Enounters with Jesus: Joshua

Joshua

We continue in our study of encounters with Jesus, those who have been face-to-face with King Jesus and what we can learn from these encounters.

First let me ask you a question—who was the first person to ever come face to face with Jesus on this earth?

To be honest, I am not sure. It could have been Adam, Abraham, Moses.

These encounters in the Old Testament are sort of surrounded by secrecy and this aurora of uniqueness.

It could have been the burning bush or in the garden; we are not for sure what was the first with Jesus, but today we are going to look at one story that I would say that I am pretty confident is an encounter with Jesus, although we don’t know 100%.

Let’s jog our minds back to this summer and at summer camp Pastor Carl talked about Jesus in the old testament. We have two big words I want you to help me define.

The first is Theophany— theo-God, ophany-manifest or made plain

Encounters with the living God

The second is Christophany— Christ-Jesus ophany-manifest or made plain

Encounters with the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, pre-incarnation, before the birth of Jesus.

We see this many times in the Old Testament, one of the most famous ones is in Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6:1 ESV

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Isaiah sees the Lord, Jesus, high and lifted up, and he is seated where? At the right hand of God the Father

So we have these encounters with Jesus, God the son, in the old testament and they serve as both a foreshadowing of what is to come and a reminder of King Jesus’ role from eternity past to eternity future.

Today we are going to look at one of those.

Cheesy bible joke—who is the only person in the bible with no parents?

Joshua, son of Nun.

We are going to turn back to Joshua and before we do that I want to pick your brain here and ask what do we know about Joshua—what are some things he has done or things special about him, specifically before the book of Joshua but you can give me things in the book as well

He was special assistant to Moses, in Exodus 24 Moses goes up on the mountain to get the tablets of stone with the commandments on them; he goes up with the elders including Aaron, he gets to a certain place and he says stop, just Joshua come up with me from here.

His named changed by Moses from Hoshea “salvation” to Joshua “the Lord saves”

He was a valiant warrior, defeating the Amalekites (Ex 17)

He along with Caleb, spied out the land of Canaan (Num 14) In that story there were 12 of them, 10 of them said Israel has no chance, but Joshua and Caleb urged them to go take the land and as a result only Joshua and Caleb of those 12 entered Canaan. When Joshua and Caleb urged them to take the land the people of Israel wanted to stone them, but God protected them; and the 10 who said no go—they all died by plague.

Commissioned by God, first to assist Moses and then he took over for Moses

So we come to the book of Joshua and he is appointed, he has taken command.

Joshua 1:1–7 ESV

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Chapter 2 Rahab hides the spies, Chapter 3 they cross the Jordan river—the waters rose in a heap and they walked on dry ground. Chapter 4 is one of my favorite chapters, Joshua commands one from each of the 12 tribes to take a stone and build memorial so when your children ask what those stones are there fore you can tell them about what the Lord has done—he has done great things and is worthy of be praised.

Joshua 4:23–24 ESV

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

We come to chapter 5 and Joshua and the army is preparing for battle. They are ready to go fight Jericho.

Our passage doesn’t say exactly what Joshua was doing or where he was, but I would assume he was preparing for battle. Joshua was out walking around, probably taking a look at Jericho and finalizing his plan that he is going to give to the people on how they are going to defeat this city.

They have crossed the river, they are in enemy land now, they are outside of the city and they are making final preparations. They are sharpening their swords and polishing their armor.

Turn to Joshua 5 in verse 13-15

Joshua 5:13–15 ESV

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?” 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?” 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.

Joshua is a mighty warrior, and yes he has had victories and he will have more victories including in Jericho but he also will have defeats like at Ai in chapter 7. But Joshua is preparing for battle and probably thinking through things and scouting out the land, and suddenly a man was standing there.

The original language suggests out of no where, or all of a sudden, he just appeared. Joshua was walking around and boom, a man is right there and he has his sword in hand.

