Like A Burning Stick Snatched from the Fire!

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3 Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.” 3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”

Jeshua, or Josiah, was the high priest at the time of Haggai's prophecy (1:1). In the vision Zechariah saw an angel of the Lord, who spoke for the Lord when Satan accused Joshua. The term Satan means "adversary" or "accuser". Satan hated the whole scene, he hates it when we come into the presence of the Lord (Guzik). 

This is why when you go to pray, read the bible, or go to church there are so many distractions. Satan knows that as you get built up in God's Word and the power of the Spirit, he has little chance to harass you. But notice it is the Lord who rebukes Satan for his accusations. The Lord intercedes for Joshua. There was a good chance Satan was pointing out Joshua's dirty clothes and accusing him for his own sinfulness.

The word used for "filthy clothes" here was a graphic word in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew word translated filthy is “the strongest expression in the Hebrew language for filth of the most vile and loathsome character” (Feinberg, cited in Barker).

Then, the Lord says that Joshua was like a burning stick snatched from the fire. The implication was that though Joshua was a sinner like all of us, God saved him out of the fire just like a piece of wood is taken out of the fire does not get completely consumed. Paul says something similar in 1  Corinthians 3 as we come before the judgment seat of Christ and our works are tested for their purity. 

"If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

Similarly today there are people who have been saved but they never do anything with their lives for the Lord. At the judgment day they will be judged for having done nothing with God has given them, but they will be saved only as one who has been rescued from the fires of hell. 

Importantly though Joshua had dirty clothes and he and the angel of the Lord knew it, the angel told the other angels around him to take off his dirty clothes and give him fine new clothes. This was a symbol of the cleansing of his sins. In Revelation 3:4 John uses this kind of language to talk about a few Christians in Sardis who had not soiled their clothes. 

"But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4 

Bottom line: As Christians we have all stained our clothes with the stain of sin. Isaiah said this,

"For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." Isaiah 64:6

Jesus has clothed us in his clothes of righteousness. We have taken off our filthy rags and been given clean clothes because of what Jesus did on the cross. 

So what's the point? If you have been given clean clothes why would you go back into the mud again? Why would you go back to filthy living? Thanks be to God for what we could not do for ourselves (clean ourselves up), Jesus did for us by giving us His righteousness as a gift. Therefore when we stand before God someday, He will see only our clean clothes not our filthy rags! 



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