Zechariah 3:7

Zechariah A VISION OF JUDGEMENT AND CLEANSING THE RIGHT OF ENTRYZechariah 3:7 . A WORD or two of explanation will probably be necessary in order to see the full meaning of this great promise. The Prophet has just been describing a vision of judgment which he saw, in which the high priest, as representative of the nation, stood before the Angel of the Lord as an unclean person. He is cleansed and clothed, his foul raiment stripped off him, and a fair priestly garment, with ‘Holiness to the Lord’ written on the front of it, put upon him. And then follow a series of promises, of which the climax is the one that I have read. ‘I will give thee a place of access,’ says the Revised Version, instead of ‘places to walk’; ‘I will give thee a place of access among those that stand by’; the attendant angels are dimly seen surrounding their Lord. And so the promise of my text, in highly figurative fashion, is that of free and unrestrained approach to God, of a life that is like that of the angels that stand before His Face. So, then, the words suggest to us, first, what a Christian life may be. There are two images blended together in the great words of my text; the one is that of a king’s court, the other is that of a temple. With regard to the former it is a privilege given to the highest nobles of a kingdom-or it was so in old days-to have the right of entrée , at all moments and in all circumstances, to the monarch.

With regard to the latter, the prerogative of the high priest, who was the recipient of this promise, as to access to the Temple, was a very restricted one. Once a year, with the blood that prevented his annihilation by the brightness of the Presence into which he ventured, he passed within the veil, and stood before that mysterious Light that coruscated in the darkness of the Holy of Holies. But this High Priest is promised an access on all days and at all times; and that He may stand there, beside and like the seraphim, who with one pair of wings veiled their faces in token of the incapacity of the creature to behold the Creator; ‘with twain veiled their feet’ in token of the unworthiness of creatural activities to be set before Him, ‘and with twain did fly’ in token of their willingness to serve Him with all their energies. This Priest passes within the veil when He will. Or, to put away the two metaphors, and to come to the reality far greater than either of them, we can, whensoever we please, pass into the presence before which the splendours of an earthly monarch’s court shrink into vulgarity, and attain to a real reception of the light that irradiates the true Holy Place, before which that which shone in the earthly shrine dwindles and darkens into a shadow.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also {h} judge my house, and shalt also keep my {i} courts, and I will give thee places to walk among {k} these that stand by. (h) That is, have rule and government in my Church, as your predecessors have had. (i) By which he means to have the whole charge and ministry of the Church. (k) That is, the angels, who represented the whole number of the faithful: signifying that all the godly would willingly receive him.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; the Father, whose will Christ reveals to us. If thou Joshua, wilt walk in my ways; obey the precepts and holy commands of the law. Wilt keep my charge; the special charge and office of the high priest. Thou shalt also judge my house: be chief and ruler in the temple, and in the things that pertain to the worship of God there. And shalt also keep my courts; not as a door-keeper or servant, but as the chief, on whom others may wait and give attendance; and at last shalt have place among glorious angels, Hebrews 12:22 . Thus saith the Lord of hosts; the Father, whose will Christ reveals to us. If thou Joshua, wilt walk in my ways; obey the precepts and holy commands of the law. Wilt keep my charge; the special charge and office of the high priest. Thou shalt also judge my house: be chief and ruler in the temple, and in the things that pertain to the worship of God there. And shalt also keep my courts; not as a door-keeper or servant, but as the chief, on whom others may wait and give attendance; and at last shalt have place among glorious angels, Hebrews 12:22 .

7 . judge my house ] This may mean “my people,” Numbers 12:7 ; Hosea 8:1 ; the Jewish Church being spoken of, like the Christian, as the house of God, 1 Timothy 3:15 . “Judgment, in the place of God, was part of the High Priest’s office.” (Pusey.) See Deuteronomy 17:8-13 . But it may be used in its more obvious and restricted sense (comp. “my courts,” in the parallel clause) of the Temple with its priests and ministers. places to walk ] a place of access , R. V. text; meaning presumably of access to God. Thou shalt be admitted to the immediate presence and throne of God. There is no need, however, to depart from the rendering of A. V. and R. V. margin. Comp. Ezekiel 42:4 for the word, and see next note. among these that stand by ] i.e. among the angels, who were still standing round the Angel of Jehovah, in attendance upon Him as He spoke, Zechariah 3:4 . The courts and chambers of the material house, so the promise runs, shall be places where angels ever come and go. The obedient priest shall realise in his ministry their presence and their fellowship. The material and the sensible shall fade away as it were from his sight, lost in the higher glory of the spiritual and the heavenly. The promise directly refers to the ministry of Joshua and his fellows and successors on earth ; even if it includes a pledge of a higher ministry after death: “In the resurrection of the dead I will raise thee to life, and give thee feet walking among these Seraphim.” Targum.

To one priest, we know, who walked in the ways and kept the charge of the Lord ( Luke 1:6 ), the promise was literally fulfilled by the appearance of an angel to him in the Temple ( Luke 3:11 ); and the readiness with which the people surmised what had happened ( Luke 3:22 ) might seem to shew that his was not an altogether singular and unheard of experience.