350: He Gets New Clothes | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Well, good morning. So great to be together. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Dave, and we are excited to be in week two of our Zechariah series. If you were here last week, Tim kicked us off on this series, and he kinda gave us an overview of the book. And even more, he kinda gave us a picture of where this book fits in the overall arc of God's redemptive history, specifically his dealings with his covenant people, Israel.

Zechariah was writing at a time after the Babylonian exile. He's one of five post-exilic prophets, and he was writing right there at the beginning of Israel's repatriation from Babylon into Jerusalem. But this would not have been a triumphal march home. They were coming home, but they did not have their heads held high, or their tails were more tucked between their legs. They were defeated. They were coming back to a city that was just in ruins. And even more, there was an insecurity there about where they stood with God. They were through their punishment, but they were coming home.

How many of you, can remember getting sent to detention or in school suspension as a kid? Quig, first one up. Okay? Let me ask you this question. What is worse, sitting in detention or in school suspension or coming home after school when your parents have been notified about your behavior? I'll stay in detention. Thank you.

When I was a sophomore in high school, the year was 1993, I was 16 years old, I had just recently gotten my driver's license. And I was one of the first in my class to get it. And so I was driving around my friends often. My mom, I didn't have my own car, she would let me borrow her 1988 Toyota Camry. And I, I mean, I felt so cool driving this thing.

In this one particular Friday evening, my parents went to a party at a friend's house, and they let me take the car. And we didn't, we weren't doing anything. We were just kinda driving around town. And I had two friends with me, Doug and Doug. Doug Smith and Doug Jones, true story, the two Doug's. We were driving around town, and I got to this street in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where I grew up. And it was a street that connects Route 11 to Route 42. It's a, a cross through. And if you keep taking that street, it will dead into JMU's campus. But the street kind of, I'll do it this way. It, it went like this, and then about 150 yards after the street began, it came up to an incline like this, and then it leveled off over some railroad tracks. It was almost like a ramp, almost like God wanted it to be a ramp for 16-year-old kids to jump their mother's Camry. And so I did. I came to this street, and I don't remember this being a premeditated act, but I got there, and no one was on the road. And I looked in the rearview mirror, and no one was behind me, and so I stopped, and I put it in neutral. It wasn't even a stick shift. It was just automatic, but I kicked it into neutral, and I started revving it up. I looked over at Doug, back at Doug, and then I kicked that thing into drive, and it made the loudest, peeling sound. It was almost like I was going, I'm about to do something stupid. And I hit this jump, and it was like, have you seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off? When those parking attendants steal the car and they're, like, coming over the hill. Every wheel left the ground, and I was airborne in this thing, and it was exhilarating.

And I looked over at my friend, Doug, and we were smiling for a second because when I looked through the window where Doug was sitting, there was a cop. And he was in this parking lot about to drive out, and he was looking at me like this, this idiot. And I landed, and I immediately pulled over. I didn't even wait for the lights to come on. And in my kind of panic fear, my wheel hit the curb, and the tire exploded. And it was, it sounded like a shotgun. In fact, Doug in the back seat was like, get down. Get down. The cops are shooting. They weren't.

Anyway, he comes up to the window and asks for my license and registration. I gave it to him. He looks at it, he said, Dave Sloop, are you John Sloop's son? Yes. He said, is John at home tonight? And I said, he's not, actually. He said, do you know where he is? Yes. He's at Doug and Lila Gardner's house for a party. This was before cell phones, obviously, but somehow, you know, he had a database in his car. He looked up Doug and Lila Gardner's phone number. He called my dad at a party and said, you need to get over here right now. Your son needs to get picked up.

I had been released from the cops, but my dad was coming. And that didn't give me a whole lot of comfort. See, judgment was on the way. His chariot would soon arrive. It was a 1989 Cutlass Supreme, and he was bringing the heavy hand of judgment, and all I could do was wait. You know what that street was called? It is Grace Street. Not that day. It was Judgment Boulevard. Okay? There was not a whole lot of grace to be handed out on that day, but this is precisely the emotional climate of the nation Israel. They had left Babylon. Punishment was over, but they were coming home. And there was an insecurity there, and they knew that they were guilty.

