How Is Your Standing Before God?

Zechariah 1-8; Psalm 109:21-25; 1 John 2:1-5

Jim Davis

How God deals with those of us who have failed speaks volumes about his greatness. The story of God is revealed through the pages of the Bible as God reveals how he seeks to salvage humanity. The most intriguing part of the biblical story is how God works with those who have failed. 

The increase of suicides, alcoholics, and even some forms of nervous breakdowns is evidence that many people are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth, and disappointment more normal than arrival. (J. Wallace Hamilton, Leadership, Vol. 2, no. 3.)

The amazing part about the biblical concept of redemption is how God works to salvage our lives as we suffer the consequences of our own failures and wrongdoing. Through its instruction God does seek to prepare us to face our failures as it encourages us to seek the right path.

The book of Zachariah paints a vivid picture of what God desires when we fail—it paints a vivid picture of our standing before God when we fail. Zechariah was writing time when Israel had disobeyed God. God had punished her by allowing the Babylonians to overrun and destroy Jerusalem. The Jewish inhabitants of Israel had suffered for seventy years because of their disobedience. Now God is using Zechariah to reveal his desire for Israel as she experiences the consequences of her failure. Zechariah vision was given to encourage God’s people to bring their lives to God.

Where Do We Stand In God’s Sight?

Zechariah wants each Israelite to understand how God views each of them as they seek spiritual restoration. It is extremely important for a sinner to have a vivid picture of how he/she stands in God’s sight. Zechariah paints an encouraging picture in the minds of his readers of how God views them in their failure.

Zechariah 3 
3:1 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 rich 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 my ways 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, O high priest Joshua 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 his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the LORD Almighty." NIV

In Zachariah’s vision Joshua was the high priest representing Israel. It was the high priest’s job to intercede on behalf of Israel for her sins. Keep in mind that this is a vision given to Zechariah by God. It was given to him to preach to Israel so that Israel might understand what God desired to do for them in their failure. Failures tend to make us depreciate ourselves. This feeling tends to put us in a downward spiral as we wallow in our failures. Israel had been wallowing in her failures and it was essential that they see themselves from God’s vantage point. The vision is seeking to give them a new perspective on life.

As Joshua stands there in his filthy clothes seeking to intercede for Israel Satan is hurling one accusation after another at Joshua. This is the nature of our failures. And At the heart of every accusation is the question: “How can God justify saving such a sinner?” In a poem entitled "My Advocate," Martha Snell Nicholson in the opening lines of a poem lines dramatically portrays the accusations of Satan.
 
 I sinned.  And straightway, posthaste, Satan flew
   Before the presence of the most High God,
 And made a railing accusation there.
  He said, "This soul, this thing of clay and sod,
 Has sinned. 'Tis true that he has named Thy Name,
   But I demand his death, for Thou hast said,
 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.'  Shall not
   Thy sentence be fulfilled?  Is justice dead?

 Send now this wretched sinner to his doom.
   What other thing can a righteous ruler do?"

Often the guilt of our failures interferes with God’s ability to bring spiritual restoration. The difficulty with spiritual restoration is that when Satan lures us into sinning, he then seeks to shame us into hiding our sin and guilt from God. Satan’s stinging accusations of failure is the most difficult thing to deal with as we seek spiritual restoration. John Dorsey describes the devil's tactics in the following poetic words:
      
"I had a battle fierce today
       Within my place of prayer;
     I went to meet and talk with God,
       But I found Satan there.
     He whispered, 'You can't really pray,
       You lost out long ago;
     You might say words while on your knees,
       But you can't pray, you know.'

The guilt that accompanies failure often leads us to feel as though God will not listen to our prayers. We may be convinced that God’s only concern is to strike us with lightning when we fail. We can be assured that these feelings are prompted by the Devil himself. 

In Zechariah’s vision the amazing thing is that Joshua stands there in silence as he comes before the Lord. It is heaven that comes to his defense as Satan hurls his accusations. Zechariah writes, “Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 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 rich garments on you.’ 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.” 

