Changing Filthy Cloths For New Ones

Text: Zechariah 3:1-9

I think it is fitting to have Advent around the New Year. Think of it, Mary was an expectant mother. She was anticipating an arrival. She was expecting, but what? Mail? A promotion? No, she was expecting a baby! A brand new person came into existence.

This is the message of Advent. We are expecting a birth. Not just a birth, but the birth of a Savior. God is a God of new births, new beginnings.

January 1st is the start of a new year and a new beginning if we want to. You see, we can begin again, we can change. It is possible to have a fresh start only with God’s help. God wants to help us begin again. We see this in a forgotten book of the Bible, Zechariah. Let’s look today at the third chapter and see how God can change the old to the new. Zechariah 3:1-9.

I. Take Off The Filthy Rags.

Zechariah began prophesying just two months after his contemporary Haggai. Together they encouraged the people to get ready for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. At this time the Jews were captives in Babylon. The punishment of the Lord was coming to an end and now the people must prepare for a new beginning in the ruined homeland. Where they ready? Well, we see that God had some words for the high priest, Joshua.
Chapter 1:1--2 begins, “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo: ‘The LORD was very angry with your forefathers. Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.’”

The people were not ready for a return to Jerusalem; they had been living among the Babylonians to long and needed to come back to their righteous