In fact, in chapter one, Zechariah begins to hear from the Lord, and he begins to speak. And listen to what verse six says. They respond instantly to Zechariah's prophecy, and they say it says they repented, and they said, the Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and our practices deserve. They had gotten what they deserved, and they knew it.

And then in verse seven and following, we're going to see a series of visions that Zechariah is going to have, nine in total. And in the coming weeks, we're gonna look at five of them, and each of them is painting a picture of a kingdom that is coming to Earth, and more importantly, the king who would rule over that kingdom.

Today, we're gonna be looking at Zechariah's fourth vision. It is the vision that deals with the corporate guilt of the nation Israel. Israel has been released from detention, and they're coming home to stand before their father. What would he say? Let's look at Zechariah 3, chapter 3, verse 1.

The Vision of Joshua the High Priest

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. God gives Zechariah a vision of the heavenly tribunal. It is a courtroom in heaven, and there are three characters there. You have Joshua, the high priest, and he represents the nation. He is Israel's best. He's the best they have to offer. He knew the law the best. He was the one that would enter in on their behalf and offer sacrifice. He was their spiritual leader, and he stands there that day as Israel's representative on trial.

Secondly, you see the angel of the Lord, and this is a character that will show up throughout the Old Testament. Sometimes, see the angel of the Lord speaking on God's behalf. Sometimes you see the angel of the Lord speaking as if he is God himself. There are even times where you will see people bow down to worship the angel of the Lord, and the angel receives it. He does not say, get up. He takes the worship. He receives it.

Do you know why? Because the angel of the Lord is the Lord. This is the second person of the Trinity. It is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, and his seat in the courtroom is the throne of judgment. You have Joshua on trial, and you have the judge in front of him. And then it says that Satan, the accuser, is at his right side. Do you know why? Because the prosecuting attorney is always on the right side of the court, and he stands to accuse. And that is always what Satan does. From the first time he opens his mouth in the book of Genesis, he whispers to Eve, god is not out for your good. He's withholding from you. That's not really what he said. That's not really what he meant. You see, he is accusing God to Eve, but he also accuses you and me to God. And that is what he is doing in this picture.

We don't hear exactly what Satan accuses him of, but we can imagine it's something like this. This is your high priest. This is the best you have to offer. He doesn't belong in your presence. What a failure. What a disappointment. You have the one on trial, you have the judge, and you have the prosecuting attorney. And there is a character that is noticeably absent from this heavenly courtroom. Who is it? Where is Joshua's defense team? Where is his advocate? Who will speak up to defend this wicked high priest?

Look at verse two. The Lord said to Satan. The lord speaks up. And that word, the lord, in Hebrew, it is Yahweh. It is Jehovah. It is the covenant name of the god of Israel. It is the name that comes out of the burning bush to Moses. It is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he, the judge, gets off the throne. He steps off the bench. He takes off his robe, and he speaks up as Joshua's defender. He becomes his attorney. And listen to what he says, and you're gonna hear this word three times. And if you just read it in English, you you might miss it because it's just the lord. But in Hebrew, it's Jehovah, and he says it three times in one verse. Zechariah will say it once, and God will say it of himself twice. And here's how it reads, and I'll substitute the lord for Jehovah or Jehovah for the Lord. It says this in verse two, Jehovah said to Satan, Jehovah rebuke you, Satan. And then to make his point even clearer, he says this, Jehovah who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Every once in a while in the Old Testament, you will see God's name, and then you'll see an adjective right next to it to modify or to shine a light on some aspect of his character. A couple weeks ago, Cole and Emily Massey talked about this. Jehovah Shalom, God our peace. Jehovah Jireh, God who provides. Who is God right here? He is Jehovah chose Jerusalem. And he is telling Satan not so much something that he did as much as he is telling Satan something about who he is.

