Joshua the High Priest

Transcript

we're going through this prophecy in Zechariah 3 and

Joshua the High Priest is an amazing individual and he has no recorded words but he's definitely very much there and he again he plays a very integral role particularly in the story of Ezra and so we're going to go through his story and then subsequent prophecy because they're you know very much linked of course and in addition to what I hope is an interesting and informative study there's there definitely is much exhortation to be taken from this individual so we're going to look at just how his humble dedication and spirit of work is just an example to follow and I really hope this is edifying tonight for everybody because basically we're going to start with his his actual work in the book of Ezra you know with the remnant of the Israelites that returned to Jerusalem but then we're going to focus to him as a type of Christ and that is the very core part of this prophecy which you may have already started to pick out upon reading and so yeah I just hope that the story is is encouraging and interesting all the same and considering the prophecy that we just read it's an interesting one to say the least we we start out the first five verses is essentially a vision given by Zechariah and then that constitutes we have Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan is standing at his right hand to resist him Satan not pictured uh Joshua wearing filthy garments um the angel then commands that a change of raiment is given to him and a mitre or I think brother Jim's translation was a turban is placed on his head and then verses six through ten we have the angel then speaking to Joshua um so we kind of have the setting of it and then the angel actually gives kind of a charge and so he's commanded to walk in the ways of God he's told that I will bring forth my servant the branch a stone is then put before him which has seven eyes on it and then we're finished with every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree so there's a lot going on in these ten verses and so you know my question was what is this actually talking about and really even before that who who actually is this guy who is Joshua the high priest and so to understand the story we will go back to the book of Ezra now and let's actually see the context to which this prophecy is given so if everyone can please turn back in their bibles to the book of Ezra we're going to go through the story at a fairly high level but we're going to establish the narrative and also pick out you know Joshua's very visible role in the story but we're going to kind of roll through the first five chapters a little bit and starting now in Ezra chapter one we have to set the scene for this individual for Joshua the high priest we of course have a very big moment in the history of Israel the captivity to Babylon is going to come to an end finally you know we had the time of the kings and it's turbulence all over and it's sin and it's warnings and prophecy and then Babylon's going to come and take them all out and then we have Daniel and his friends and all the time away in the dispersion and now finally we're getting kind of the end period in the old testament right where our remnant is actually going to come back we're going to come back to the land and become reestablished which will then have lead into our gap and our next moment in the biblical narrative will be christ so this actual returning is marked by Ezra and Nehemiah in particular as Ezra the story is all about building up the temple and Nehemiah is all about building up the wall so that's that's what we're doing here and just zooming in now on Ezra one verses one to four it says now in the first year of Cyrus king of persia that the word of the lord by the mouth jeremiah might be fulfilled the lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying thus saith Cyrus king of persia the lord god of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to build him and house at jerusalem which is in juda which is a fascinating thing for a foreign king to say and he says who is there among you of all his people his god be with him and let him go to Jerusalem which is in juda and build the house of the lord god of israel he is the god which is in jerusalem and whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside the free will offering for the house of god that is in jerusalem so at long last it's time to return the 70 years has come and gone it's time to go back and we have god's very visible hand in the scriptures stirring up this foreign king right to become moved to gather the jews under his domain uh collect lots of expensive resources mind you and then send them back to their land all with a charge to build up this temple uh to a god that he didn't necessarily recognize or or you know it's not his from his land uh and it's pretty amazing and you know there of course there's no accidents to this like this is very this is god's very clear intention of what what needs to happen and so it's from the king that the people are given essentially the charge to go back and build the temple that is going to be the first order of business and so then entering into chapter two we're given a long list of the families and the numbers of people who were stirred up to return and right at the beginning we're we're given a list of basically the the leaders of of sorts as best as i can make it um those whom the masses were kind of following back to the land and so ezra 2 and verse 2 it says uh which came with cerebral jeshua here he is mind you spelled j -e-s-h-u-a in ezra and i cannot find significance for that i think it's same guy though it's joshua jeshua nehemiah sariah rayaliah mordecai bilshan mizpar big vi rayham bayana so here's our jeshua first mentioned in line with zerubbabel and nehemiah and then in the next 65 verses it's families upon families that are also returning with them uh and it's going to lead into verse uh 64 which says the whole congregation together was 42,360 people so a very very massive undertaking and that's not including their servants and they have horses and they have animals and and um people all around followed the king's charge and contributed resources and gold and silver garments things like that to them to be with them on their journey back and so um as ezra 2 it ends with the priests and the levites and some of the people the singers the porters the nethanims dwelt in their cities and all israel in their cities so this huge convoy is gathered together out of the out of the dispersion out of captivity and is back in the land so we're back and now it's joshua and zerubbabel who are going to stand out in this story they are very much leaders together all throughout this narrative um it's it's ezra's book and these two are more or less the main characters at least for this this part of the work right so they waste no time and they get to work and so in verses one and two it says and when the seventh month was come and the children of israel were in the cities the people gathered themselves together as one man to jerusalem so everyone has like come and checked out their accommodations their poor ruined accommodations and now we're all coming back to jerusalem and we're essentially going to have the mark the beginning of this new israel and then right in verse 2 ezra 3 verse 2 here's the man of the hour it says then stood up jeshua the son of josadak and his brethren the priests and zerubbabel the son of shiel teal and his brethren and builded the altar of the god of israel to offer burnt offerings thereon as it is written in the law of moses the man of god so first we have zerubbabel and joshua rebuilding the altar and reinstating the feasts and the offerings and consider the importance of this moment so they return to the land but there's no structure there's no like super defined set of leaders per se besides maybe zerubbabel from the civil standpoint there's an injured cultural identity from captivity and there's hardly one stone upon another in israel and what do they do first well they rebuild the altar so that they can offer the daily burnt offerings then in verse 4 they're going to have the feast of tabernacles they're going to have the daily burnt offerings and the continual burnt offerings and it also says of all the set feasts of the lord that we consecrated they they're going to essentially completely revive from from minute one all of the worship tradition that really defined israel and joshua is going to be the spiritual leader in all of this so he is comes from the levitical line he is essentially he is the levitical high priest and then zerubbabel is going to be more the civil leader so you have a bit of a king and priest kind of dynamic in these two and as far as type of christ goes the two are very much you know they're not separate they work in tandem absolutely and the reason we're focusing particularly on joshua because zerubbabel is also an incredible character is because of the prophecy then that we're going to focus on for the evening but of course the two are like this and

