JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST For the joy of the daughter of Zion to be realized, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself appeared, as Joshua, a High Priest in His temple, clothed with filthy garments on our behalf, the garments of captivity; to grant us Himself a garment of righteousness and a clean turban on His head. 1- Joshua and Satan 1 - 2 2- Joshua and the clean turban 3 - 5 3- Joshua, who works in the house of the Lord 6 - 10 1- JOSHUA AND SATAN: “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan: ’The Lord rebuke you Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you; Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (1, 2) What does this vision mean? The high priest, a symbol of the ministry in the temple, being captivated to Babylon, the whole ministry in the temple was destroyed. Yet, behind this, there is a hidden animosity, not between Babylon and the high priest, but between Satan and God. Satan stood at the right hand of Joshua to oppose him; but Joshua, perceiving that the war is actually against God Himself, said to Satan: “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!”. “The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you, Satan!”; not because of any righteousness on her part, nor because she has suffered the bitterness of captivity, but because God has chosen her out of His love; according to the words of the Lord Christ to His disciple: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16). He is jealous on us because of His love for us; particularly when He sees Satan “a brand plucked of the fire”, whose work is to cast himself in us, to turn us into an unquenchable furnace. Who is ‘Joshua son of Jehozadek the high priest’? According to fathers, Joshua is a symbol of Jesus Christ the Highest Priest and Bishop of our souls. For the word ‘Jesus’ is an abbreviation of ‘Joshua’, namely, (Jehovah is salvation); while ‘Jehozadek’ means (God is Righteousness). Our Lord Jesus Christ, having come to us, being God our Savior and Righteousness; carrying our nature, Satan could not perceive who He is, but was in doubt, particularly when he saw Him hungry, thirsty, and suffering…… Standing at His right hand to oppose Him, the Lord overcame him to our account. The Lord Christ fought against Satan who is “a brand plucked from the fire”, the destructive brand chosen by men for themselves, to ignite them by the deadly fire of evil desires….. St. Clement of Alexandria wonders why would men seek that deadly brand to die by it, when they could live honored by the Lord?]. According to St. Dedymus the blind:[Satan, being a brand plucked from the fire, God could let it burn off without plucking it; but He did not allow for him to be utterly punished now, but plucked him to use him in His divine purposes, yet without letting him give fruition, like a burnt branch that lost life.; the Lord uses him as a tool by which He would be glorified by the conquest of His children over him. 2- JOSHUA AND THE CLEAN TURBAN: We should not marvel to see Joshua clothed in filthy garments, standing before the angel of God to hear His command: “Take away the filthy garment from him”; For Joshua symbolizes the Lord Christ, the incarnate Word of God, who was clothed with our own filthy garment; so as, by His cross He would take away our sins, we would carry His righteousness, and be crowned. According to St. Jerome: [Being clothed by those filthy garments, the Lord gave the enemy the chance to stand before Him to oppose Him]. And according to St. Dedymus the blind: [After taking away from Him the filthy garment, they put a clean turban on His head, and clothed Him with clean garment. For the sake of re-establishing and rebuilding the city and the temple, the Head of the freed captives has to put on the garment of salvation and the attire of righteousness, to say: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61: 10). The filthy garments have to be taken away from Him, for He should not grieve any more, but rejoice and exult in the salvation of those who suffered captivity. ……….Now, who are they who were commanded to take the garment of grief away from Him, described as being “filthy” …… We could say that they are the angels surrounding those who fear God to protect them, and keep them from feeling grief and sorrow, caused by the temptations of life]. To Joshua is said: “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes” (4). How could the Lord be addressed by saying: “I have removed your iniquity from You”. The apostle Paul says: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5: 21); and, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; (for it is written: ‘cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’); that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3: 13, 14).. He carried our sins, so that by the cross He would take them away, to make us carry His righteousness. “The rich robes” with which the Lord was clothed instead of the filthy garment, refer to His church, rich in a multitude of talents; as though it is the multicolored shirt given by Jacob to his son Joseph, in which everyone of us represents a thread, if taken away, the shirt would lose its beauty and strength; that is the robe by which the Lord transfigured, “as white as the light” (Matthew 17: 2). According to St. Augustine: [His garment is the church; which, unless he who puts it on, holds fast to it, it would fall off him. In such a robe, the apostle Paul represented just a ‘hem’, describing himself as “the least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15: 9)……… And the woman who suffered bleeding, when she touched the hem of the garment of the Lord Christ she was cured of her ailment ( ). So was the church that came from the Gentiles became well through the teachings of the apostle Paul]. According to St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa: [Taking away the filthy garment and putting on the rich robe, refer to taking off our old man and our enjoyment of the new man through the water of baptism. By this we learn in a symbolic way, that in the baptism of the Lord Christ, as we take off our sins as filthy and poor garment, we put on the holy and very befitting robe of renewal]. The clean turban is the crown by which we are crowned in the Holy Lord. 3- JOSHUA, WHO WORKS IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: The commandment given to us was addressed to our head and Highest Priest Jesus Christ: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If You will walk in My ways, and if You will keep My command, then You shall also judge My house; and likewise have charge of My courts; I will give You places to walk among those who stand here’” (7). The secret behind addressing the command to Him, is that we would not be able to keep it except through Him; and we would not be able to realize the rites of the Lord without His work in us. If the church is the house of God, it will be our Lord Jesus who judges her; supports the upright, and lifts the fallen up; by which His children would be standing, namely set in Him; and He, Himself, would walk among them. He finally ends this vision by revealing the Person of that High Priest, saying: “For behold, I am bringing forth “MY SERVANT” the “BRANCH”; For behold the “STONE” that I have laid before Joshua, Upon the stone are seven eyes; Behold, I will engrave its inscription’, says the Lord of hosts; and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, ‘everyone will invite his neighbor, under his vine and under his fig tree’” (8 – 10). We can summarize his talk here concerning the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ as such: (1) He calls Him: “My Servant”, “the branch”, “the East”, and “the Stone”; every title consummates the rest of titles. For, through the incarnation, He became “A Servant”; “Being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2: 6, 7). And by belonging to David, He came out as “a Branch”, even though He is the Creator of the vine (Isaiah 11: 1, 2). Calling Him “the East”, refers to being “the Sun of Righteousness” who brings light upon those who sit in the darkness. Finally, He was called “the Stone”, rejected by the builders, to come to be the “Cornerstone”, who binds the Jews and the Gentiles together in the heavenly spiritual building, about which the apostle says: “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone” (Ephesians 2: 20) (2) By saying: “I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day”; he refers to the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, being “The Sun of Righteousness” that shone on us with no sunset; and turned our night into a day with no night, in which our iniquities are removed by the cross. (3) On that day, the day of the crucifixion, we were bonded together “everyone will invite his neighbor under his fig tree”; namely we are bonded together by love through His church, the holy vine, and the fruitful fig tree……….. In our interpretation of the book of Joshua, we saw how the vine refers to the suffering church, which goes through the winepress together with her Groom; and how the fig tree refers to the unity of the Holy Spirit, referred to as the outer cover of the fig that embraces inside a multitude of seeds, that would be worthless except through the unity of the Spirit.
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