The Commander of Yahweh’s Army

13When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?” 14He said, “No; but I have come now as commander of Yahweh’s army.” Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and asked him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15The prince of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your shoes; for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

The people of Israel entered Canaan and were circumcised. Being circumcised in enemy territory showed a decision of faith: they entrusted their lives to God and resolved to live by his will whatever their circumstances. It was an oath to deny themselves and live as God’s children, a resolve to live as children of the promise and not of the flesh. Joshua and all Israel, as God’s people in the promised land, now bore the mark of circumcision, and they celebrated the Passover with deep emotion.

The Israelites were full of faith, but Achan, who had shared everything with them, foolishly broke God’s command in the fallen city of Jericho and committed the sin of stealing a robe and a wedge of gold. Achan seems to have thought that if he hid the stolen robe and gold in his tent, no one would know. He had seen God bring water out of the rock and part the sea and the river, and still he thought far too lightly that if he deceived God, God would be deceived.

Achan crossed the Jordan with the people of Israel, was circumcised, and kept the Passover, and he must have been rather pleased with himself. As he sang praises with Joshua, a man of strong faith, with the priests, and with a people full of faith, he probably also thought his own faith was full. If Achan had not stopped at thinking but had followed Joshua’s faith and lived it out, he could have received a share of fertile land in Canaan and lived in peace with his family.

We too, walking with God alongside people who are zealous in their faith, can mistake their faith for our own and come to think that we are doing well. We begin to expect that because we have given ourselves this much, our family is prospering and our children will succeed in the world. We have no doubt at all that God will bless us.

But judging one’s own faith by someone else’s shows that a person has not been born again. With faith built on such ground they expect blessing, and then, if an accident happens or business does not go as hoped, resentment toward God naturally rises. But think a little further, and you will realize that Jesus sacrificed himself so that I, a sinner, would not go to hell. The grace that rescued us from the terrible hell ruled by Satan is a love we could never repay even if we gave our very lives. If we have received such love, it is only right that we now give our utmost in faithfulness and fulfill our calling to repay that grace.

Yet that is what human beings are like: they decide on the worldly blessing they want, and if it does not come up to that line, they grumble and stop serving, even when the one they are dealing with is God. God knew that human nature is evil, and still, to save those souls, he flung himself upon the cross. Like the apostle Paul, who understood this love, we must give ourselves to God with the faith that nothing in the world can separate us from the love of Christ. That is the stance every believer must take.

Sin flows through the world, so as long as people live in it, they are bound to go through both good things and bad. Believing in God does not mean that everything in the world will go well no matter what. If we rightly understand what salvation is, then even when we meet oppression, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, and peril, we will respond wisely, asking how we should live as God’s people rather than blaming God.

Because Paul knew that the world is not a place to stay forever, he confessed that in whatever circumstances he found himself, he had strength to overcome in him who gave him power. This confession of Paul’s is the faith we must have. Knowing that his people take on more work when they are full of faith, God fills them, when they are full, with power and with material means. This is the blessing that comes to those who give thanks in all things.

The outer wall of Jericho rose about 14 meters high, and the inner wall, also about 14 meters, was wide enough for two wagons to pass. As long as it had food, Jericho was a massive city that could hold out for years even under Israel’s attack. At the time of the attack, Israel had no food stores, while Jericho had just finished its harvest and had plenty. Israel, then, was at a far greater disadvantage.

Scholars hold different views of how Jericho fell. I once read the work of one scholar who, perhaps unable to accept that God brought down the walls of Jericho, wrote that a great earthquake happened by chance just as the people of Israel shouted, and the walls collapsed. But if an earthquake had brought the walls down, the Israelites outside the city should also have suffered great damage. Since the Bible records that Israel attacked the moment the walls fell, we can conclude that the earthquake struck Jericho alone. And even if, as they claim, an earthquake struck at the very moment Israel shouted, that too is God’s work and a miracle. People who want to make God’s word a lie argue for their own ideas as though they were the truth, but in the end the word of Scripture cannot be twisted.

As the Israelites marched toward impregnable Jericho, they must have carried fear and hope together. Some among them may have been weak in faith, while others, walking alongside millions of people, likely drew strength to overcome their fear. That is why brothers and sisters in faith must encourage and help one another as they live.

When Joshua came near Jericho and looked up at the city, he saw a man standing before him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went to the man and asked whether he was for them or for their enemies. People instinctively want to know whose side the other person is on, because we have a heart that embraces those on our side and rejects those who are not. You can see that people treat generously those who share their thinking, direction, and purpose, but push away those who stand on the other side.

