Day 98 (Year 2)

Suffering Can Easily Lead to Contamination

“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. The LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ Again he said to him, ‘See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.'” (Zechariah 3:1-4 NASB)

The book of Zechariah was written after the Israelites returned from exile. At that time, Joshua, the appointed high priest, was wearing filthy garments—like a stick plucked from the fire. I understand that pollution by the “fire” refers to the filth due to various kinds of suffering. In suffering, people inevitably encounter various temptations to sin, such as yielding to evil forces, wrongly adopting the evil of foreigners, or losing faith in God due to a lack of endurance. Joshua’s misconduct, symbolized by wearing filthy garments, gave Satan grounds to stand against him. So, the only way for us to resist Satan’s legitimate accusations is to abandon all sins and walk in God’s purity.

When people become contaminated with unclean things, they become filthy in God’s eyes. And sin is the footstool Satan uses to attack them. Thus, in the above scriptures, God’s angel took away Joshua’s filthy garments and clothed him with festal robes. In fact, he did not desire to do evil. However, for those who have habitually practiced evil, I believe this metaphor of changing garments may not be appropriate, because their sins are deeply rooted. In such cases, we must pray in the depths of our hearts for God to reveal the root of sins, and only then can those sins be uprooted through the blood of Jesus and the power of His Spirit.

The work of God and His angels is aiming to change the garments of believers. The “festal robes” in today’s passage are what God prepared for His high priest of that time. I believe these are also prepared for all believers nowadays. Our words and actions need to be continually transformed according to God’s leadings with the help of His angels—just as putting on pure and beautiful garments. The “garments” referred to in the passage are precisely how we appear in the spiritual realm. Filthy garments often incite Satan’s attacks, while glorious garments attract God’s angels to serve believers according to His will.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you tend to make mistakes easily during times of difficulty or suffering? If so, how will you rely on the Lord to make yourself more careful?

2) Are you easily moved by others into sin? If so, how will you rely on the Lord to stand firm and avoid sin?