Failures take on a life of their own because the brain remembers incomplete tasks or failures longer than any success or completed activity. It’s technically referred to as the "Zeigarnik effect." When a project or a thought is completed, the brain places it in a special memory. The brain no longer gives the project priority or active working status, and bits and pieces of the achieved situation begin to decay. 

But failures have no closure. The brain continues to spin the memory, trying to come up with ways to fix the mess and move it from active to inactive status. If we are not careful The Zeiganik plays havoc with our spiritual life. 

We must remember when we are in the mode of replaying our failures over and over in our minds that only God can fix our sinful failures---in reality he has already fixed them through our high priest Jesus Christ.

The way we deal with failure can determine how we sustain motivation. God sought to clothe Joshua in heavenly garments of righteousness. God sought to cloth Adam and Eve in Eden—it signified that he loved them despite the shame they had brought upon themselves. This is God’s desire today. Today God seeks to clothe you with the righteousness of Christ. He wants to know that he will allow you to stand in his presence despite your failures.

Galatians 3:26-29
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.  NIV

Israel’s Hope Was God’s Mercy

The easiest thing to do and the hardest thing to do----is to fall upon the mercy of God when we fail spiritually. 

The beauty of Zechariah’s vision is that it not only represents what God desired to do for Israel, but it also reveals what God seeks to do for each of us through Jesus Christ. 

In verse 8 Zechariah writes, "Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.” These things were symbolic of the coming of Christ. The word “Branch” points to Jesus Christ who was destined to carry Israel’s sins. The Old Testament points to the coming of Christ as the hope of Israel’s redemption. When God looked at Joshua the high priest, he looked at him through the plan he had devised to save all mankind through Christ. He could cloth Joshua in Christ’s righteousness that was to come when Jesus died on the cross. God was going to send his servant “the Branch” to bring his righteousness upon Israel.

The vision of Joshua is a very true vision of those in God’s kingdom today. Jesus is our high priest, mediator, intercessor, and savior. 

The shame and consequences of sin drive us away from God, but God’s love is constant. Even in our shame it is God’s desire to restore the relationship. Israel in all of her shame remained the apple of God’s eye. 

Zech 2:7-3:110
7 "Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!" 8 For this is what the LORD Almighty says: "After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you-for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye- 9 I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me. 

10 "Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD. 11 "Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 12 The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling." 

The reason it is difficult for us to shout God’s praises is because the nature of sin is such that it blinds us to who we really are. Sin is of such a nature that it blinds us to the nature of God that seeks to dwell in each of us, and it is his nature that defines who we are.

Imagine this—it is Satan that deceived Israel and led her into the difficulties she faced. They were in Babylonian captivity because they chose to follow Satan. They had lost sight of the fact that they were the apple of God’s eye—they were God’s creation. Now as the high priest comes before God to seek Israel’s spiritual restoration, Satan stands there seeking to accuse and depreciation God’s creation. 

Sin seeks to blind you to the fact that you are a child of God. Adam is called the son of God. Each of us came into this world as a son of Adam and that makes each of us a child of God in God’s natural order of things. God made us in his image. 

The world’s view of us blinds us to our true identity. We will never see the possibility of standing in God’s presence until we understand what we were meant to be. Our greatness lies in the Creator himself.

1 John 3:1-3
3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. NIV

John says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.” It is not clear what we will be because we have lost sight of who God created us to be. I have a real suspicion that what we will be is what God meant for us to be in the here and now. John says,” but when he appears we shall be like him.” We shall be changed in the twinkling of the eye into what God meant for us to be all along. The problem is that sin has so distorted who we are that we will never be able to see our true identity until we get to heaven. 

Revelation 22:4-5
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. NIV

John writes, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure”. It is the purity of his relationship with us that is the hallmark mark our true identity. John tells us that in heaven we shall see God face to face, and when we see God face to face the veil of sin will be removed and we will see ourselves as were meant to be. It will be as if God is removing scales from our eyes to allow us to see our true identity. 

