Guilt Stripped

Any time my grandmother did that, I had a few choices in how to respond. I could have countered angrily, “This plate is clean to my satisfaction. Get over it.” But I never would have said that, even if the plate looked completely clean to my eyes. I loved my grandmother too much—and I feared her punishment too much—to do that. I could have become crushed and humiliated when she handed a plate back, thinking that I was a hopeless failure at washing dishes. But I knew my grandmother loved me too much to make me feel that way. Instead, I would take the dish back, ask her to show me the unclean spot, and rewash it. And sometimes I would realize that I didn’t have the ability to find the spot or scrub the plate like my grandmother could. That was typically when she would say, “Honey, you dry. I’ll wash.” And she would get it clean.

Genuine guilt is a gift from God. When we sin, the Lord wants us to feel the sense that something is not right, that something in our lives is not clean. His purpose is that our sorrow and guilt will lead us to get things right with Him. When we feel guilt over sin, God wants us to realize that we cannot make ourselves clean and righteous on our own. Just as a child would hand over a dirty dish for his grandmother to scrub, God wants us to hand our lives to Him and say, “Lord, take this sin, take this guilt, and cleanse me of it.”

God loves believers so much that He won’t allow us to sin and feel good about it. However, unlike the way Satan attacks us with guilt, God’s kind of guilt will never lead us to hopelessness and despair. Instead, He will allow His people to experience godly sorrow over their sin so that they will return to Him. He’s always ready for us to return to Him so that we can be forgiven.

The enemy of our souls has two major strategies when we are guilty of sin, both of which are designed to keep us from coming to God for forgiveness. One strategy, we have seen, is to make us feel hopeless, so we conclude that we can never be forgiven or loved by God and there is nothing we can do about our guilt. There is an equally dangerous way the enemy deceives. This other strategy, illustrated here, is to make us feel innocent, so we will continue in the sin that is destroying us.

Zechariah saw Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ, wearing “filthy clothes.” It is almost impossible to describe how strongly the Hebrew language talks about the filth of Joshua’s garments. These were not simply clothes stained with just a few spots of sweat and dirt. Nor were they garments that have gone too long unlaundered, with a whiff of body odor on them. “Filthy” translates perhaps the strongest expression that the Hebrew language had to talk about something loathsome and vile. The word used here is directly related to the Hebrew term for human excrement. Joshua is standing there, trying to serve the Lord, yet he is absolutely contaminated.

The irony, though, is that Joshua seems to think he is acceptable. After all, he is “dressed,” showing that he considers himself to be prepared to serve and minister in the temple. He is standing before the Angel of the Lord, apparently believing that he is ready to do God’s work and to be in the Lord’s presence. He thinks he is fine. This is a portrait of how Satan will work when we are contaminated with sin. He will try to convince us that we are innocent, even when there is great guilt in our lives.

On a recent visit to New York City I challenged myself to learn how to use the subway system. I had a good time figuring out how to read the subway maps to get from place to place, planning my route, and then pushing my way into the crowded subway cars with all of the other riders. I learned an important lesson, though, on the first day of my trip there. I was waiting for my train to come, standing on a subway platform that was absolutely crammed with people. The next train rolled in and every car was packed full of people, except for one car. One car, right in front of me, was nearly empty. I thought, “This is great. I’ll get on this car.” As soon as I stepped in, I instantly learned a lesson that I will never forget. If you see an empty subway car, and the cars in front of it and behind it are full, do not get on that empty car. Here’s why: something unpleasant has happened in there, and the horrendous effects will still be lingering in the air when you get on board. You may not be able to see the problem, but you will be able to smell it. Everything looks okay, but something is not right.

In the same way, Satan tries to convince us that things are okay with us spiritually when things are not right. He makes us feel innocent when we are guilty, clean when we are dirty, virtuous when we are wicked, and godly when we are unholy. Satan hates us and will do anything he can so that we will continue in the sin that is destroying us. That’s why God’s Word is so careful to warn against this type of self-deception. In 1 John 1:8 and 10 God says, “If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. . . . If we say, ‘We don’t have any sin,’ we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

When the truth of God’s Word is not in us, we are easy prey for Satan’s deceptive work regarding our sin. Before we encounter the objective standard of God’s Word, we can do all kinds of things and yet be deceived about our guilt. We can be deceived into thinking that times have changed and we have no need to be concerned about sexual sin. We can be fooled into supposing that we had a good reason to lie and we should feel no guilt over being dishonest. We can be tricked into believing that everybody around us is cheating and it is only fair for us to cheat as well. We can be deceived to reason that since we are in a committed relationship with the person with whom we are living and having sex, we do not have to have a wedding ceremony or a piece of paper to make things right.

