“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.” (Zechariah 3:1)
Joshua was a Levite priest who was in that group that first returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. (Nehemiah 7:6-66) He along with the other priests and Zerubbabel built the altar for the sacrifices. (Ezra 3:2) He was chosen to be the first high priest for the reconstruction of the temple after the return from the Babylonian captivity.
In his vision, Zechariah sees Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is recognized as Jesus, the coming Messiah, the pre-incarnate Messiah, the pre-incarnate Word of God and judge of the whole world. There are several references that indicate the angel of the Lord is the physical appearance of God. He speaks as God, identifies Himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God. In Genesis 16:7-13, He says that He will multiply the descendants of Ishmael. Only God would speak like that. In chapter 21 of Genesis, again the angel of the Lord speaks to Hagar and tells her that He will make Ishmael a great nation. (Genesis 21:18) The angel of the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush. (Exodus 3:2) Then in verse 4, the angel of the Lord is identified as God. “And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.” (Exodus 3:4) After the children of Israel were in the promised land, the angel of the Lord speaks to the people telling them they have disobeyed His commandment and so the people of the land would always be a problem for them. (Judges 2:1-4) There are other Scriptures in the Old Testament in which the angel of the Lord is identified as the Lord. The angel of the Lord never again appears nor is mentioned after the incarnation of Jesus.
In Zechariah’s vision, Joshua is standing before the angel of the Lord demonstrating that he is ministering in his position as high priest, making atonement for the people’s sins. He is standing before the judge. Alongside is satan. He is revealed in Revelation as the accuser of the brethren. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10) Since the beginning of time, he has brought accusation against God’s people before the Lord. He accused Job of loving God only because he was so blessed of the Lord. (Job 1:6-11) In Zechariah’s vision, satan is “...standing at his right hand to resist him.” The word that was translated resist, in Hebrew is the word “satan” pronounced “saw-tan’” meaning attack or adversary and which is the word we use to identify our enemy.
This is a lot of information, but important to understand how gracious and merciful God is. Yes, we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. (Hebrews 9:11-15; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:9; a few of over 44 Scriptures about the atonement through the blood of Jesus) But yes, we do sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:8-9) Repentance and confession is important to renew our fellowship with the Lord, recognizing His work of redemption for us and to counter satan’s accusation. We were forgiven of all sin, past, present and future. We acknowledge our weakness, our defect, our failure and stand and rest in Jesus and His redemptive work. As our High Priest, Jesus intercedes for us. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1John 2:1-2) He stands ministering on our behalf. And alongside is satan accusing us of our failure. But the sacrifice of Jesus is more than enough. It is able to cleanse completely and renew us to fellowship with the Father. And as for the accuser, his end is near. (Revelation 12:10)
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