they're both driving forward the cause of israel so in esra 3 workmen are going to be set after they reinstate the worship and the people are going to lay the foundation of the temple so all right away we're we reestablish everything the foundation is already laid and we're getting right on task with this charge that god was given and it was led by these two and chapter 3 is going to end with kind of a very famous commotion as you

people who remembered former temple which was destroyed and that we're seeing the new foundation and so there was a huge commotion and mix of weeping and cheering kind of and it was hard to tell what was what that's that's how chapter 3 ends now

nothing can ever be that easy so we enter into the next step in esra esra chapter 4 and the adversaries are going to come in and they are going to try and put a stop to the work here so looking at esra 4 esra 4 is starting at verse 1 it says now when the adversaries of judah and benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the lord god of israel then they came to zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and said unto them let us build with you for we seek your god as ye do and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of ezerhaddon king of asur which brought us up hither so at first there's these outsiders that come to zerubbabel and to chashua and they say hey we'd like to help you build this temple we'd like to come be a part of things and at first glance that seems like a great idea great more labor more resources let's make the work go quicker but in verse 3 that's not the response we get from our two leaders verse 3 it says but zerubbabel and jeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of israel said unto them ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our god but we ourselves together will build unto the lord god of israel as king sirus the king of persia hath commanded us so they very much put up a wall like a you know verbal wall and say you know get out you are not they they smelled the intention that they were not actually here genuinely and they're going to to say you know please no please leave us alone and their suspicions were correct because then immediately in the next verse it says um then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of juda and troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of sirus king of persia even until the reign of darius king of persia so now these adversaries are going to be a constant thorn in the flesh they're going to be opposing them they're going to be threatening intimidating all to stop this work because they do not like that these people were here and we're told uh in azure four uh

