“And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan was standing at his right hand to resist him”
(Zechariah 3:1)
God is a slow to anger and merciful, He will have mercy to whom He will have mercy (Exodus 33:19; 34:6). It is evident that after 70 years of exile in Babylon, the true worship has undergone a true permeation of Babylonian customs or teachings (Zechariah 1:12). Jehovah showed understanding and mercy towards the high priest Joshuah. This is what it is written in the vision of the prophet Zechariah:
“And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of *Jehovah (YHWH), and Satan was standing at his right hand to resist him. 2 Then the angel of Jehovah said to Satan: “May Jehovah rebuke you, O Satan, yes, may Jehovah, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this one a burning log snatched out of the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 The angel said to those standing before him, “Remove his filthy garments.” Then he said to him, “See, I have caused your error to pass away from you, and you will be clothed with fine garments.”
5 So I said: “Let a clean turban be put on his head.” And they put the clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments; and the angel of Jehovah was standing nearby. 6 The angel of Jehovah then declared to Joshua: 7 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘If you will walk in my ways and carry out your responsibilities before me, then you will serve as a judge in my house and take care of my courtyards; and I will give you free access among these who are standing here.’
8 “‘Hear, please, O High Priest Joshua, you and your companions who sit before you, for these men serve as a sign; look! I am bringing in my servant Sprout! 9 See the stone that I have set before Joshua! On the one stone are seven eyes; and I am engraving an inscription on it,’ declares Jehovah of armies, ‘and I will take away the guilt of that land in one day.’
10 “‘In that day,’ declares Jehovah of armies, ‘Each of you will invite your neighbor to come under your vine and under your fig tree’” (Zechariah chapter 3).
* YHWH is the tetragrammaton, or four-letter for the Divine Name. In the New World Translation of the Bible, it appears with the vocalization commonly used for centuries as « Jehovah ». This vocalization is doubly inaccurate because it inserts the pronunciation J instead of I (i) or Y, and the V corresponding to W, which is pronounced « U » or « ou » (not V). The correct vocalization of the Tetragrammaton is YeHou(W)aH, Yehouah. The inaccurate vocalization « Jehovah » is retained in the Bible translation used, just as the inaccurate vocalization of « Jesus, » pronounced Yeshua or Yeshoua, because they are the most known to readers (click on the link to examine the study on the Divine Name in more detail: The Divine Name YHWH is pronounced as it is written).
This vision of Joshua the high priest, who initially has filthy garments, shows that God does not punish unintentional error (sin). He forgives unintentional sin and enables the people, through their own spiritual journey, to understand how to conduct themselves in accordance with His will, symbolically giving them clean garments, as He did for Joshua the high priest. In one of His statements, Jesus Christ implied that unintentional sin (error) will be forgiven by God: “Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and they said to him: “We are not blind also, are we?” Jesus said to them: “If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, ‘We see.’ Your sin remains”” (John 9:40,41).
Nevertheless, he made sure that the situation did not last indefinitely because He is a Holy God (Zechariah 3:3-7). This purification of the priesthood and of the people of God is also symbolized by the measuring of Jerusalem, that is to say, with the purpose to enter into the divine criteria of holiness to reach everlasting life: “So I asked: “Where are you going?” He replied: “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is her width and what is her length”” (Zechariah 2:2; 3:5-7).
Measuring a city like Jerusalem or the temple sanctuary, according to Apocalypse 11:2, means the obedience to God’s standards for holiness, both inside and outside the Christian congregation. The fact that the angel, in Apocalypse 11:2, asks the apostle John to « measure », means that Jesus Christ instructed the elders, the stewards of the Christian congregation to maintain the holiness in the Christian congregation (Read Apocalypse chapters 2 and 3, the angels are the messengers or administrators of the 7 congregations).
Jesus Christ foretold that there would be several centuries of apostasy that would permeate Christianity (Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43). The consequence is that the Christian priesthood, and its teaching has been imbued with Babylonian practices and teachings, such as pagan holidays like Christmas, Easter (different from the Jewish Passover), All Saints’ Day, or even pagan teachings such as the Marian worship, the idolatrous worship of saints, the trinity, the immortality of the soul, fiery hell, the worship of the cross which thrones in many Christian congregations… All these pagan teachings of Babylonian or Greco-Roman origin, have no place in true worship (John 4:23,24).
While sincere Christians have been ignorant of such a situation for centuries, it is important to purify the way of worship God and to serve Jesus Christ, gradually removing all forms of unwanted spiritual practices in the eyes of God. This purification of the true worship was illustrated by the enigma of the woman and the ephah (Zechariah 5:7,8).
Nevertheless, in the book of Zechariah, it is written that a part of humanity that fought against Jerusalem, by mistake, will be the object of God’s mercy, and will be able to obtain everlasting life: « Everyone who is left remaining out of all the nations that come against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths » (Zechariah 14:16).
This understanding is also confirmed by Ezekiel’s prophecy. In chapter 44, it is written that the non-priestly Levites, who seem to allude to a part of the great crowd that will survive the great tribulation, will not have the same privileges of service as the priests (Apocalypse 7:9-17): « But the Levites who strayed far from me when Israel strayed from me to follow their disgusting idols will bear the consequences of their error. 11 And they will become ministers in my sanctuary to oversee the gates of the temple and to minister at the temple. They will slaughter the whole burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before the people to minister to them » (Ezekiel 44:10, 11). These non-priestly Levites appear to be part of the humanity that will survive, and which was, unintentionally, very far from God, practicing idolatry.
While the priests of the earthly paradise, the sons of Zadok, seem to allude to the part of humanity today that strives to serve God and his Son Jesus Christ: “As for the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of the responsibilities of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed from me, they will approach me to minister to me, and they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 16 ‘They are the ones who will enter my sanctuary, and they will approach my table to minister to me, and they will take care of their responsibilities to me” (Ezekiel 44:15, 16).
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It is important to know the biblical information about the devil to fully understand the reasons for God’s permission of evil and the current sad condition of humanity.
Jesus Christ described the devil very concisely: “That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie » (John 8:44). Satan the devil is not the abstraction of evil, but a real spiritual person (Matthew 4:1-11). Likewise, the demons are also angels who have become rebels who have followed the example of the devil (Genesis 6:1-3, to compare with the letter of Jude verse 6: « And the angels who did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place, he has reserved with eternal bonds in dense darkness for the judgment of the great day »).
When it is written, « he did not stand fast in the truth », it shows that God created this angel without sin and without any trace of wickedness in his heart. This angel, at the beginning of his life had a « beautiful name » (Ecclesiastes 7:1a). However, « he did not stand fast » in his integrity, he cultivated pride in his heart, and over time he became « devil », which means slanderer, and Satan, opponent; his old beautiful name, his good reputation, has been replaced by one of the everlasting disgraces. In the prophecy of Ezekiel (chapter 28), against the proud king of Tyre, it is clearly alluded to the pride of the angel who became « devil » and « Satan »: « This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “You were the model of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eʹden, the garden of God. You were adorned with every precious stone —Ruby, topaz, and jasper; chrysʹo·lite, onyx, and jade; sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; And their settings and mountings were made of gold. They were prepared on the day you were created. I assigned you as the anointed covering cherub. You were on the holy mountain of God, and you walked about among fiery stones. You were faultless in your ways from the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you » (Ezekiel 28:12-15). Through his act of unrighteousness in Eden, he became a « liar » who caused the death of all of Adam’s offspring (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12). Currently, it is Satan the devil who rules the world: « Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out » (John 12:31; Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 5:19) .
Satan the devil will be permanently destroyed: « For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly » (Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20).
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