Joshua the Priest
Zechariah iii.
We learn from the Book of Ezra (ii. 36-39) that among the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel from Babylon, were Joshua or Jeshua, and 4,289 priests. But they were in a sorry plight, their character is described by the prophet Malachi; and it was in sad contrast, as he suggests, to the original type of the priesthood represented in Phinehas.
They despised God’s name. Without scruple they offered on his altar the lame, the blind, and the sick. They said that the table of the Lord was polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, contemptible. They did not hesitate to affirm that the routine of Levitical service was a weariness; and they snuffed at it, and brought that which was taken by violence, or the lame and the sick. They had turned aside out of the way themselves, and had caused many to stumble in the law. From these disgraceful characteristics the prophet turned to paint, with a few bold touches, the noble priest whose burning zeal for the honor of God averted his wrath from the people, and secured for himself and his seed after him the covenant of an everlasting priesthood (Num. xxy.
10-13). 40 “My covenant was with him,” the Spirit of God declares, “of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear: and he feared Me, and stood in awe of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and did turn many away from iniquity” (Mal. 11. 5; OF
As a judgment on the priesthood, the whole body had fallen under great reproach: “Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways” (Mal. ii. 9).
There is every reason to believe, also, that the regulations for the maintenance of the priesthood by the people had fallen into disuse; so that they had neither robes, nor vessels, nor the proper equipment required for the stately ceremonial of the House of God. Under such conditions there was great propriety in 5 Zechariah’s vision of Joshua, the high priest, and his fellows that sat before him: ‘‘And He showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord.... Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the Angel.” There was no mitre on his head, no insignia of exalted office on his person; whilst his disheveled robes told the sad story of neglect. The description at least reflected the general conception entertained of the priesthood; and the question may even have been raised as to whether there was any use in rebuilding the temple while the officiating ministers were so unworthy of their high calling.
There have been times in the past when the leaders of various branches of the professing Church might have been described in similar terms; when the services of God’s House have been performed in a slovenly and perfunctory manner; when the religious instincts of the people have been subordinated to the sport, pleasure and material advantages, of their religious teachers; when services have been without decorum, prayers without reverence, music without taste, buildings in such repair as would not for a moment be tolerated in our homes — everywhere dirt, cobwebs, neglect. Such a condition of things may still be described as the robing of the priestly caste in filthy garments.
But is there not another and deeper meaning in these words? Recall the Angel’s words: jae now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee; for they are men which are a sign.” May not this mean that they represent all who have been made priests unto God, called “to / offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by! Jesus Christ”? (1 Peter ii. 5). Are there not times in our lives when we feel unfit to render that sacred service? It may be at the hour of evening prayer, when the household is assembling; but we hesitate to. open the sacred Word, or engage in prayer, because something has gone amiss during the preceding hours, which has soiled the heart and ruffled the in- ward peace. It may be, as we take our wonted seat in the House of God on the morning of God’s day, and there flashes across us the memory of habits in- dulged, practices sanctioned, methods of making; money pursued, which are unworthy of our Chris- ‘tian profession; and again our hearts condemn us.. Or, as we ascend the pulpit, take our class, mingle, with our fellow-workers, we remember outbursts of» irritability, proud and vainglorious thoughts, words and deeds of senseless folly; and we feel the incongruity of standing up as God’s messengers between the living and the dead. At all such times we are, like Joshua, clothed in filthy garments.
The sense of shame becomes more acute when we stand before the Angel of the Lord. “He showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord.” In the world’s twilight much may pass muster which, in the light of that sweet, pure face, must be utterly condemned. Garments which served us well enough in the short, dark winter days are laid aside when spring arrives; they will not bear the searching scrutiny of the light. In the ordinary life of our homes, we are less particular of our attire than when, on some special occasion, we have to undergo the inspection of stranger eyes. Thus we are prone to compare ourselves with ourselves, or with others, and to argue that the habit of our soul is not specially defiled. Alas! we reason thus in the dark. But when the white light of the throne of God breaks on us, we cry with Job: “If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet wilt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.”
Joshua must have felt much as Isaiah did, when he
a was passing through the supreme crisis of his life. Prophet though he were, admired and beloved by the good, hated by the bad, when he beheld the Lord sitting on his high and exalted throne, the cry of soul-anguish was extorted from him: “Woe is me, for I
am undone.” He was probably the last man in Israel
who would have been deemed capable of such a confession; yet he was the first to make it. The greatest saints are they who, like Augustine, write confessions. The larger the sphere of light, the wider the circumference of darkness. The more we know of God, the more we loathe ourselves and repent. What is to be done under such circumstances?
Renounce our priesthood? Disclaim its God-given
functions? No: remain standing before the Angel. He knows all — we need not shrink from his searching eyes — but He loves infinitely. He has power to make our iniquity pass from us, and clothe us with
change of raiment — that white linen which is the
righteousness of saints.
It is at such moments, however, that our great adversary puts forth his worst insinuations. “Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.” Since he was cast out of his first estate, he has been the antagonist of God, the hater of good, and the accuser of the brethren. He discovers the weak spots in character, and thrusts at them; the secret defects of the saints, and proclaims them upon the housetops; the least symptom of disloyalty, inconstancy, and mixture of motive, and flaunts it before God’s angels. He is keen as steel, and cruel as hell,
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Ah, it is awful to think with what implacability he rages against us!
