua is actually ministering to the Angel of the Lord because again it vindicates the fact that the Angel of the Lord is none other than the second person of the Trinity, who’s none other than Jehovah Himself.

In Revelation 19:10, when John tried to worship an angel, the angel said to him “Get up and worship only God.” Here is Joshua the High Priest ministering to God, the second person of the Trinity, the Angel of the Lord, none other than Christ.

Someone else in the scene. V 1, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Satan. In the Hebrew it means adversary. The actual phrasing is with a definite article “the” adversary. “The” Satan. The literal Hebrew reads this way,

“And Satan standing at his right hand to satanize him.” Or, “The adversary standing there to be adverse,” To fight, or to resist. Satan has been in the business of doing this. Satan’s up there saying to God, “What are You having anything to do with these filthy vile, sinful people?”

Always accusing Satan, the adversary, the accuser. In Job chapter 1, he enters into the presence of God and starts saying, “You don’t have any righteous people.” Satan, for some reason, in God’s plan, this great angelic superhuman adversary can enter into God’s presence and there plead against God’s people.

There he is doing it. He was opposing and resisting Joshua. Satan, the once great archangel of God, who fell through pride, amazingly still permitted to enter God’s presence and make his accusation. But he won’t always be.

Revelation 12:10 and it tells you he gets kicked out of heaven. At the time of the tribulation, he will be kicked out.

But the malicious enemy stands, and he was proclaiming to God Israel’s unworthiness. Satan is telling God that they don’t deserve anything. You don’t want to redeem these people. You want to set them aside. Here is Joshua ministering to the Lord representing his people, even though they are sinful. They are beginning to make a move toward God.

Satan is saying, “But you don’t want that worthless people.” The situation is crucial, because what happens here is definitive. ➢ If Joshua’s priestly function is accepted, then Israel is accepted. ➢ But if Joshua is condemned, then Israel is cast off.

This is where the covenant theologians and the dispensationalists meet. Either Israel gets blasted or blessed. The issue is not a person but the nation. The entire plan of God for history hinges right on that thought.

What’s going to happen?

V 2, And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” ✓ God vindicated Israel. ✓ God didn’t set them aside. ✓ God still has a plan for His people.

That plan has not been hindered. That plan has not been set aside. That plan has not been done away with. Revelation 12 describes how even in the tribulation time God is going to protect those people. Even when the armies of the beast chased them into the wilderness, the ground will open up and swallow the whole foreign army.

God said that I rebuke you, Satan. I don’t hear your accusation because these are My people. They have been chosen. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!

How many Lords have we got there? Two. People do say that they can’t find the Trinity in the Old Testament. The second person of Trinity passing on the ultimate responsibility for judgment to the first person.

At this point in time, it was for the Son to ask the Father to do the rebuking, “The Lord rebuke you.” It is the future. Do you know the Lord is going to rebuke Satan in the future? Revelation 20. The Lord is going to take Satan, cast him into a pit for a thousand years in chains. He is going to let him loose for a little while as sort of a last gasp, and then He is going to cast him into the lake of fire prepared for him. He is going to get it. He knows it.

V 2, The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! ✓ God is immutable. ✓ God is sovereign. ✓ God has chosen, and that doesn’t change. Whenever people ask me why I believe still in the restoration of Israel, I simply say it’s all founded on the character of God.

God doesn’t change. When God chooses the calling and election of God is without repentance. Doesn’t change. Israel’s not set aside.

Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

What did He mean? A stick grabbed before it could be consumed in a fire.

Amos 4:11, “I overthrew some of you, As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the Lord.

God did pluck some people out of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. He saved some people. It means someone being rescued from a dangerous situation. He is saying to them, you were in Babylon. You were right in the fire. You were right in the middle of it. You were in the middle of a fire, and I brought you back.

Do you think I brought you back here to cast you off? God says to Satan, do you think I brought them back here to cast them away? Do you think I brought them back here to have you give me this big argument about their sinfulness?

