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“Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2b)
A brand from the burning.
A similar phrase is found in the book of Amos chapter 4 verse 11. It paints the same picture. It is a striking image of fire, like a campfire. A stick has gone in and started to burn. It shouldn’t be there, so you find a way of rescuing it. You say, ‘Is this not a burning stick plucked out of the fire?’
Zachariah comes towards the end of the Old Testament. He is one of the later Old Testament prophets. The first part of his book is a series of visions he had all in one night. Here, Joshua the high priest stood before the angel of the Lord, Satan at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord rebukes Satan, “Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2b). At the start of the vision Joshua is dressed in filthy, dirty rags. The angel orders that these should be removed and be replaced with clean clothes. Joshua is then given a charge; God tells him, “If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts and I will give you a place among those standing here.” Joshua and those with him are told that they are men symbolic of things to come. There is the prophecy that God is going to ‘bring my servant, the branch.’ The Messiah is pictured as a branch.
“Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2b). This verse could be taken as a cry of victory. The phrase carries a tone of affirmation. The man was in the fire but snatched out of it.
Think who this language may be applied to. In context, Joshua the high priest is a representation of his people after they have come back from exile in Babylon. It points forward to when the Messiah will come and remove sin in a single day – at Calvary, when sin is removed from His people. If we know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, we are ‘sitting pretty’ and inviting others to know the joy of sins forgiven. It applies to all true believers. We are like a stick snatched out of a fire. This probably applies more to some than others. Some go a long way in their sins, they look as if they’re going to hell but then they are certainly snatched to safety and all is well, “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” (Jude 22-23).
Even those who come to Christ have no smell of burning on them but are sticks snatched from the fire. Some people who have been converted are notorious for their sins, but God converts them. Jesus was crucified with two criminals either side of Him, one who was converted at the end of his life. The apostle Paul hated Christians and did everything possible to hinder the gospel. Yet he was suddenly converted. This fire brand is snatched from the flames, then he was preaching the faith he had tried to destroy. C.S. Lewis was a complete atheist who had no time for God. Yet, quite unexpectedly, he was converted. God worked in his heart. Another example of a burning stick snatched from the fire is Mitsuo Fuchida. He was one of the top pilots in Japan, a Great War hero.
Sometimes, God works in the worst people. Manasseh was the worst king of Judah. But if you read 2 Chronicles chapter 33 you will see that in his distress, he humbled himself and prayed to God. After 54 years of evil reign, Manasseh knew the Lord God and told Judah to serve the Lord.
Luke Short was 100 years old when he was converted. He sat in a field contemplating the end of his life, and remembered a sermon he had heard 85 years before, when he was 15 years old. He was converted and became an elder of a local church until his death, when he was 117! Death bed conversions also occur. Other unexpected conversions include Onesimus and John Newton.
Some have known an overwhelming sense of guilt – in the fire but snatched out. This includes the jailer in Philippi. Martin Luther, John Bunyan and Spurgeon were all in great distress before being converted.
Note how appropriate the phrase is, “Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2b).
- Judas and Peter were both equally sinful (Ephesians 2:3) and deserving of wrath. God’s salvation is the only thing that makes a difference.
- A burning stick snatched from the fire was once very near to be burning up.
- A burning stick from the fire retains some evidence of its dangerous situation. There is evidence that it was once in the fire. When we sin we think how can we be like that when we are saved.
- A burning stick from the fire does not save itself. It doesn’t jump out of the fire itself. We do not save ourselves. We will only be saved if God snatches us from the flames.
Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch 