Removing Iniquitiy - Zechariah 3

1:03The Lord is going to show him another vision. This time, that interpreting angel that we've become familiar with, the one where he keeps saying the angel who is talking with me, he's not in this one. So that's something peculiar about this one. But the Lord is going to show him something very surprising. And before we start, I want you to try and put yourself there. And see if you can think about the situation they're in. They have returned to the land.

1:38And as an excited first generation to get back to the land, they start building the altar right away. They finish it so they can make sacrifices. They build the foundation of the temple, but then they never finish the temple. And that goes on for 15 years. Well, God gets their attention through the prophets, and they've begun to build the temple. And we saw this in Haggai that the Lord, you remember, has said that formerly you were unclean, and that's why your crops weren't growing and you've got no grain in your storehouses because you were disobeying me and I was disciplining you. Well, he says, pay attention, because from this day forward, that's not going to be the case. You have started again to build the temple. You started again to be obedient. And so from this day forward, that's not going to be the case. I'm going to bless you. Well, that was about two months ago. That message has come through the prophet Haggai. And so now you, maybe you're one of the leaders there. You've started to build, and maybe you're thinking to yourself, what about our leaders? We've just gotten these messages from the prophets, and you're thinking, what about Zerubbabel?

2:53Yes, it's all our fault as the people of Israel that we didn't build this temple fast. But how come Zerubbabel let us not build this temple? Or even worse, what about Joshua the high priest? What was he thinking? How could he have let us go all this time not sacrificing in the temple? How could we have gone all this time without the high priest spurring us on to action? Is the high priest, should we kick him out? Should we get a new high priest?

3:27Do you see how they could kind of think those thoughts? Maybe if you were Joshua, you remember he's also called Jeshua. He's one of the ones that came back with Zerebbabel, and Zerbbubal was the governor. Jeshua was the high priest. Maybe if you're Jeshua, you're thinking that. You're thinking, I can't believe I went 15 years and never finished the temple. Am I even worthy to be a high priest anymore? Should I be disqualified from this ministry? I think that certainly could have been something that, of course, we don't know, but could have gone on in his mind. And I think that that's the fear or that's the thought that God is, at least in part, addressing in our passage today. So let's look at Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1. Then he, it's probably God, earlier he said, Yahweh showed me. So then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing. Standing at his right hand to accuse him.

4:34So, this is the next vision. Zechariah is seeing this. God is showing him this vision. And in the vision, he sees the angel of the Lord. And before the angel of the Lord is standing Joshua the high priest, and at Joshua's right hand is Satan, who is accusing Joshua before the Lord. You get the scene. Maybe it could be that Joshua is standing as a high priest in the place where there's going to be the temple, standing trying to meet with the Lord, and Satan's accusing him, saying, You can't meet with him. You can't meet with him. He's sinful. Or maybe they're in this heavenly courtroom, and Joshua has taken a stand. Is that what you say? He's the defendant? Defendant. Yeah, he's the defendant, and Satan is accusing him in this kind of heavenly courtroom. But Joshua the high priest is there before the angel of the Lord, and Satan is standing at his right hand to accuse him.

5:39Verse 2. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Okay, that's our opening scene. That's the opening vision that we get. Joshua standing there. Satan has accused him and the Lord answers back. The angel of the Lord, the Lord, answers back, the Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? So we'll talk more about verse 2 in just a moment. But before we do, we need to talk about the angel of the Lord. Does anybody know anything about the angel of the Lord?

6:30He appears a lot. He appears a lot, right? We have several accounts where a figure named the angel of the Lord appears. Right. What's a theophany? Right. So when he appears, it's often assumed by the people that God has appeared. James, were you going to say something? He eats and drinks, right? Anything else, Eliou? He accepts worship like Yahweh Himself. Right. He accepts worship, so people will bow down and worship him, sacrifice to him, actually. Yes, Exa? So I've heard sometimes he's considered to be the pre-incarnate Christ. Right. So that's probably what a lot of your study Bibles just say here. If you have a study Bible, it'll put a note on the angel of the Lord, and it'll just say something like, that is the pre-incarnate Christ. So the question is, how do we get there?

