Zechariah 3:8 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Hear now Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee’ – Joshua and his fellow priests who must continue to minister in this reconstructed temple are addressed. It is God’s will that the ceremonial law continues to operate as a testimony to the work which Christ will do when he comes into the world. Joshua and his fellow priests must for the time being continue to offer up the sacrifices of the law for the instruction of the people. They are typical men and their office is a typical office. It has value because of what it points to in the future.But they are also ‘men wondered at’ as the KJV translates it, because they are conspicuous: that is the Hebrew. They stand out; they are noticeable. Why are they noticeable? Because they are not on the make, because they are not vaunting themselves, because they are not strutting about, showing off and exercising personal authority. They are people who seem to be preoccupied with the accurate depiction of the temple symbolism, the message of the temple. They want to pursue it carefully and clearly. They want reconciliation and atonement to be understood by the people, and the Lord's ordinances and provisions are the way to do that, and they are going to be carefully carried out. So people wonder at them: these serious men, these conspicuous men, these humble men, these one-track mind men. Their minds are on the message, the temple, reconciliation, atonement. In that context, ‘Behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch’, a messianic prophecy. We know from passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah, that ultimately the Branch is a reference to Christ. Prophecy had foretold that he would like a branch grow out of the root of David (Isaiah 11:1). This name ‘Branch’ therefore draws attention to God’s faithfulness to his promises. When the Branch comes into the world, then so much light will be shed on all that the Old Testament priests carry out in symbolic form.