Guilt StrippedZechariah 3:1-10

Main Idea: Satan deceives regarding our guilt, while God tells the truth.

1. Satan Wants Us to Feel Hopeless When We Are Guilty (3:1).
2. God Wants Us to Feel Sorrowful When We Are Guilty (3:2).
3. Satan Wants Us to Feel Innocent When We Are Guilty (3:3).
4. God Wants Us to Feel Guilty When We Are Guilty (3:4-5).
5. Satan Wants Us to Feel Guilty When We Are Forgiven (3:6-7).
6. God Wants Us to Feel Forgiven When We Are Forgiven (3:8-10).

It’s a ridiculous story: A man goes into a restaurant and orders a soft drink. As soon as he receives it, he throws it in the waiter’s face. The waiter is ready to fight, but the man says, “Oh, I am so sorry. I have a horrible compulsion. I can’t help it. Every time someone hands me a drink, I throw it in their face. I feel so guilty. Please forgive me.” Then the guy says, “Look, I’m working hard to overcome this compulsion. Would you bring me another soda?”

The waiter says, “You promise not to throw it in my face?”

The man says, “I promise. I’m trying really hard to resist. I’ll do better.”

The waiter says, “Okay, I’ll get you another one.” The waiter comes back with another Coke, serves it to the man, who immediately throws it in his face. The waiter’s beside himself: “I thought you weren’t going to do that!”

The guy is so embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I feel so guilty. I’ll get help. I won’t come back until I’m cured.” Then, he runs out of the restaurant.

Ninety days later, the same guy comes back to the same place. He sits at the same table, where the same waiter comes to wait on him: “May I take your order?”

The man says, “Yes, I’ll have a soda, please.”

The waiter says, “Hold on. I recognize you. Three months ago you threw two drinks all over me.”

The man says, “I know, and I felt so guilty. But I’ve been in intensive therapy for the last 12 weeks. I’m completely cured.”

The waiter hesitates, but says, “Okay, if you’re cured, I’ll bring you a soda.” The waiter brings out the drink, the man takes it—and throws it in the waiter’s face. The soaked waiter sputters, “I thought you said you were cured.”

The man says, “I am cured.”

The waiter says, “But you threw the drink right in my face.”

The man answers, “Yes, but I don’t feel guilty about it anymore!”

That’s a silly story, but it illustrates a serious truth: There’s a big difference between being guilty and feeling guilty. Being guilty is objective. It means we are responsible for doing something wrong, harmful, or sinful. Feeling guilty is subjective. It means we feel ashamed or embarrassed for something we’ve done. Guilt is a squishy thing.

We can feel “not guilty” when we are guilty. It’s possible for our consciences to become so calloused that sin and evil in our own lives no longer bother us. We can also feel guilty when we are not guilty. A lot of people spend their lives on guilt trips. They carry misplaced guilt that is not based in reality.

Zechariah 3:1-10 talks about having our guilt stripped. By the grace of God, our guilt can be taken from us. Through Jesus Christ, the Lord can deliver us both from being guilty and from feeling guilty.

Our text records Zechariah’s fourth vision in a series of eight visions from the Lord. The people of Judah have come back to Jerusalem after spending years in Babylonia in exile. They have been back in the land of Israel now for about 20 years. God’s people have started rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. But because they faced great opposition from the others who live in the area of Jerusalem, the people have stopped rebuilding the temple. Zechariah, who prophesied 520 years before the time of Christ, has been sent as God’s messenger, calling them to return to the Lord. With the guidance of an interpreting angel, God has shown Zechariah eight visions, of which this is the fourth.

In this vision there are three major actors in addition to Zechariah the prophet:

(1) Joshua the high priest. It is important to note that this is not the Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho. That Joshua lived centuries and centuries before this time. Instead, this Joshua, a high priest, is one of the 49,697 exiles who have returned to Jerusalem. As a priest, his job is to represent all of God’s people. In this vision Joshua embodies the humanity that God loves and that God has called to serve Him. Joshua is wearing soiled garments (v. 3), representing the guilt of his sin.

