A clean walk
The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8 “‘Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
10 “‘In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
What takes place in verses 6 and 7 is really the same thing that happened to the woman taken in adultery in John chapter 8. The teachers of the law and Pharisees brought her to Jesus, and after all of the accusers had left after Jesus said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (verse 7), Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you . . . Go now and leave your life of sin” (verse 11).
To Joshua the words were, “Walk in my ways and keep my requirements.” This was the warning not to go back to the mud with his clean garments.
God’s ministers are servants. They follow orders as servants, and orders are given here. If they are not walking the way and keeping the requirements, then they forfeit their positions as ministers. So their prayer as servants must be, “Lord, keep me faithful; keep me obedient.”
What a shame when the minister fails and must step down from his position. It happens. Sad to say, it happens more and more as the ones in charge of God’s courts are themselves unable to hear what he has to say about them and their families, their finances, and their future. The ministry gives no one a carte blanche. It is possible for a man to serve the Lord only as long as he walks in God’s ways.
In the book of Hebrews, Jesus is called the High Priest. This is one of the themes of the book. As such he is the perfect “go-between” with God and man. He is the perfect revealer of God’s will to man. He is also the perfect sacrifice.
Joshua and his friends were to be a preview of Jesus, the High Priest. Verse 8 says, “Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.” In this way the office of the priesthood was to be one way the Lord drew pictures in the minds of his people about the one who was coming to minister to all of their needs.
To us in the New Testament times, our ministers still go by the name of shepherd (pastor), realizing that there is one Shepherd, the Good Shepherd. The shepherds in churches, imperfect though they be, are symbolic of the Good Shepherd, the one who is coming to gather his sheep to his right hand.
Jesus is referred to with the words “the Branch.” That this is he will become more evident in chapter 6 starting at verse 12. God makes certain abstract things about his Son clear with this picture of the branch.
In John chapter 15 Jesus himself uses this picture of the branch to picture the relationship of his people to himself. As the Branch, Jesus too is connected to his Father. He is his Father’s Son. He did the will of his Father. He received his strength from his Father as a branch receives its strength from the root, the vine. We see this in many instances of Jesus praying to his Father, of angels coming to minister to him, of him withdrawing by himself to pray, and of him praying before meals.
In his life, Jesus was the very picture of a branch, a person who needed the constant care and supply his Father provided.
The purpose of the branch is to carry out the will of the root—to bear fruit. Jesus hinted at this when he referred to himself as the one who would “bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24 KJV). People looked at his life and said, “He has done everything well” (Mark 7:37). There would be much fruit in his life. John even said about him: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25).
Jesus, the Branch, showed his disciples that he would not tolerate fruitlessness when he cursed the fig tree that had no fruit on it (Matthew 21:19). As the Branch, he knew what could reasonably be expected of branches.
Finally, in the picture of the Branch, the roots, as is the case with a tree, remain unseen. “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18). But Jesus is the Branch, the proof that the root is there. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).
The picture then changes to a stone: “See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it.”
The number 7 is often used as the number for completeness in the Bible. There were seven days in the first week. In the book of Revelation, John writes to the seven churches. The examples of 7 used in this way are many.
The footnote in the NIV suggests that the eyes are facets. This is possible. It is also possible that the Lord means just eyes.
In the next vision in chapter 4, we hear about the seven lights: “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth” (verse 10).
Sight is connected to this stone in an important way. Verse 9 of chapter 3 begins with the word “see.” We are not sure of the meaning of the seven eyes, but they are eyes, and eyes see.
Jesus is pictured in many places as a stone, a rock. He is the rock upon which the church is built (Matthew 16:18). He is pictured as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Jesus even said about himself, “He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed” (Matthew 21:44).
There is an inscription on the stone. In Revelation 2:17 God tells the church at Pergamum: “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”
The name Jesus was a name not known. It summed up the whole life’s inscription of the one who carried it. Even the disciples, after Jesus’ resurrection, wondered if perhaps he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. The name was Jesus, and children in confirmation class are taught that the name of God is everything we know about God. We do not know what the inscription on the stone was, but we do know that it said something like the inscription written in the air on the day of Jesus’ transfiguration: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Mark 9:7).
We are bold to make the connection to Jesus and this stone with its inscription because of the words that Zechariah said: “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (verse 9). The inscription that day when God’s Son did this was very clear. It was Pilate’s writing, but it was God’s will. JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS. And the one who bore that inscription said on that day, “It is finished.” Paradise became possible for thieves and for us. Our King took away our sins in a single day.
Now to the final frame of the picture! The scene is full of good and contentment, the very picture of heaven. Peace pervades, the peace that passes understanding when the weight of our sins is lifted from our backs and souls as the result of this one day. Then we have the pleasure of the good, the ability to sit peacefully under our own fruit trees—shades of the picture God paints to us in the Revelation of John: “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).
What a chapter it is! Full of pictures! We see a burning stick, dirty clothes, rich clothes, the Branch, a stone, and a pastoral picture of peace.