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And He - God, (for the office of the attendant angel was to explain, not to show the visions) "showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of the Lord;" probably to be judged by him ; as in the New Testament, "to stand before the Son of Man;" for although "standing before," whether in relation to man or God, , expresses attendance upon, yet here it appears only as a condition, contemporaneous with that of Satan's, to accuse him. Although, moreover, the Angel speaks with authority, yet God's Presence in him is not spoken of so distinctly, that the high priest would be exhibited as standing before him, as in his office before God.

And Satan - Etymologically, the enemy, as, in the New Testament, "your adversary the devil" 1 Peter 5:8, etymologically, the accuser. It is a proper name of the Evil one, yet its original meaning, "the enemy, was not lost. Here, as in Job, his malice is shown in accusation; "the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God, day and night" Revelation 12:10. In Job JObadiah 1:8-11; Job 2:3-5, the accusations were calumnious; here, doubtless, true. For he accused Job of what would have been plain apostacy Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Joshua and Zerubbabel had shared, or given way to, the remissness of the people, as to the rebuilding of the temple and the full restoration of the worship of God Ezra 3:1-13; 4. For this, Haggai had reproved the people, through them Haggai 1:1-11. Satan had then a real charge, on which to implead them. Since also the whole series of visions relates to the restoration from the captivity, the guilt, for which Satan impleads him with Jerusalem and Jerusalem in him, includes the whole guilt, which had rested upon them, so that for a time God had seemed to have cast "away His people" Romans 11:1. Satan "stands at his right hand," the place of a protector Psalm 16:8; Psalm 109:31; Psalm 121:5; Psalm 142:4, to show that he had none to save him, and that himself was victorious.

And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee - Jerome: "This they so explain, that the Father and the Son is Lord, as we read in the Psalm 110:1-7, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand." The Lord speaketh of another Lord; not that He, the Lord who speaketh, cannot rebuke, but that, from the unity of nature, when the Other rebuketh, He Himself who speaketh rebuketh. For "he who seeth the Son, seeth the Father also" John 14:9. It may be that God, by such sayings , also accustomed people, before Christ came, to believe in the Plurality of Persons in the One Godhead. The rebuke of God must be with power. "Thou hast rebuked the nations, Thou hast destroyed the ungodly" Psalm 9:5. "Thou hast rebuked the proud, accursed" Psalm 119:21. "They perish at the rebuke of Thy Countenance" Psalm 80:16. "At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep" Psalm 76:6. "God shall rebuke him, and he fleeth far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind" Isaiah 17:13. "He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up" Psalm 106:9. "The foundations of the world were discovered at Thy rebuke, O Lord" (Psalm 18:15, add Nahum 1:4). He "rebuked the seed" Malachi 2:3, and it perished; the devourer" Malachi 3:11, and it no longer devoured. The rebuke then of the blasted spirit involved a withering rejection of himself and his accusations, as when Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and he departed out of his victim Mark 1:25-26; Mark 9:25; Luke 4:35; Luke 9:42.

The Lord hath chosen Jerusalem - Joshua then is acquitted, not because the accusation of Satan was false, but out of the free love of God for His people and for Joshua in it and as its representative. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" Romans 8:33-34. The high priest, being "himself also compassed with infirmity, needed daily to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people's" Hebrews 5:2-3. As Isaiah said, on the sight of God, "I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" Isaiah 6:5, and, until cleansed by the typical coal, dared not offer himself for the prophetic office, so here Satan, in Joshua, aimed at the whole priestly office, and in it, at Israel's relation to God.

Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? - Cyril: "As if he should say, Israel confessedly has sinned, and is liable to these charges. Yet it has suffered no slight punishment; it has endured sufferings, and has scarce been snatched out of them, as a half-burned "brand out of the fire." For not yet had it shaken off the dust of the harms from the captivity; only just now and scarely had it escaped the flame of that most intolerable calamity. Cease then imputing sin to them, on whom God has had mercy."