I am his dad. I am his father. Listen to what else he says. He says, is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire? In other words, I see what he looks like. He's covered in soot. He's still smoking. He's a mess. His life is in shambles. The city is in ruin. I remember that he is from the dust. But you know what? That does not change. He's my kid. And by the way, Satan, did you know that I'm the one that snatched him out of the fire? Why do you think I rescued him? Because he's mine.

What god is saying here is this, I rebuke you, Satan. A rebuke is when it's a verbal reprimand that you get to someone that has crossed a line, who has stepped out of bounds. He says, back off. Stand down, Satan. Don't talk about my kid like that. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, he didn't do it. He doesn't say, there's nothing wrong with him. That's not the kind of defense he gets. The defense is twofold. The defense is, this is who I am, Satan, and this is who my kid is, Satan. He just appeals to his identity and the identity of his child.

In fact, he gets even more honest about how bad it is for Joshua. Look at verse three. It says, now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel, and the English does not do this justice. That word filthy means befouled in excrement. He was in soiled garments. He was standing before God covered in his own sin and shame. It was an offensive picture for anybody to be in public like that, much less in God's presence like that, much less the high priest of God.

The best Israel had to offer was soiled garments. But listen to how God responds. Says 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. By the way, let's pause here for a second and notice. How active has Joshua been in this story? He stands at his defense trial, and he contributes nothing. He does not even open his mouth. God speaks for him. And then here, we see a picture of Joshua who is just passively allowing God to do all the cleaning. He doesn't clean himself. He doesn't lift a finger to assist in his cleansing. It is all God. And do know what that is a picture of? It is grace.

You see, as God was removing his soiled garments, he interpreted. He said, see, I've taken away your sin. And if removing the dirty clothing was a picture of removing the sin, then clothing him in clean or pure vestments was a picture of clothing him in a righteousness befitting for the presence of God. He was covering him. He was justifying him. On what grounds? Grace alone. He contributed nothing. And then look at verse five. This is this is funny. Zechariah, who is witnessing this vision, he kind of can't contain himself, and it's almost like someone who's watching a movie and just kind of shouts at the movie screen. Listen to what Zechariah says here in verse five. He says, 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.

See, as Zechariah witnessed this happening, he realized what was going on. This is the reinstatement of the high priest of Israel. He was being cleansed, and he knew that what was happening to Joshua, by extension, was happening to Israel. This was a reinstatement of the people of God. He was restoring them, and he said, go the distance from his head to his toe. Let it be a complete cleansing. He said, put a clean turban on his head. Do you remember when Jesus was washing his disciples' feet and he got to Peter? And Peter said, no, Lord, not mine. Remember what Jesus said? He said, unless you let me wash your feet, you can have no part with me. And Peter goes, then wash my hands and my head too. Wash all of me. Let it be a complete cleansing. That is what is happening here for Zechariah. He sees what's happening, and he says, make it a complete cleansing. And it says, the angel of the Lord was standing by, giving his approval to the whole scene.

The Covenantal Promise and the Coming Messiah

And then in verse six and seven, we're gonna see something that's called a bilateral covenant. So you have a unilateral covenant in the Bible, and that is when God says something like, I will be your God and you will be my people. You have nothing to do with that. This is my choice, but here, he gives a bilateral covenant. It is a conditional promise. It is a if you, then I sort of a promise. And historically, Israel does not do so well with these. Obey me, and you will receive blessing. Disobey me, you get the curse. It's one of those.

