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Satan, the Accuser; Christ, the Defender
Because God had chosen Israel to preserve the knowledge of
Him in the earth, Satan was determined to cause their destruction.
While they were obedient he could do them no harm. Therefore he
had focused all his power and evil trickery on drawing them into sin.
Caught in his traps, they had transgressed and had become the prey
of their enemies.
Yet God did not forsake them. He sent His prophets with warn-
ings, spurring them to see their guilt. When they returned to Him
with true repentance, He sent messages of encouragement, declaring
that He would deliver them from captivity and once more establish
them in their own land. Now that this restoration had begun and a
remnant had already returned to Judea, Satan threw his energies into
frustrating the divine plan. To this end he was seeking to stir up the
heathen nations to destroy them.
But in this crisis the Lord strengthened His people with “good
and comforting words.”
Zechariah 1:13
. Through an impressive
illustration He showed the power of Christ their Mediator to vanquish
Satan, the accuser of His people.
“Joshua the high priest,” “clothed with filthy garments”
(
Zechariah 3:1, 3
), stands before the Angel of the Lord. As he
pleads for the fulfillment of God’s promises, Satan points to Israel’s
transgressions as a reason why God should not restore them to favor.
Satan claims them as his prey and demands that they be given into
his hands.
The high priest does not claim that Israel is free from fault. In
filthy garments, symbolizing the people’s sins that he bears as their
representative, he stands before the Angel, confessing their guilt yet
pointing to their repentance, and in faith relying on the mercy of a
sin-pardoning Redeemer.
Then the Angel, who is Christ the Savior of sinners, puts the
accuser to silence: “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has
chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the
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