7:35How do we make that connection? So let's flip to just a few places. First is Genesis 16. I don't know if you remember this one, but Sarai, Abraham's wife, Abram's wife, thank you. She is angry with Hagar because she had Hagar and her husband, Abram, get together and they had a baby named Ishmael. And Sarai eventually gets jealous, wants to kick her out. So look at Genesis 16, verse 6. But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your servant is in your power to do to her as you please. So she asks Abram about it, and Abram says, she's your servant. Go do what you want. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from my mistress, Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her. The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. So, listen to this, verse 13. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing. For she said, Truly, here I have seen him who looks after me. So that's kind of the first account that we have like that, where the angel of the Lord is interacting with somebody, and it's interpreted by that person that this is God. He has met with me. The angel of the Lord, the Lord, has met with me. Okay, turn over to Exodus 3. You know this story, but you might have not remembered that he's called the angel of the Lord here.

10:02Exodus 3, verse 1. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. Did you remember that that was called the angel of the Lord in the burning bush? The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, The bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned? When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not come near. Take the sandals off your feet, for the place on which you're standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. It's interesting, right? Turn over to Judges 6. This is the last one about the angel of the Lord.

11:09Judges chapter 6, starting in verse 11. You remember Gideon? He's the judge that God dwindled down his forces so that he could go and defeat the enemy. Judges chapter 6, verse 11. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abbezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not The Lord brings us up from Egypt. But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. Remember, in the book of Judges, there's these cycles where they are sinning greatly, and the Lord causes an enemy to come and discipline them, and they fall into the hand of their enemy, and they're oppressed. And finally, they'll cry out to the Lord, and the Lord will send them a mighty conqueror, a judge, to come and deliver his people, and they'll deliver the people, and they'll rejoice. But before you know it, they get back into sin and they sin again. And then God sends another nation to discipline them. And they do this over and over. And God keeps delivering them. Well, right now they're being oppressed. And Gideon says, How can you say the Lord is with us when things are like this, when we're oppressed? Verse 14. And the Lord turned to him.

12:53And who is talking to him? The angel of the Lord. Now it says, the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you? And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least of my father's house. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

13:18Look down at verse 19. Oh, wait, actually, let's keep reading for more. Verse 17. And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please. Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you. And he said, I will stay till you return. So this is still the same angel of the Lord he is talking to. Verse 19, so Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an epha of flour. The meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot, and he brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff, which was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you. Do not fear. You shall not die. And Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord is peace. To this day, it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abbezrites. So you can see the way that when the angel of the Lord is interacting with somebody, they keep, the biblical authors keep also calling him the Lord, Yahweh, the personal name of God. So the angel of the Lord, just to summarize, the angel of the Lord is clearly divine. He is clearly acting as a representative of the Lord. but also the Lord himself when people talk to him. That's what's clear in Scripture.

15:08What most theologians and most Christians have done is they've taken that fact and they've kind of put two and two together and said, that means it's probably Christ, right? Because if God is showing up as an angel or as a man to men in a body, It seems most likely that it would be the person of the Trinity that we know takes a body. Does that make sense? So that's actually kind of one, you know, there's no verse of Scripture that's going to say where Jesus says, I am the angel of the Lord. There's no verse of scripture that says Jesus is the angel of the Lord. So it is clear from scripture that the angel of the Lord is divine, but it doesn't go as far as to say Jesus is the angel of the Lord, but it's a pretty good assumption, right? To say if this is a divine figure, it's probably going to be Christ, the one who does show up as a man and appear to his people. Okay? So back to Zechariah 3. That's who we see in this heavenly courtroom. We're going to notice again his divinity later in this passage, but for now, verse 1, he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. What does that sound like? Satan standing there to accuse Job, right?

16:37In Job, we hear the same kind of situation. It's actually God who brings up Job first. I don't know if you remember, but it's in Job 1, and Satan has showed up to God, and God asks him where he's going, and he says, I've been walking around the earth. And God says, Have you considered my servant Job? Then Satan accuses him. He says, Basically, does he love you? Does he honor you for no reason? Haven't you, this is a paraphrase, haven't you basically given him money and children and all these things? Let me take away all those things. He won't honor you anymore. That's the accusation. And he's called the same thing, Satan, the accuser, is what that means, or the adversary.

