The Mission of God (5)

The Mission of God

A Touch of Heaven

Joshua 5:1–12 (ESV)

1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. 10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Introduction

What does this passage says about the Lord?

The issue is not “Is God on my side?” but “Am I on God’s side?”

1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

Consecration

The reenactment of the covenant signs of circumcision and the Passover took place after the crossing of the river but prior to the assault on Jericho.

Circumcision and Passover are two significant indicators that a Hebrew family belongs to the covenant community.

Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel

Since the exodus generation was ethnically diverse (Exod. 12:38),

circumcision as an outward sign of covenant membership has special importance.

Sometimes God initially concerns himself with bringing his children to a place of weakness, so they recognize that their strength is in him and in him alone.

a trial a difficulty a challenge a sickness are not in and of themselves signs that God is not present but that God is present

This could be why God tells Joshua to bring all of the uncircumcised males to the table in order to undergo the rite of circumcision.

What a strange order because circumcision immobilizes a male, yet Israel is getting ready to face the enemy in the fortress city of Jericho.

This will be her first battle in the promised land, and the first order of business is not confrontation but rather circumcision. [1]

This reaffirmation of the covenant is the exact opposite of what worldly wisdom would advise.

No doubt this was apparent to Joshua and the others too, for it follows the report of the terror of the people living in the land:

“When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until [they] had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites” (Josh. 5:1).

For the Canaanites, the events of the preceding days were a horror story.

They had been terrified enough by seeing the Israelite hordes—some two million strong—spread out along the eastern bank of the Jordan.

It was obvious that the Jews intended to invade the western lands. Approximately a million of his people successfully crossed over. One can only imagine how long it must have taken for over a million people to cross through this body of water with young, old, pregnant women, small children, and animals![2]

The Jerichoites thought well the water was at flood stage. The people could not cross.

There seemed to be time to get ready.

Suddenly the waters ceased flowing, the people crossed over, and a battle was imminent.

The suddenness of the crossing terrified everyone.

These enemies’ hearts melted and their spirits were dried up.

Worldly wisdom would have called for an immediate attack.

while the people of the land were disheartened and before they could make last-minute preparations.

Instead,

God called for a three-day delay while Israel observed the two sacraments.

On the one hand, this was the moment Israel should have attacked the Canaanite forces in Jericho.

On the other hand, if the armies of Jericho had known of the circumcision of the Jewish army, they should have burst from their stronghold and attacked the weakened troops.

Humanly speaking, the actions of the Jews were utter folly.

The wisdom of God is not like human wisdom, and it was far more important that the hearts of the people be right with God than that they gain a momentary military advantage.

That was what the ceremonies were all about.

Circumcision was the mark of the covenant;

it signified membership in the covenant people of Israel.

just as baptism signifies membership in the covenant community of the church today.

It was a divine seal on those whom God had chosen as his people, and it was a human response to the promises of God conveyed in that election.

The Passover, the observance of which is described in verses 10 to 12,

was a meal of remembrance, just as the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament of remembrance for the church of Jesus Christ today.

At Gilgal the people were to remember God’s covenant, promises, and past acts of deliverance, in order that they might live as his people in the days that lay ahead. if they forget who they are everything is at stake they could fight a battle and win and loose the war

We also need to learn that lesson. Americans are always anxious to rush ahead with some program, and the larger the effort and the faster it is executed, the better.

We need to learn that this is not always God’s way.

What we do is important. But who we are is more important still. It is more important that God have our hearts and minds than our swords.

When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. 10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The Angel of the Lord we learn about the significance of what God is doing

Joshua 5:13–15 (ESV)

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Suddenly, just when we are ready for an account of the assault on Jericho, God prepares Joshua, their leader, to lead them into battle at Jericho.

you’re not ready / you’re not ready until you know who i am - until you take your sandals off because you know who i am you’re not ready to fight the battles in your life

Joshua leaves the camp at Gilgal and begins to survey the land. He had probably seen Jericho forty years earlier when he and Caleb spied out the area.

While he is there several miles from the fortress,

Joshua is approached by one with a drawn sword.

Joshua boldly asks, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

The response was, “Neither. I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.”

He was on his own side. He was there to take over.

Joshua hears this divine presence say,

“Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” This is the same order Moses heard well over forty years earlier at the back side of the desert (Exod 3:5).

Joshua begins to worship this divine presence.

This is not an angelic being. Here we encounter a theophany, the visible manifestation of God to humans, or a Christophany, the visible manifestation of Christ the Son of God to humans before his birth in Bethlehem.

In Revelation 19:10 John the apostle falls at the feet of an angelic being, and the angelic being says to him, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you.… Worship God.” However, in Revelation 1:17–18, John submits himself to the one who said, “I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever.” This is Jesus, our Lord, who does not prohibit John from assuming a posture of worship.[3]

Can we doubt who this individual is?

He is none less than Jehovah, appearing here perhaps in a preincarnate manifestation of the Second Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The story suggests this conclusion, of course, because the unannounced visitor would have instantly repelled Joshua’s worship if he had been a mere man,

just as Paul and Barnabas reacted with horror when the men and women of Lystra wanted to worship them as Zeus and Hermes (see Acts 14:8–20). But it is not only because of this story in Acts that we are prepared to identify the unannounced commander with God. We have been prepared for it by similar stories in the Old Testament.

God’s Host

“No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

But even here there may be more than first appears on the surface. I have said that this divine figure came to take command of the Jewish armies, and that is certainly true.

When Joshua asks what message the Lord has for him, we are to understand that this figure gave instructions for the ordering of the battle of Jericho.

instructions that are carried out in the next chapter—even though that is not said explicitly.

