Zechariah 3:1-5 – Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.

THEME OF THE DAY: WHEN THE DEVIL ACCUSES. Two times in our Bibles we find Satan acting as “the accuser.” The first time is in today’s scripture. Joshua, the high priest, and sinner, is being maliciously accused by Satan before the Great Tribunal in heaven. Zechariah’s words do not list the accusations. No doubt, they were the many sins of Joshua and those accusations rang true. The other time we find the devil being labeled the accuser is found in the Revelation. John writes, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God” (Revelation 12:10). In this account, we see not only Satan accuses but the unceasing activity of his accusing – day and night. And we are the objects of his devilish works.

Every true Christian knows this work in the conscience. We sin and immediately the accusations are unleashed. At times, they are so intense. We sense these overwhelming impressions of . . . “Look at you. Some Christian you are”, “Lover of God? How can that be true? What about all these sins you keep committing?” “If the people in church really knew you”, “Hypocrite. You sure do talk the talk, but what about the walk?”, “How in the world could the Lord love you?”, “No way, the Lord could use you in His service. All you do is sin.” Those are just a few of the accusations we may hear. I am sure there are more. So, when the devil accuses us, how do we respond? What are some helps we can use to send him away? Let’s consider three.

First, don’t argue with the devil. Though he is a liar and father of lies, when he accuses us of sin, he is telling us the truth. We do sin. We do fail the Lord. Don’t try to quiet the devil by simply resisting him in words of dialogue or argument. In fact, agree with him, but don’t stay there.

The next thing to do is run to the cross of Christ. Sit at our Lord’s bleeding feet. Gaze up into His eyes of love. And remember . . . “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus did not die for some of our transgressions, but all of them. His sacrifice was total, complete, and accepted by His Father. There is no condemnation in us still sinning sons and daughters of God.

A final application to use in quieting the accusations of the devil is to cling to the truth that the one we are being accused to is not only our Judge, but our Savior. As the devil does his hatred work of accusing us, he does so to the One who has already acquitted us. Our Advocate in heaven may hear the accusations but He dismisses them. They hold no credibility to the One who has atoned for all of them. Always hold to the truth of Christ’s imputed righteousness. It will quiet the accusations of the devil swiftly and completely.

PRAYER: “Father, help me answer the devil’s accusations by pointing to the cross of Your Son.”

QUOTE: “When the devil accuses us, he does to the One who has already acquitted us.”