ZECHARIAH 3: 6-10
THE SERVANT OF RESTORATION
[1 Peter 2:1-10]
Our text contains a charge and a promise to the restored nation and its members. The charge and promise can be given and followed because of the coming of the Servant-Branch and the foundation which He laid by the accomplishment of His task which brought about the cleansing of His people.
In the previous verses of chapter 3 the High Priest was cleansed and restored. The High Priest was the representative of all the people of God. His cleansing and restoration thus was representative of the cleansing and clothing of all God's people who are represented by their great High Priest, Jesus. But now that the people of God are restored from their fallen depraved condition, what does He expect of them?
These verses mark the transition from the preceding previous symbolic visions of salvation to the practical application of tapping into salvation's resources. The text is to inform and exhort the restored ones to live the redeemed life (CIT). So give ear and learn that the promise of continued blessings in service and of full access into God's presence are contingent upon obedience. For the forgiven man must keep God's charge if he is to enjoy the blessings of his right standing (CIM).
I. THE CHARGE AND THE PROMISE, 6-7.
II. THE FORESHADOWED MESSIAH, 8-10.
I. THE CHARGE AND THE PROMISE, 6-7.
Having been clothed anew in righteousness Joshua is now fit to carry out his office. So in verse 6 Joshua is solemnly warned of what else was needed to carry out his role as high priest. And the Angel of the LORD admonished Joshua saying, "Thus says the LORD of Hosts, 'if you will walk in My ways, and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among those who are standing (here).
The Angel of the LORD Himself solemnly bears witness and presents the LORD of Army's two preliminary conditions which must first be met for spiritual blessings to be bestowed.
The first charge "If you will walk in My ways"– means a life of continued personal righteousness. The first condition is that the believer speak and live in a manner worthy of the Lord. He must follow after the footsteps of Jesus on that narrow path which is lighted and directed by God's Word. He must obey God's will in his daily life. God requires an unadulterated devotion, a submissive attitude, and a singleness of purpose. Are your character and your way of life well pleasing to the Lord?
The second condition, "If ('im) you will perform My service"– means to faithfully do the duties required by God. He must carry out the responsibilities of God's calling. God's people have a trust of ministry committed to them. They are charged with it and must keep it with all possible faithfulness.
Are you performing God's required service? What is your service to God? Each person has some elements which are the same (worship, prayer, reading the Word, fellowship, witness ...) and yet, each person has individual responsibilities of service based upon which spiritual gift(s) and talent(s) with which one was graced.
If the conditions are met then promises are granted. The first promise is, "Then you will govern My house and courts" -- which speaks of jurisdiction over God's house and its affairs. (These are David's dying words to Solomon). If a person has walked in God's way and ministered in God's service, then he is entrusted with the blessings of spiritual responsibility before God. This is the first of two privileges we are assured of and may expect to exercise because of our sacred calling. Is this why we cannot find workers for the church today, because there are so few walking the walk and performing their individual ministry that they do not have the ability to take up spiritual responsibilities in the church? This is the first step in making the church a house of prayer for the nations.
Those that follow God's will and way into service are also granted free accesses to God. Free access is an open and unrestrained approach to God, an admittance into the throne room of God Almighty. This privilege is the crowning favor shown to him who would heed God's conditions. (If it is our high priest's privilege then it becomes ours for He will give all things into our hands). Intercessors for God's people will have the right of as free an access to God as those that stand before His Throne of Grace. They will be admitted into the presence of God like the seraphim and cherubim are. Oh, the unutterable blessings of entering into God's presence like His attending angels. What great privilege obedience to God brings. (Jewish commentators believe in a final fulfillment where God's priests will have such intimate access throughout all eternity).
The blessings which are granted to those walking in His way and performing His work are truly supernatural. Access to talk to God as your intimate friend and beloved Lord. What a privilege is ours--free access and what responsibility is ours also to prove our faithfulness!
