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<p>As the promises made to David often slide insensibly into promises of the Messiah, whose kingdom David’s was a type of, so the promises here made to Joshua immediately rise as far upward, and look as far forward, as to Christ, whose priesthood Joshua’s was now a shadow of, not only in general, as it kept up the line of Aaron’s priesthood, but especially as it was the reviving of that happy method of correspondence between heaven and earth, to which a great interruption had been given by the iniquity and captivity of Israel. Christ is a high priest, as Joshua was, for sinners and sufferers, to mediate for those that have been under guilt and wrath. And it was fit that Joshua should understand the priesthood of Christ, because all the virtue of his priesthood, its value and usefulness to the church, depended upon and was derived from the priesthood of Christ. See,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. To whom this promise of Christ is directed (<a class="bibleref" title="Zech.3.8" href="/passage/?search=Zech.3.8">Zech. 3:8</a>): “<i>Hear now, O Joshua</i>! Thou hast heard with pleasure what belongs to thyself; but, behold, a greater than Joshua is at hand. <i>Hear now</i> concerning him, <i>thou</i> and the rest of the priests, <i>thy fellows, who sit before thee</i>, at thy feet, as learners, but whom thou art to look upon as <i>thy fellows</i>, for all you are brethren; let the high priest, and all the inferior priests, take notice of this, for they are <i>men wondered at</i>.” They are set <i>for signs</i>, for types and figures of Christ’s priesthood. What God now did for Joshua and his fellows was a happy omen of the coming of the Messiah promised, and would be so interpreted, with a pleasing wonder, by all that had understanding of the times. Or they are men <i>wondered at</i> for their singularity, hooted at as strange sort of people, because they <i>run not with others to the same excess of riot</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Pet.4.4" href="/passage/?search=1Pet.4.4">1 Pet. 4:4</a>), or for their strange afflictions and surprising deliverance out of them, as <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.71.7" href="/passage/?search=Ps.71.7">Ps. 71:7</a>; <i>I am as a wonder unto many</i>. They are <i>men of wonder</i>; they are a wonder to themselves, are amazed to think how happily their condition is altered. God’s people and ministers are, upon many accounts, men wondered at. The high priest and his fellows here (as the prophet and his children, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.8.18" href="/passage/?search=Isa.8.18">Isa. 8:18</a>) are for signs and for wonders. But men’s wonder at them will cease when the Messiah comes, as the stars are eclipsed by the light of the sun; for <i>his name shall be called Wonderful</i>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. The promise itself, which consists of several parts, all designed for the comfort and encouragement of Joshua and his friends in that great good work of building the temple, which they were now engaged in. An eye to Christ, and a believing dependence upon the promises relating to him and his kingdom, would carry them through the difficulties they met with in that and their other services. 1. The Messiah shall come: <i>Behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch</i>. He has been long hid, but the fulness of time is now at hand, when he shall be brought forth into the world, brought forth among his people Israel. God himself undertakes to bring him forth, and therefore, no doubt, he will own him and stand by him. He is God’s servant, employed in his work, obedient to his will, and entirely devoted to his honour and glory. He is the branch; so he was called <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.4.2" href="/passage/?search=Isa.4.2">Isa. 4:2</a>; <i>The branch of the Lord</i>. <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.11.1" href="/passage/?search=Isa.11.1">Isa. 11:1</a>; <i>A branch out of the roots of Jesse</i>. <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.23.5" href="/passage/?search=Jer.23.5">Jer. 23:5</a>; <i>A righteous branch</i>; and <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.23.15" href="/passage/?search=Jer.23.15">Jer. 23:15</a>; <i>The branch of righteousness</i>. His beginning was small, as a tender branch, but in time he should become a great tree and fill the earth, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.53.2" href="/passage/?search=Isa.53.2">Isa. 53:2</a>. He is the branch from which all our fruit must be gathered. 2. Many eyes shall be upon him. He is <i>the stone laid before Joshua</i>, alluding to the foundation or chief corner-stone, of the temple, which probably was laid, with great solemnity, in the presence of Joshua. Christ is not only the branch, which is the beginning of a tree, but the foundation, which is the beginning of a building; and, when he shall be brought forth, <i>seven eyes shall be upon him</i>. The eye of his Father was upon him, to take care of him, and protect him, especially in his sufferings; when he was buried in the grave, as the foundation-stones are under ground, the eyes of Heaven were still upon him, buried out of men’s sight, but not out of God’s. The eyes of all the prophets and Old-Testament saints were upon this one stone; Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day, and he <i>saw it and was glad</i>. The eyes of all believers are upon him; they look unto him and are saved, as the eyes of the stung Israelites were upon the brazen serpent. Some understand this <i>one stone</i> to have the seven eyes in it as the wheels had in Ezekiel’s vision, and think it denotes that perfection of wisdom and knowledge which Jesus Christ was endued with, for the good of his church. <i>His eyes run to and fro through the earth</i>. 3. God himself will beautify him, and put honour upon him: <i>I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts</i>. This stone the builders refused, as rough and unsightly; but God undertakes to smooth and polish it, nay, and to carve it so that it shall be the <i>head stone of the corner</i>, the most beautiful in all the building. Christ was God’s workmanship; and abundance of his wisdom appears in the contrivance of our redemption, which will appear when the engraving is perfected. This stone is a <i>precious stone</i>, though laid for a <i>foundation</i>; and the <i>graving</i> of it seems to allude to the precious stones in the breast-plate of the high priest, which had the names of the tribes <i>graven</i> upon them, as the <i>engraving of a signet</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Exod.28.21,Exod.28.22" href="/passage/?search=Exod.28.21,Exod.28.22"><span class="bibleref" title="Exod.28.21">Exod. 28:21</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Exod.28.22">22</span></a>. In that breast-plate there were twelve stones laid before Aaron, and for aught that appears those were lost; but there shall be one worth them all laid before Joshua, and that is Christ himself. This preciou
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