10. What was now done to Joshua to remove any possible grounds for Satan to lay charges against him?

¹⁰ Satan’s resistance to High Priest Joshua was blocked. So what is done with Joshua to clear him of anything about him that Satan might have used as a ground for bringing charges against him? Zechariah describes it for us, saying: “Now as for Joshua, he happened to be clothed in befouled garments and standing before the angel. Then he answered and said to those standing before him: ‘Remove the befouled garments from upon him.’ And he went on to say to him: ‘See, I have caused your error to pass away from upon you, and there is a clothing of you with robes of state.’”​—Zechariah 3:3, 4.

HOW A CHANGE OF GARMENTS WAS NECESSARY

11. How could it be that Joshua in befouled garments pictured the heavenly High Priest Jesus Christ?

¹¹ Here a question arises: Since Joshua the high priest was pictured as clothed with befouled garments, how could he typify or prefigure Jesus Christ as the heavenly High Priest? Does not Hebrews 7:26, 27 say to true Christians today: “Such a high priest as this was suitable for us, loyal, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners, and become higher than the heavens. He does not need daily, as those high priests do, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for those of the people: (for this he did once for all time when he offered himself up)”? Yes, this is true. Yet it is with the High Priest Jesus Christ as with the ancient High Priest Joshua. The high priest represents the people for whom he serves in this high office, and their condition reflects upon him. He bears the iniquities of his people.

14. So why did Joshua appear as if clothed with befouled garments?

¹⁴ Since High Priest Joshua represented the nation of Israel before Jehovah, this unclean condition of the people was also attributed to him. As a consequence, it was as if he were clothed with befouled garments. He was trying to officiate without a temple, and for that reason it did not look right. He could not serve with the full dignity and grandeur as in a temple. In leveling charges against High Priest Joshua, Satan the Devil would be leveling charges against the entire negligent, unclean nation.

15, 16. (a) Did the spiritual condition of the surviving remnant of spiritual Israelites in 1919 C.E. reflect favorably or unfavorably on the appearance of High Priest Jesus Christ in heaven, and why? (b) What did the remnant’s outcry like that of Isaiah at the temple indicate?

¹⁵ Similarly with the antitypical High Priest, who was prefigured by High Priest Joshua in that year 519 B.C.E. The High Priest Jesus Christ was reflected upon by the spiritual condition of the remnant of the spiritual Israelites on earth as these entered into the postwar year of 1919 C.E. Because of impediments due to war restrictions, opposition and persecution, the remnant had come short in many respects with regard to the open, courageous worship of Jehovah at his spiritual temple. They had yielded to bondage to Babylon the Great and her political and military paramours. They were in a spiritual state like that of the ancient remnant of Israel that had been repatriated. Like Isaiah, when he had his vision of Jehovah at his holy temple, they could say:

¹⁶ “Woe to me! For I am as good as brought to silence, because a man unclean in lips I am, and in among a people unclean in lips I am dwelling; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of armies, himself!”​—Isaiah 6:5.

17. Judged by the remnant’s appearance, how did their High Priest appear, and so was this the proper condition for the remnant to be in then?

¹⁷ If one judged the appearance of their High Priest by the spiritual appearance of the surviving remnant, their High Priest Jesus Christ would appear to be “clothed in befouled garments.” This was an improper appearance to be attributed to him. The spiritually befouled condition was an improper situation in which the remnant was representing their High Priest, and it reflected badly upon the heavenly High Priest Jesus Christ.