Feed on Christ, and then go and live your life, and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battle, and that wins the crown.
~Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
Then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the Angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the Angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the Angel of the Lord was standing by. And the Angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in My ways and keep My charge, then you shall rule My house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring My servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.
~ Zechariah 3
Oh beloved, it is true. There is one who who has introduced evil into the world. And he did not stop there after we accepted the offer. For the offer of evil was not intended to be an alternate to holiness, but a way for us to be pulled away from the only One who could make us so.
The Liar
The Accuser
The Adversary
The Divider
The Devil
The Satan.
Usurper.
This same one has fallen from his position, and while he is damned, he will not brook anyone else taking the position he once had. And so, to spite the One who created both him and you (and this fool of a writer), he has tarred and feathered us with our fallenness, and set about tattling that we listened to his suggestion in the first place.
Oh, it is not that the liar is wrong. We have indeed sinned. We took the bait. We believed the lie. We have chosen our sadness and blindness and fallen completely short of the glory of Him who would set us free. But the liar takes the reality of our fallenness and tries to use it against us – not for justice, but to try and justify himself.
Liar.
And notice what is going on in the passage. Some commentators put Satan at the L_RD’s right hand, and some do not. This writer goes with the latter. For one, because the Liar has been cast down, and knows not to ascend to the right hand of The Father. The Evil One knows his place better than we do, for he did dwell in the near Presence of our Beloved for æons, and knows surely the power of The King of The Universe.
Accuser.
The Satan stands there at the right hand of Joshua. And Joshua, like all of us on our own merits, is clothed in filthy rags. This man was to be the high priest for all of Israel upon their return from the captivity to which G_d had driven them. But the Liar had missed had refused to understand the point. G_d had called the man to do it, and G_d does not make mistakes.
Adversary.
And so, while the Devil might feel as though he can take the place of authority and honor at your right hand, the L_RD will have nothing to do with this. The G_d of all creation calls forth Authority from the Only Source it truly resides: within His Triune Self. He double-rebukes this usurper in Joshua’s (and our) life.
Liar.
Can we see it? G_d does not stop there.
He purifies the priest.
He promises complete salvation
He provides His Spirit
And then, He calls us to call others to the same Life under the shade of His family tree.
So, are you feeling the accuser do his thing? Stay silent beloved, for your Intercessor has plans for this usurper. Tonight is your night. Time to live like a brand plucked from the fire, instead of an object being burned by it.
The L_RD rebuke you Liar. The L_RD who has chosen Jerusalem, and the people who will inhabit it, rebuke you! Be gone.
