Torah portion: Genesis 41:1-44:17
In Zechariah 3:1-4 we read of High Priest Joshua, back from exile, standing before the Angel of the Lord (Yeshua/Jesus) with the Accuser (satan) standing at Joshua’s right to accuse him. But apparently before this can happen, Yeshua calls upon God the Father to rebuke satan. Joshua was indeed “a burning stick snatched from the fire”. Matthew Henry in his commentary deduces that the fire was Babylon from which Joshua had literally been delivered. Joshua, High Priest, carrying all the sin of the remnant of Israel returning from Babylon, was covered with dung / animal filth / excrement.
But Yeshua has the authority and chose to use it to have Joshua’s filthy garments of sin removed, to take away his guilt and to Himself dress Joshua in fine robes with a turban (endorsing Joshua’s office).
Joseph: A Similar Picture
I see a similar picture in this week’s Torah portion. In Genesis 41:14 Pharaoh summoned Joseph out of the dungeon. That he had to shave and change his clothes tells us that Joseph was in no state to stand before a king. From our vantage point we can see that the survival of all Israel rested upon how Joseph would act at this pivotal moment.
Where satan was ready to accuse Joshua in Zechariah, Pharaoh threw down the gauntlet to Joseph: “You’re a dream interpreter? Do it!” If Joseph got this wrong, Israel would be doomed. But Joseph got it right! He very clearly and deliberately called God into the situation: “It is not me but God will give Pharaoh an answer…” (v16).
In v25-32 Joseph continued, “God has told Pharaoh what He is about to do…God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do…because the matter has been fixed by God, and God will shortly cause it to happen”.
Pharaoh accepted God’s interpretation of the dreams and then like the Angel of the Lord in Zechariah, using his authority, placed his signet ring on Joseph’s hand (endorsing Joseph’s office), and had him clothed in fine linen with a gold chain around his neck (v42).
In these accounts, both Joshua and Joseph were lifted out of a place from where they had been badly soiled, to a place of responsibility where the survival of both themselves and Israel was on the line. And in both instances it was God who chose and saved!
Jesus: The Branch
These are vivid pictures of God’s ultimate act of redemption through Yeshua. Continuing Zechariah’s vision in 2:8, God the Father went on to tell Joshua that He would send his servant, ‘The Branch’, who would remove the guilt of His land (Israel) in one day. We now know that Yeshua is The Branch. He came and took on Himself the sins of all of us who put our trust in Him.
In Romans 5:6 Paul says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people”. That includes you and me. But so what? You will likely know the saying “He’s come up smelling o’ roses”. My point is that if God hadn’t chosen and shown me mercy, I would have remained to this day in a life covered with dung, just as in Zechariah’s vision of Joshua.
As the passage goes on in v9: “therefore, since we have come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment”!
Like Joseph and Joshua, I have been exonerated, given a new set of clothes. I am, and will be, one of the “huge crowd…standing in front of the throne and in front of the lamb, dressed in white robes…” (Rev 7:9).
There is a rider to these thoughts. Joseph was given a job to prepare for saving many through the coming famine. Joshua was given a job bringing Israel back to the ways of God (Zech 3:7). You and I have also been given jobs, each unique, but all bound up in Yeshua’s Great Commission at the end Matthew 28. Let us each continue daily to seek and do that which God has given us, so that one day we might hear from Him “Well done good and faithful servant!”
Author: John Quinlan