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments - Such, it is expressed, was his habitual condition; he was one so clothed. The "filthy garment," as defilement generally, is, in Scripture, the symbol of sin. "We are all as the unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" Isaiah 64:6. "He that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy - when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion" Isaiah 4:3-4. "There is a generation, pure in its own eyes, and it is not washed from its filthiness" Proverbs 30:12. The same is expressed by different words, signifying pollution, defilement by sin; "Woe unto her that is filthy and polluted" Zephaniah 3:1; "The land was defiled with blood" Psalm 106:38; "they were defiled with their own works". It is symbolized also by the "divers washings" Hebrews 9:10 of the law, representing restored purity; and the use of the word by Psalmists and prophets; "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity" Psalm 51:4; "wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes" Isaiah 1:16; "O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness" Jeremiah 4:14. In later times at least, the accused were clothed in black , not in defiled garments.

And He spake to those who stood before Him - the ministering angels who had waited on the Angel of the Lord to do His bidding.

See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee - The pardoning words of the Lord to David by Nathan, "The Lord too hath put away thy sin" 2 Samuel 12:13. "And clothe thee with change of raiment, that is, such as were taken off and reserved for great occasions. As the filthy garments were not necessarily other than the high priest's vesture, symbolically defiled through the sins of the people, so neither need these be other than the priestly garments in their purity and freshness. The words imply the condition, not the nature of the vestment. (Cyril: "The high priest having been thus taken to represent the whole people, the filthy garments would be no unclear symbol of the wickedness of the people. For clad, as it were, with their sins, with the ill-effaceable spot of ungodliness, they abode in captivity, subject to retribution, paying the penalty of their unholy deeds. But when God had pity on them, He bade them be freed from their defilements, and in a manner re-clad with justifying grace. He indicates to them the end of their toils. For where remission of sin is, there follows of necessity freedom from the evils brought through sin." He adds that a clean mitre should be put upon his head, (Cyril), "that so we might understand that the glory of the priesthood ever, in a sort, concurs with the condition of the people. For the boast of the priesthood is the purity of those in their charge. As then when the people was in sin, the raiment of the priest also was in a manner defiled, so if it were again well-approved, pure and bright is the fashion of the priesthood, and free its access to God. So the inspired Paul having ministered to the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ, seeing them advancing in graces, writes, "By your boast, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus" 1 Corinthians 15:31, and, "my joy and crown" Philippians 4:1.

And I said, let them set a fair mitre on his head - This seems to have been purposely omitted, in order to leave something, and that, the completion of all, to be done at the intercession of the prophet. The glory and complement of the high priest's sacrificial attire was the mitre with the "holy crown upon it and the plate of prate gold, on which was graven, Holiness to the Lord" Exodus 28:36-38; Exodus 29:6; which was to "be upon" the high priest's "forehead, that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; which was always to be upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord." The renewed gift of this was reserved for the intercession of man co-working with God.

And the angel of the Lord standing by - Seeing that all was done aright, and, now that the acquittal was complete, standing to give the charge.

And the angel of the Lord protested - Solemnly (etymologically, called God to witness) as in, "Did I not make thee swear by the Lord and protested unto thee" 1 Kings 2:42, laying it as an obligation upon him. The charge is given to Joshua, and in him to all successive high priests, while Israel should continue to be God's people, as the condition of their acceptance.

If thou wilt walk in My ways and if thou wilt keep My charge - Both of these are expressions, dating from the Pentateuch, for holding on in the way of life, well-pleasing to God and keeping the charge given by God. It was the injunction of the dying David to Solomon, "Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes ..." 1 Kings 2:3.

Then shalt thou also judge My house - Judgment, in the place of God, was part of the high priest's office Deuteronomy 17:9-13; Deuteronomy 19:17; Malachi 2:7. Yet these judgments also were given in the house of God. The cause was directed to be brought to God, and He through His priests judged it. Both then may be comprehended in the world, the oversight of the people itself and the judgment of all causes brought to it. Jonathan: "Thou shalt judge those who minister in the house of My sanctuary."

