Zechariah 3:1

“Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the
       Lord.” 
              — Zechariah 3:1

In Joshua the high priest we see a picture of each and every child of
God, who has been made nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught
to minister in holy things, and enter into that which is within the
veil. Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon
earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed
service. But this high priest is said to be “standing before the angel
of the Lord,” that is, standing to minister. This should be the
perpetual position of every true believer. Every place is now God’s
temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily
employments as in his house. They are to be always “ministering,”
offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting
themselves a “living sacrifice.” But notice where it is that Joshua
stands to minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only
through a mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests
unto God. I present what I have before the messenger, the angel of the
covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through him my prayers find acceptance
wrapped up in his prayers; my praises become sweet as they are bound up
with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia from Christ’s own garden.
If I can bring him nothing but my tears, he will put them with his own
tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can bring him nothing
but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as an acceptable
sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in
spirit. I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all
my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine
abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savour. He is
content and I am blessed. See, then, the position of the Christian-“a
priest- standing-before the angel of the Lord.”

On this day...

  1. October 9, 2010

Leave a Comment