Thoughts on Zechariah 3:1-5

Last month a debate took place regarding the existence of Satan. You can watch it here. In my reading from today, Zechariah 3:1-5, Satan shows up and does what he does best: accusation. In Scripture Satan is referred to as "the accuser of our brothers" and "the father of all lies". I know from personal experience that this is true. Sometimes when I sin there is a voice inside of me speaking accusations and lies. I'll hear things like "You are a disgrace" or "God doesn't care about you". These are accusations and lies from Satan. I can't think of any other time I refer to myself in the third person except when I hear these things. I urge you to pay close attention to your thoughts and if you hear the third person, pay very close attention, it may be the accuser of brothers and the father of lies speaking to you.

In today's passage Satan is up to his usual activity of accusation. Here we see Joshua in court as the defendant. He is standing before the angel of the Lord, who is the judge and Satan is standing at Joshua's right hand to accuse him; Satan is the prosecutor.

As Satan begins his work of accusation the Lord steps in. "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" How awesome is this for the Christian? This should be so comforting to us. As a Christian you do not have to fight Satan alone. The moment Satan begins his attacks all we have to do is call on Jesus and he will step in. He will intercede for us. Hebrews 7:25 tells us "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Close your eyes and picture it. Satan comes to accuse and attack you and you call on Jesus to step in and all of the sudden you hear the Lord's voice defending YOU "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Notice that God says He plucked Joshua from the fire. He does not say that Joshua jumped out of the fire into God's out-stretched hand. God chose Joshua and in His love and grace plucked Joshua from the fire. If you are a Christian please understand that you played absolutely no part in your salvation. You were burning up, just like Joshua, and God literally grabbed you by the collar and yanked you out of the fire.

The passage goes on: "Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments." Notice that Joshua is not innocent here. He is clothed with filthy garments. He is dirty, guilty of sin just like the rest of us. But that did not stop God from stepping in and defending Joshua just like our sin will not cause God to forsake us. Then we see the result of Jesus' death and resurrection played out in Joshua. Knowing that Joshua was guilty the angel of the Lord says "Remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." Through Jesus death and resurrection we are clothed with righteousness, washed clean by his blood. Paul puts it perfectly in his letter to Titus: "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Satan is real. He is active in the world today he is even called the "ruler of this world" in Scripture. The good news is that we do not have to fight Satan alone. We do not have to face him by ourselves. Jesus is alive and has destroyed Satan's power in our lives. If you have sin in your life that you want to stop, if you have destructive habits that are slowly destroying your life, stop fighting by yourself, call upon Jesus, admit to him that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself, that you desperately need him to rescue you from the fire and destroy the power of Satan in your life. He will come and he will intercede for you.

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."