“Then he showed me, Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, oh, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now, Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him, he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’ And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turbine on his head.’ So they put a clean turbine on his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord was standing by.” – Zechariah 3:1–5
Is that not an awesome scene? Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. This is who Satan is. He’s the accuser. Satan’s the one who tells you about all the stuff you’ve done wrong, to beat you down, to discourage you. He’s the one who deceives you. He’s the accuser of the brethren.
Zechariah 3:1–5 Pictures Satan as Our Accuser
Revelation chapter 12 says, “And the Lord says to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you of Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you.”
And then, get the picture, Joshua clothed in filthy garments. And the angels said to those who are standing before him, “Remove those filthy garments from him.” And to him, he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you.”
This is the gospel, isn’t it? This is the greatest news in the world, that you and I stand guilty of sin before the Holy God of the universe. And Satan’s accusations in that sense are right. We are guilty. We have sinned against God. Our garments are filthy. Yet, we have a God who rebukes Satan, who rebukes the accuser, who removes the filthy garments from us, and puts on, clothes us, with pure vestments. Clothes us with the very righteousness of Jesus.
Zechariah 3:1–5 Shows God’s Grace in Clothing Us with Jesus’ Righteousness
So when Satan accuses you today, you are in Jesus. Remember in that moment, that those accusations no longer stick. God has made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God. We are clothed in the spotless righteousness of Jesus. We have been given entirely new garments from God, and we live in the righteousness that Jesus has made possible for us today. We live, not listening to and being beaten down by Satan, the accuser, but we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Jesus, we praise you for making this a reality in our lives. We praise you for the righteousness we are clothed in right now. Before you, oh God, who are we? We confess. We have sinned against you, but we praise you, you’re faithful. And just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We praise you for the garments.
You have clothed us in holiness and righteousness, and we say we want to live in them today. Fully, we want to live in righteousness. We want to live in the blood bought holiness that you’ve made possible for us, Lord Jesus. And we want to lead others to know this. We want to lead others to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. So we pray, use us to share the gospel with somebody today, that they might be clothed in new garments, that Satan’s accusations would no longer be applicable in their lives.
Praying for the Unreached
God, we pray this for all the nations of the world. Lord, we pray this for unreached people around the world who haven’t heard this good news. God, please help us to be faithful, to make disciples of all the nations, to pray like we’re doing now, to give, to go as you lead us, to open our eyes to the nations that are right around us, and the opportunities we have to reach the nation’s far from us.
That all the nations, all the peoples of the world, might be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. We praise you, God, for removing our sin and our shame, and clothing us in purity and holiness before you. What grace. We pray all of this in Jesus name, the name of the one who makes it all possible, according to Zechariah three, one through five, a passage we love in your word. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