(2) The Angel of the Lord. This is not the first time the Angel of the Lord has appeared in Zechariah (see 1:7-17). The Angel of the Lord should be understood to be the second member of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ. A simple way to say it is that the Angel of the Lord in the OT is Jesus before He was born. Because Jesus has always existed, He occasionally shows up in the OT before His birth, appearing as the Angel of the Lord.

(3) Satan, the sworn enemy of God and His people. Satan’s work in this vision is to accuse and slander God’s people—represented by Joshua—and to deceive them regarding their guilt.

When it comes to your guilt, Satan will always deceive you and God will always tell you the truth. Everyone needs to hear the message of Zechariah 3. Some people feel guilty who do not need to feel guilty. Their guilt has been taken away by Jesus Christ, but Satan has deceived them into self-condemnation and guilt over their past failures and sins. Others, who are indeed guilty, have been deceived by the Devil so that they feel no guilt at all. Satan has blinded their eyes to their own sinfulness in order to keep them from bringing their guilt and sin to Jesus for forgiveness.

Our text presents six principles regarding what Satan does and what God does concerning our guilt. These six principles are actually three pairs of principles. The first half of each pair shows how Satan deceives us in our guilt, while the second half shows how God tells us the truth.

Satan Wants Us to Feel Hopeless When We Are Guilty (Zechariah 3:1)

When we are legitimately guilty before God, Satan uses our guilt to make us feel hopeless so that we will stay far from God. Zechariah saw Joshua the high priest “standing before the Angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” The word standing was used in the OT as a technical term to talk about a priest in the presence of the Lord, prepared to perform his ministry (see Deut 10:8; 2 Chr 29:11). As a member of the tribe of Levi and a descendant of the family of Aaron, Joshua, the high priest, is standing ready to serve the Lord and to serve as a mediator for God’s people. But as he does so, Satan is standing there as well. In fact, Satan is at Joshua’s right hand, which signifies where Joshua is supposed to draw his strength for service. Satan’s purpose is “to accuse him.” In Hebrew the name Satan and the verb accuse are forms of the same root word. Satan’s very name means that he is an adversary and an opponent. His nature is always to malign and attack God by slandering and accusing God’s people. Here Satan is pointing to Joshua’s guilt, represented by his filthy clothes (v. 3), and saying, in effect, “There’s no hope for him. He’s guilty of evil and sin. He can’t serve God.”

I once heard about a young lady who was dating a man whom she hoped to marry. However, they had some differences in belief. So she went to her mother and said, “I’d like to marry John. I think I’m in love with him. But I’m concerned, because John doesn’t believe there’s really a Devil.”

Her mother said, “Honey, don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead with the wedding, and once you get married, I’ll show John there’s a Devil!”

The truth is, according to God’s Word, Satan is indeed real. He’s not merely a representation of evil or a fantasy character invented to frighten people. The Bible talks about Satan as a real spiritual personality. And just as he accused Joshua the high priest, Satan is our accuser. He opposes and attacks all of God’s people. Revelation 12:10, which describes Satan’s ultimate defeat, also gives insight about his constant activity:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out: the one who accuses them before our God day and night.

According to Scripture, Satan accuses and opposes believers day and night in the presence of God.

Since Satan is a consummate liar (John 8:44), we might imagine that he lies to God about our sinfulness, accusing us of things we have never done. Often, however, our enemy does something far worse. He comes into the presence of God and tells the truth about us. We are sinners. We are sinful. We have done, said, and thought things that offend and displease our holy God. But Satan’s accusations against us are always accompanied by hopelessness. He not only accuses us of having sinned, which is true, but he also tells us that we are beyond God’s reach, which is a lie. Satan uses our guilt as his weapon to make us feel hopeless and to keep us from God.