When we pray, he is quick to detect the wandering thought, the mechanical repetition of well-worn phrases, the flagging fervor. With a sneer, he says, “Dost thou hear that? Is not this the voice of one whom Thou hast redeemed?”
When we work for God, he is keen to notice our desire to dazzle our fellows, to secure name and fame, to use the cross as a ladder for our own exaltation instead of our Master’s. “Is this,” he hisses, “the kind of service which thy chosen servants offer heees *
When we approach the Lord’s table, and our hearts are cold in the very presence of that mystery of Love, he claps his hands in glee, and takes care to taunt the Bridegroom with the irresponsiveness and coolness of the Bride. And Christ suffers much. He had noticed all this; but who cares to be accosted with that which is already gnawing at your heart?
And when, like Job, we do bear trial patiently and nobly, the great adversary suggests that we do it from a selfish motive — “Doth Job serve God for naught?”
Satan cannot reach the Son of God now, save through the members of his Body; but he misses no opportunity of thrusting at Him, as he accuses them.
Let us now turn to notice the intervention and answer of the Angel of the Covenant. It 1s spontaneous and unsought. Before Joshua had time to say, “Shelter me,” his faithful Friend and Advocate had cast around him the assurance of His Protection, and had silenced the adversary. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. As the Aaronic Priest, He died; but, as the Melchizedek Priest, He ever lives to make intercession on our behalf; and as the torpedoes of the enemy are launched against us, He catches them in. the net of his Intercession, and makes them powerless to hurt. Before we call, He answers. Before we realize the strong and cunning charges accumulated against us, He has rebutted them. In the same breath in which the Master told Peter that Satan had sought to sift him as wheat, He told him that He had ‘) prayed for him.
It 1s founded on electing grace. For He says: “The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee.” Before ever He chose her, He must have foreseen all that she would become, her backslidings and rebellions, her filthy garments, her wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; but, notwithstanding all, He set His heart upon her. Surely, then, He would not abandon her because of anything that her adversary might rake up to her discredit. He knew the worst about her before He chose her as His own; nothing could happen that had not been well considered in the white light of eternity. Satan could allege nothing which the Advocate had not weighed in the balances of his Divine prescience. He had realized the very worst before making his final choice. These are foundation thoughts, on which we rest
(the structure of our hopes. When we are most agonized at the memory of recent failure, most distressed as we weigh and consider the cruelty and meanness of our selfish actions, most ashamed for: the vileness and inveteracy of our impure and unholy: passions, we can only turn to those passages which assure us that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that he had predestinated those whom he foreknew. For God to reject |. us now would be a reflection on His ominpotence. Yes, thou great adversary, thou canst not tell our Lord worse things about us than He knows; and ) notwithstanding all, He loves, and will love. Pe Moreover, it has already done too much to go back. The point of the metaphor which follows is very reassuring. “Is not this a brand plucked out of oy the fire?” You have been writing all the morning at your desk, answering letters, assorting papers and manuscripts, destroying much that there was no need to keep. After two or three hours of work, there is a heap of papers which you wish to destroy, and you place them in your stove or fireplace, the fire kindles on them, and they begin to blaze. Suddenly, to your dismay, you remember that there was a cheque or: note among them, or a letter with an address, or a paper which has cost you hours of work. As quick as thought you rush to the kindling flames, and snatch away the paper, and attempt to stay the gnawing edge of flame. But what an appearance the paper suggests! It is yellow with smoke, charred and brittle round the edges, scorched and hot, here and there are gaps — it is a brand plucked out of the fire. Would you have snatched it out if you had not valued it? And, after you have taken such pains to rescue it, is it likely that you will thrust it back to destruction? And would Jehovah have snatched Israel out of Babylon, and expended so much time and care over her, if at the end He meant to destroy her? The fact of his having done so much, not only proved his love, but implied its continuance.
What depths of consolation are here! As we look back on our lives, we become aware of the narrowness of our escape from dangers which overwhelmed others. We have been involved in companionships and practices which have ruined others irretrievably; but somehow, though we are charred and blackened, we have escaped the ultimate results. We have been plucked out of the burning. What can we infer from so gracious an interposition, except that we have been preserved for some high and useful purpose; and that God will yet make use of us for His kingdom and glory, in spite of all that Satan may say or do on the other side — and this because He sees, what Satan cannot see, the bitterness of our repentance, the poignancy of our grief, and the sincere desire of our hearts yet to serve Him, before we go hence.
Manoah’s wife was perfectly justified in meeting the fears of her timorous husband by saying, “If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have told us such things as these.’ All the past is an argument for faith. God resembles an investor who has sunk so much in an undertaking that, though it has hitherto proved unprofitable, he dare not abandon it; he is bound to go on until the scale turns, and it begins to pay — then he will be abundantly recouped. Has God snatched you from destruction, from the jaws of the lion, and the mouth of hell? It is a proof that He will perfect what concerneth you. Let Satan try his worst, God cannot deny Himself. He does not say, Yea, yea; nay, nay. ‘Whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us!”