Zechariah 3:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Zechariah 3:2

Comments

The meaning of this should be fairly clear to us. If the Lord in the vision rebukes Satan, it is a way of showing that the Lord is going to restrain him. He is going to be allowed to do so much, but no more. He is under a rebuke of the Lord, which means God will limit the damage he can do. Those neighbours for all their hostility are not going to bring the whole scheme to an end. They are not going to stop the rebuilding of the Lord's house and the message that will come through it, through all its symbolism; they will not succeed. Don't just read, ‘The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan’, as though, in the celestial realms, the voice of God rang out, and rebuked him; that verbal rebuke stands for the action of God. That rebuke indicates God will also, by his help, strengthen his people to overcome any of the obstacles that Satan puts in the way. If God has chosen Jerusalem to be revived at that time and the temple rebuilt, then there is no doubt that the scheme will be successful, because it is by the predestinating will of God. So election is a tremendous comfort, and when people talk about election, sometimes they forget this aspect, the great comfort of election. If God has begun the work of salvation then he will surely finish it and bring us home.Then another little argument is added here: ‘Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’ There is evidence to show that this is the will of God, this is the electing will of God. Think of the evidence they had. Suddenly, the invincible Babylonian Empire goes into internal weakening and collapse, and falls before the Medo Persian Empire. Who would have predicted it? Who would have thought it? Following that, Cyrus the Mede, a typical ancient tyrant, suddenly gets it into his head to do something revolutionary: to release prisoners, and send them home, and give them liberty, and return them to their land. How can you explain such a phenomenon? It is the work of God. Amazing things have happened. Don't just think about the parting of the Red Sea; think about the fall of Babylon; think about the Cyrus edict, so many centuries ahead of its time giving liberty to Judah. Think about the willingness of some 50,000 Jewish people, settled where they were, to make a hazardous journey to re-enter hostile territory. Whoever put it into their minds to do that? Think of the support they had of the Persian Empire, and funding to do it, and here they now are back in their homeland. So, ‘Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire, plucked out of seeming helplessness?’ You have all the evidence to demonstrate that God is with you. That is the message of the vision and it applies to us, of course.

Application

The more we think, the more evidence we have of the reality of conversion and the subsequent blessing of God, and his guidance and answered prayer. If I know that God has worked in my heart and brought me under conviction and changed my mind and given me a new outlook towards God which I never had before, and caused me to fear him and to feel conviction of sin and to repent of that sin; if he has changed my life and made sin my worst enemy, instead of my best friend, and has totally altered my whole way of thinking, then I say, ‘This is not my wisdom. This is the electing love of God. He has done this in his irresistible grace, and brought me to himself.’ This is great comfort to me. When I stumble and fall, or when something goes radically wrong and I suffer grievous disappointments, and Satan whispers in my ear, ‘You are not a true believer; you are not a real Christian; you cannot be. You have lost your footing; you have lost your way; you have slipped; you have lost your salvation.’ When he says that, you say, ‘But I cannot lose my salvation because salvation is the result of the electing power of God.’ Election then is a tremendous comfort, and that is why it is brought in here. ‘Even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem will rebuke Satan’, and limit him.

This message lives down the centuries to us today. You have to look at problems in a spiritual manner, and the opposition to the church and to the word, and the resistance to the gospel and spiritual labour, is ultimately the resistance of Satan, who is under the rebuke of God. Never despair. There is a limit put upon what he can do, and there is capacity given to us to prevail through prayer as we continue with the work of God.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Zechariah 3:2 Commentary and Bible Study