Thru the Bible

Steve: Do you believe that God has the power to change lives? Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetzer and I'm so glad that you're here as we continue our journey through God's entire Word.

Remember in our previous study we heard about the peace of God that's found in Romans 5:1. Now Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about two other kinds of peace in this special introduction to our study in Zechariah chapter 3.

Dr. McGee: And then there's the peace of God. The Lord Jesus talked about it. He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

That's when I feel that you're in the will of God, when you're doing what God wants you to do. How wonderful it is to have a peace in your heart like this, that everything's right between you and God, and you're doing the thing that he wants you to do. That's a marvelous, wonderful peace.

And then there is a peace that Paul spoke about to the Philippians, the peace that passes all understanding. Now if I could tell you what that peace was, it wouldn't be that kind of peace. But this is a peace that passes all understanding. You have it or you don't have it.

This is a peace that I had, and I don't get this very often, so I have to mention when I did have it, is the peace that God gave me before I was operated on the first time for cancer. I give you my word, I almost walked out of the hospital, didn't even stay there. I was so frightened, I did not know what to do. And I just had to cry out to him and I experienced a peace that, well, I can't tell you what it is. It's a peace that passes all understanding, and he gives it to you, I think, in the hard place in this life.

Now there is peace on Earth, and that is something that the Prince of Peace is going to bring to this Earth someday. We haven't experienced it yet, but one of these days we're going to have that peace on Earth. That is the peace that Isaiah talked about, that wonderful peace that is going to come to mankind someday.

Well, it's over in Isaiah, I think it's the 57th chapter, and I'll turn there and look at verse 20 and 21. No, this is in a different connection. That world peace is not going to come in our day. Man cannot make it. The League of Nations failed, and now the United Nations is failing. Man can bring peace on this Earth. God has said that in Isaiah 57, verse 20 and 21, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

And three times in the last part of Isaiah, why God repeats this. Three times he says, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." And he makes it very clear that that is true in this wonderful prophecy of Isaiah. Now in the Millennium, there's going to be world peace.

Steve: Sharing God's message of peace and mercy by salvation through Jesus Christ is something that we never tire of, isn't that right, Greg?

Greg: It's absolutely correct, Steve. And one of the reasons I love to come in the studio and have these conversations is it just re-energizes me. You know, the Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish. And Dr. McGee gave us the most profound, simple, never-ending vision there is to take the whole word to the whole world.

Steve: Yep.

Greg: And today we want to share a pretty cool element of the way the different languages reach out all across the world.

Steve: Yeah, the fact that, you know, in the traditional model that Dr. McGee went home to be with the Lord, we were in radio only. And so we're going to talk about Tagalog and we're tilting our heads here. You would only hear about that, letters coming from the Philippines. But we're actually going to be reading letters that don't even come from the country of the Philippines. They come from other parts of the world because guess what? Tagalog speakers that are believers or searching for Christ, hear our program all over the world through different forms.

Greg: And I'm telling you what, if you and you gave me a test this first one and said pick the country, I would probably had 180 guesses before I got it right.

Steve: Yeah, me too. Me too.

Steve: This is this first one is from am I saying this, Nenni?

Greg: Yeah.

Steve: Okay, Nenni in Albania tells us this as they listen in Tagalog.

Greg: Yeah.

Steve: "As I grow older, I've noticed that my eyes aren't so strong as they used to be. Reading has become more difficult and the words on a page sometimes blur together. But even in this season of life, I've found a beautiful alternative, listening. I may not be able to read the Bible like before, but I can still hear God's Word through your programs. It's become a great comfort to me. Hearing His promises, His truth, and His love spoken aloud brings peace to my heart every day. You have truly become a lifeline, keeping me connected to God's Word in a way that fits this stage of life."

Greg: And Steve, this has to be a person listening on some digital platform, because we are not broadcasting Tagalog in Albania. I can assure you of that.

Steve: Yes.

Greg: And and and this is why we are so excited about our digital initiatives, and we have a big map, a digital map here in our office here where we show the different places in the world that people listen. And so let's get another example of that. So from Albania, let's go to Kenya.

Steve: Hm.