17:22So Joshua is standing there, Satan at his side. Satan's accusing him before the angel of the Lord. Certainly, he's a sinful man. How does he deserve to be the high priest? Verse 2: And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now, how do those two things connect? Anybody have a good answer for them? How does the fact that God has chosen Jerusalem, how does that connect with the fact that Satan shouldn't accuse Joshua? The high priest.

18:08Yeah. Yeah, and he is, so Joshua is the high priest for the people of Israel in Jerusalem. Yeah, James? Right. Or that association with him. Yeah. And so he, so Satan accuses Joshua, and Joshua is the one that's acting as the high priest over this community. Well, if Joshua can't come to the Lord and make sacrifices, if no one is qualified to make the sacrifices on the day of atonement, well, then Jerusalem can't be cleaned. The people of Israel have no high priest. If the only high priest has been disqualified, then Jerusalem is in deep trouble. And so the Lord reminds Satan that he is the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem. And Israel is his people, and he's going to make it so they have a high priest. Okay? So Satan accuses them and says, or we don't know what he says, but the Lord says, the Lord rebuke you. Satan is getting a rebuke. Rebuke from the Lord that he should not be accusing the high priest. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? That's probably still about Jerusalem.

19:42We have that phrase used in the Old Testament several times: that Israel is this stick that's plucked from the fire. What does that make you think of? It's like the last moment, right? God snagged him and saved him. Because if there's a stick in the fire, it's going to burn up, right? Unless someone grabs it out of there and gets it out, okay? And so God uses that of Israel in the Exodus, right? That he snatched them out of there before it was too late. And God's going to use it for the exile. God brought him back out of the exile before it's too late. So he snatched him out. He pulled him out from the fire. Okay, verse 3. Now here's why God can defend Joshua. Here's why God can allow Joshua to continue to be the high priest. Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.

20:42That word filthy is worse than filthy. Think sewage or excrement. It is filthy filth. Okay? That's what Joshua is covered in. His garments are covered in filth. So now you're thinking, maybe Satan has a point, right? How can he be the high priest? Look at his clothes. We know the priests had to have these clean clothes. If they did get anything filthy on them, they had to wash the clothes. They had to take a bath themselves and put on the clean vestments or the garments of the priest. Okay, so Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy, filthy garments. Verse 4. And the angel, probably still the angel of the Lord, and the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him.

21:40And to him, he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. So Joshua is filthy. He has sinned, but rather than being disqualified as a high priest forever, he is standing before the Lord in this vision. And the Lord says, I'm going to take away his filthy garments. I'm going to put clean garments on it. Do you see the symbolism there of those garments? He's saying, yes, Joshua has sinned, but I still make him innocent. I forgive him. I clean his garments, and he could still be the high priest.

22:27A lot of interpreters, you'll notice. Maybe if you're reading your study notes while I'm talking right now, you'll notice that probably most interpreters in our study Bibles will take this to be about Israel itself, that Joshua is standing in kind of as a symbol for Israel. And in a way, you know, I think that's true. He is the high priest, and if the priest is filthy, then the people can't be cleansed from their sin. But I think he's talking about Joshua himself. I think they're struggling in this generation with the idea of their temple, that they need to build this temple. And I think God's sharing with them that not only is the temple going to be finished by the hands of Zerebbel, but that they're going to have a high priest who can serve in that temple that God has made holy. Okay? So the angel of the Lord says, remove the filthy garments. Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, so this is the first time Zechariah talks. It seems like he just gets excited or something. So he's just watching the scene, and then he says, let them put a clean turban on his head.

23:45So maybe he gets excited, or maybe he thinks they forgot or something, but the turban was part of the priestly garments. And so they're putting the clean ephod and robe and sash on the priest. And Zechariah shouts out, Let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. So you get this picture that while they're dressing the priest in all these clean garments, they're getting him ready for the service in the temple. The angel of the Lord is standing there, giving his approval. Does that all make sense? Any questions about that?

24:31Well, I want to turn to another place: Exodus chapter 28. This is where you should go if you're ever wondering what the priests should wear. Exodus 28 and 29. We hear all about the priests' clothes that they're supposed to wear, and then they actually obey and dress the priests in these clothes in Exodus 39. So you've got Exodus 28 and 29 talking about what they should wear. And in 39, they do wear it. Well, in Exodus 28, verse 1: Then bring near to you Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests, Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nahab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful who I filled with the spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. Okay, so.

