Legacy of the Kingdom
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King James (Authorized) Version

Zechariah 3

1And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

2And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

3Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.

4And 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 thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

5And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.

6And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,

7Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.

8Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

9For 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.

10In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.

Commentary

Verses 1–3

Beloved, the second picture. Set it next to Legion in your imagination, because the Lord wants you to see them together. Joshua here is not Joshua of Nun, the warrior who took Canaan. This is *Joshua the high priest*, post-exile, in the days of Ezra and Zechariah, in the early years after the return from Babylon. He has come back to a Jerusalem in ruins. The temple was burned. The walls were broken down. The people had been carried away for seventy years. The previous generations of priests, including his grandfathers, had failed. Idolatry had filled the temple. The priesthood had collapsed. The whole nation had lost the land. And now Joshua, the inheritor of Aaron's line, was standing in the heavenly courtroom with the burden of all of that history on his shoulders. Now watch the verse closely. *Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.* Filthy garments. In Hebrew, the word for filthy here is *tsoah*, it carries the meaning of excrement, the most defiling possible kind of stain. *That* was the priestly garment Joshua was wearing. Not because Joshua personally had committed every defilement, beloved, but because he had *inherited* the priestly garment from a long line of priests who had defiled it. He was wearing the *territorial iniquity* of the nation. The accumulated sin of the land was on his vestments. And Satan saw it. The verse says, *Satan standing at his right hand to resist him*. Why? Because Satan knew that as long as those filthy garments stayed on Joshua, Joshua could not minister, the temple could not be rebuilt in righteousness, the land could not come into full restoration. *Satan was not resisting Joshua as a man. Satan was resisting the assignment over the land that Joshua carried.* Friend, hear me. *Many of you are not under attack because of your personal sin. You are under attack because of the assignment over the land that is on you.* You are wearing a garment of accumulated iniquity that was never originally yours. The drinking that has plagued the bloodline. The poverty that has dogged the family. The premature deaths that have stalked the lineage. The infidelity that has cycled through generations. *That is the filthy garment of territorial iniquity, and the enemy is using it to disqualify you from the assignment over the land that has been waiting on you.* I pray for somebody right now, let every accusation that has stood at your right hand to resist you be silenced in Jesus' name. Let every filthy garment of inherited iniquity be exposed in the courtroom of heaven today in Jesus' name. **Amen.**

Source: Tosin Israel, Pastor Tosin Israel

Verse 2

Beloved, watch what the Lord says, and watch what He does *not* say. He does not deny the filthy garments. He does not argue that Joshua is clean. He simply says, *The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.* And then He adds a phrase that holds the whole revelation, *even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee.* Hear that. *The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem.* Why does the Lord drag *Jerusalem* into the courtroom argument? Because Jerusalem is Joshua's land of purpose. The Lord is saying, *Satan, your accusation against Joshua is not just an accusation against a man; it is an accusation against the land I have chosen. And I, who chose the land, rebuke you.* The defense is not Joshua's righteousness, the defense is *the Lord's electing love over the territory Joshua was assigned to.* That is huge, friend. *Your defense in heaven's court is not your record. Your defense is the Lord's choice of the land that was given to you.* He is the Lord that hath chosen *your* Jerusalem. He is the Lord that hath chosen *your* family bloodline to be redeemed. He is the Lord that hath chosen *your* city, *your* assignment, *your* ministry, *your* household. And He rebukes the accuser on the basis of *His own choosing*, not on the basis of *your performance*. And then comes the wonderful line, *is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?* A brand is a stick that has been partly burned and pulled out of the flame before it was consumed. The Lord is saying, *Joshua, you may look like a half-burned stick, but I plucked you out of the fire on purpose. I did not pluck you out to throw you away. I plucked you out to use you.* Beloved, you may feel like a brand right now. Half-burned. Smoke still rising. Scarred. Discoloured. Not who you used to be. *But the Lord plucked you out on purpose.* He did not save you for storage. He saved you for service. He pulled you out of the fire to *send you back into a different fire*, the fire of the Holy Ghost that reconnects you to the land. I pray over you in Jesus' name, every accusation of unworthiness against the brand the Lord has plucked from the fire, be silenced. The Lord that hath chosen *your* Jerusalem rebuke the accuser in Jesus' name. **Amen.**

