The fourth vision is like the first and second, closely connected
with the foregoing one. It gives the crowning event of Israel's
restoration. The prophet recognizes in the figure which is seen by
him Joshua the high priest, who is standing before the angel of the
Lord, while at his right hand stands Satan to oppose him. Joshua was
not clothed with his clean, priestly robes, but he wears filthy
garments. Jehovah rebukes Satan and terms Jerusalem a brand plucked
from the fire. After the accuser is rebuked, the filthy garments of
the high priest are removed, his iniquity is forgiven, and he is
clothed with festal raiment. The prophet is so carried away with the
vision that he asks that a clean mitre is to be put upon his head.
And now, after the high priest is thus clothed, the angel of the Lord
charges him with an important message: If thou wilt walk in My ways
and keep My charge, thou shalt judge my house and also keep my
courts. I will give thee access among those standing here, etc. The
servant--the branch--is promised, and the stone which is laid before
Joshua is to have seven eyes. The iniquity of this land is to be
removed in one day, and the vision closes with the peaceful scene,
every man inviting his neighbor under the vine and under the fig
tree.
The authorized version has a superscription for this chapter. "Under
the type of Joshua the restoration of the _church_ is promised." This
is not alone very misleading but also erroneous. No restoration of
the church is necessary, and as far as fallen, apostate Christendom
is concerned, there is no promise of restoration, but the Lord will
spew her out of His mouth. Others speak of this vision as a type of
the justification of the sinner, but we need not spiritualize Old
Testament visions to get assurance of our justification. The Epistle
to the Romans is sufficient for that. The High Priest Joshua stands
here for Jerusalem and for the sinful nation Israel. The calling of
Israel to be a nation of priests is too well known, so we need not to
enlarge on it. But it is a nation stiff-necked, disobedient, unclean
and defiled. Disobedience and sin have been the cause of Israel's
misfortune and Jerusalem's ruin. What would be a restoration of
Israel to the land without a healing of their sins and a regeneration
of the nation? It is this divine forgiveness and cleansing of the
nation, which so many prophets uttered in Jehovah's name, which is
here so wonderfully shown in this vision. Like the priests in the
temple, standing before Jehovah, thus Joshua and Israel is before the
Lord. Though Joshua is standing before the Lord in filthy garments,
yet he is still the High Priest. The filthy garments do not change
the office to which God had called him. Oh, wondrous truth, which we
meet all through the Word! Israel, though in dispersion and in sin,
is still the priest, called by Him who is a covenant-keeping God! And
is it not a perfect picture of Israel as it is yet to-day? A priest,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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