When You’re the One Needing to Forgive Yourself
A Study of Zechariah 3:1-7
What do you do when you’re the one needing to forgive yourself. Today we’ll begin a study of the remarkable third chapter of Zechariah. If you’re able to be at your Bible, turn there with me, near the end of the Old Testament.
While you’re doing that, let me remind you that as we work our way through the book of Zechariah, we’re finding a lot of prophecies—promises and predictions about the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. Zechariah has been called “The Old Testament’s Book of Revelation.” If you want to further study the Signs of the Times and the End of the Age, check out my book, The 50 Final Events in World History. It’s an explanation of the actual New Testament Book of Revelation. I’ve studied this book repeatedly since I was in Bible College, and I’m convinced it’s much simpler to understand than you think. Check it out wherever you get books—The 50 Final Events in World History.
Now let’s open our Bibles to Zechariah 3, one of the best passages in the Bible for dealing with the subject of how to overcome the guilt and shame we feel for whatever stupid or sinful things we’ve done in the past.
It’s not surprising in this day of collapsing convictions that more people are feeling more guilty more of the time. The Washington Post recently ran an article on this. It was written by Bob Brody, who said:
“It’s amply documented that guilt, especially if excessive and left to persist unchecked, can produce problems ranging from the physical, such as headaches, indigestion and muscle tension, to the mental, chiefly stress, anxiety and depression.”
He went on to say that guilt has a cousin, and that cousin is named Shame.
Brody wrote, “Almost everyone at some point—except, say, psychopaths and sociopaths—feel the pang of guilt.”
Sometimes we suffer false guilt. Brody recalled that when he was a boy he felt guilty that he could hear because his mother had been stricken with spinal meningitis in infancy that had left her profoundly deaf. He felt guilty that he could hear and she could not.
But, he said, over the course of his life he has done or said or thought a lot of things that represent genuine reasons for feeling guilty. Most of our guilt isn’t false guilt—it’s real. We all feel that way. It’s not just recent behavior that bothers us. We can look back over our lives and be tormented about things we did or said decades ago. We’re very good at beating ourselves up.
The same thing is true for spiritual or religious leaders, and that included the high priest, Joshua, who helped lead a remnant of Israelites back to Judah and Jerusalem about 500 years before Christ. Zechariah 3 is all about him.
In case you’re new to our Zechariah Zone studies, I’ll briefly summarize the background. In 587 BC, the Babylonian Empire under King Nebuchadnezzar defeated the nation of Judah and deported most of its survivors to Babylon. When King Cyrus came to power he reversed that policy and allowed the Jews to return to Judah. About 50,000 of them did so under the leadership of Governor Jerubbaal and High Priest Joshua. Their main job was to rebuild the Temple up on the Temple Mount. But they ran into so much opposition that the project was abandoned for 18 years. Then two prophets—Haggai and Zechariah—began preaching to the people and a revival broke out. The work resumed and the Temple was finished.
Apparently High Priest Joshua felt a tremendous sense of guilt that he had faltered and had been among those who gave up the project. He probably said to himself, “Here I am, the spiritual leader of this remnant of Jews, and I failed them. I gave into pressure. I gave into fear. I’ve wasted eighteen years—not only in my life but in the lives of others. What was wrong with me?”
And so the Lord had a special message from the prophet Zechariah just for Joshua the high priest. There are three layers to this message: It is personal; it is figurative; and it is prophetic.
Scripture
I want to read the entire chapter because it’s short. But today I’m only going to deal with verses 1-7. Next week we’ll finish the chapter. This is one of the most powerful visions in the whole Bible. It is powerful and personal and practical for every one of us. So let’s get the picture in our mind.
3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
5 Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8 “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
10 “‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
1. The Devil is the Accuser
Let’s look at the personal application of this for Joshua. Verse 1 says: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
Joshua finds himself in a courtroom. He’s on trial. He’s the spiritual leader of Israel, but his failures are haunting him. He is standing before the angel of the Lord, which is almost universally understood to be an Old Testament title for God the Son—Jesus Christ. Joshua is standing before God the Son and someone else has shown up—Satan, or literally, the adversary.
This isn’t the only time we see this in the Bible. One of the names for Satan is “The Accuser of the Brethren.” We find that in the book of Revelation, chapter 12. In verse 10, the devil is referred to as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before God day and night.”
Satan knows your faults and failures, and he takes great delight in showing up before the throne and laughing at us and accusing us before God, and he does this day and night.
We have a vivid example of this in the book of Job, when the divine counsel gathered and Satan was there to accuse Job. He even obtained permission from God to put Job to the test.
The problem is, of course, that at least some of what Satan says is true. He accuses us before God and he also accuses us before ourselves. I’m aware that terrible things happen, and sometimes we bear some blame. I’ve had friends who hit someone with a vehicle and caused their death. I’ve known men who had affairs and wrecked their marriages. Some people freeze in a crisis and fail to come to the aid of someone who needed them at that moment.
And how easy it is for us to say the wrong thing! I know what it’s like to say something stupid at the worst possible time and to want to beat my head against the wall afterward in self-reproach.
People with addictions are prone to self-loathing, and sometimes the guilt can be more than the person can bear. This is from Satan! God has an answer to guilt and shame, but Satan tries to keep us distracted by self-condemnation. He is the accuser of the brethren. But the Lord knows how to deal with him.
2. We Are the Sinner
Let’s go on to verse 2: The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
Satan is rebuked twice. The Lord—evidently the Angel of the Lord or God the Son—said, “The Lord—God the Father—rebuke you. Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you.” And then the Lord uses a vivid phrase to describe Joshua. He is a burning stick snatched from the fire.