essentially well these these are the samaritans these are the the the nearby people who were living throughout the land and and uh within samaria to the north and these were the folks who were going to be intimidating them and we're going to have this adversarial relationship and this is also the foundation of well the samaritans of the new testament um is is these same groups and it gives a lot of context to what is actually happening in the new testament when it comes to things like the good samaritan and unfortunately in azure four the samaritans are to successfully stop the work and discourage the people um so they are going to send letters to to the king at the time uh and then the king is king artaxerxes is going to command that it be stopped and so messengers are going to come in haste that's as report 23 to the jews at jerusalem by force and power make them cease and it says then the work on the house of god that is in Jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the second year of the reign of derrius king of persia we have highlighted there that date because that's going to be very important as we start to bring in some other parts of scripture so the work is stopped them all that momentum is gone and they've presumably been struggling with these outside adversaries for quite some time now so that's where we come to ezra five and things get interesting here and this is this is exciting stuff so people are in need of some serious encouragement and so how are they going to get their their zeal back how are they going to get restarted well it says in ezra five starting at verse one says then the prophets hagai the prophet and zechariah the son of ito prophesied unto the

god of israel even unto them and then in verse two because of these prophecies it says then rose up the son of shil teal and jeshua the son of joseph and began to build the house of god which is at jerusalem and with them were the prophets of god helping them so the people are stagnant and discouraged and now god is going to spur them on through the

and so hagi's first prophecy this is a great note for your margins is going to occur right between versus one and two and it says this right in hagi one it says in in the second year of derrius the king in the sixth month and so hagi and zechariah as contemporaries to ezra here are very very important parts to this narrative and this is what hagi's entire prophecy is centered on and we have hagi and the yeah the prophecy of hagi is addressed to him and then zechariah three which we're going to look at in more detail soon that's going to come just several months later actually and all of these prophecies are going to very much be in tandem all with the goal of encouraging the people and so let's do a quick transition and we're going to read from the first few verses of hagi because we need to see what's actually being told to the people what is actually told to joshua and zurba in this moment so turn if you can to hagi one i don't have it on the screen here now but hagi's right for zechariah and we'll read from the first several verses and we'll get a sense for what god was speaking to them during this time of stagnation intimidation from the people hagi one verse one it says in the second year of darius the king in the sixth month on the first day of the month the word of the lord came by the hand of hagi the prophet to zurba bull the son of shilteel governor of juda and to joshua the son of jahazadak the high priest thus says the lord of hosts these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the lord then the word of the lord came by the hand of hagi the prophet is it a time for yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins now therefore thus says the lord of hosts consider your ways you have sown much and harvested little you eat but you never have enough you drink but you never have your fill you clothe yourselves but no one is warm and he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes so hagi comes in and this prophecy straight from the lord says what are you doing it's time to get up i am the lord i gave you this charge to build this temple and you were doing so good but now you're sitting here doing nothing while there's a foundation and hardly another stone upon it here in jerusalem and you have your houses but you've gotten complacent and because you gave in to the external threats but we that god is with them and he is simply reminding them through the prophets and this is where the power of you know the story of joshua and zerubbabel starts to become so exhortational and inspiring and important because if we look at verse 12 of hagi 1 this is hagi 1 12 it says then zerubbabel the son of shiel teal and joshua the son of jahazadak the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the lord their god and the words of hagi the prophet as the lord their god had sent him and the people feared the lord then hagi the messenger of the lord spoke to the people with the lord's message i am with you declares the lord and the lord stirred up the spirit observable the son of shiel teal governor of juda and the spirit of joshua the son of jahazadak the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and worked on the house of the lord of hosts their god on the 24th day of the month and the sixth month and the second year of darious the king so out of hagi's prophecy and zekaria's i guess unnamed unreported prophecies at least not for us they are encouraged to get up and rise up and the house and you have joshua and you have observable in the action building themselves they are hauling stones they are they're not just leading they're not just supervising they are actually leading by example and building up the temple and