Then, when we come to the Scriptures, God’s Word speaks to us and says that God is truth, and therefore He wants us to be truthful; that God is pure, and therefore He wants us to be pure. When we, as believers, fail to hold our lives up to God’s Word and do not allow Scripture to determine whether our lives are pure or defiled, we open ourselves us to Satan’s deception. He wants us to feel innocent when we are guilty so that we deceive ourselves and continue in our sin.

God wants us to feel guilty when we actually are guilty, because only then will we bring our guilt to Him and be forgiven. Apart from the convicting work of God, we are likely to keep deceiving ourselves and continuing in our sin, even as our sin destroys us. Zechariah 3:4-5 describes the cleansing of Joshua the priest, symbolizing the forgiveness and restoration of the people of Israel.

Verse 4 says that the “Angel of the Lord spoke,” commanding those standing by the High Priest—evidently other attending angels—to remove Joshua’s filthy garments. The word spoke is instructive, in that the Hebrew term used here most often means “to answer” or “to respond.” The word indicates a response to a request or a question, even though that request may not be explicitly spoken. In this case the reader may assume that Joshua made a request of the Lord, namely, “God, take this filth off of me. Take away my guilt.” Then God does what Joshua could never do for himself: He answers, ordering that the contaminated clothes be removed.

After removing the garments of Joshua’s guilt, the Lord does something even more beautiful. He tells Joshua, “See, I have I have removed your guilt from you” (v. 4). The Lord’s words are a reminder that, when we bring our guilt to God, He is not only gracious enough to cleanse us, but also to show us (“See”) and tell us that that we have been cleansed (“I have removed your guilt from you”). There is no lingering doubt in our minds about where we stand with God. Even more, the Lord promises Joshua, “I will clothe you with splendid robes” (v. 4). The Hebrew word translated “splendid” is only used here and in Isaiah 3:22. Joshua’s new garments represent purity and holiness. They also signify his restoration and readiness to resume his ministry as a priest. In verse 5 Zechariah himself interjects, desiring to see Joshua’s restoration made complete: “Then I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’” The turban, adorned with a golden medallion, was worn by the priest. Exodus 28:36-38 indicates that the medallion was engraved with the words “HOLY TO THE LORD.”

The end result is a picture of complete cleansing. Joshua—representing all of God’s people—had been filthy and contaminated. Now he is robed in festal attire, crowned with God’s holiness, ready to meet with the Lord and to serve in His name. Joshua’s cleansing portrays vividly the salvation and restoration that God brings to sinners when we confess our sin and receive His forgiveness. When sinners recognize the state of our guilt, when we acknowledge that we have departed from Him and then repent, God uses our real guilt as a tool to bring His grace to us. God wants His people to feel guilty when we are guilty so that we can turn from our guilt and be cleansed.

Our need to feel guilt over our sin brings to mind the story of a Sunday school teacher who had just concluded her lesson on forgiveness and wanted to make sure that she had made her point. She said, “Children, tell me, what do you have to do to be forgiven for your sin?”

For a few moments, nobody answered. Finally, one boy in the back of the class said, “First, you have to sin!”

That may not have been the answer the teacher was looking for, but she could not deny the kid was right. Until we know that we have sinned and we come before God and say, “God, I have sinned and I need You to cleanse me,” we will never receive the forgiveness that we need. The Bible promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God’s forgiveness and grace come when we agree with God that we have sinned and that we are guilty, and when we then seek His cleansing.

We live in a generation of people who never want to feel guilty about anything, even great sin. Sometimes seemingly well-intentioned people will come to a pastor and say, “Don’t load guilt on people. Just always be positive.” But it is a false positive to make guilty people feel innocent. We need to feel guilty when we are guilty, so that we can bring our guilt to God and He can take away our guilt.

Guilt should move us to confess our sins to God. I often tell my congregation that we must confess our sins the same way we commit our sins. Sometimes people will mistakenly pray, “Lord, forgive me of all my many sins.” That type of prayer is really not confession, because the person did not commit his sins as a lump sum. Instead, just as we commit one sin at a time, we should confess one sin at a time. Specific repentance involves praying this way: “Lord, I lied. Forgive me. I mistreated this person. Forgive me. I had an attitude that was hateful and unkind. Forgive me. Through the blood of Jesus, I ask you to forgive me.” As we confess individual sins, the Bible promises that God is faithful and righteous to cleanse us from our guilt.