Imagine that you built a campfire, a bonfire, and suddenly you looked and someone had thrown your hand-carved walking cane into the fire, the one you use for hiking. You run over and snatch it out of the fire. It might have a little soot on it, a little charring, but you’ve saved it.
All of us by our sinfulness have been condemned to the fires of judgment, but Jesus Christ runs over to the fire and snatches us out. He saves us.
This phrase was very special to John Wesley, the great 17th century British evangelist. When he was a child, his house caught on fire. Everyone thought the entire family had been evacuated when someone looked up at an upstairs window. Little John was standing there and people saw his face illumined by the flames. Instantly they formed a human ladder and snatched him to safety. And he always afterward called himself “a branch snatched out the fire.” That’s what we all are who know Jesus Christ as our Savior.
He saves us. And now we have another visualization of what it’s like when we find salvation and forgiveness is Jesus Christ.
3. God is the Forgiver
Verses 3 and 4 say: Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
The Hebrew term for filthy has to do with someone who has had dysentery and their clothes are soiled and smelly. Joshua is stripped of these filthy clothes, washed, and clad with new fine garments. The angel of the Lord interprets the meaning for us. Removing his squalid clothing was symbolic of Christ taking away his sin. Putting fine garments on him illustrates being clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
This is a picture of what the New Testament calls the doctrine of justification. There are two sides to it. When we are justified, two things happen. First, our sins are removed from us and transferred to Jesus Christ. Second, His righteousness is transferred to us.
If our sins were forgiven but we weren’t imputed with the righteous of Christ we would be naked. But Jesus gives us His own righteousness, He clothes us with Himself, so when God sees us He sees the righteousness of Christ. That puts us far above and beyond fear, guilt, shame, and condemnation.
The prophet Zechariah is so excited about this that he blurts out something. He speaks out in his own vision. Look at verse 5: Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
The turban was part of the garments of the high priest, and Zechariah wanted to make sure the picture was complete.
4. When The Accuser of the Sinner is Defeated by the Forgiver, We Become Disciples
And then the Angel of the Lord, who was Jesus, gave Zechariah some words of encouragement. Look at verses 6 and 7: The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
It’s the same thing He said to the woman taken in adultery: “Go and sin no more.”
It’s the same as He told Simon Peter by the lake when He recommissioned him: “Go and feed My sheep.”
He was saying, “If you are faithful to me, I will give you influence and leadership and bring you at last to my heavenly Kingdom.”
When the accuser of the sinner is defeated by the Forgiver We Become Disciples of Jesus.
So here is the lesson we can draw from all this about sin and guilt and shame..
Our ability to cast out our feelings of frustration and guilt and shame depend on our understanding of God’s forgiveness. Why should we remember what He has discarded? Why should we be tormented by what He has cast away from us as far as the East is from the West.
The Bible uses many metaphors to help us picture the extent of forgiveness and how righteous we are in God’s sight. Isaiah said, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Paul said that we are like a slate that has been wiped clean (see Colossians 2:14 MSG).
But of all the visualizations, this is one of the most powerful—that our old filthy garments are gone and burned and destroyed, and we are now dressed in the righteous raiment of Christ. Anytime the Devil comes and tries to accuse you… anytime you feel guilty and ashamed about something in the past… anytime old memories arise and torment you—just say, “Oh, those old clothes were burned and destroyed at the cross of Jesus Christ, and I’m wearing new clothes now. I’m dressed fit for Heaven.”
Conclusion
I read a wonderful blog about this on a website entitled Proverbs31.org. It was written by Lysa TerKeurst, who is the president of that website and a prominent Christian author and speaker. She’s published by the same publisher who I’m connected to. Her bestselling book is entitled Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How To Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again.
The blog I read was entitled, “What if the Person I’m Struggling to Forgive is Me?” She said that earlier in her life she made the decision to have an abortion. Afterward the guilt was overwhelming and filled her with the deepest grief she had ever known. And then whenever she heard someone else talking about the subject of abortion, all the feelings of guilt and shame came back full force.
She didn’t think she could ever deal with these feelings, and she struggled with it in painful ways. So she went to the Bible to see what it says about forgiving ourselves, and she said she didn’t find any verses on that subject. Instead, the Bible is filled with verses about God forgiving us.
“Forgiveness begins with God,” she wrote. Since we are not the judge, we can’t pardon ourselves. So, when we feel like we are struggling with forgiveness for ourselves, what’s really happening is a struggle to fully receive the forgiveness of God.”
She went on to say, “Jesus gave His very life to provide forgiveness for our sins.” How, then, can we really appropriate this and claim it to such an extent that Satan can no longer torment us? Lysa listed three things that eventually helped her fully receive God’s forgiveness and get out from under the weight of condemnation.
First, she set aside a time to truly confess her sin, repent of it, and ask God’s forgiveness. Her verse was Psalm 32:5: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin. She asked another person to join her and support her as she offered her prayer to the Lord.
Second, she began remembering what we’ve learned from Zechariah 3—shame and accusation come from the enemy. Satan loves to hold us hostage. But she blamed Satan for the terrible temptation to relive what God has forgiven. We need to pray as the Angel of the Lord did here in Zechariah 3 and say, “Lord, rebuke Satan. May the Lord of hosts rebuke him!”
Third, she let her experience make her heart tender. It’s given her more compassion for others who struggle with the same thing. She said, “I don’t ever want another human to carry the awful weight of shame.”
She ended by saying, “Shame and condemnation aren’t from God. Confess what you’ve done. Ask for God’s forgiveness. Receive His forgiveness. And then walk in His freedom.”
I can’t put it better. Please keep this visual picture in your mind. Your old clothes are gone and burned. Your new clothes are as bright as Jesus Himself. When the devil comes calling, ask God to rebuke him—for there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ, for the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1).