This figure undoubtedly assumed command of the armies of Israel from that moment forward and throughout the entire seven-year campaign in Canaan.

Yet “the army [or hosts] of the Lord” often means something quite different in Scripture.

The Army of the Lord refers to armies of angels.

Thus we are probably right to think of this figure as the commander of this greater army, which is standing behind Israel and assisting in her battles.

An example in Israel’s history, in a story involving Elisha the prophet. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, had been fighting the king of Israel.

But every time he made plans to attack Israel, God revealed the plans to Elisha, Elisha told the king of Israel, and the Jewish armies escaped the trap laid for them.

Naturally Ben-Hadad came to believe that there was a traitor in his high command. He demanded to know who the traitor was. The officers told him the truth, and as a result,

he determined to capture Elisha.

Elisha was at Dothan with his young servant, so Ben-Hadad marched out and surrounded the city by night.

The next morning, when the servant of Elisha awoke and went out to draw water, he saw that the “army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city” (2 Kings 6:15).

He was greatly distressed. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” he asked Elisha.

Elisha replied, “Don’t be afraid.… Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (v. 16).

Then he prayed for God to open the young man’s eyes, and when he did so, the servant “looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around.

. These were God’s angelic armies.

They were powerful forces. In this engagement they struck the armies of the king of Syria with blindness so that Elisha was able to lead them into the fortified city of Samaria and capture them.

The psalmist speaks of “the Lord of hosts,” that is of God as Lord of these heavenly legions, many times.

Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of these hosts to Peter, saying, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53).

In my judgment, this is what the commander’s description of himself refers to, and as such it must have been a great comfort and encouragement to Joshua.

Joshua must have been wondering how he was to proceed against Jericho.

It was far too important a stronghold to bypass and leave at his rear.

But on the other hand, it was well fortified. He could hardly afford a long siege

while his inexperienced forces became progressively discouraged and the armies of the Canaanites gathered strength for battle.

To have the Lord appear as commander of the heavenly legions must have lifted his spirits a good deal and assured him that the necessary force would be available when the assault on Jericho was finally made.

And it was! It was the hosts of the Lord, rather than the armies of Israel, that demolished the walls of Jericho and permitted its overthrow.

For Us or Our Enemies?

There is something else about this story that interests me. It is the exchange between Joshua and the commander, in which Joshua asks, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

The Lord replies, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

Isn’t that fascinating? If we are right to understand this individual as the Second Person of the Trinity who has come with the armies of heaven to defend Joshua and secure the conquest of Jericho (as I believe we are), then

Why didn’t he reply, “Yours. I am for you and Israel”?

Instead—although we know he was for Joshua and undoubtedly did assist in the battle against Jericho

—the commander replied with a negation. “Neither,” he said. That is, “I am neither for you nor for your enemies.

I am here to command the Lord’s armies.”

The point of the exchange seems to be that it was not for Joshua to claim the allegiance of God for his cause, however right it was, but rather for God to claim Joshua.

The two would fight together, but Joshua would be following the commander of the armies of the Lord in his cause and battles rather than it being the other way around.

This is a most profound principle.

Christians have a tendency to marshal God for their programs rather than simply follow him wherever he leads.

As a result, the God they speak of seems to many outsiders to be quite partisan rather than the God of all men and women, which he truly is.

“Are you for us or for our enemies?” the devout believer asks.

Jesus replies, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

A Touch of Heaven

The story ends with Joshua bowing before this commander.

No doubt Joshua at first thought this unexpected individual to be what he appeared to be—a man and a soldier. But after he had identified himself,

Joshua knew him to be very God of very God and so fell down and worshiped him. He asked, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

“The commander … replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy’ ” (Josh. 5:14–15).

At our precise moment of need the Lord reveals himself to the man or woman who walks with him in the darkness. He is the commander, the supreme strategist, and immediately the whole emphasis changes.

The burdens are no longer carried by Joshua alone.

The question is not whether the Lord is on our side or not, but whether we are submitted to his sovereign rule and authority because he is the Lord of earth and Heaven to whom all power belongs.

The essential preparation for the fall of Jericho is that the earthly leader falls flat on his face before God.

That is the prerequisite for God’s plans to be unveiled and God’s purpose to be activated.

And the same is true for the church of God today and for its individual members. It is when we live in glad submission to God’s will, revealed in his Word, that he can lift us up and lead us on.

We need to be much more concerned about his priorities than about our planning, our arranging of strategies, our ordering of scaling ladders or our building of battering rams. They may not even be needed.

What is needed is for us, as God’s people, to recognize the commander of the Lord’s army, worship him in his holiness and glory, and put ourselves unreservedly at his disposal.

That is what changes things.

Then we shall not think primarily about our church, our work, our service and become introverted and problem-oriented.

Rather we will see that everything is in the commander’s hands (including our little lives) and that the greatest wonder of all is that he deigns to take up and use a lump of unpromising clay like you and me.

2 Bray, God Is Love, 160. cf. confer, compare [1]Smith, R., Jr. (2023). Exalting Jesus in Joshua (D. Platt, D. L. Akin, & T. Merida, Eds.; p. 88). Holman Reference. [2]Smith, R., Jr. (2023). Exalting Jesus in Joshua (D. Platt, D. L. Akin, & T. Merida, Eds.; p. 87). Holman Reference. [3]Smith, R., Jr. (2023). Exalting Jesus in Joshua (D. Platt, D. L. Akin, & T. Merida, Eds.; p. 92). Holman Reference. [4]Boice, J. M. (2005). Joshua (pp. 40–49). Baker Books.