Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

November 27– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Joshua the high priest (is seen) 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 brought near to God by the blood of Christ and has been taught to minister in holy things. Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and even here upon earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and holy service.

But this high priest is said to be “standing before the angel of the Lord,” and the meaning here 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 employment as in his house. They are to be always ministering, offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise and presenting themselves to God as 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 of the covenant, the Lord Jesus, and through him my prayers are accepted because they are wrapped up in his prayers.  My praises become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, aloes, and cassia from Christ’s own garden. As I stand in Christ, I am accepted in him who is loved by God. And all my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine disgust, are received by God as a sweet fragrance. He is content, and I am blessed.

This is the position of the Christian– “a priest standing before the angel of the Lord.” [M&E]