If I pluck a brand out of a fire, I do it because I want to keep that brand. I could have let them die in Babylon if that was all.

I wasn’t going to bring them over here to make them die. If I was going to leave them alone, I would of just left them there. One of the strong arguments of dispensational theology or that which allows for the assignment of Israel is the fact that God bothered to bring them back out of captivity.

Why did God bother to do that unless He had a future for them? That is exactly what God is saying here. Even Joshua, the high priest, who is kind of the symbol here had had a narrow escape in the exile. His grandfather’s name was Seraiah, (2 Kings 25:18, And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.) was killed by Nebuchadnezzar.

His father Jehozadak was dragged off as a prisoner. (1 Chronicles 5.) So, both his father and his grandfather had known some terrible times, persecution and fire and anybody who survived the exile could be considered a brand plucked out of the fire.

Joshua was brought back, when neither his father or grandfather was so fortunate, so he represents the nation, a small remnant indicating that God is not finished with Israel. There is yet a plan, an ultimate purpose.

There is a future element in that statement of a brand plucked out of the fire. Because that fire might represent all the persecution of the Jews throughout history. Someday, when God gets them back in the land, and they were wonderfully saved. They become His holy nation, and His priest nation again.

God can say, “This is a brand plucked out of the fire,” because they have been in the fires of persecution all through the years. God’s salvation of Israel is based on a divine choice, “I have chosen Jerusalem.” Not because they are better, Not because they are more intelligent, but because God chose them.

2. The divine condemnation. V 3, Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Get a closer look at the high priest. He is clothed with literally in the Hebrew “excrement-covered clothes and stood before the angel.”

A strange scene. He is standing there, and he is clothed, but his clothes are filthy. Just to show you how filthy they are, the root word for filthy here, the word used as human waste that goes forth from the body. It is all over his garments, dirty and smelly.

Ugly scene.

What is the high priest doing like that? The filth of Israel’s sin that has spotted them as God’s priestly nation. Do you want a good idea of what God thinks about sin? This is what God thinks about it. The sins of the people have spattered all over their clothes.

They are foul and smelly.

Joshua never says a single word in the whole vision indicates that there is no argument. Guilt. Satan must feel so secure in his accusation. People today say the same thing.

• Look at Israel they forfeited everything.
• Look at their excrement spattered garments.
• God set them aside. God is done with them.
• The Church is the new Israel. 3. Divine Cleansing.

They have underestimated God’s grace. How God is going to deal graciously with a priest who looks like that? The first thing would be a divine cleansing. We got to clean that high priest. V 4, Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, He is Jehovah.

Who stood before Him are whom?

Who stands before Jehovah to do His work?

Angels. V 4, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

Do you know those sins? God says that I have just forgiven them all.

Don’t you have to do anything? No, I just did that for you. ✓ That is sovereignty. ✓ Marvelous grace. ✓ Undeserved grace. ✓ Pure mercy. ✓ Nothing of human works. Only God can say that I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.

Do you understand what God is saying to Israel? Do you know how God is going to be able to make you my holy nation again? God is going to regenerate Israel. God is going to clean them up.

It is exciting to know what is going to happen in Israel. We only can hope that we could get them to understand what’s going to happen to them when God’s Spirit comes in saving grace. V 4, “I will clothe you with rich robes.”

Little history. The high priest had some interesting clothes. Exodus 28, and Leviticus 8. Exodus 28 when we read a lot about the priest’s clothes. The high priest wore some linen things. He had just a basic linen outfit. Linen pants and a linen coat.

Nothing fancy, but it was white, and it represented purity and so forth. The priest also had what were called his holy garments for glory and beauty. They were made of gold. Beautiful blue cloth, purple, scarlet, fine linen. They were onyx stones engraved with the 12 tribes of Israel. There was a breastplate with 12 precious stones, and inscriptions on that.

There was a fantastic turban on his head, something that was wrapped on his head, and on the front it had a gold plate. It said Holiness Unto the Lord.