Greg: Where again, another unusual spot for hearing from a Tagalog speaker. And this person writes, "God is good all the time. I thank our Lord Jesus for his protection upon us. Your program helps us a lot because of the good news and the Word of God that we hear draws us closer to the Lord. Indeed, he is worthy to be praised. I say it again, God is good all the time." And that, Steve, is from a Tagalog speaker in Kenya.

Steve: Yeah, so exciting. Greg, let me pray for us as we begin. Heavenly Father, we are thankful and just praise you for the way you have used technology to allow your Word to go out throughout the whole world in areas where that language is not even primarily spoken. I pray that that will continue to yield much fruit for your glory and for the good of those listening. Bless the ministry now, Lord, and the teaching as we go out in Jesus name. Amen.

Steve: Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Zechariah 3 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. McGee: Now, friends, today we come to the third chapter of Zechariah. And I would like very much to read a portion of this chapter. It's only 10 verses. I won't read all of it, but I would like to read enough that those of you that are riding along in your car, those of you that do not have your Bible and cannot turn to the passage, that you will know today what we're talking about because we are in a highly figurative section of the Word of God.

We're dealing with the 10 visions of Zechariah. He had them all in one night, but they weren't dreams as we've have shown, that his eyes were wide open, because again and again he says, "I looked and I saw." And so, this is not a dream that this man is having.

But these different visions he had have a very definite meaning, and I think that they should be looked at together. That is, they should all be considered together as focusing on one particular message, and that we need that overall viewpoint that gives us a perspective of what these different visions are attempting to tell us.

And we also need other prophetic scriptures, because Peter made it very clear, "No prophecy is of any private interpretation." You don't interpret it by itself. You have to put together the whole program of prophecy, and you need to get the overall viewpoint which reaches from eternity to eternity in the future.

Now, I want to read, "And he showed me Joshua." Now, this wasn't a dream again, you see. "He showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord, who hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spoke unto those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him, and unto him he said, Behold, I've caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment."

Verse 5 now, and I'll conclude with this. "And I said, Let them set a clean turban upon his head. So they set a clean turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by."

Now we'll take up that much today in this very remarkable vision. Now, may I mention several things before we get into the text itself that are introductory but very important. He showed me Joshua.

Now Joshua was the high priest, as he's labeled here. And Joshua is not the Joshua that led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He's actually the Joshua that was with them after the Babylonian captivity and was with them in the land. His name means actually, "Jehovah saves." And in the New Testament, it is the same word as the Greek word Jesus. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." So the name is very suggestive, highly, I think, significant.

And now the other thing for us to note here is that we have a reference to Satan again. And as I've indicated before, we're saving until we get to the Book of Revelation. But there is one thing that is quite obvious, that if this man Zechariah saw Joshua, then he also saw Satan. And this simply means that he is a person, and he is a reality.

The interesting thing is Satan had been pretty much dropped out of the vocabulary of most people in so-called Christian lands for the past, well, 50 years. They had forgotten all about him, and they hope they had gotten rid of him. Just by not mentioning him, they felt like he'd go away, but he hadn't gone away. Very much of a reality today, and there is a turning toward the supernatural, and unfortunately, it's to Satan and to demons, rather than to the Lord Jesus Christ and to God. But I think that the pathway will finally lead to the fact that you have to have and modern thinking demands that evil be incarnate, that it be represented by a person, and they've gone off into demonology today.

Then not only evil, but good must be represented. And good, you take out one of the O's. Good is God, and God is good. And therefore, God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, will be the final answer to men who are seeking for a solution to their own lives and that of the world.

Now the third thing that we would like to mention here is a vision that goes beyond Joshua the High Priest. We are going to see that what we have here is really the answer to a problem. And the problem is simply this: We've had so far that God is going to turn again to the nation Israel. He's going to restore them to the land. He hasn't yet, but he says he's going to, and that he's going to bless them in that land.

Well, in that day they were far from God. They were in sin. And today the same thing is true. The land, as we saw last time, is only called one time in scripture the Holy Land, and it'll never be the Holy Land until the Lord Jesus comes. It's not a holy land by any means today.

