Morning, November 27
Go To Evening Reading
“Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.”
Zechariah 3:1
In Joshua the high priest we see a picture of each and every child of God, who has been made
nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught to minister in holy
things, and enter into that which is within the veil. Jesus has made
us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon earth we exercise
the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed service. But this
high priest is said to be “ standing before the angel of the Lord,” that is, standing to minister. This should be the perpetual position
of every true believer. Every place is now God’s temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily employments
as in his house. They are to be always “ministering,” offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting
themselves a “living sacrifice.” But notice where it is that Joshua stands to minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah. It is only through a mediator that we poor defiled ones
can ever become priests unto God. I present what I have before the
messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through
him my prayers find acceptance wrapped up in his prayers; my praises
become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, and aloes,
and cassia from Christ’s own garden. If I can bring him nothing but my tears, he will put
them with his own tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can
bring him nothing but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as
an acceptable sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed
heavily in spirit. I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved;
and all my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine
abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savour. He
is content and I am blessed. See, then, the position of the Christian—“a priest—standing—before the angel of the Lord.”