The Cleansing Angel: The Son of God in Zechariah 3

This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr. 

The prophet’s fourth vision is found in Zechariah 3. In the vision, Zechariah saw the Angel of Yahweh for the second time:

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. 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?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by (Zech 3:1–5).

Zechariah was either shown this vision directly from the Lord or through the interpreting angel. The setting of the vision was evidently in the temple. The prophet saw Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of Yahweh. The fact that Joshua is named the high priest here means that He represented the nation of Israel. Satan stood at Joshua’s right hand, ready to accuse him before the Angel. The Angel of the Lord is explicitly called Yahweh (“The LORD”) at the opening of verse 2. Yahweh, the Angel, rebuked Satan in the name of Yahweh. Put another way, God the Son rebuked Satan in the name of God the Father. The Lord had a sovereign purpose for Jerusalem and for the remnant of His people that had returned from exile in Babylon, the “brand plucked from the fire.” Joshua wore filthy garments, which symbolized the nation’s iniquity and sin. The Angel of the Lord ordered angelic attendants to remove Joshua’s filthy clothes. Once the filthy clothes were removed, the nation’s iniquity had been removed. The Angel of the Lord told Joshua that He had removed Joshua’s iniquity and that He would clothe Joshua with festal robes. The vision was so compelling that the prophet couldn’t help but interject. Zechariah declared that a clean turban should be put on Joshua’s head as well. The festal robes and the turban made for a clean set of priestly garments. These clean garments symbolized God’s righteousness. And because they came from the Angel, the clean garments more specifically symbolized the Son’s righteousness. Once the clean clothes were put on Joshua, the high priest and the nation he represented were fully cleansed of their iniquity. The people of Israel could never be righteous on their own, so the Son would offer them His righteousness.

The vast majority of conservative scholars believe that the Angel of the Lord in Zechariah 3 is the second person of the Trinity. One of them is the nineteenth-century German theologian E.W. Hengstenberg. He explained that “the Prophet here also sees the High Priest Joshua, as such, engaged in serving ‘the angel of the Lord,’ who in the second verse appears under the name Jehovah, which belongs to God alone, and who, in the fourth verse, ascribes to Himself a work exclusively divine, the forgiveness of sins.”[1] Only God can forgive sins, and the Son of God is God. Jesus, the Son of Man, declared that He had the authority to forgive sins (Matt 9:6).

Filthy garments are used to symbolize sin and clean garments are used to symbolize righteousness in other places in Scripture. In Isaiah 64:6, the deeds of sinful Israel are likened to a filthy garment. However, during the future reign of the Messiah, Israel will be clothed with “garments of salvation” and wrapped with a “robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10). In the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus used wedding clothes to symbolize the imputed righteousness of Christ (Matt 22:11). Bright and clean linen is used to represent the righteous acts of the saints in Revelation 19:8. The verse states that it was “given” to the saints to clothe themselves in this fine linen, which means that their righteous acts were only possible because they had been clothed by the righteousness of God through faith in Christ (see Rom 3:21–22; Phil 3:9). With the understanding that the Angel of the Lord was the Son of God, the vision in Zechariah 3:1–5 becomes a powerful depiction of the Son taking away sin and imputing His own righteousness to the sinner. And the need for the imputed righteousness of Christ is at the very heart of the Gospel (see 2 Cor 5:21).

As the vision continued, the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua. The Angel said that Yahweh of hosts declared that if Joshua walked in the Lord’s ways and performed His service, then he would govern the Lord’s temple and have charge of His courts. Joshua would also be granted the same access to the Lord’s presence that the angelic attendants in the vision had (vv. 6–7). According to the Targum, Yahweh of hosts declared that Joshua was to perform the service of “My Word.”[2] It was the Angel of Yahweh who the angels in the vision had access to. This means that if Joshua obeyed the Lord as he was told to, then he would have special access to the Son of God.  

The Lord further spoke to Joshua, referring to him as the high priest. The Lord told Joshua that he and his friends (priests) sitting in front of him were a symbol that the Lord was going to bring forth “My servant the Branch” (v. 8). In some key messianic prophecies, “My servant” is used as a name for the Messiah (e.g., Isa 42:1; 52:13; 53:11; see Acts 3:13, 26). “The Branch” is a title belonging to the Messiah, for He would branch forth from Yahweh (Isa 4:2) and from David (Jer 23:5; 33:15).[3] Thus, “My servant the Branch” is a double reference to the Messiah. Joshua and the priests that served under him were types of the coming Messiah. Joshua the high priest especially pointed to the great high priest, Jesus the Son of God (Heb 4:14). Joshua was later crowned to symbolize that “the Branch” would be a priest and a king (Zech 6:11–14). This makes Joshua a prominent type of the Messiah. Benson stated that the Angel “was Christ, or the Logos . . . whose minister, or servant, the high priest was, as well as a type of him.” [4] It is fitting that Jesus and Joshua share the same name.[5] The preincarnate Son of God cleansed Joshua, preparing him to become a symbol pointing to the incarnate Son of God.

The Lord said that He set a stone with seven eyes on it before Joshua. Yahweh of hosts declared that He was about to engrave an inscription on it that would speak to Him removing the iniquity of the land in one day. The chapter concludes with Yahweh of hosts declaring that in that day everyone will invite his neighbor to come and sit under his vine and under his fig tree (vv. 9–10). The stone could have been the capstone, which when put in place would complete the construction of the temple (Zech 4:7, 9). The stone ultimately pointed to the Messiah, who is commonly symbolized as a stone (e.g., Ps 118:22; Isa 28:16; Matt 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:6). The seven eyes on the stone represent the Messiah’s ability to see and understand all things, His omniscience (see Rev 5:6). We aren’t told what the inscription on the stone is, though it is apparently commemorative of the removal of iniquity. A popular view through much of church history is that the engraving was a preview of Jesus’ wounds. It could also be that the names of the redeemed tribes were engraved on the stone (see Exod 28:9–11, 21). Jesus paid for the sins of Israel and the world with His death on the cross. Once the people of Israel as a whole come to faith in Messiah Jesus, all iniquity will be removed from the Promised Land (see Zech 12:10—13:1; Rom 11:26–27). This will happen on the day Jesus returns. And once He returns, the people will enjoy fellowship with one another, in peace and prosperity.

This appearance of the Angel of Yahweh was our last Christophany, and it is such a blessing that it so vividly portrays the righteousness that only the Son of God can provide. The Angel of the Lord cleansing Joshua is a picture of how the individual is saved and how the nation of Israel will be saved. 

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[1] Hengstenberg, Christology, 290.

[2] Targum Jonathan to Zechariah 3:7.

[3] The Messiah would be both fully God and fully man (i.e., the hypostatic union). Jesus is the root and the descendant of David (Rev 5:5; 22:16).

[4] Benson, Notes, vol. 3, Zech 3:1.

[5] Joshua is the English spelling of Jesus’ Hebrew name Yeshua. Jesus is the English spelling of the Greek Iesous.