[See Maclaren, Vol. 6. pp. 290-293]
II. THE FORESHADOWED MESSIAH, 8-10.
This section presents four different images of Jesus Christ: as the Priest, the Servant, the Branch, and the Stone. Verse 8 is a remarkable announcement of the coming of the Messiah. "Now listen, Joshua the high priest you and your friends who are sitting in front of you--indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My Servant, the Branch."
The Messianic content and thus, the climax of the vision begins to unfold. Not just an critical behold, but an even more emphatic address is used, "Now listen"--Shema 'na.
The High Priest designates Joshua as official representative of the people. The announcement is addressed to not only "the high priest" but to all the priests that wait upon the Lord. Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation (Exodus 19:6). The announcing of the Messiah should arouse not only the high priest but also all priests to a realization of their significance and importance.
The church also is intended to be a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation. 1 Peter 2:9 states, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." This passage thus can have a parallel meaning of speaking to the church as a kingdom of priests.
The men before the high priest are a divine sign not because of who they are but because God has ordained them to be a sign of a future event. They are not a sign by virtue of anything that they shall achieve or produce but by virtue of what God will achieve through them. They will walk in the way and in obedience.
Thus, these men are not a simple sign but a marvelous sign (symbol Epheth originally meant "a wonder, a marvel"). Something that leads men to marvel at what God is doing.
These men are those who are becoming personally righteous because of their life and their service. They are preforming their God-given ministries under the ecclesiastical structure that God has ordained and thus have such access to the high priest, become symbols of what God will do when He brings forth His Servant--the Branch. [Whatever blessing they would enjoy was not for their own sake, and should not give them an inflated sense of their own importance. The key to the LORD's blessing was the One to come, and it was their weighty responsibility to carry out their tasks as fitting representatives of Him." John Mackay, Focus on the Bible, Zechariah, E-4 Group, Vol. 2. 2003]
My Servant, in the Old Testament (Isa. 42:1, 49:3,5, 50:10, 52:13, 53:11, Eze. 34:23,24) is associated with someone to come. It designates the One who in a pre-eminent way serves God perfectly and fulfills God's will in the work of redemption. The one who obeys in perfect righteousness is His Servant. He is called God's Servant because He is laboring in His work, obedient to His will and entirely devoted to His honor and glory.
Christ is the perfect fulfillment of God's Servant, the Messiah. His service gives this symbol even wider implications for the priests of the New Covenant. For those New Testament priests who are obedient to God by walking in His ways and performing His ministries, not only have Christ as our representative before the Father, but we become Christ's representatives, His servants, to the world. Foreshadowings of what we will one day be in glory.
This Servant is also entitled the Branch, literally, 'sprout.' The Branch is the basic symbol (Isa. 11:1f) for the One who comes from or branches out of the House of David (2 Sam. 23:5). This symbol represents the Messiah's first advent. God sent His seed to the earth and He sprouted forth from woman in the flesh and truly was the planting of the Lord. We look forward to the day when we will see Him return. Mature as a mighty tree that we might all gather in the branches of His eternal kingdom (Isa. 4:2, Jer. 23:5, 33:15).
Praise the Lord that we have been grafted into the ultimate Servant, the Branch (Rom. 11:17ff) so that we might abide in Him (Jn. 15).
Verse 9 again prophecies the glories of the coming Messiah. For behold, the stone I set before Joshua, on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day .
The Stone is also a common reference to the Messiah (Isa. 28:16; Ps. 118:22;1 Pet. 2:6). This stone is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the Stone because we are all founded on Him. He is the dependable Rock of the trusting heart. He alone is our Sure Foundation, our Chief Cornerstone. He is the unshakable foundation of the spiritual temple into which believers are built up as living stones and who throughout eternity shall be the habitation of the Spirit of God.
Yet, He is also the stone that the earthly builders rejected (1 Pet. 2:9). But some day this stumbling stone and rock of offense (Romans 9:32, 1 Cor. 1:23) in His first coming will return as the stone that crushes all the kingdoms of the world (Dan. 2:34,35) for whoever will cast themselves upon this stone will be broken and God will remold their life but whoever this stone shall fall upon shall be broken beyond repair. Read Matthew 21:44.
