“I also was standing by, and consenting,
and keeping the garments of them that slew him.”
(Acts 22:20, ASV)
These are the words of Saul, the learned Pharisee who hated and persecuted Christians. He had witnessed the stoning of Stephen, the murderers of the first martyr having laid their clothes at his feet. This event has immensely important prophetic meaning.
Clothes have a very important symbolic value in the Scriptures. In Dictionary of Biblical Imagery the author suggests that “the literal investing and divesting of garments becomes overtly metaphoric of spiritual states” (p. 319). These clothes worn by the false witnesses could thus be seen as the garment stained by sin (Jude 1:23), a clear manifestation of the symbolic leprosy manifested in the clothes (Lev 13:47-59), their good deeds nothing more than “a filthy rag” (Isa 64:6, CEV), clothes stained by blood that no one dared to touch (Lam 2:16). They are clearly men of violence, “violence covers them like a garment” (Ps 73:6). The garments at Saul’s feet were cover[ed] … with violence” (Mal 2:16).
The fulfilling of the Old Covenant had left man standing before God in dirty clothes. The beautiful prophetic playing out of this in light of Jesus leading us into the new dispensation is the history of Joshua in Zech 3. Joshua is here presented as the high priest, the only one who could represent the people before God in the Holy of holies (Ex 30:10; Lev 16:34). Even he, who was representing the entire Jewish nation, had a garment (“his spiritual state”) which was soiled.
Read the prophetic playing out of what would later take place in 34 AC – “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. 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?’ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 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.’ 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. Then the Angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house, and likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk among these who stand here. Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are a wondrous sign, for behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.’” (Zech 3:1-9).
Obviously God’s “Servant the Branch” that is spoken of here is also a man named Joshua, or as He is called in Greek, Jesus. He wears the garments of the New Covenant.
- Sela: Read the story of Joseph (Gen 37-45) where clothes are used to consistently mark positions of transition.
- Read: Num 28; Hos 7; Ezek 20
- Memorize: Ezek 20:49
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 1 of William Barclay’s The mind of St Paul.