So far in this text, Zechariah has shown us how God counters the work of Satan before we are cleansed of our guilt. The last two principles show how Satan deceives us and God tells us the truth after we have been forgiven.

After God has forgiven believers, Satan’s desire is to make us continue to feel guilty in order to debilitate us spiritually and to keep us from serving the Lord. Once Joshua had been cleansed of his iniquity, the Lord spoke a strong word of assurance to him. The Hebrew word translated “charged” is extremely instructive regarding the Lord’s intentions. It means “to bear witness” or “to give testimony.” In this instance the Lord is countering any lingering accusations of Satan regarding Joshua’s guilt by providing a solemn declaration that the high priest was not only cleansed but ready for renewed ministry. Warren Wiersbe notes, “Joshua and his fellow priests weren’t put on probation; they were cleansed and restored to service” (Be Heroic, 100).

In Zechariah 3:7 the Lord describes the nature of Joshua’s service by presenting an “if/then” type of conditional promise, with two conditions and three results. The first condition involves obedience: “If you walk in My ways.” God was calling Joshua to pursue a life of personal righteousness now that he was forgiven. The second condition involves faithfulness: “If you . . . keep My instructions.” The Lord’s “instructions” speak of Joshua’s duty as a priest to fulfill the requirements of his office. In response to Joshua meeting these two conditions, the Lord promised the following results:

Leadership among God’s people. God promised that Joshua would “rule My house.” God’s “house” refers here to His people. This same image is used in Numbers 12:7, where God describes Moses as being “faithful in all My household.” Joshua’s obedience would result in him being a leader and judge over the people of God.

Authority over the temple. The Lord assured Joshua that he would “take care of My courts.” The Lord was not only promising that the temple, which was presently in ruins, would surely be rebuilt, but also that Joshua would have the honor of serving the Lord there. The phrase take care of carries the idea of both watching over something to protect it and also taking charge of something.

Access to God. The Lord’s final promise is that Joshua would be granted “access among those who are standing here.” The word translated “access” means a passageway or a stretch of road. Joshua was promised the right of passage into the very presence of God, even among the angelic beings. Walter Kaiser observes that the Jewish Targums make this comment on the promise: “In the resurrection of the dead, I will revive you and give you feet walking among the seraphim” (Micah, 334).

Reflecting on the “if/then” pattern of these promises, it is important to note that Joshua’s cleansing had been given unconditionally when he repented. All Joshua had to do to be cleansed was turn to the Lord and receive the gift of forgiveness. However, Joshua’s usefulness to the Lord was conditional. The Lord said, in effect, “Joshua, now that you are cleansed, obey Me and be faithful to Me, and I will use you for My glory and bless your life.”

Amputees often experience some sensation of a phantom limb. Somewhere, locked in their brains, a memory lingers of the nonexistent hand or leg. Invisible toes curl, imaginary hands grasp things, a “leg” feels so sturdy a patient may try to stand on it.

For a few, the experience also includes pain. Doctors watch helplessly, for the part of the body screaming for attention does not exist. Phantom limb pain provides a powerful insight into the phenomenon of false guilt. Christians can be obsessed by the memory of some sin committed years ago. It never leaves them, crippling their ministry, their devotional life, and their relationships with others (Galaxie, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations).

God has great plans for us once we have been cleansed. But Satan wants to make us feel like we are still what we once were. He will bring up our past. He will bring up our failures. He will bring up our weaknesses. He will bring people into our path to discourage us. Or he will stir up our own self-doubts so that we negate ourselves. Once we are forgiven, Satan will often use misplaced guilt—the phantom pain over sin that God has already forgiven—in order to keep us from being used by God. That is why forgiven people need to be reminded of who they have become through Jesus Christ. We are no longer guilty. We are forgiven.

Even the most shameful things from our past have been cleansed by Him and redeemed as a testimony to His glory in our lives. This brings us to the final principle illustrated by this text.