Get rid of that old dirty stuff. I Am going to put on his robes of glory and beauty, and his Holiness to the Lord hat. Right now, Zechariah can’t stand it any longer, and he jumps into the vision. V 5, And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

Zechariah just gets right in there. On the Day of Atonement, when Aaron when in to offer the sacrifices, he wore his simple linen outfit. When atonement had been made, he came out and put on his festival garments. So, the Lord is saying, “I Am going to make atonement for them.

When atonement is over, I Am going to put on their festival clothes.” That is the kingdom. What God has planned for His people. God is going to clean His people up. Marvelous salvation, holiness to the Lord. They are going to be His priests again.

Israel will be the high priestly nation. Their place of priesthood will return. V 5, So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. The Lord was approving! Why did they say, “And the Angel of the Lord stood by”?

Just so everybody knew this was what was right. A great day will be for Christ when He sees the people that turned their back on Him turn their face to Him!

Surely it will be an exciting day for Christ when He recognizes that they will look on Him with love whom they once looked on with hatred! 4. Divine covenant. V 6, Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, The word “protested” is probably not the best translation.

It is not as if He was arguing with him. He is simply giving testimony to him. V 7, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here.

He says to Joshua, or to the nation Israel. I have got two conditions. I just made you a wonderful promise about cleansing, but there are two conditions coming your way. Because of My sovereignty and Because of My choice.

Throughout the Bible salvation is always a matter of God’s sovereignty and man’s response. Always.

God has chosen and it will happen when you walk in My ways and keep My charge. There is a covenant here. Two conditions.

• i) Walk like Me.

“If you walk in My ways.”

What are God’s ways? What does it mean to walk in God’s ways? To be like God. God says, “When you begin to live like Me.”

That is a little difficult?

Yes, but is that possible? Humanly speaking, no! But for the Christian with the indwelling Spirit, yes. Paul said, “Be followers of me as I am of Christ.” In the day when Israel receives the indwelling Spirit and can pattern their life after God, they will begin to fulfill their part of the covenant of being like Him.

ii) Obedience to His will. And if you will keep My command, Means a faithful performance of obedience to His will. So, when Israel becomes like God and obedient to God, that’s the condition upon which the cleansing takes place.

From God’s sovereignty, but it’s going to happen when God graciously moves on the hearts of His people. They turn to Him, and they receive salvation. The Spirit of God indwells them. They have a new capacity to be like God and a new desire to obey His will.

God says that I am going to give you two wonderful blessings. V 7, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here.

• a) You can judge My house and keep My courts.

You will get back to where you belong as My priest nation. You will come back into My house, and you will take care of My house. You will be My priestly nation.

If you study the Old Testament and anything about the kingdom, the millennial kingdom, who is it that brings the people to Christ during the kingdom? It is Israel! Israel that brings the nations into the presence of God.

Israel that serves as the priests. Even in the tribulation, it is Israel who has sealed on its forehead 12,000 tribes to go out and convert so many Gentiles that they can’t even be numbered from every people, tongue, tribe, and nation.

It is going to be Israel, the priest nation. Israel is going to go back into the temple and going to be His priest again. Israel is going to be the one that brings men to God. They are going to keep His courts and judge His temple.

• b) You will be among the angels.

V 7, I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. Who were the ones who stood by God to do His bidding? Angels.

God says that I Am going to let you roam the places where the angels roam. This is about being eternal state. You are not only going to be special as My priest nation, but when all over, you are going to come be with Me and roam My heavens like My angels do.

It is a covenant. Because at the beginning of 7, “If.” Then again, “if.” Then you see “then.” God will keep His promise Israel will be fully reinstated as His priestly nation to serve His house and keep His courts and have free access to His presence like the angels do forever.

But it doesn’t mean that they don’t have to respond to God, because they do, and they will. This is the most beautiful picture of the Gospel just as a parallel. The sinner’s filthy rags of unrighteousness. We see the sinner filthy, and then all of a sudden we see the Angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ come in, takes away the filthy garments, gives him a new robe of righteousness, a marvelous transformation takes place.

