3:1
We like the idea of being blessed by God, and the Israelites were no different. But if we have the least element of self-awareness about us we fairly soon encounter a major problem. How can a holy God bless someone like me? Someone as unworthy as me? How could God bless Israel? After all, the rest of the Old Testament is a litany of her sins and rebellion against God. We find a significant part of the answer in this chapter. The answer is given in the form of another vision. This time Zechariah sees Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord often represents God Himself. The Jews were very cautious about even mentioning the name of God, so an angel often stands in for God in visions. Satan is also there, ready to accuse Joshua. Satan means “adversary”. There are some prayers that are not worth praying, and one of them is to ask God to stop Satan accusing us. He will not do that. In Rev 12:10 we see Satan called the “accuser of the brethren”, and that he accuses us before God day and night. Accusing us is his job! God has a far better solution to the problem, as is outlined in this chapter.
3:2
So Satan is standing there accusing Joshua, and we will soon see that Joshua had a lot to be accused about. What is God’s response? “The Lord rebuke you!” We need to know that when Satan accuses us before the Lord it is Satan who gets it in the neck! God has chosen Jerusalem, He has chosen us. Like Joshua, we are men and women snatched from the fire. We certainly deserved to go to hell, but God has rescued us. Jude (v23) alludes to this verse in his letter.
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