Zechariah 3:1-10

Fourth Vision: Joshua and Satan

3:1 Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?" 3 Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." And to him he said, "See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel." 5 And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by.

6 Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying 7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch. 9 For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. 10 On that day, says the LORD of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree." (Zechariah 3:1-10, NRSV)

Comments are adapted here from an E-mail sent December 16, 2003, for December 17, 2003:

Have you ever felt like "a brand plucked from the burning"? (Perhaps some leaders of the "new Iraq" feel that way, or perhaps they feel like they are still putting out the fire.) For Joshua (the priest among the Jews who returned from Babylonian captivity), as if the uncertainties of trying to help rebuild and lead a nation in the shadow of a dominating empire (Persia) were not enough, the prophet pictures him standing in the heavenly court being accused by "the Adversary [Satan]" (Zech. 3:1). In this fourth vision of Zechariah, there is assurance for Joshua when the LORD comes to his defense: "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! . . . Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?" The LORD directs that Joshua's "filthy clothes" (vv. 3-4) be replaced with "festal apparel" (v. 4) and "a clean turban" (v. 5) to "symbolize ritual purity, in preparation for the advent of the Messiah" R. L. Hicks & W. Brueggemann, NOAB, on Zech. 3:5). In the continuation Joshua is addressed as ruler "If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements" (v. 7), but his function has a priestly dimension: through "access among those who are standing here [in the heavenly court]" (v. 7), he will "present Jerusalem's prayers to heaven" (Hicks & Brueggemann). The reference to "my servant the Branch" (v. 8) refers here to Zerubbabel, but later (6:11-12), it is Joshua who is crowned and named "Branch." Cyrus the Persian was followed by weak rulers but Darius I (521–486) asserted his power and quelled revolts across the empire, and in the process, likely crushed any hopes for an immediate restoration of the Davidic dynasty and national sovereignty for Judah. Judah remained subject to Persia in the political realm, but largely autonomous in religious matters. Their leadership would come from priests like Joshua and, later, from scribes like Ezra.

Revelation 4:1-8

Worship in God’s Throne Room in Heaven (Isa 6.1-3)

4:1 After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." 2 At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! 3 And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. 4 Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; 6 and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,

"Holy, holy, holy,

the Lord God the Almighty,

who was and is and is to come." (Revelation 4:1-8, NRSV)

John's visions of heaven begin with God's throne (Rev. 4:2), pictured with precious gems that describe "the glory of the divine presence" (B.M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on v. 3). God's throne is surrounded by twenty-four elders seated on twenty-four thrones (vv. 4-5). Other aspects of the vision, including "the sea of glass, like crystal” and the four living creatures" (v. 6), remind us of the throne-chariot vision described by Ezekiel. Over the heads of Ezekiel’s “four living creatures (Ezek. 1:5, cf. vv. 5-14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, etc.) “there was something like a dome, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads” (v. 22). In Ezekiel’s vision the throne was above this dome (v. 26); in Revelation the “sea of glass, like crystal” is “in front of the throne” (Rev. 4:6), which “suggests the distance between God and his creatures, even in heaven” (Metzger on v. 6). Ezekiel’s four living creatures each have four faces (Ezek. 1:6): “As for the appearance of their faces; the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle” (v. 10). The four living creatures in Revelation are”full of eyes in front and behind” (Rev. 4:6), and “full of eyes all around and inside” (av. 8), which would suggest more than one face for each, but they are described as “the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle” (v. 7). Later Christian symbolism would identify the human being with Matthew’s Gospel, the lion with Mark’s, the ox with Luke’s and the eagle with John’s. In Revelation their song is, “Holy, holy, holy,/the Lord God the Almighty,/who was and is and is to come” (v. 8). (Comments are adapted and supplemented here from an E-mail sent December 16, 2003, for December 17, 2003)

Matthew 24:45-51

The Faithful and Unfaithful Slaves (Lk 12.41-48)

45 "Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked slave says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' 49 and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. 51 He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51, NRSV)

Jesus concludes the speech on the end of the age with an interpreted parable. The parallel in Luke comes much earlier in the narrative (chap. 12), but apart from Luke’s introduction with a question from Peter (Lk. 12:41), the two versions are often verbatim. The faithful slave attends to his duties in the master's absence, but the unfaithful slave "begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards" (Mt. 24:49; cf. Lk. 12:45, where he “begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk”). The phrase “allowance of food” (Mt. 24:45; Lk. 12:42) represents different Greek words (trophē in Mt. and sitometrion in Lk.; also the infinitive “to give” is aorist, dounai, in Mt., but present tense, didonai, in Lk.). Luke adds “in coming” to Matthew’s “is delayed” (Mt. 24:48; Lk. 12:45). The bad slave “begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards” in Matthew (Mt. 24:49), but in Luke he “begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk” (Lk. 12:45). In both Gospels this statement is conditional, introduced by “if” (ean). The master who is delayed "will come on a day when he [the wicked slave] does not expect him" (Mt. 24:50; Lk. 12:46). The point is that the Christian believers must be faithful, and ready for the Lord's return at any time, a point to be elaborated by the parables of Matthew, chapter 25. The consequences for the unfaithful slave are graphic. “He [the master] will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 24:51). “The master . . . will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful” (Lk. 12:46). After this reference to cutting the bad slave in pieces, Luke’s further references to beatings, “a severe beating” for the “slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted” (Lk. 12:47), and “a light beating” for “the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating” (v. 48), seems out of place, a result, perhaps, of Luke’s collecting various sayings of Jesus. The lesson for us is to live in the expectation of the Lord’s return. (Comments here are adapted and supplemented from an E-mail sent December 16, 2003, for December 17, 2003.)

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com