We know that even the smartest humans only use about ten percent of their mental capacity. That means that ninety percent of our brain is not used. I think that our inability to use ninety percent of our mental capacity is because of the darkness that sin brings to our world. But when we see God face to face all that darkness will be removed. It is then that our minds will be totally saturated with the knowledge of God. We shall see him as he is, and for first time in our existence we shall see what we were meant to be all along. 

When we see God face to face we shall experience all that we were meant to be in the twinkling of an eye. Paul says that now we are now looking through a dirty dim lit mirror, but when we see God face to face we shall know ourselves as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the great name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. "Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!" 

"Yes," replied the man, with sagging confidence, "and whatshall we live on while I am writing it?" 

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money. "Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed. 

“I have always known you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year." 

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter. (Citation: David Jeremiah, The Power of Encouragement (Vision House Publishing, 1994); submitted by Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky.

God knows it is what you were meant to be that determines your value rather than what you have become. For this reason God desires to look beyond your failures. He desires to cleanse us and clothe us through Jesus Christ. The darkness of this world hasn’t blinded God to what you were meant to be, and it hasn’t blinded God to what you must do.

Zech 3:4
Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." NIV

Israel Must Recognize Her Failures

Standing in God’s presence cannot become a reality for Israel until she recognizes the need to walk in God’s ways. God’s holy presence is real, and the possibility of you standing in the presence of a holy God is real. But it all means nothing until you recognize your need to allow him to govern your life. Zechariah sees the angel of the LORD giving this charge to Joshua: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'If you will walk in my ways 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.” Israel’s desire to stand in the presence of a holy God is essential to her being clothed by God. 

Do you want to continue to clothe ourselves with rags or do you desire God’s wardrobe? If we desire God’s wardrobe, we must walk in his ways. 

Sometimes it is hard for me to recognize my guilt and shame—many times I don’t recognize the shame of my actions until it is too late.  If you don’t think that you have a sin problem, try this, get up in the morning and go to work or grocery shopping or go mow your yard naked. See that is what is tainted about your being. Our minds are so tainted by sin that we cannot look upon ourselves without a sense of shame. It is sin that strips us naked. It is sin that gives us that sense of shame. It is sin that blinds us to what we were meant to be. We can clothe our bodies in designer clothes, but it will never erase the way we feel about our nakedness. These are probably a sign that we think we must do a great job to cover our shame.

We may be convinced that we don’t need God’s wardrobe. However, the best clothes I can buy will not erase my sinfulness. We are sinners and the clothes we use to cover this fact are as inadequate as the leaves in Eden.

God can’t clothe your nakedness until you recognize you nakedness. During Hezekiah’s reign, immediately before the Babylonian captivity he sought to lead Israel back to God. Israel had defiled herself as she built altars to idol Gods. Hezekiah had torn down the idolatrous alters and sent a cry throughout the cities for Israel to return to God. Hezekiah sought to remind Israel of God’s desire for her spiritually restoration. He sought to bring them back as they observed the Passover feast. The Passover feast was a reminder of God’s faithfulness when they were enslaved in Egypt. The feast was a continual reminder of God’s desire to Passover Israel’s sins. Hezekiah wanted to remind them of the importance of God’s faithfulness as he sought their return. 

Without the sacrifice of Christ each of us looks like Joshua. Without the righteousness of Jesus Christ and we stand before God in filthy rags. Our relationship with God is not based upon our righteousness but upon his mercy (Daniel 9:18-19). We have no right to make a request of God because of our righteousness. Isaiah says our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:4). Our requests are based upon the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. 

The story Hezekiah’s cry for Israel to return to God gives us a glimpse of what God requires. It also gives us a glimpse of God’s willingness to come to our aid. Hezekiah’s cry was “For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” They were assured that God would accept them. Those who recognized their need came to the feast of the Passover to return to the God they had forsaken. They came to yield themselves to the Lord.