The seven eyes (‘seven' is the number of completeness and perfection) on the one stone are probably represent the seven fold Spirit of God (Rev. 5:6, 3:1; Isa. 11:2) which indwells the Chief Cornerstone. These seven eyes of the LORD ("which range throughout the earth," Zech. 4:10) represent the perfection of providence's divine operations expressing the diverse wisdom and knowledge of this living, all-seeing and all-knowing Stone (Eze. 1:18, 10:12). The eyes of the LORD (2 Chr. 16:9) are looking with great and special interest on this one, unique stone.
Engrave the Engraving is difficult to understand. Engraving is a work that requires careful time-consuming effort but achieves permanent, enduring results that are characterized by fine beauty and symmetry. This engraving is performed by God (I will engrave) Himself. Christ was God's workmanship. The earthly-fleshly builders may reject His stone but God Himself will put beauty and honor upon Him. It was in redemption that God's hand of engraving did its greatest work on His stone.
The engraving that our Lord received was the thorn scared brow, the nail prints in His hands and in His feet and the spear wound in His side. These are divine engravings cut deep in His precious servant-stone which brings out its beauty and splendor.
The results of this engraving will One Day be revealed. One day a great and final salvation will come upon the land, because of that righteous Servant, the Branch. For He poured out His life in death as an atonement for sin so that we could be given righteousness in God's eyes. On that day when He returns He will bring our tangible robes of righteousness with Him.
It was accomplished on the Cross, and will be done in the world upon His return. Because of that day on Calvary, another day will come when faith becomes sight and He shall finish transgressions and make an end of sin.
Verse 10 continues to describe the time when the LORD's salvation is revealed. ‘In that day' declares the LORD of Hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.'
In that day meaning the day when the millennial kingdom is established. (1 Kings 4:25 indicates that "dwelling under vines and fig trees" was a picture of happy prosperity and contentment). This picturesque scene (of partaking of symbolic blessings or fruit) conveys the idea that on that day, after Jesus has returned and removed iniquity from the land, that outward prosperity will run parallel with inner spiritual blessings. When sin and its guilt are removed, joy and fellowship will occur. So the picture is painted of peace, gladness, and fulfillment after that time when sin is removed and free access to God who is in their midst is physically granted. Then paradise lost in Eden will be paradise regained in the Promised Land for a thousand years on earth.
CONCLUSION
Note the "ifs" in verse 7 again my dear brethren, and lay heart to the fact that while pardon and justification are free gifts of God to all that are of the faith having their source wholly in His infinite grace quite apart from works or merit on the part of man, the honor and privileges of acceptable service and future reward are conditioned on our obedience and faithfulness. Therefore, seek by His grace and the power of His Spirit to walk in His ways and to perform His service (2 Cor. 5:10).
If you are walking in God's way and perform God's ministry and it has been confined to you by God putting you to work in His vineyard through ministry and worship and you have knowledge that when you pray you have entered into the throne room of heaven, then you today should invite your neighbor to partake of the fruit of the vine which we share in anticipation of His return and you will have spiritual fruit to share because you are the planting of the Lord who bears fruit in its season.
Wonderful and precious is the marvelous grace of God that transforms an excretement spattered individual, utterly polluted and taken hold of by satan into a priest who can partake of the fruit of the symbolic Branch and bear the fruit which only His people can bear.
Are you inviting your neighbor to partake of these blessings with you? If you don't now, you will not be able to then. God's people are to be the instruments in God's hand to spread abroad the blessings of their Messiah's gospel throughout their neighborhood.
THE LIVING STONE
On Christ salvation rest secure:
The Rock of Ages must endure;
Nor can that faith be overthrown
Which rests upon the Living Stone.
No other hope shall intervene;
To Him we look, on Him we lean;
Other foundations we disown
And build on Christ, the Living Stone.
In Him it is ordained to raise
A temple to Jehovah's praise;
Composed of all the saints who own
No Savior but the Living Stone.
View the vast building, see it rise;
The work how great! the plan how wise!
Oh, wondrous fabric! power unknown!
That raises its work on the Living Stone.
Samuel Medley