for men in their position with their responsibilities it's the kind of thing that we wouldn't even blink if you know they didn't work on the house if joshua says you know okay i'm going to go manage the the sacrifice i'm going to ensure that uh you know the the religious order is continues and and you know people are encouraged from that sense and the rebel says i'll use my management skills as leader i'm going to you know make sure everyone works we would have thought that would actually make sense but that's not what they do they get in there and they are building the temple because that's what the lord commanded them to do they're not above that work in the slightest and how amazing is that they are two of just incredible leaders leading by example and you know working passionately for what god had commanded and you know joshua recognizes as well the principle that god desires that action and that that faithful work and not ritual or sacrifice per se of course that was that was important work that would undoubtedly continue by the work of the priests but the work at hand was to build up the temple and everyone had to contribute from the top down to the bottom and what an incredible example from these two that we have and what's just cool about this as as kind of a side is given hagi's hagi and zechariah's involvement and and uh prophecies during this time they're such an integral part of the story as well you have all of these leaders and so much that's recorded in different parts of the bible contributing all to this one effort to have the temple rebuilt and just pulling from ezra 614 this is right at the end where the temple is actually finished it says and the elders of the jews built it and they prospered through the prophesying of hagi the prophet and zechariah the son of ito and they built it and finished it according to the commandment of the

art exerxes king of persia and how awesome is that that they have the role of encouragement and of of prophecy from god joshua himself in addition to building is is leading the spiritual order of israel and zerubbabel is is leading the civil order of israel and so all in tandem all by god's providence and and working israel is going to establish itself as best it can during this time and this is a note from brother hp mansfield in the expository of zechariah uh but i felt it worthwhile to share but it says speaking of zechariah and hagi these two faithful men cooperated together in a wonderful work supplementing the labors of each other hagi was presumably the older of the two for he wrote as though he had seen the first temple in its glory and hagi 2 verse 3 and zechariah was the younger man for his grandfather had returned to the land at the same time nehemiah 12 verse 4 in these two men experience and youth cooperated in a work that enthused the people to activity how valuable are such labors with faithful cooperation and can we not see the ecclesial parallel and the ecclesial inspiration as we want to build up the temple of god and then when you imagine nehemiah's story building up the wall around the city and around the temple we start to come into parallels of ecclesial life of maybe different you know different roles of work within the ecclesia are we building up that temple are we working hard to build up the internal are we building essentially a wall and and gates to establish what is the truth and also to welcome properly uh you know those outside of the city there's all sorts of incredible exhortation and parallel in in this story and it's an incredible thing and we see joshua here working very hard in the center of it and the story in ezra is going to go on the samaritans are again going to come and they're going to oppose the work and they make a complaint to the king but the new king darius the one at play here now it's remember it's his second second year of his reign he's going to call for a search of the king's library and they'll find the previous decree that cyrus initiated to send them back to the land where all this began with and so king darius is going to endorse this decree and he'll call for contributions from those around including the samaritans uh contributions to the sacrifices and there's language in ezra 6 verse 11 this is part of king darius's decree of supporting the work uh that i have to read if you look at ezra 6 and verse 11 it says also i have made a decree that whosoever shall alter this word regarding the charge to build and support the building let timber be pulled down from his house and being set up let him be hanged thereon let his house be made a dung hill for this and if that's not some of the more aggressive support that you've ever seen i'd be surprised and what an amazing act of god's hand this is a very visible hand of god as he influences these foreign kings to so enthusiastically back the work in israel and so that is the story of the exiles built in the temple and and of the context and the work of joshua the high priest and again you know we don't have words spoken by him at any point in this but we can still infer so much about him and he's very much here and we can see his dedication to the work and it's the same rise up and build attitude that we want to have when it comes to our collegial life and our day-to-day walk what an incredible thing and so all of that is the setting and right here in the time period this is when zechariah three is going to be