At the conclusion of this vision, the Lord tells Joshua that he and those with him are a sign of things to come, pointing to what God is going to do in the future. The word translated “sign” indicates a symbol with prophetic significance. The name Joshua (Hb Yeshua) is itself a sign since it is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus. Joshua, the high priest, points forward to the coming Messiah, the great high priest. He and his companions receive a message concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus. This passage uses two titles to describe the coming Messiah: “My servant” and “the Branch.” “Servant” is the most common name in the Old Testament for the Messiah, used even more frequently than the word Messiah itself. The title Servant emphasizes the work of the Messiah in obeying the will of the Lord and doing His work.

The other messianic title used here, Branch, is more unusual. Notably, the Messiah is called “the Branch” four significant times in the Old Testament, and each mention connects to an aspect of Jesus revealed in the four Gospels. The Branch is called the royal “king” in Jeremiah 23:5. In Matthew, Jesus is revealed as Israel’s King. The Branch is called God’s “servant” here in Zechariah 3:8. In Mark, Jesus is revealed as God’s servant. The Branch is called “a man” in Zechariah 6:12. In Luke, Jesus is revealed as the Son of Man. The Branch is described as belonging to God in Isaiah 4:2. In John, Jesus is revealed as the Son of God. In talking about the Messiah as the Branch then, God is unveiling the fullness of who the Messiah will be as revealed in the Gospels.

In verse 9 the Lord sets before Joshua a stone, a further image of the coming Messiah. In other prophetic passages, the Messiah is identified as the cornerstone (Ps 118:22-23; Zech 10:4), the rock that causes stumbling (Isa 8:14), the stone the builders rejected (Ps 118:22-23), and the stone that strikes and crushes evil (Dan 2:34-35). The idea of the Messiah as a stone depicts His dependability and sureness, His ability to overcome God’s enemies, and His distinctiveness as the foundation for the church. Notably, the stone presented to Joshua has “seven eyes.” In Scripture the number seven often speaks of fullness, completion, and perfection. A number of different explanations have been given for the seven eyes on this stone: (1) Some English Bibles, including the NIV and ESV marginal translations, render the Hebrew “seven facets” or “seven sides.” If the “eyes” are facets, like those of a gemstone, then the gem in the high priest’s turban or gold plate worn over his breast bearing the seven-letter Hebrew inscription qds yhwh, “Holy to the Lord,” may be in view here, as described in Exodus 28:36-38. (2) Another alternate, but acceptable, translation renders this “seven springs” of water, referring to the springs flowing from the altar of sacrifice, as in Ezekiel 47:1-2 and Zechariah 14:8. This idea is consistent with the rock that yielded water for Moses in the wilderness (Exod 17:6; Num 20:8) (Stuhlmueller, Rebuilding, 79–80). (3) The most commonly accepted explanation, however, is that the seven eyes symbolize the full wisdom of the Messiah, who sees and knows all, and who judges with perfection and fullness. This interpretation is in concert with Zechariah 4:10, which describes the seven eyes of the Lord, “which scan throughout the whole earth.”

The Lord promises to “engrave an inscription” on this stone. The early church fathers understood this cutting into the stone to symbolize the scars borne by Jesus during His crucifixion (Barker, “Zechariah,” 7). While this interpretation may see somewhat fanciful, the message of the inscription is clearly redemptive: “I will take away the guilt of this land in a single day.” The complete spiritual cleansing of the nation was indeed accomplished in “one day” by Jesus on Calvary. This “one day” also points forward to the time when Israel will look to Jesus in repentance and be forgiven (12:10).

The results of the Messiah’s redemption and forgiveness are described at the end of our passage: “On that day, each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree.” The image of each Israelite sitting under his own vine and fig tree is a common Hebrew figure of speech expressing absolute peace (see 1 Kgs 4:25; Isa 36:16; Mic 4:4). The text moves from Joshua in the filth of his sin to every Israelite enjoying the blessings of peace and harmony with the Lord. Through the Messiah—the Servant, the Branch, the Stone—God has made the way for His people to overcome the accusations of Satan and the condemnation of sin.

In a cemetery not far from New York City a grave is said to have been marked with an unusual headstone. The headstone does not indicate a date of birth, the date of death, or even the name of the person whose grave the stone marks. Instead there is just one word: Forgiven. For the person whose body lies beneath that stone, the most important thing that could be said at the end of life was that one word. Far better than having a cold word chiseled in stone at the end of our lives, God desires to engrave “Forgiven” in our hearts and our minds each day. Though our sin is great, Jesus has cleansed us from our sin. Through Jesus, God has made the way for people to experience the joy and freedom of being forgiven and feeling forgiven.