Here's what it says in verse six. The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua. This is what the Lord Almighty says, if you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts. And then here, here's what he gets for doing that. I will give you a place among these standing here. I will give you direct access to the throne of grace. But here's what you have to do, Joshua. You have to obey my commands. In the ESV, it says, walk in my ways. Does that phrase sound familiar, walk in my ways? We pray it every week at the end of the general confession. Do you know why we pray it every week? Because every week, we leave here and we don't. And we have to come back and confess again because we are from the dust, and we cannot keep his commands perfectly. He says, if you will keep my commands, and then he says, if you will keep my requirements, and that is that is he's pointing to the priestly responsibility that you would make sacrifice for the people, that you would follow through perfectly on your role as my high priest.

And if you read ahead, you will see that they don't do that either. Malachi, the priesthood had gotten in really bad shape. If we're reading this, and this is the last verse of the chapter, it's kind of a bittersweet ending. We think, well, I'm glad that Israel's getting a fresh start, but we've seen this movie before. We know how it ends, and they are not going to obey. They never do, and neither do we.

But this is not where the chapter ends. Verse eight, and this is where it gets good. He says, listen. And, actually, that Hebrew word is Shema. Do you know what the Shema of Israel? Hear, o Israel. This word is all it always precedes an important announcement. He says, listen. High priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you who are men symbolic of things to come. You know what he says here? He says, you, Joshua, the high priest, and all those who serve under you as priests, they and you are merely symbols of things that are to come. There's something that's going to happen which will be a fulfillment, a completion of what you were just a shadow and a symbol. Someone will come to complete with perfection what you have only done imperfectly.

And then he says this. He says, I am going to bring my servant the branch, capital B. Translation, Joshua, you will not be able to fulfill your end of the bargain, and so I'm sending someone who will. And his name is the branch. This is a reference—it’s a messianic reference that is used throughout the Old Testament. I think there's about seven times that it's used, and it you'll always see it's a capital B branch. Probably the most familiar one is in Isaiah chapter 11, verse one.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. From his roots, a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him. — Isaiah 11:1

See, this branch was pointing to one who would come, and he would come from a particular lineage. He was the seed of woman from Genesis 3. He was the lion of Judah from whom the scepter shall not depart from Genesis 49, and he is the branch that would spring up from Jesse's stump in Isaiah 11. He is the son of David. This is Messiah.

He tells us something else about him in verse nine. See the stone that I have set in front of Joshua. There are seven eyes inscription on it, says the Lord Almighty, and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. It's a lot to unpack there. He is a branch, which means he is a human being. He is a man that will come from a specific family, from David, but he's also a stone. He is a stone with seven eyes. This phrase, seven eyes, seven is the number of perfect, complete. It is often used for knowledge or even revelation. This one would be someone who was the perfect revelation, the all-knowing, the omniscient.

In fact, this same phrase is used in the next chapter to describe God himself. The Lord's seven eyes roams throughout the earth. Secondly, it says that he will engrave an inscription on this stone, and that is a reference to the turban again that the high priest would wear. And around the forehead of that turban was a diadem. It was a thin, four-centimeter gold band that would go right on the forehead, and inscribed on there, it said, holy is the Lord. And in Exodus 28:36–39, God gives very specific instructions to his first high priest named Aaron. And he said, when you wear that turban on your head, you bear the guilt of the people. He says, wear it continually that the people might be acceptable before me. It was a symbol of something to come.

You see, for Aaron, it was a part of his costume that he needed to wear. And when God looked on it, it reminded him of something that was to come—a stone that would have not part of a costume that he would wear, but would have etched into his very essence the holiness of God. He would be the very holiness of God. This stone was the perfect revelation of God. He was the holiness of God. And because of this one, God would remove the sin from the land in a single day in a place called Calvary.

And it ends like this in verse ten. In that day, each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree, declares the Lord Almighty. This picture of the vine and the fig tree, it's used three times in the Old Testament. And Tim Henderson actually pointed this out to me. It was one of George Washington's favorite Bible verses. If you've seen the musical Hamilton, it finds its way into one of the songs that George Washington sings. But he actually uses and quotes this verse, I think, from Amos 9:13–14 over 50 times in his writings. And for George Washington, this was a picture that you would sit under your own vine in your fig tree, meaning you were no longer dependent on your previous overlord. It was a picture of freedom, independence.

