Zec 3:8 | KingComments | STEP | After the command comes another promise. With the call “now listen”, the special attention of Joshua is asked for this. It also underlines the importance of what follows. The friends of Joshua, his fellow priests, must also listen carefully, because the promise is also for them. They sit “in front of” him, that is, in his presence, before his face (cf. ). We can see here in Joshua a type of the Lord Jesus in the company of His disciples, whom He calls “friends”, because He has revealed to them everything He has heard from His Father ( ). The friends are “a symbol” –or: men to be observed as a sign (foot note Darby Translation) – which means that in their priestly function they are meant to be a symbol or sign of God, Who made the priesthood possible again. They are also a sign that refers to the great Priest, Jesus Christ. They are signs with a prophetic meaning, signs of a future event (cf. ). Joshua and his friends also refer to something else and that is that God, through cleansing, will always maintain a priestly generation. God is a God of wonders, of which the maintenance of the priesthood is one. This may be an encouragement to us. God points Joshua and his friends to His Servant Whom He will send. That Servant is presented as an encouragement of the cleansed Joshua and his fellow priests. A God-cleansed priesthood always rejoices over the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the Branch or Sprout, the Servant, Whom God is going to bring in ( ; ; ; ). He is the Branch or Sprout from the stem of Jesse. The kingship seemed dead, but it lives in Him. His Name Branch or Sprout shows the humility, the tenderness of the coming Messiah and that He is Man. There is also the thought of freshness and the power of a life that sprouts. It speaks of Christ with Whose coming something totally new arises. That Christ is introduced here is because God wants us to understand that nothing is right if it is not introduced by Christ. Something is only right if it is connected to Him and that is only the case if it has been processed by Him. He is also the source of all future blessings. In the future, God will restore these conditions among His people when the priestly service will take place again before the Antichrist will stop it. Their hearts will be turned toward the coming Branch or Sprout. Also for us, the priesthood only functions well when our eye is focused on the Lord Jesus.

‏ Zechariah 3:8

The Promise of the Branch

After the command comes another promise. With the call “now listen”, the special attention of Joshua is asked for this. It also underlines the importance of what follows. The friends of Joshua, his fellow priests, must also listen carefully, because the promise is also for them. They sit “in front of” him, that is, in his presence, before his face (cf. Eze 8:1). We can see here in Joshua a type of the Lord Jesus in the company of His disciples, whom He calls “friends”, because He has revealed to them everything He has heard from His Father (Jn 15:15).

The friends are “a symbol” –or: men to be observed as a sign (foot note Darby Translation) – which means that in their priestly function they are meant to be a symbol or sign of God, Who made the priesthood possible again. They are also a sign that refers to the great Priest, Jesus Christ. They are signs with a prophetic meaning, signs of a future event (cf. Isa 8:18). Joshua and his friends also refer to something else and that is that God, through cleansing, will always maintain a priestly generation. God is a God of wonders, of which the maintenance of the priesthood is one. This may be an encouragement to us.

God points Joshua and his friends to His Servant Whom He will send. That Servant is presented as an encouragement of the cleansed Joshua and his fellow priests. A God-cleansed priesthood always rejoices over the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the Branch or Sprout, the Servant, Whom God is going to bring in (Zec 6:12; Isa 4:2 ; Isa 11:1 ; Isa 53:2; Jer 23:5 ; Jer 33:15; Lk 1:78). He is the Branch or Sprout from the stem of Jesse. The kingship seemed dead, but it lives in Him.

His Name Branch or Sprout shows the humility, the tenderness of the coming Messiah and that He is Man. There is also the thought of freshness and the power of a life that sprouts. It speaks of Christ with Whose coming something totally new arises. That Christ is introduced here is because God wants us to understand that nothing is right if it is not introduced by Christ. Something is only right if it is connected to Him and that is only the case if it has been processed by Him.

He is also the source of all future blessings. In the future, God will restore these conditions among His people when the priestly service will take place again before the Antichrist will stop it. Their hearts will be turned toward the coming Branch or Sprout. Also for us, the priesthood only functions well when our eye is focused on the Lord Jesus.