25:30This is going to be a long chapter. We're just going to hit some highlights. Look down at verse 6. They shall make an ephod of gold. That's something that rests on the shoulders and maybe comes down to their waist that the breastplate could sit on top of. So it includes something on the shoulders. Look down at verse 8. And the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it in gold and purple and scarlet yarns in fine twined linen. You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel. Six of their names on one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, and the order of their birth. As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. Okay, remember that for later. That's going to become important. But they're going to put one on each shoulder. There's 12 tribes of Israel, two stones, so six names on each stone. They're going to go on this garment, so that whenever the priest goes and does his service before the Lord, he's bringing the names of all 12 tribes before the Lord to remember. Okay, and they are engraved. Remember those things. Okay, look down at verse 15. You shall make a breastplate of judgment in skilled work. In the style of the ephod, you shall make it. Verse 16, it shall be square and doubled. Verse 17, you shall set in it four rows of stones.

27:01And he lists all the stones. Verse 21, there shall be 12 stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. Okay, so we've got more engraved stones, and these are on the breastplate. You've got the rows of stones for the twelve tribes. Look down at verse 36. You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a signet, holy to the Lord. And you shall fasten it on the turban. There's the turban that the priest should wear. By a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban, and it shall be on Aaron's forehead. And Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall be regularly on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. So all the time he's supposed to wear this turban that says the plate on the front of it, holy to the Lord. When they put the garments, look at chapter 29, verse 5. Then you shall take the garments and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with skillfully woven band of the ephod. So they put on the clothes. Verse 6, and you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. You shall take anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Okay, turn back to Zechariah 13. So you see just a blitz through that text of they're making these different parts, the ephod, which is resting on them. With the two stones on their shoulder, the breastplate with the twelve stones on it, the turban with the plate on it, and then they put on the clothes, then they put on the turban, and then they get anointed by God for the service. Okay, so you can see why Zechariah knew that the turban had to come next, right? If he knows this passage, and they're dressing him, verse 5, and I said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. And they put the clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. Verse 6: And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, solemnly assured Joshua, Thus says the Lord of hosts: if you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right access, the right of access among those who are standing here. Right, so let's unpack that for a little bit.

29:36God has just approved of Joshua's high priestly ministry, so the people have this clean high priest that God has sanctified himself, taken away those filthy garments, put on the clean garments and the clean turban, and then solemnly assured Joshua: Thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways, that's moral. So if you're going to follow my laws, walk in my ways, be morally pure, and keep my charge, that is probably the priestly duties. So if you're morally good and you're accomplishing these priestly duties, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts. So my house would have been the temple. So he's saying you shall be the one in charge of the temple.

30:28You shall be the one who has charge of the courts surrounding the temple. You're the one who's in charge of the business dealings and things like that happening at the temple. And I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Now, where's here? It's in God's presence, right? And he doesn't say who those who are standing here are, but you can get the point of what he's saying, right? Not only will this high priest be given charge of the temple, but Joshua is going to have access to God, which is one of the functions of the high priest, that he is legitimately going to have the ear of God as he represents God to the people and the people to God. Okay?

31:20Verse 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before. You, for they are men who are a sign. Let's stop there for a second. So now there's men who are sitting before him. It doesn't say who these men are, but it seems that they would have been his fellow priests or something like that, that they're his co-workers, not in the vision, but in maybe back on land or something like that, on land. I don't know if you should say that, but back in the temple. We don't know. But he's saying, Here now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign.

32:12So this likely has something to do with priestly duties. Okay, so what are they a sign of? Behold, I will bring my servant the branch. Does that ring any bells? Where do we hear about the servant? Isaiah, right? Several passages. You can write down Isaiah 49 and Isaiah 52 and 53. We just studied that a few Sundays ago for the Lord's Supper. He says, I will bring my servant the branch. So, God is saying, there's someone who's going to come, and you know who this is. He's my servant, he's the branch.

33:12Now, remember, this is the year, just forgot, 420. Thank you, 520, 420 or 520. Just drawing a blank. That's okay. You get the point. But this is around that time. And Isaiah was written 200 years, at least, before this prophecy. Isaiah was around 720. Okay, and so the picture that you're getting, if God is telling this to Zechariah, is that God assumes you know who that is, or at least that the reader knows who that is, or Zechariah knows who this is. He's saying, Look, I'm going to bring my servant the branch. That's not a normal way to talk about somebody, right? And he's clearly identifying somebody.