2 Chronicles 30:15-20
15 They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the LORD. 16 Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them by the Levites. 17 Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate [their lambs] to the LORD. 18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart on seeking God-the LORD, the God of his fathers-even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." 20 And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people. NIV

Do you know why God considered those who had not purified themselves as clean? It was because they recognized their condition and came to seek God’s face. They came because “The hand of God was also upon Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.” Today God has killed his Passover Lamb for our sins. I don’t know where you are today, but God wants to place his hand upon your heart to lead you to him despite Satan’s accusations.

It was over seventy years after Hezekiah’s efforts to restore Israel that Zachariah was seeking to restore Israel when God emphasized his graciousness to the unclean. As Joshua came before God Satan only brought accusations; but God says, “She is the apple of my eye and I am willing to snatch her from the fire that is about to consume her.”

The Lord said that Joshua was a stick plucked from the fire. God is still snatching us from the fire. Jude admonishes Christians to “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them” (Jude 22-23 NIV). God hates the clothing stained by the corrupted flesh, but he loves the souls so clothed. We have to be careful when we are snatching others from the fire so that we want get burnt ourselves.

The only way we can catch a glimpse of what God meant each of us to be is by focusing our minds on God through Jesus Christ. We only have to take a glimpse at Jesus Christ to get a glimpse of what we ought to be. What we ought to be defines what we are not. We are like Paul who understood that nothing good dwells in the flesh because our fleshy existence has been so tainted with sin. Only Christ can save us from our wretchedness.

The purity of God’s love and justice met at the cross providing a way for each of us to become clean through the sacrifice of his Son. As Jeremiah looked into human hearts he concluded that the human heart is deceitful above all things. But when we look over into the heart of God we see God’s purity. Nothing reveals his purity more than the sacrifice of his Son. Nothing reveals our sinfulness more than Christ’s purity.

The Bible is filled with God’s gracious acts toward sinners; they are especially witnessed throughout the Old Testament. Hezekiah sought spiritual restoration for Israel, but when his son Manasseh came to the throne after his death, he persecuted those seeking to be faithful to God. It was so bad that the Bible says that he filed Jerusalem’s streets with blood (2 Kings 21:16). Isaiah was killed in that blood bath. Manasseh became so wicked that he led Israel to become more wicked than the heathens God had driven out of Canaan in order that Israel could inherit his promises.

God brought the king of Assyria against Jerusalem and they captured and imprisoned Manasseh. The ironic thing is that Manasseh humbled himself before God as he was imprisoned. “He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chronicles 33:13). It was then that God blessed him as he set out to restore Israel spiritually. God does this for sinners today.

These stories of redemption ought to give each of us hope as we seek to stand in God’s presence.

The Practical Aspect of Redemption

Redemption takes upon a greater significance when I understand that what I receive in redemption can be passed on to others through me. There is a prayer that my sister-in-law sent to me this past week that sums the impact our redemption should have on those we meet in our daily experiences.

“Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who  cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and was rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the old couple walking  annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not just to those who are close to us but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judgment and quick to forgiveness; with patience, empathy, and love.

AMEN!”

I don’t know where this prayer originated, so I can't give credit. However it is absolutely appropriate of those of us who have been redeemed to pray for those in need of redemption.

Conclusion:

The Bible is full of stories of man’s redemption, but Satan seeks to blind us to the story of redemption as he focuses us on the evil desires of our own hearts. God’s people understand the struggle to come before God, but we also understand God’s merciful love.

Psalms 109:21-25
21 But you, O Sovereign LORD,
deal well with me for your name's sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. 
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me. 
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust. 
24 My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt. 
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads. NIV

In John’s revelation one of the elders in John’s vision asks, “‘These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:13-17)

Today when we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26-27).

When we confess our sins God forgives our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. In our confession Christ becomes the atonement for our sin. (1 John 1:8-2:2).

The true church of Christ is made up of sinners who have been snatched from the fire and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The true remnant of God stands in the presence of God purified without spot or blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27).

What is your standing before God today? Have you been plucked from the fire? You are the apple of God’s eye and he wishes to clothe you with a new identity in Jesus Christ.

God has given each of us a vision of what we ought to be through Jesus Christ. If we accept God’s vision we will become all we were meant to be.