Source: Tosin Israel, Pastor Tosin Israel

Verses 4–5

Friend, watch the three movements of this scene because they are the operational pattern of the Holy Ghost's reconnection of a delivered believer to their land. **One, the filthy garments are removed.** *Take away the filthy garments from him.* The accumulated iniquity is stripped off. *I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.* Notice who removes the garments, *not Joshua*. Joshua does not strip himself. The heavenly attendants strip him. And notice who causes the iniquity to pass, *the Lord Himself*. Friend, you cannot strip off territorial iniquity by your own effort. You did not put it on by your own effort, it was inherited, and you will not take it off by your own effort either. It must be *removed* by the operation of the Holy Ghost. **Two, change of raiment is given.** *I will clothe thee with change of raiment.* The strip is not for the sake of nakedness. The strip is for the sake of *replacement*. New garments come on. In priestly language, these are the *holy garments*, the ephod, the breastplate, the robe of righteousness. In your life, the new garments are the *robe of righteousness* and the *garments of salvation* that Isaiah 61 promises to every redeemed one. *You are not stripped to be left exposed. You are stripped to be reclothed.* **Three, the mitre is set on the head.** *Let them set a fair mitre upon his head.* The mitre is the priestly headdress, the official symbol of his office. It was the headpiece with the gold plate that said *holiness unto the Lord*. Setting the mitre on him is the official restoration of his authority. He is now back in operational priesthood. He can now minister. He can now intercede. He can now *judge the house of the Lord*. The headship of his calling is restored. Beloved, the pattern is, *strip, reclothe, recommission*. The Holy Ghost does all three. He does not leave you stripped without reclothing. He does not reclothe without setting the mitre back on your head. The fire is thorough. I pray right now for somebody reading, let every filthy garment of territorial iniquity be removed in Jesus' name. Let change of raiment be put on you, robes of righteousness, garments of salvation, in Jesus' name. And let the fair mitre of your specific calling be set back on your head today in Jesus' name. **Amen.**

Source: Tosin Israel, Pastor Tosin Israel

Verses 7–8

Beloved, watch the moment territory is given back. *Then shalt thou also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts.* The reclothing was for the *reconnection*. The mitre was for the *commission*. Joshua does not get the new robes only to admire himself in the mirror. He gets them so that he can be *sent back* into the office that the filthy garments had blocked him from. And then comes the prophetic word that exceeds Joshua's day and reaches into ours, *I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.* The branch. Capital B. In Isaiah 4:2, the Branch is the Lord. In Isaiah 11:1, the Branch grows out of the stem of Jesse. In Jeremiah 23:5, the Branch is the righteous King. *The Branch is a Messianic name for Jesus Christ.* And here in Zechariah 3, the cleansing of Joshua becomes the prophetic preview of the coming of the Branch, Jesus, who would do for the whole world what was being done for Joshua in the courtroom of heaven. Then in John 15:5, Jesus opens His mouth and says, *I am the vine, ye are the branches.* The capital-B Branch makes the lower-case-b branches possible. Because *He* is the Branch, *we* can be branches *in Him*. And as branches we have the same connection to the vine that He had to the Father. The same fire. The same sap. The same authority. The same fruit-bearing capacity. Beloved, here is the pinnacle of the chapter. *When fire reconnects you to the Branch, you become a branch, and branches have territory.* You have a piece of vineyard that is yours to bear fruit in. You have an assignment over a land. You have a Jerusalem the Lord has chosen, and the same Lord that chose your Jerusalem rebukes every accuser that would resist your possession of it. I decree it right now, every reader is reconnected as a branch to the Branch in Jesus' name. Every piece of vineyard the Lord has assigned to you, may you walk in it and judge His house there and keep His courts there in Jesus' name. **Amen.**

Source: Tosin Israel, Pastor Tosin Israel