34:11I think God is expecting them to know some earlier parts of the Old Testament. We have a lot of more places to flip, and maybe we better stop because we don't have any more time to flip there. But for now, while you are thinking about this and you want to study this at home, you just wrote down Isaiah 49 and 52 for the servant. For the branch, you can write down Isaiah 11, Jeremiah 23, and Jeremiah 33. And we'll look at all of those next time. So he's talking about this person who he's going to bring, and he said that the priests are a sign about this person. We're going to see that in future chapters. What this seems to be is God saying this branch, who, to give it all away, is going to be a descendant of David, who's going to rule on the throne. He's the king. That he's also going to have this combined priestly function, like Joshua.

35:23And so this one who is to come is going to be the king and the priest. Somehow. Right now, all of the kings are from the line of Judah, and all of the priests are from the line of Levi. But someday someone's coming who's going to be from the line of Judah, but also a priest. We'll have to look at that next time. Look at verse 9. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts. Now, Moses. Most of your Bibles, right away in the study notes, they'll say the stone, and they'll say, Okay, he's just talked about the servant, he's just talked about the branch, and now he's talking about the stone, which the young adults know if they were at our house on Thursday, is used by Peter. He quotes several passages about the stone and keeps saying, This is about Christ, the stone that came, that was rejected by men. And so, a lot of interpreters will say, See, it's the servant, it's the branch, and it's the stone. But let's read it again. And remember, we just read Exodus 28 and 29. What was on their garments?

36:42Stones, right? You can tell where I think, what I think this passage is talking about. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone. So he says the word single. Remember, it was two stones. So on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave. Remember, they engraved the stone, but this time God's going to engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts. And I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. So, just like there's one stone now, he's saying, I'm going to remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. And in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. We're going to talk. All about that next week. Okay, but I just wanted to make sure we saw that stone there after we had already read about the stone in the priestly garments. But I think that the biggest takeaway for us today is that God has graciously looked at his people, and they're in the land that God has brought them back to because God had not forgotten them. But they had forgotten to finish the temple. And so he graciously says, finish my temple.

38:05And then he graciously is showing them now. And when you do, you're going to have this high priest that's clean. I do accept Joshua still. He is still the high priest. Yes, he had filthy, filthy, filthy garments, but I had them removed. I put on these clean clothes. And God has not forgotten Israel. He's still providing for them to have a way to come to him and worship him. He hasn't forgotten his people. I think that's the main lesson of this passage that we studied tonight. I think one application for us, certainly, is that God is in the business of cleaning filthy filth, right?

38:48That is something he does, and the songs fit so well tonight that we sang about that several times. Our garments are stained, but he can wash them. We can. Couldn't, but he can. He is the God who does this. He did it for Joshua, and he does it for us, that we are filthy and stained, and he causes us to be dressed in robes of righteousness. Certainly makes you also think of the passage that we've been studying on Sunday mornings, right? That Christ is the one who was so willing to clean the filthy feet of the apostles and says that we should be willing to humbly serve one another in the same way. But God is in the business of loving us, like we talked about this morning. He is in the business of loving us by washing away our filth.

39:50And as Christians, when we've come to him, he has washed away our filth, and we can know that we can stand before him no matter what the accuser says. Pray with me. Father, as we study this text, we ran out of time and didn't get to see everything to see in this text yet. But I pray that what we have gotten to study, that you would help us understand it. That you'd help us see that you took care of your people. Yes, they were sinful. Yes, even the high priest. Priest needed to be cleansed by you, but you did it, and you showed love.

40:39You were patient with your people, and you fulfilled your promises to them. I pray, Lord, that we could remember the mercy that you've shown us, that even though the accuser might still accuse us as sinful people, that we have an advocate before your throne, and that we have been dressed in robes of righteousness, and that our filth has been removed, no matter how filthy we were. Thank you, Father, for this passage, and thank you for these truths. I pray that we wouldn't be able to get away from it, but I pray that these pictures that you gave Zechariah would run around as pictures in our own heads as we remember how kind you are and how great you are, how holy you are, but also how forgiving you are and merciful.

41:48Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.