Sorry for the late post, took a while to find Zechariah, it’s very small. If you are having trouble finding it too, work backwards from Matthews, it’s juts after Malachi.

So we pick Zechariah up in the middle of a marathon vision session, chapter 3 contains one of the central visions of the 8 because it talks about Joshua, the high priest who would have been one of the leaders of the time along with the civil leader (governor) talked about in chapter 4.

He saw the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan. Now Joshua was standing there in filthy clothes which was a pretty big deal, not because he looked grim or stank but because as laid out in Ex28 there where certain clothes that had to be worn. These would signify purity which was needed when standing before a Holy God. The filthy clothes in this instance represent uncleanness, and as Joshua represented the people they were unclean too. The accusations from Satan then are true, Joshua is unclean but the cool thing is the response from God.

“Take off his filthy clothes”

“See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you”

Pretty exciting stuff, especially to the Old Testament guys.

Because he has been cleansed he is now able to be in Gods presence, the angel of the Lord then goes on to tell Joshua to walk in the ways of the Lord, to please him. The vision finishes with a final message, a stone with an inscription on it

“I will remove the sin of the Land in a single day”

This is mind blowing stuff, at the time of the visions all sins required a sacrifice to be paid. Suggesting that all the sin of the land could we wiped out in a day would of be hard to comprehend.

Not sure that I’m right in thinking that this is one of many visions referring to Jesus but the vision is defiantly talking about a messianic figure. I think it’s so exciting to read how God intended Jesus to be the solution.

The thing I love about this chapter is the picture of the high priest standing there in filthy rags, the high priest who should be the holiest of his people, filthy. He’s entering God’s presence and being accused, really he should be struck down. To be honest I often feel pretty filthy, like I should be struck down and yet God puts rich garments on me. Because of Jesus God sees me as holy and pure, cleansed and able to enter into his presence. A God that loves me and wants a relationship with me.

God’s grace is amazing, it makes me want to strive to walk in is ways.