prophesied it's just several several months later the prophecy is returned back to zechariah three it's

after the work had been reignited and the adversaries had been overcome joshua observable had been laboring alongside the people to build the temple and the work is going to be completed in the next several years years excuse me and worship was going to need to be permanently reestablished you know they're starting to look towards the time when yes we've established the sacrifices um and you know we're creating a in israel but this is very much the work at hand is going to have to continue and now out of the new temple and they're continually going to have to support this very young nation of israel so to speak um that is now back and so it's their faithful work that's the tone is going to be set for what is this new israel going to be uh since captivity are we going to improve or are we going to take on the ways of god and live live in faith or is it just going to fall away into nothingness and we of course know that's not what happened it was far from perfect the kingdom was definitely not at hand but this was the good work that they had before them to do and so that brings us back to joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord in this vision with satan standing at his right hand to resist him he's wearing filthy garments the angel commands that a change of raiment is given to him and that a mitre is placed on his head and then verse six through ten he's commanded to walk in the ways of god he's told that uh my servant the branch will come forth a

stone is put before him that has seven eyes and then it finishes by saying every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree and now just briefly now that we've gone through the story is any of this starting to become a little more clear maybe some of what's going on here the context for this this prophecy because now as we're going to go through it bit by bit and i see we have we'll call it 15 minutes left we're going to see the amazing type of christ really drawn out in joshua that he was a living exhortation that he was a living symbol for the coming of our lord jesus and the work that he would do in addition to having huge relevance to the actual work and to the audience that this was prophesied to and of course we have joshua being the hebrew word for for jesus jesus in the greek yeshua meaning yaweh's salvation or yaweh will save and joshua is going to typify christ as high priest but much more than that in his labor for god and reading from hebrew seven 25 and 26 it says consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to god through him since he always lives to make intercession for them for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy innocent unstained separated from sinners exalted above the heavens and you know as we see the work of great high priests in the bible this is something i'm pondering a lot more lately and trying to understand because we don't live with priesthood today per se but obviously they play such a pivotal role in the biblical narrative but more than that christ is our high priest now just as you watch faithful high priests like joshua or elsewhere this is who our lord jesus is to us and we're very much meant to interact with our lord jesus in this facet of him as our high priest and learning what that means is a journey i'm on and i'd love to speak to anyone else about that further later but now looking in zechariah 3 we're going to start with the very beginning which is joshua standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing at his right hand to resist him now what's going on here so joshua standing before the angel of the lord you could take that as just a simple setting for the vision but joshua's standing in his presence we have that parallel in joshua's life no because in azure 5 verse 5 we have but the eye of their god was upon the elders of the jews that they could not cause them to cease and song 33 verse 18 says behold the eye of the lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy that's the work of the angels are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation and i mean it goes without saying but we'll still say it christ and his work was very much in the presence of the lord always before the angel of the lord ministered to at his time you know of dire need both at the beginning and end and all throughout his journey that's just the first little parallel i want to pull out between joshua and christ in this prophecy in the second part of the verse we have satan standing at his right hand to resist him i like young's literal on this which says the adversary standing at his right hand to be an adversary to him it's kind of funny when when put that way

but because we went through the story we now know who the adversaries actually are and all throughout the time when the eye of god was on the work of course the adversaries were standing right there trying to resist him these are the samaritans they tried everything to oppose the cause and they were rebuked by joshua and continually foiled by god and god's working hand and in our lord jesus life of course he had no shortage of adversaries but the ones that stand out have to be the pharisees and the sadducees they acted as these adversaries all throughout his ministry all the way to his death and he continually rebuked them and opposed them as they thought to stop his work they tried to stop his building up of the temple that he was doing jumping head to zechariah three verses three and four speaking of joshua's filthy garments i'll just read those now it says now joshua was clothed with filthy garments and before the angel and he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying take away the filthy garments from him and unto him he said behold i have caused that iniquity to pass from thee and i will clothe thee with change of raiment so

