Messiahs: Joshua the High Priest

Three of the Messiachot have the name Yshua -- Joshua son of Nun, Joshua the High Priest, and Jesus of Nazara. The second one of the Joshua messiahs is Joshua the High Priest.

Joshua the High Priest lived in the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel. He was chosen to be High Priest as the first of the priests returning after the exile. The scripture says that Zechariah the Prophet received a message for him from the YHVH which said that Joshua was specifically chosen by the Lord to be His High Priest. Zech. 3:3-5. He gave to Joshua a covenant which said:
"If you walk on my Path and heed my charge, you will judge my house and keep my courts, and I will give you access among these standing here." The promise means that Joshua will have the same access to the Most High as does the Archangel of the Presence and Satan. In effect, this is the proclamation that Joshua is the Messiah and has the power of the Archangel upon him, for only the Archangel can mediate between G-d and Man.

Zechariah goes on to say that the guilt of the land will be taken away. The High Priest was the mediator between this world and the next. His holiness guaranteed that G-d would hear the prayers of His People. His sacrifices guaranteed that G-d would forgive their sins. By saying that he would take away the guilt of the land in one day, he was promising not to hold against the people their failure to keep the Shabbot that had accumulated and caused the destruction of the nation. Never before had their been a High Priest so holy that his acts of sacrifice could nullify the violation of one of the ten words.

In Zechariah 4:14, Zechariah calls Zerubbabel and Joshua the two Meshiachot that stand before the Lord of the Whole Earth. Revelation 11:4 calls the two witnesses of the end Joshua and Zerubbabel and in that passage he adds the idea that they are lampstands. As a part of the ceremony of sanctification of the Sabbath, we light two candles representing these two men that stand eternally before the throne of G-d. They represent the lights on the hill spoken of by Jesus.

In the High Priest Joshua, the Lord revealed his Holiness. Joshua was a strong arm for Zerubbabel and helped to rebuild the Temple, like the Meshiach before him, Solomon. He was wise and committed. Finally, the Prophet Zechariah implies that the Oil or Spirit that causes the world to have Light comes from Joshua and Zerubbabel. In this incarnation, the Lord showed forth his Holiness in full glow.