And I will give thee place to walk among those who stand by - that is, among the ministering spirits, who were "standing before the Angel of the Lord" Zechariah 3:4. This can be fully only after death, when the saints shall be received among the several choirs of angels. Jonathan: "In the resurrection of the dead I will revive thee and give thee feet walking among these Seraphim." Even in this this since "our conversation is in heaven" Philippians 3:20, and the life of priests should be an angel-life, it may mean, that he should have free access to God, his soul in heaven, while his body was on this earth.

Thou and thy companions which sit before thee; yea men of marvelous signs are they - o It seems probable that the words addressed to Joshua begin here; else the "men of signs" would be the companions of Joshua, to the exclusion of Himself. His companions are probably ordinary priests, who sit as sharing his dignity as priest, but "before him," as inferiors. So Ezekiel says, "I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Israel were sitting before me" Ezekiel 8:1. They are "images of the things to come" Hebrews 10:1. Isaiah's two sons, with their prophetic names, "Haste-spoil speed-prey, and a-remnant shall-return," were with his own name, "salvation-of-the-Lord, signs and portents" Isaiah 8:18 of the future Israel. Isaiah, walking naked and barefoot, was "a sign and portent" Isaiah 20:3 against Egypt. God tells Ezekiel, that in the "removal of his stuff, as stuff for the captivity, I have set thee for a portent unto the house of Israel" Ezekiel 12:6.

I, he explains his act, "am your portent; like as I have done, so shall it be done unto you" Ezekiel 12:11. When forbidden to mourn on the death of his wife; "Ezekiel is unto you for a portent; according to all that he hath done, shall ye do; and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God" Ezekiel 24:24. Wherein then were Joshua and the other priests portents of what should be? One fact alone had stood out, the forgiveness of sins. Accusation and full forgiveness, out of God's free mercy, were the substance of the whole previous vision. It was the full reinstatement of the priesthood. The priesthood so restored was the portent of what was to come. To "offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them; Leviticus 9:7; "to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year" Leviticus 16:34, was the object of the existence of the priesthood. Typical only it could be, because they had "but the blood of bulls and goats to offer, which could," in themselves, "never take away sins" Hebrews 10:4. But in this their act they were portents of what was to come. He adds here, "For, behold, I will bring My Servant the Branch."

The Branch - Had now become, or Zechariah made it, a proper name. Isaiah had prophesied, "In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious for the escaped of Israel" Isaiah 4:2; and, in reference to the low estate of him who should come, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stump of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots" Isaiah 11:1; and Jeremiah, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, and this is the name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteouness" Jeremiah 23:5-6; and, "In those days and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land" Jeremiah 33:15. Of him Zechariah afterward spoke as, "a man whose name is the Branch" Zechariah 6:12.

Here Zechariah names him simply, as a proper name, "My servant, the, Branch," as Ezekiel prophesied of "My servant David." The title "My servant," which is Isaiah's chiefest title of the Messiah, occurs in connection with the same image of ills youth's lowly estate, and of His atoning Death. "He shall grow up before Him as a sucker, and as a root from a dry ground" Isaiah 53:2; "a scion shall grow out of his roots" Isaiah 11:1. . Lest then God should seem to have spoken untruly, in promising to the legal priesthood that it should ever have the oversight over His house, there was need to fore-announce the mystery of Christ, that the things of the law should cease and He Himself should judge His own house through the Scion from Himself, His Son.

Osorius: "Look ye to the Branch of the Lord; set Him as the example of life; in Him, as a most strong tower, place with most becoming faith all your hope of salvation and immortality. For He is not only a Branch, who shall fill you with the richness of divine fruit, but a stone also, to break all the essays of the enemy."