The Burning Stick

"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him, the LORD said to Satan, The LORD rebuke you, Satan!  The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!  Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"  Zech. 3:1-2

One of the most compelling and powerful images from the pages of the Scriptures is this one.  These verses are about the grace and forgiveness of Yahweh.  For all have sinned and come short of the grace of God, and we need His grace (divine favor) in our lives on a moment to moment basis.  In this scene the Satan or the Accuser is there in a judicial setting seeking to impeach Joshua the high priest.

Please carefully note the language of the text.  The Accuser is adroit and maddeningly clever in his courtroom manner.  He stands at the right side of the high priest in order to heighten his fiendish and his malevolent mandate.

Part of the Accuser's plan is to skew perception of who we are as the community of God.  We help the Accuser to gather against us when we fail to 'test all things' and believe that we can venture into any situation without the vital preparation of prayer and meditation on the Word of God.

In this scene the high priest, the man of God is on trial.  We read in the Hebrew that the Satan (Accuser) stood on Joshua's right hand to satan (oppose) him.  The Accuser opposes the people of God in the active voice. He pursues them relentlessly and without provocation on their part.  He stands against them because they are the people of God.  No one is excluded from his dogged pursuit.  He is vehemently hostile to every child of God.  (The Accuser tried to destroy the new born king (Iesous) through the military power of Herod the Great).

This nefarious scene is further intensified by the depiction of the high priest standing in court clothed in the garments of his office smeared in excrement.  This is a symbol of obvious uncleanness.  Of course the high priest is guilty-just look at him!

This court is mere formality.  Is is obvious that Joshua will be found guilty of criminal acts of sinning before God with a high hand.  His negligence is without question, and that is why he is the burning stick.

Sinful conduct must be judged, but by whom?  The Accuser stands at Joshua's side to exacerbate his condition as the burning stick.  There is no mercy for Joshua with the Accuser.  As far as the Accuser is concerned Joshua may just as well be standing in the midst of an open grave.  The Accuser was there to present evidence to bury Joshua.  Joshua's garments are a symbol of defilement and guilt.

An unexpected event takes place in the court, however, the Accuser, with his mountain of evidence and adroit and cunning trickery is stopped in his mission to destroy Joshua.  The Judge of all the earth stops the Accuser.  That is, he rebukes him, and summarily sets aside the view point of hellish intrigue that seeks to supplant Joshua.

You and I are, likewise, constantly exposed to the wrath of the Accuser who wants to see us removed from our life before God.  You must know that the Accuser will whisper condemnation into your heart.  He will use his fiendish and twisted thoughts to unravel your faith in the Iesous.  He will set you and me up in situations (temptations) that will seek to collapse our resolve to go from faith to faith.  We may even find ourselves embroiled in public or secret sin, but we know that there are no secret sins.  There is only the delusional behavior that believes that sin can be kept secret.

Secret sins enable the enemy to build a case against you and me.  Don't play with secret sins beloved.  They become diseases in the soul that eventually become obvious in the body and behavior.

The filth garments are removed form Joshua and a clean turban is placed upon his head. The defeat envisioned for Joshua by the Accuser will not come to pass.  God took away the sin of Joshua, and thereby the Accuser had no case!

Beloved, come to the Iesous and receive the  forgiveness and restoration that only he can provide.  Will you come, today?  Will you confess your need of his saving grace.

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