Week 31 Zechariah 6
The Lord told Zechariah to visit the high priest – a man named Joshua – and say: here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. So it makes it sound like Joshua is the Branch.
I’ve got a niggling concern about this so I check the five marginal references in my bible:
In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit
The days are coming…when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land
Listen Joshua, you and your associates…are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.
These other verses explain a couple of reasons why Joshua is not the Branch.
First the Branch is – genealogically-speaking – going to come from David’s clan. Not Levi’s.
Second Zechariah says the Branch will come at a future time. The Branch is waiting-in-the-wings.
Third Zechariah tells Joshua he only symbolizes the real Branch. A kind of logo… a trademark.
So whoever the Branch actually is…he isn’t Joshua the priest.
Note: quotes from Zechariah 6:12 Isaiah 4:2 11:1 Jeremiah 23:5 33:15 Zechariah 3:8 (NIV)