But that God intends to forgive them their sins. And how in the world, as Dr. Unger has stated it, a crucial question arises. How can an infinitely holy God accomplish such plans, that is, of restoring these people to that land and blessing them since they are a sinful and besmirched people? How can the wondrous manifestations of divine mercy to them be consistent with God's righteousness? All right, the explanation, I think, is found in this, that this man, Joshua, is now going to represent the nation.

And we're going to find him, as we read, we're going to find him clothed with a filthy garment. He's dirty. Now the one thing that the high priest must be, must be dressed spotlessly. He cannot serve God. Now how could these people be accepted since they're sinners?

Well, this chapter is going to give us the key to that. And these people that went about, as Paul says in Romans 10:3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Now the righteousness of God will be revealed in this chapter. How that God can accept sinners. Jesus died for all sin. And if you want to come to him right now, I don't care who you are or what you've done. You may be worse than Karl Marx and Joe Stalin. But you can come to Christ. Either one of those men could have turned to Christ, and he would have accepted and received them. But they'd have to come to him by the way.

And they would find that, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:4. So that, it doesn't make any difference who you are, you can come to God through Jesus Christ. Now, that's going to be highlighted in this chapter here.

Now Joshua is just an individual, and he certainly was not a perfect individual. But he was God's high priest, and he is dirty and filthy. And that might have been true of him personally. I do not know. But I do know this, that he represents the nation Israel. And to begin with, he is, as high priest, the representative of the nation. On the great Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies for the entire nation.

And just as Christ is today our representative, represents the corporate body of believers, the church before God today. And therefore, we need to see this in the larger context of all these visions, you see, that this man is a prophetic picture of the nation Israel. And that will deliver us from a very limited interpretation.

Now, this man is a representative of the nation. And L. U. Poole, one of the great scholars of the past has said this, "He," that is, Joshua, "represents and practically impersonates Israel in his holy office. For the nation he prays, for it he enters the holy place. He bears the nation's guilt. We must therefore not refer the issues and implications of this chapter to Joshua as an individual, nor merely to Joshua the High Priest. We must conclude that his condition is Israel's condition. His acquitting a typical way of expressing theirs, and the words of comfort and assurance given him apply with equal validity to them." And that's a very fine statement, by the way. And L. U. Poole is not one you can always follow in his interpretation, but here, this is especially good.

Now, we know also that Joshua is a symbol, he is a type, he is a representative, and God had chosen him, and God had chosen the nation Israel. And so we can follow this on through and find many parallels that apply.

Now will you notice that we have the nation Israel here. And it is represented by this one man, Joshua. What is said of him could be said of the nation. I think of the novel written many years ago by Nathaniel Hawthorne, called The Scarlet Letter. And you will remember, it was a study that is set in the Puritan days of our country. When, for instance, any woman found guilty of adultery, would have an A in flaming red across her bosom. And she had to wear that all the time.

Well, you can understand in that day that'd be a very severe blow. Why today there'd be a lot of A's, we may not get any B's or C's, but we sure'd have a lot of A's if they did that today. But you remember the little minister was really the one that was guilty. And that finally it was revealed that in his flesh across his chest, there was an A in flaming red there, that revealed his guilt also. And the corollary is just simply this. Joshua is the one, but somebody else is guilty as well as Joshua. The nation Israel is guilty, and that is the picture that's given to us here.

Now let me come to the text itself, and we'll get just a little ways today. "He showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him."

Now, the fact that he's on his right hand could mean that he's there to support him, or defend him, or he's there to charge him. And Satan in his deception, of course, is there actually to charge him. And this is typical of the ministry of Satan. We're told today that we have an advocate with the Father. Why do we need an advocate with God the Father who's accusing us up there? Well, we are told that when Satan is finally put out of heaven, that the accuser of our brethren has been put out of heaven.

Well, he's the one that has access to heaven today, and I have a notion that he's made a charge against McGee. It's a valid charge. I'm of the opinion that he probably said what others said when I was just in my teens, working in a bank in Nashville, Tennessee, and I think I had tried every form of sin that was imaginable at that time. It was a very fast crowd that was there, and I was the last person in the place anybody would ever dream would ever go in.