A stick pulled from the fire: Satan shames us because of our past, but the Holiness of Jesus says, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!”

Zachariah 3:1-2

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“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?” Zachariah 3:1-2

The Joshua mentioned in the verse above is not the same Joshua who replaced Moses as leader in the book of Joshua. The Joshua in the above verse was a prominent figure during the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. That restoration and rebuilding happened after the Israelites were freed from Babylonian captivity. Satan was rebuked for accusing and opposing an instrument of God.

The Holy Spirit is sharing with us about the mercy, grace, forgiveness, and redemption of God that we have through Jesus Christ. Even though we are forgiven, Satan will always be there to accuse us of the sins already forgiven and to oppose our life in Jesus Christ. The response to Satan is, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!”

The Lord has chosen us to be inhabitants of the eternal New Jerusalem and will always be there to rebuke Satan when he brings up past sins which are forgotten by God. When Satan brings up a case against us, God says, “Case dismissed!” God knows we are a stick plucked from the fire. He knows we were living in the ways of this world before His Son Jesus plucked us from the fire of eternal hell. We are forgiven. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:12

The thing which has power over physiology will always form our thoughts to make us think of all the ways we failed the Lord Jesus Christ in the past. It will form our feelings to make us feel remorseful and shameful for the sins already forgiven. It will form our words to try to make us curse the Salvation given to us through Jesus Christ. It will form our behaviors to try to make us do things to jump back into the fire. We are that burning stick, but we make a commitment not to return to the fire.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.1 John 2:1-2

Satan works through people who welcomes his tool which forms what they say, do, think, and feel. They are empowered with uncanny knowledge and heightened intuition as the image of the beast lives and speaks through them. They become Satan’s tool to accuse and oppose those who are pulled from this world to be set apart for Jesus Christ. By what they say and do, they bring up the failures, shortcomings, and sins of our life to mock what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross. They even criticize the imperfection of common mistakes like misspelling a word, dropping a cup, using an eraser, etc. Apparently, they think because they know all about our terrible past then somehow God has not forgiven us. Untrue! That is when Satan is told, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan” Those working for Satan against Christianity are conformed to the global culture as they are groomed to the mark of the beast.

I would even say that it is obvious Satan is the prince of the airways because accusations materialize out of thin air against those living for the Holiness of Jesus Christ. “The Lord rebuke you, Satan!”

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1