The 144,000 – Parts 12-14

Empowered by Two Witnesses

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l

- 4 -

 

 

God deliberately put the rebuilders of Jerusalem in a difficult and trying experience so that Israel’s motto would become,  “In God we trust.”

 

Psalms 33:12   “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.

 

Psalms 33:13   From heaven the Lord looks down and see all mankind;

 

Psalms 33:14   from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth.

 

Psalms 33:15   he forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.”

 

Israel required two leaders to function as a nation: a high priest and a king. [Notice the separation of church and state.] Because God was rebuilding the nation of Israel with a generation of exiles from Babylon that barely knewHim, God gave this young nation two important object lessons in a vision to Zechariah. God used the current high priest (whose name was Joshua) and the current king (whose name was Zerubbabel).  

 

As we examine these two visions, keep in mind that God is using personification. In other words, the high priest represents the religious condition of the nation and the king represents the political condition of the nation. God uses personification to reveal two profound truths to His people.

 

1.   Israel had been forgiven on the basis of His grace

2.   Israel could not humanly achieve the rebuilding

 

When these visions were given, the exiles had a bad attitude toward God. They knew their hopeless situation resulted from the rebellion of their forefathers against God’s will. But, their problem with God was that they were suffering because God’s wrath toward their forefathers. “Why should we suffer for something we didn’t do?”

 

After spending just two years in Judea, the exiles became convinced that they were still under God’s curse and they gave up. [Like many people today, ancient Israel believed in the prosperity doctrine – if God likes you, He prospers you, if God dislikes you, He hammers you into the ground.] Even though this ancient doctrine is popular today, it remains a false doctrine.

 

Then God gave Zechariah this vision:  

 

Zechariah 3:1   Then he [an angel] showed me Joshua the high priest [remember, Joshua represents the nation of Israel] standing before the angel of the Lord [Michael/Jesus], and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. [Wherever Satan goes, a spirit of accusation is ever present.]

 

Zechariah 3:2   The Lord [Michael/Jesus] said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!  The Lord, who has chosen [to restore His dwelling in] Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”[This nation has been rescued from destruction after paying the penalty. Satan, there is no basis for your complaint. Be silent.]

 

Zechariah 3:3   Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. [This was very strange because a high priest never wore dirty clothes. But, Israel’s spiritual condition before God was filthy, the nation had become detestable to God through dishonesty, violence and sexual immorality.] 

 

Zechariah 3:4   The angel [Michael/Jesus] said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

 

Zechariah 3:5   Then I [Michael/ Jesus] said,} Put on a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord [Michael/Jesus] stood by [approving this marvelous transition].

 

Zechariah 3:6   The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua:

 

Zechariah 3:7   “This is what the Lord Almighty [Michael/Jesus] says: “If you [Israel] will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these [beings] standing here.

 

[This promise is a renewal of the conditional covenant originally given to Israel in Exodus 19. A bilateral covenant is based on a mutual agreement: “If” you [Israel] will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then….]

 

Zechariah 3:8   “’Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come[symbolic of the nation that I will restore]: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch, [to the city of Jerusalem].”

 

Michael/Jesus calls Himself “the Branch” because the nation of Israel had been “cut down” like a mighty tree. Out of “a withered stump of a nation,” God would grow a new nation called Israel. This imagery was God’s way of assuring Israel that the original covenant given to the “family tree of Abraham” was still intact.

 

[Isaiah 11:1,2   A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord --]

 

Zechariah 3:8   “’Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come [the nation to come]: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch, [to this city because it WILL be rebuilt].

 

Zechariah 3:9   See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua [this stone will serve as a witness to my covenant]!There are seven eyes on that one stone, [My Spirit sees everything. He will see if you keep my covenant]and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ [this inscription identifies the covenant] says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

 

Zechariah 3:10   “’In that day each of you will invite his neighbor [from neighboring nations] to sit under his vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

 

 

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l

- 4 -

 

[TOP]