Have you ever been playing outside when it started to rain? I bet when you got home your parent said something like, “Let’s get you out of these filthy clothes and get you cleaned up.” Well, something similar happened to Joshua, the high priest during the days of the prophet Zechariah. He came into the holy place where priests would meet with God, and he did so “clothed with filthy garments” (Zech. 3:3). His “holy” clothing was as dirty as if someone splattered diapers on him. Yuck! Do you know why he looked so filthy to God? Not just because of his filthy clothes but because he had not been acting holy. He was not loving God and his neighbors! This sinner had no right to stand before God and offer sacrifices for other people’s sins.

Now if it wasn’t bad enough that Joshua was filthy, guess who was standing next to him—Satan, that slithering serpent we read about in the garden of Eden. Satan was up to his old tricks. He was accusing Joshua, saying something like, “Ha, some holy priest. This man is a mess! God, you should throw him out of your temple and toss him into hell.” God could have listened to Satan, because, after all, Joshua was a mess. But God didn’t. He told Satan to leave. And he showed mercy to sinful, messy Joshua. “This man,” he said to Satan, “is like a stick I have saved from a roaring fire” (see 3:2). God not only saved the high priest from the judgment he deserved but also forgave him and clothed him with his own holiness. He stripped him of his yucky garments and clothed him with a clean white robe, a clean white sash, and clean white hat. He then told Joshua to start living like he looked. Pure. Holy. Set apart. No more dirty tricks. No more walking in his own ways. From now on, he was to be holy as the God who saved him is holy.