God Wants Us to Feel Sorrowful When We Are Guilty (Zechariah 3:2)

When believers sin against God, He desires for us to feel sorrowful for our guilt so that we will turn from our sin. In Zechariah 3:2 the Lord strongly rebukes Satan for opposing Joshua. The Hebrew term ga?ar, “rebuke,” is also used to describe Jacob chastising Joseph for telling his dream (Gen 37:10) and God rejecting the offerings of priests and spreading excrement on their faces and their offerings (Mal 2:3). The term means “to scold” or “to offer a sharp criticism.” God’s sovereign ability to reprimand Satan in this manner is a reminder that the Lord and Satan are by no means equal forces in the universe. As powerful as Satan’s tactics against God and God’s people can be, he is no match for the Lord. Accordingly, when Yahweh rebukes Satan, the enemy becomes silent.

The end of verse 2 reveals the foundation for the Lord’s rebuke. First, the Lord had “chosen Jerusalem.” By His grace and love, God had shown favor to Jerusalem and the Jewish people. Second, the Lord specifically identified Joshua as “a burning stick snatched from the fire.” The “fire” suggests the judgment of the Babylonian captivity. While Joshua’s people had sinned and had suffered because of that sin, God was offering hope through repentance. This truth corresponds to one of the major themes of this book: “Return to Me . . . and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts” (1:3). God had been faithful to bring His people out of exile, and He was not going to abandon them now, not even when they were covered with the filth of their sin.

Will God allow believers to feel bad about our sin? Absolutely. In fact, one of the signs that you have been saved is that you will not be able to continue in a life of sin and feel good about it. The writer of Hebrews says, “The Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.” Based on that fact, God’s Word commands us, “Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?” (Heb 12:6-7). God wants His children to feel grief and sorrow over our sin because grief and sorrow over sin are the ways that God brings us back to Him. Second Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.” Repentance has been called a change of mind that leads to a change of heart that creates a change of direction that culminates in a change of life.

God loves us too much to allow us to sin and feel good about it. But God’s kind of guilt will never lead us to hopelessness or despair. He allows His people to feel the weight of their sin so they can return to Him. So while Satan comes to us when we are guilty saying, “There’s no hope for you. You might as well be dead,” God comes to us when we have sinned and says, “Repent. Turn from your sin and I’ll save you. I’ll make things right again.”

When I was a kid, after our family enjoyed a meal at my grandmother’s house I would sometimes get drafted to help wash dishes. Standing next to my grandmother at her kitchen sink, I would usually wash the dishes while she did the drying. I would scrub a plate or a pot and hand it over to her to dry and put away. Every now and then I would hand a dish to her only to have her hand it back to me. She would say softly, “Honey, I’m sorry, but this one is not clean.”

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.

Satan Wants Us to Feel Innocent When We Are Guilty (Zechariah 3:3)

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 Are Guilty (Zechariah 3:4-5)

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.

Satan Wants Us to Feel Guilty When We Are Forgiven (Zechariah 3:6-7)

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.

God Wants Us to Feel Forgiven When We Are Forgiven (Zechariah 3:8-10)

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.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How can you distinguish between objective and subjective guilt from a Scriptural standpoint?
2. Does objective guilt always result in feelings of guilt? Why or why not?
3. What are some specific ways that Satan deceives God’s people about our guilt?
4. Why does Satan accuse God’s people about our sinfulness? What are his intentions in doing do?
5. How do feelings of guilt over real sin in our lives confirm that we belong to God?
6. What is the difference between sorrow over sin and repentance? Is it possible to have one without the other? How?
7. What are some expressions in our world today of people being objectively guilty of sin, but feeling innocent?
8. In what ways is genuine guilt a gift from God?
9. How does Satan cause forgiven believers to continue to feel guilty? What does he accomplish by doing this?
10. When a forgiven believer experiences the knowledge and assurance that he is indeed right with God, how does that affect his emotions, his devotion to the Lord, and his service in God’s kingdom?