I was reading in the Bible this morning in the book of Zechariah – and yes it is the King James quoted below:
And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2 And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.
Quite a bit going on here, however a few things stuck out to me: Satan is resisting the high priest. And the Lord says to Satan ‘The Lord rebuke thee” which instantly connected to that little book in the new testament which so few read: Jude
In Jude verse 9 we read : 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Having made that connection, I went to the shower (the source of many inspirations) and proceeded to chew on it. The body of Moses (Moses’ body) may be more of a reference to the spiritual, rather than the physical body of Moses.
in Deuteronomy 34:5-6 we read “5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. 6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.”
God buried Moses, and yet we read in Matthew 17:2-3
“2 and He (Jesus) was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.”
So it is clear Moses has his body. So what about the spiritual body of Moses? We know that the Church (larger institution) is referred to as the body of Christ. So is the pre-Christ church (synagogue & temple) a reference to the ‘body of Moses’. Moses was righteous and spent so much time in God’s presence that he glowed. Yet, Moses was also a man who sinned. Satan having a claim on sin is not a new theme, so an argument about the physical body of Moses could be made – but how about Satan attempting to lay claim on the entire Old testament church? We know how that went because the Lord said ‘The Lord rebuke you”.
I marvel at how much imagery we see pointing towards Christ in Zechariah 3. The stone with 7 eyes. The washing of the high-priestly garments. Joshua the high priest. The Lord saying “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee”. The new covering for his head. The prediction of Jesus with the title “The Branch”. Removing the sins of the land in one day.
Pretty radical stuff. It gets me excited to have this scripture come together.
Which got me thinking about a couple of things:
1) How many of us have had Bible study drilled into us? I mean, I was taught that the only way to read the Bible was to read it for what it said and then read it in context (who was it written to, when was it written, what was going on at the time, etc). A few people in my life went on to mumble something about the Holy Spirit but that was it. I find that with the Holy Spirit – the Word of God is alive and nourishing. Passages open up and new understandings happen.
2) Jesus came and stood in Jerusalem. He claimed to be God. He gave us a choice, to believe in the creator, or to continue believing in the created. Satan was created. His truth claims come from a created mindset. God claims to be creator and He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ. God is not an unknown on this planet anymore. There is no debate. There is no ‘whatever works for you’. The period of everyone doing what seemed right in their own eyes came to an end when Christ was crucified and rose again.
Just a couple thoughts for today, hope you enjoyed them too.