joshua was clothed in these filthy garments and of course he was because he was building the temple he was in the thick of the work naturally his garments are going to be soiled and torn up it's a simple uh you know literal piece here uh referring to his hard work and what's amazing is in this laboring to build the temple as i just kind of alluded to you know christ labored to build the temple as well first corinthians 6 16 it says and what agreement had the temple of god with idols for ye are the temple of the living god as god hath said i will dwell in them and walk in them and i will be their god and they shall be my people and in addition to the actual labor that christ was doing you know very much uh in the thick of things just as joshua was he bore our fleshly nature and he had the filthy garments on that he was going to need to have the change from first peter 2 24 it says who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed so we can have this parallel between the two now taking away the filthy garments and clothing with change of raiment joshua was going to need to be the spiritual leader and he was going to need to put on the literal priestly garments to in the newly built temple and we won't read from it but you know can read about what those would be in exodus 28 but so this was the in in the story of ezra this was the command essentially and the peace from zechariah that was so crucial to them that he was going to need to continually be that leader and and serve in that temple and again establish that order going forward and christ it's we start to see the natural parallel of course that he having put on immortality he's acting now as our high priest and mediator his raiment has been changed he has put off the filthy garments for before and he's never going to have them on again but now that the temple was built and he is high priest and you know we're trying to every day be a part of that temple he is living now in verse 6 of hebrews chapter 8 but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises now jumping a few verses forward we're going to go to zechariah 3 verse 8 and this is this is a fun one all right this is where we get to my servant the branch and this undoubtedly jumped out at you this is obviously a great one to have underlined with some some great cross references i'll just read it again here now oh joshua the high priest thou and thy fellows that sit before thee but they are men wondered at for behold i will bring forth my servant the branch and so this is the moment that the coming messiah is going to be revealed to the people through zechariah so through zechariah he's told i will bring forth my servant the branch and all we have to do is look at most other prophecies and and you know several other references throughout scripture of to understand what this branch is that we're talking about jeremiah 23 verse 5 says behold the days come said the lord that i will raise unto david a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth jeremiah 33 15 in those days and at that time will i cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto david and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land as therefore verse 2 says in that day shall the branch of the lord be beautiful and glorious and fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of israel and what's incredible here is in zechariah 3 verse 8 says i will bring forth my servant the branch so here the branch is presented as a servant but in zechariah 6 if you can turn over we actually have more about joshua the son of joseph that we're not going to get into but please turn to Zechariah 6 verses 11 to 12 just kidding Zechariah 6 11 12 and 13 please which

says then take silver and gold and make and set them upon the head of joshua the son of joseph the high priest and speak unto him saying thus speak at the lord of hosts saying behold the man whose name is the branch and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the lord even he shall build the temple of the lord and he shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the council of peace shall be between them both so here in Zechariah 3 it's my servant the branch but in Zechariah 6 we have christ presented as king first he's a servant and then out of humility he's exalted and he becomes king and what an incredible and very visible revelation of our lord jesus here in Zechariah to the people so now we're getting to verse 9 and we're coming to the very end and

we have this little guy here the stone with seven eyes i feel like a little illustration and to break this down it says for behold the stone that i have laid before joshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold i will engrave the graving thereof saith the lord of hosts and i will remove the iniquity of that land in one day and so the four parts to understand what this verse is talking about is for behold the stone we have the seven eyes we'll have the engraving and removing the iniquity and if we kind of dissect these pieces we'll see that this verse is jam-packed with symbolism to create this outstanding picture of the redemptive work of christ and the coming work of the saints and leading to the vision of the kingdom i'm going to do my best to go through these with you here now but looking first at the stone of course this is a very common symbol for christ so in the prophecy it's set before joshua but if we look at isaiah 28 16 it says therefore thus saith the lord god behold i lay in zion for foundation a stone a tried stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste the prophecy of christ and this is quoted in first peter two verses four to nine but reading there from verse seven it says unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and just notice here it says in zechariah three for behold the stone isaiah it says behold i lay in zion for our foundation a stone so first we're going to start with christ then second what are these seven eyes and what do they have to do here with christ well we'll start with seven being the number of completeness i'm not going to dive too deeply into that but in zechariah four verse 10 it clues us that the eyes refer to the redeemed saints

