"Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!" Long post alert☺

Believers, have you ever wondered how the prophecy of Zechariah to Jeshua and Zerubbabel and the Jews' resumption and completion of the building of the Temple of God after years of inactivity applies to you and I in Christ today? It's the same prophecy from where we get "Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!"

The whole story is a picture of the effect our Abba Father's abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ. It shows us how, with these gifts, the Accuser (Satan's) accusations are useless/powerless against us. The story is recorded in the Book of Ezra but let's do quick a recap:

God led Cyrus, the king of Persia, to send the Jews back to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild the His Temple after 70 years of their captivity in Babylon, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord to Jeremiah. Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and Jeshua, the high priest, along with the Jews that returned from the captivity got to work and the workers they appointed laid the foundation of the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

The old enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that their descendants were building the Temple of the Lord, so they approached Zerubbabel and the other family heads, offering to help them build and pretending that they served the God of Israel. But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and their companions refused their offer. So these enemies started beating down the morale of the people of Judah, harassing them as they built. They even hired propagandists to frustrate their purpose. They kept this up for about fifteen years, throughout the lifetime of Cyrus king of Persia and on into the reign of Darius king of Persia.

In the beginning of the reign of King Ahasuerus, they wrote an accusation against the Jews to the king. Also in the days of Artaxerxes, another king that reigned after Cyrus and before Darius, two guys named Rehum and Shimshai wrote a letter against Jerusalem to the king telling him that the Jews would no longer pay taxes or tributes to him if the city was built and so the king would have less money; much like how many religious people today come against the gospel that is Grace and say it will make people disobedient and go on sinning sprees!

These two accusers told the king that the Jews were rebellious and that if he allowed their work to be concluded, he, the king, would no longer have dominion in that region. So the king wrote and stopped the building of the Temple of God. The accusers rushed with glee to Jerusalem to read the letter to the Jews and by "force of arms," made them quit building the Temple!

In chapter 5, it is recorded that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied in the name of God to the Jews, and Zerubbabel and Jeshua started building the house of God in Jerusalem, with the prophets helping them. But what did Zechariah prophesy that made them start building again, unafraid of their accusers and the consequences of their action? 

We see this in Zechariah 3 and 4. 

Zechariah 3:1-5 - prophecy for Jeshua

"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.

4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.”

So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by."

Satan was standing to oppose the high priest, Joshua (Jeshua) who was clothed in filthy rags (menstrual rags in original Hebrew,) representing  his own righteousnesses from works of the Law. This was the high priest of Israel, as righteous by works as any human can be, but God saw him as one wearing filthy (menstrual) rags, as it is written in Isaiah 64:4 "all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags..." See the NET: "...all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight." 

Satan could oppose Jeshua because in and of Jeshua the high priest, he was not a righteous man, not before God, as none of us are of ourselves today. Like Jeshua, all of our good works and obedience to the law in order to get right with God, earn His favour or earn a ticket to heaven amount to filthy (menstrual) rags. They cannot make anyone righteous in the sight of God, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." (Romans 3:20.) Because many in the church cling to their law-keeping and good works as a means of getting into God's good books, many are experiencing a lack of progress like Jeshua did in the construction of the Temple.

Only the Righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:19) will suffice for God the Righteous. And He freely gives this to all who believe. 

For us in Christ, the word of the Lord to Jeshua in Zechariah's vision  “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” is our reality! And like Jeshua, we did nothing to earn it. 

With Christ as our righteousness, we are guilt-free. He took our condemnation and judgment. Here, accusations or charges brought against us by Satan cannot prosper. See Romans 8:33 "Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies." It is God who makes us righteous. Satan's fiery darts of accusations cannot prosper in the life of all whose righteousness is found in Christ: a gift.

The law condemns everyone who is trying to obey it to get right with God. Condemnation and judgment follow Satan's accusations (fiery darts of the wicked one) on those who are clothed in their own righteousnesses aka trying to obey the law and doing good things in order to get into God's good books. This resulted in the accusations by the Jews' physical enemies and the enemies' success at stopping the work on the Temple. Before anything can happen in the physical, it has already been settled in the spirit!

But the Lord stripped Joshua of his own righteousnesses from works of the Law (filthy rags) and clothed him with rich robes (for us today, Christ's righteousness.) Notice that Joshua did nothing here except receive God's gift of righteousness. The Lord called and justified him. Only when we are clothed in the righteousness of God which is a gift for all those who are in Christ (Romans 5:17) will the weapons formed against us (Satan's accusations) never prosper and tongues that rise against us in judgment are condemned. The promise is a heritage (an inheritance) of the servants of the Lord whose righteousness is from the Lord and not earned. We see this in Isaiah 54:17. 

Zechariah 4: 6-9 - prophecy for Zerubbabel 

So he answered and said to me:

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:

‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’

Says the Lord of hosts.

7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!

And he shall bring forth the capstone

With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”

8 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

9 “The hands of Zerubbabel

Have laid the foundation of this temple;

His hands shall also finish it.

Then you will know

That the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.

The prophecy to Zerubbabel made him see that the obstacles to the building of Temple of God cannnot be removed by human effort (today, our various efforts at giving and doing things in order for God to help us or anything we do in our own strength to fight off accusers and enemies) but by His Spirit. The capstone is the finishing stone of a structure. The Lord made Zerubbabel see that the project will be completed only by His Grace! 

So what happened when Jeshua and Zerubbabel heard these prophecies from Zechariah and started work on the Temple of God again, conscious of their God-given Righteousness and Grace respectively? Their human accusers, mouthpieces of Satan, came forward to oppose them as usual, even informed the king of the work. Little did they know that like Haman in the story of Esther, that was to be their downfall! 

The king ordered the same accusers, enemies of the Jews, to make sure they, the Jews, received everything they needed for the work to be finished SHARP SHARP and from the coffers of the same enemies that were trying to stop the work! He even decreed that anyone who slowed the work down by not providing the needful things on time should be hanged!

Bear in mind that Satan's mouthpieces are today still spewing their fiery darts of accusations even from some pulpits, e.g. seemingly "righteous" leaders that accuse believers of being subject to generational curses that Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from according to Galatians 3:13 and those that make you believe that you can be godly (be like God the Righteous) by obeying the Ten Commandments despite Romans 3:20 "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." The same strategy was used with Eve. Their way only causes sin to have dominion over their prey, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:14.

Believer, only by the obedience of Christ are we made righteous. Romans 5:19. 

Zerubbabel, the grandson of Jehoiachin, a king of Judah and governor of Judah received Grace to build the Temple of God. Jeshua, the high priest, received the gift of Righteousness and the Temple of God was built. One a king; the other a priest. Today, in Christ, we are kings and priests as it is written in Revelation 1:5-6 "...To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

King-priests in Christ, like Zerubbabel we have abundance of Grace and like Jeshua the high priest, we have the gift of righteousness and as it is written in Romans 5:17 "...But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

In Christ, we have overcome Satan who opposes. The accusations of Satan can neither stand nor prosper in our lives. We get to reign in life. We get to live in triumph over sin and death plus all of its symptoms, including fear, worry, anxiety, stress, oppression, pride, inferiority complex (still pride but the other side of the coin: both involve self-occupation when we should be Christ-occupied,) depression, silly mistakes, lack, poor health, impatience, intolerance, fast-tracked ageing, physical death and the second death. All through this one Man, Jesus Christ! He does it all.

Believe Right and you will Live Right!