which is quite natural, inasmuch as the
shadow of bright light is deeper than that of faint rays. It is most
full in the latest books, as here and in Job; but doctrinal inferences
drawn from such highly imaginative symbolism as this are precarious. No
one who accepts the authority of our Lord can well deny the existence
and activity of a malignant spirit, who would fain make the most of
men's sins, and use them as a means of separating their doers from God.
That is the conception here.

But the main stress of the vision lies, not on the accuser or his
accusation, but on the Judge's sentence, which alone is recorded. 'The
Angel of the Lord' is named in verse 1 as the Judge, while the sentence
in verse 2 is spoken by 'the Lord.' It would lead us far away from our
purpose to inquire whether that Angel of the Lord is an earlier
manifestation of the eternal Son, who afterwards became flesh--a kind of
preluding or rehearsing of the Incarnation. But in any case, God so
dwells in Him as that what the Angel says God says and the speaker
varies as in our text. The accuser is rebuked, and God's rebuke is not a
mere word, but brings with it punishment. The malicious accusations have
failed, and their aim is to be gathered from the language which
announces their miscarriage. Obviously Satan sought to procure the
withdrawal of divine favour from Joshua, because of his sin; that is, to
depose the nation from its place as the covenant people, because of its
transgressions of the covenant. Satan here represents what might
otherwise have been called, in theological language, 'the demands of
justice.' The answer given him is deeply instructive as to the grounds
of the divine forbearance.

Note that Joshua's guilt as the representative of the people is not
denied, but tacitly admitted and actually spoken of in verse 4. Why,
then, does not the accuser have his way? For two reasons. God has chosen
Jerusalem. His great purpose, the fruit of His undeserved mercy, is not
to be turned aside by man's sins. The thought is the same as that of
Jeremiah: 'If heaven above can be measured ... then I will also cast off
all the seed of Israel for all that they have done' (Jer. xxxi. 37).
Again, the fact that Joshua was 'a brand plucked from the burning'--that
is, that the people whom he represented had been brought unconsumed from
the furnace of captivity--is a reason with God for continuing to extend
His favour, though they have sinned. God's past merc