PT-2 The Divine Choice (Zech. 3:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2016 12:00 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  PT-2 The Divine Choice

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 3:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 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.”

            John MacArthur speaks of “terms” and what he is talking about is the fact that Joshua who is standing before the angel of the Lord as seen in verse one is doing priestly ministry.  He cites the following verses because in them they are also used to describe priestly function.  Deuteronomy 10:8; Judges 20:28; Ezekiel 44:15 and 2 Chronicles 29:11.  He then goes on to write “So here is Joshua and he’s just doing his priestly thing.  He is ministering as the high priest before Jehovah.  In fact if you look closely he is actually ministering to the angel of the Lord and that’s exciting because again it vindicates the fact that the angel of the Lord is no other than the second person of the Trinity who’s none other than Jehovah Himself.  In fact in Revelation 19:10, when John tried to worship an angel what did the angel say, ‘Get up and worship only God.’  And so here is this priest ministering to God the second person of the Trinity, the angel of the Lord none other than Christ.”  And people say that the Trinity is not seen in the OT.

            The following is how MacArthur says that the Hebrew states the end of verse one:  “And the literal Hebrew reads this way:  ‘and Satan and the Satan standing at His right hand to satanize Him.’  Or the adversary standing there to be adverse, to fight, to resist.  You know Satan has been in the business of doing this, hasn’t he?  Satan’s up there saying to God, ‘Why do you have anything to do with this crummy bunch for, these filthy people, these vile sinful people?  Always accusing Satan, the adversary, the accuser.”   Now I just finished reading or better listening to the book of Job and in the first two chapters we see Satan doing exactly what MacArthur speaks about.  Now what we have in this scene is what is going to happen to Israel, for as mentioned Joshua represents the nation of Israel and Satan is accusing the people of Israel and so if God grants mercy to Israel then we know that all of the promises God has made to Israel will be fulfilled in the time when He wants them to be fulfilled.  Will God cast off Israel or will He give them mercy?  Well I think we know the answer to that question as the covenant that God has made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be fulfilled even those who are of the covenant theologians.  They believe that all of the promises God gave to Israel will be fulfilled through the church.  However if God was going to give up on Israel why did He bring them back to their land?  Covenant theology gets my blood boiling and the reason is that although they may have many things right in their theology but when you say Israel is done then you fall right into the hands of Satan who would love to have this happen.  It will never happen, as God is not done with Israel, for think about it Israel has been back in the land since May of 1948, so if God was done with them why would He allow the fulfillment of Ezekiel chapter 37.

            I want to now look at verse two “2 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?"”  MacArthur writes “Now how many Lords have we got there?  How many?  Two? People say well you certainly can’t find the Trinity in the Old Testament.  Oh?  There’s two of them.  ‘And the Lord said, ‘the Lord rebuke you.’  That is the second person of the Trinity passing on the ultimate responsibility for judgment to the first person.  Somehow in the wonderful workings of the Trinity they all have their area.  And at this point in time it was for the Son to ask the Father to do the rebuking.  The Lord rebuke you.”

            The Lord rebuke you according to John MacArthur is in the future tense in the Hebrew Language, and we know from our study of the book of Revelation that this surely will happen.  Even though Satan knows what will eventually happen to him that does not keep him from fighting against the believers and also against the Jewish nation. 

5/17/2016 12:34 AM