Is any of this sounding familiar? Do we know one who was in very nature God but did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but took on the very nature of a servant—being found in human likeness? Someone who stepped off the bench and took off his holy robe, not just to enter in as our defender, but to stand in the courtroom in our place as the defendant. He took off our filthy garments, and he adorned himself with them, and he became sin. Why? So that we might be the righteousness of God.

He gave us his robe so that we might stand justified before a holy God. The branch of God was cast into the fire so that you and I, a burning stick, might be snatched out. He was the better priest, the better high priest who was actually able to fulfill his end of the bargain in verses six and seven. He did walk in his ways, and he did fulfill his priestly duty and offered the perfect sacrifice. He was the stone that the builders rejected, who has become the chief cornerstone. And this stone was engraved. He was cut. He was wounded. And by his wounds, God would take away the sin of the land in a single day at a place called Calvary on his son's cross. And anyone who would put their trust in him would find shade and peace and rest and freedom from their previous master.

When you take the name Joshua and you transliterate that name from the Hebrew into Greek, do you know what the name is? He is Jesus. He is our better Joshua, and he is our great and perfect high priest. And in the book of Hebrews, this is precisely what that writer is teaching us. In verse 14 of chapter four, we'll begin to close here. This is the application.

Application

Listen to who our high priest is. By the way, the high priest who, because he fulfilled the promise, was given a place in the throne room of grace, and the gates now have been flung open wide.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. And then this is the application. — Hebrews 4:14–16

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we might find and receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. I don't know where you stand this morning or what your walk into church was like this morning, but perhaps it was not a triumphal walk. Perhaps there are some of us here today that are struggling with some secret shame. Perhaps we identify a little too closely with our sin, our filthy garments. Satan would love for you to believe that that's the truest part of your identity. He would love to whisper that in your ear and have you believe it, but it's not true.

For those of you who have hidden yourself in Christ, it is not your identity. And there are so many times that I think that we because of our over-identification with that sin nature, that it keeps us from coming to the place that we need to come to—get the healing that we desperately need—to the throne of grace. Did you hear what he said? Come with confidence, with boldness, because we already know what he's going to say. He's already paid for it.

There are some of us who maybe have never trusted in Christ, and I want you to know that what God did for Joshua in the courtroom, he will do for you today. He will remove your sin. He will clothe you with righteousness. He will justify you freely by his grace. He will call you my child. He will tell Satan to back down because you're his, and you can come under his shade, rest under his vine and his fig tree, which is a picture not only of our forgiveness, but it is a picture of fulfillment because in him, we find everything that we need.

He said, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. That's our high priest. That's what he comes to offer. Come home to him, and you don't need to come with your head held low. You can come and run with confidence.

I heard Tim Keller say this once, and I thought it was so helpful for me. He says, when the accuser comes to you and begins to accuse you for things that might be true, you know what you can say to him? It is worse than you think, Satan. But do you know my high priest? He has covered me. And so we come. Would you pray with me?

Conclusion

Oh, Father, our great high priest, you, Jesus, are the better Joshua. God, we thank you for your word, this book that could not have been written by man. This is your book. And, Lord, in it, find the words of life. God, I pray that you would give us the courage to believe that these words are true, that when you look at us, though we may be covered in soot, God, we have been snatched from the fire because we belong to you.

If you're here today and you've never known Christ, you can know him. We're gonna have these curved rails open for you, and this would be for anyone, no matter what it is that you're dealing with this morning. Come and interact with him. There's nothing magical about this moment other than the fact that we believe that God's Spirit moves and he's at work, and it's good to respond in the moment that we sense him moving.

We'll have these straight rails over here open, and we'll have folks there that would love to pray with you. Come boldly to his throne, we pray. Christ's name. Amen.