That sinner is plucked from the burning of hell and cleansed with salvation. Then offered a life of service to God as a priest and the promise of eternally being in the dwelling of God. What a tremendous message. 5. Christ.

Without Christ none of it could happen.

Who is going to do this? A Jew might be standing there, and Zechariah’s telling them about the vision, and obvious question would be who is going to do this? V 8, ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.

They are symbols of future Israel. This is a future thing. We are looking way down the road to the end time. For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.

Who is going to do this? The Branch.

My servant the Branch. He will be the Redeemer. This title is a fantastic title. The Branch speaks of His humiliation. It speaks of His rejection and His death. Literally it means the sprout or the shoot.

Isaiah 11:1, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

The same thing. He comes from the earth. It is humiliation rather obscure. But He manifests growth and vitality until finally He becomes King. In the Old Testament the Branch is used as the Messiah in four ways. Number one, Messiah is called a Branch of David, which speaks of His place as King. A Branch of David, speaking of His place as King. He is called that in Isaiah 11:1, a Branch of David speaks of His place as King.

The Gospel of Matthew describes. Second, here in our text He is called My servant the Branch.

What Gospel describes Him as the servant? Mark.

Zechariah 6:12-13, Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; ¹³ Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’

What Gospel presents Christ as the perfect Man? Luke.

Isaiah 4:2, In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing For those of Israel who have escaped. He is called the Branch of Jehovah.

What Gospel presents Him as God? John. The Branch, none other than Jesus Christ. He has another name. V 9, For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’

Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Who is the stone? Christ.

What are the seven eyes? Eyes speak of knowledge. Seven would be the number of perfections. Perfect knowledge. Omniscient. The omniscient stone. He has an engraving.

What is engraved on Him? It is not the names of the tribes but the names of His children, the elect. The concept of stone was very important to Israel.

Isaiah 8:14, He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

The Messiah was called a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Isaiah 28:16, Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily. He was called a stone of refuge. Christ was either a stone of refuge or a stumbling stone to Israel. Stone is important to the nation. In Daniel chapter 2, we saw that He’s called the stone cut out without hands that smashes the Gentile world powers. Stone is important to the Church.

Ephesians 2:20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. The stone is Christ. He is the only one that could do this. I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Calvary was that one day, when the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world.

The Israel’s one day will be appropriated in the day when they look on Him whom they have pierced and mourned for Him as an only son.

Zechariah 12:10, And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

There is a day, and a day when Israel believes and the fountain floods from Israel to the world. V 10, In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbour Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ” When that happens says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbour Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”

Which being interpreted means nobody’s going to fight any more. Peace all over the earth in the kingdom. The vine and the fig tree are associated with peace. People sitting under vines and fig trees are associated with peaceful times.

1 Kings 4:24-25, For he had dominion over all the region on this side of the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over all the

kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on every side all around him. ²⁵And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. So, the vine and the fig tree were used to speak of the peace of Solomon’s time.

Here the vine and the fig tree are used to speak of Messiah’s time and the peace that will be there. God has a wonderful plan for Israel. It consummates in a glorious kingdom of peace It’s coming when God saves His people.

But the lesson here that we can apply to ourselves, beyond the lesson of historical Israel, is that the same salvation is offered to us. Wasn’t the Lamb of God offered to take away the sins of the whole world?

Aren’t we standing before God filthy? Isn’t Satan the accuser saying, “He is vile. You don’t want him”? Jesus Christ saying, “But I do want him.” Out of His elective love, His gracious love chooses those to salvation, who by faith trust and embrace Him.

Then says, “Take away His filthy garments and put on His festival robes, the robes of righteousness. Tell him he is now a priest for Me. He will spend eternity walking through My palaces of heaven.”

Isn’t that a message to all of us? Do you think Israel was comforted by this vision? They still should be.