A Clean Turban and a Bold Prophet: Zechariah's Role in God's Work
You never know when someone will text you a question about the book of Zechariah
I got this random question via text recently:
In Zechariah 3 what do you think - what is the significance of the fact that God is the one who removes the sin but Zechariah is the one who declares the new turban gets put on Joshua’s head?
5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the LORD stood by.1
I read the text and thought about it for a while, then I checked a couple of commentaries to see if I was on track with others or not. Carol and Eric Meyers suggest that in verse 5, Zechariah is acting in accordance with the pronouncement which he witnessed in verses 3-4:
3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”2
So Zechariah isn’t doing something new but merely taking part in what he has seen the angel of the Lord do before.3
Furthermore, Mark Boda details the fact that Zechariah also interrupts the divine agent in the vision of the measuring line in chapter 2. He points out that in some “divine council” texts the prophet interjects also. So Boda sees the command in 3:5 by Zechariah as unremarkable.4
I personally noted that the way the angel of the Lord stands by as this sequence happens seems to imply approval of the proceedings. So while it is odd that the prophet commands the angelic beings, it is not abnormal in the world of the biblical text.
Boda points out that the whole exchange in this scene is meant to show that the priest is being consecrated in accordance with the Torah so that he can lead God’s people correctly.
Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Zec 3:5.
Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Zec 3:3–4.
Meyers and Meyers, AYB, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, 219.
Mark J. Boda, NICOT The Book of Zechariah, 226, 238.