Joshua looks over and he begins to size up the competition here. Guys, I know you have done this before, before a game during warm ups your looking over and seeing what your going up against. You watch them warm up and think man that guy has a nice shot, or that guy can’t dribble with his other hand. Maybe before a soccer game and your thinking that guy is slow or man that girl has great footwork. That baseball hitter can hit it a mile, we better watch out for them. You scope out what your going against.

Joshua is scoping out this man who just appeared before him. Um, hello sir, you have your sword out already.

And so what does Joshua ask?

Excuse me, sir, are you for me or are you against me? Whose side are you on?

Hey, quick question, who you fighting for here?

When I show up for sporting events to see you guys play I sort of take inventory of who’s around me and how the react the first little bit of the game. Who is this person cheering for because that will affect the things I say. If the person next to me is clearly a fan of the other team I’m going to try and not say or react in ways that would tip my hand. I like to play the fence a little bit, my interest is in a person or persons not a team.

You—who are you for?

And this person responds with what?

No!

Excuse me? No? Are you this or that? Its an easy question, one side or the other.

The response—No!

No, but i am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.

Joshua was told in Joshua 1 that God will be with you, he will not leave or forsake him, be strong, be courageous. I have now come, this is the final prep for battle.

You have put the plans together and you have laid out strategies, but I, the Lord your God, am here with you. Now you are ready.

The question is not who’s side am I on, it is are you with me or not? I am the Lord, the commander, I am taking over now and are you with me?

Joshua realized who this was, and he fell on his face. This was Jesus, the son of the living God.

There are other instances of encounters like this in the OT so far.

Numbers 22 this strange encounter where Balaam’s donkey sees the angel of the Lord and goes toward him but Balaam doesn't and so he is hitting the donkey and suddenly the donkey talks to him and says why have you struck the donkey three times, this has been the one you have riden your whole life, why treat it like that. Balaam says you have made me a fool, if I had a sword I would kill you right now. The Lord opens the eyes of Balaam and he sees the angel standing in the way with his sword drawn and Balaam falls on his face.

This messenger is from the Lord and deserves praise

Moses was shepherding a flock in the wilderness and comes across a bush on fire. And he says wow, that bush is on fire and yet it is not consumed, I am going to go away now. God calls out to him through the fire, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses was afraid, he hid his face.

See these men feared and worshipped God and when they realized they were in the presence of God in any form, even through fire or messenger or in Joshua’s case they fell down and worshipped God.

Joshua says what does the Lord say to his servant?

Joshua is confirming his allegiance and the chain of command. You are the Lord, the master, the captain, and I am your servant.

Remember this is Joshua, the commander of Israel, the new Moses, the leader of leaders and he is saying, woe is me! I am your servant

What do you require of me? What do you want from me?

What does Jesus respond with?

“Take off your sandals, the place you stand is holy ground”

Remember the context, Joshua is making the finals preps for battle, he is even gearing up and what does the Lord require? Take off your shoes. What a strange way to fight or to prepare. And yet what a perfect snapshot of submission to the King.

One of the commentators put it this way, “Joshua went to look at his problem and found himself meeting his God. So often we find the same mechanism at work. We go as it were to look at our problems, to think them through and express our needs to God in prayer, and suddenly there is a fresh light. We see the issues more clearly. The Scriptures come alive in a new way. We are surprised by something we had not been aware of before, and suddenly we realize that God is with us in the complexity and the confusion, calling us to fall at his feet and find new assurance as we commit all our unknowns into his hands.”

The question here was not what side the Lord was on, which whichever side he was on was going to win, but rather have they, has Joshua, submitted to the King.

That was the essential preparation, Joshua to fall on his knees and on his face before the King.

And so as we come across these encounters with Jesus and as we study these we want to ask what does this have to do with me?

What does this face to face interaction with creator Jesus have to do with my life, with my decisions.

And so what can we take away from this story? What questions can we ask?

Are we for Christ? Do we fall on our face and worship him, obey him.

Is he are captain and commander?