also known as the eyes of god that says for who hath despised the day of small things for they shall rejoice saints and shall see the plummet in the hand observable with those seven they are the eyes of the lord which run to and fro through the whole earth and so we have this idea that these these eyes these seven eyes the complete saints are going to be essentially one with christ the stone and are going to be the eyes of god and go to and fro throughout the whole earth and we have that idea there of taking the place of the angels and their work currently or you know i imagine joining the angels so we have the complete saints with christ the stone and then engrave the graving thereof this i'm sharing from brother hp mansfield for sure and and he has a bit from john thomas's eureka here but this idea is coming through that from a rough unshaped stone from the earth to a perfected and refined stone fit for the temple we have the engraving and refinement process and the stone is is shaped in such a way to to fit the eyes on it and with christ of course he didn't have character per se to correct but he through the spirit overcame the flesh that he wore he overcame those filthy robes and through death he put on immortality and isaiah 11 verses one to three is is the beautiful prophecy in isaiah regarding essentially god's tender care on our lord jesus from from when he was a baby and we the eyes we must go through the same refinement the same process of being engraved and shaped to fit into the temple all to reflect the workmanship of god so isaiah 60 in verse 21 it says thy people also shall be all righteous they shall inherit the land forever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that i may be glorified and right there the work of my hands that i may be glorified and then finally this one takes little imagination but through the sacrifice of christ the iniquity of all was removed and israel was redeemed so hebers 10 verse 14 it says for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified whereof the holy spirit also is a

said before this is the covenant that i will make with them after those days said the lord i will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will i write them and their sins and iniquities will i remember no more now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin so with the symbol of the stone that's shown to joshua and laid before him in the vision we have this whole picture from start to finish of christ the cornerstone the saints being complete and joined to him through refinement and the iniquity of israel and of all being removed from that work and then all of this now points us to the final verse of the prophecy verse 10 which is going to be a beautiful kingdom vision zechariah 3 10 says in that day saith the lord of hosts shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree now one of the things that's got me on fire right now and particularly for prophecy is prophecy is starting to make sense to me because i didn't realize until recently that when you understand kind of one symbol in prophecy generally speaking you're going to see that symbol all over and so to me now i'm just you know kind of on the beginning of this journey is we're all on this journey here together but that

that helps me imagine that revelation is doesn't have to be so maybe intimidating that once we start getting in these things and getting through these little pieces things start to unlock and so that's just the case here for this this under the vine and under the fig tree let's read from micah 4 verse 3 to 4 have it right up there on the screen it says and he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up a sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore so what we have here is is clearly talking about the kingdom that's pretty indisputable in micah 3 and then says but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the lord of hosts have spoken it so here we're then going to take that symbol and see this as a kingdom vision in that day under the vine and under the fig tree and

look at the amazing little detail that's included here in the verse it says shall you call every man under the vine and under the fig tree well who was pushed away during the story of ezra the neighbors the adversarial neighbors who came deceptively wishing harm and wishing to stop the work and then had to be blocked out and had to be essentially overcome and

that adversarial relationship with their neighbors would only continue in essentially bad blood for many many years but it's in the kingdom that in this prophecy we're told that the neighbor will be invited under the vine and under the fig tree and how amazing is that that at the end of time all of that that feuding and that sin that causes division and causes challenge that will be overcome and we imagine we consider the you know endless other examples in the bible of 10 men shall grab hold onto the robe of the jew and and asked to be taken to jerusalem and to be taught the ways of god in total contrast to what we see today and that ends the prophecy you know the the temple is going to be rebuilt soon and this revealing of of christ of god's work is given to the people in uh in the book of ezra to joshua to zarubal and just as we read previously we're told that these prophecies encourage them to actually finish the work of building that temple in in ezra 6 verse 14 and joshua the high priest is going to typify that that redemption for them and that work of christ as the high priest