Watching a soccer match, I often find it amusing that, without anyone calling for unity, the whole nation comes together in a great uproar. People who would not even greet each other on an ordinary day now share a single goal through the match, so they talk about the same subject and feel the same emotions. But once the match is over, they go straight back to weighing their own interests and end up on opposite sides again.

What Joshua most wanted to know was whether the man standing before him with a sword was on his side or on the other, because if he was on the other side, he was an enemy, and Joshua would have to prepare to fight.

Joshua 5:14

14He said, “No; but I have come now as commander of Yahweh’s army.” Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and asked him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

Since Joshua had asked from his own point of view whose side the man was on, the reply of the commander of Yahweh’s army was not the one he had expected. The reason is that the man answered he was on neither Israel’s side nor the world’s, but was the commander of Yahweh’s army, who carries out God’s will alone.

What we need to know is this: the Holy Spirit works for our salvation, yet he is on neither our side nor the world’s. He works for the purposes of God. When God’s people strive to live by faith, the Holy Spirit will always work on their behalf. He will help them mature, and he will work so that they can live lives of glory and peace. But if those who ought to enjoy such blessing do not live by faith, he will rebuke them in order to set them right.

When I counsel people, I too try to stand only on God’s side and convey his will. People respond in one of two ways: they are disappointed because they did not get the clear answer they wanted, or they resolve to pray. But since they already know the answer, I counsel only to the point of helping them see what they are thinking and which side they are standing on. When I help people see their own hearts in this way, I have seen the Holy Spirit give them wisdom to understand more of God’s deep purposes, and I have seen them, made wise, grow in faith. What matters is to be sure that you are standing on God’s side.

So the commander of Yahweh’s army was a servant of Yahweh, who had come to meet Joshua in order to accomplish Yahweh’s will. He was God’s servant, who, according to God’s will, might rebuke Joshua or might help him win the victory.

Although Joshua was the leader of Israel, the commander of Yahweh’s army ordered him to take off his shoes, because the place where he stood was holy. What Joshua chose when he heard the command to take off his shoes would decide his faith. If he had lived by faith until then, he would take off his shoes the moment he heard it. If he had lived by his own righteousness, he would ask why he had to take off his shoes here when he ought to be heading for the battlefield.

Joshua knows that both his coming this far and his conquest of Jericho to come are possible only if God works. So when the commander of Yahweh’s army told him to take off his shoes, he obeyed at once.

Joshua’s faith had grown as he watched Moses cast aside human methods and plans, and even his own life, and obey God’s commands without condition. Helping Moses lead Israel, Joshua saw what kind of God he is and with what great love he protected Israel. In this way he had learned how much God hates sin. Watching Moses obey God’s commands up to the moment of his death, Joshua also learned that to keep faith is to be faithful to death. And because he knew that only taking off his shoes, as the commander of Yahweh’s army commanded, was complete obedience, he took them off.

However full of faith Joshua and Israel might be, Jericho was not a city they could easily conquer. Knowing that unless God worked it could never be taken by human strength, Joshua depended on God entirely. Seeing the faith of Joshua, who went down to a lowly place with humble faith as Moses had, God would now work for Joshua and for Israel.

The problems you face in life may look like a massive city that will never fall, like Jericho. You kept the Lord’s Day, gave your offerings faithfully, and wore yourself out serving, so that you would not have to go through such hardship. So if suffering comes anyway, you will feel it is unfair.

If at that moment God sent his commander and asked you to take off the one pair of worldly shoes you are wearing, what would you do? If he said he would solve the problem in your world that stands like Jericho only if you obey without condition, what would you decide? Could you trust that God will help you, and take off the only worldly shoes you have?

Perhaps you would ask God not to require your shoes, but to give you one more new pair you could change into. And you would put forward your own methods, asking him to hurry and help you succeed. There is one thing I want you to know: obeying God’s word is the fastest way to solve the problems of life.

Grumbling against God is utter folly. If, when hardship comes, someone does not pray and does not thank God for using hardship to make them wiser, but resents and complains instead, God will not entrust his power to that person. Such resentment and complaining come from a hot temper and are driven by Satan, so God waits in silence until the temper has burned away and will not act at all. With God a thousand years are as one day, and he is in no hurry. It is we who suffer, until a heart full of sin yields to God. So we must always live with a sanctified heart.

The commander told Joshua something hard to understand: that the place where Joshua stood was holy. He said that he had now come as commander of Yahweh’s army and that the place where Joshua stood was holy, so he must have come with the purpose of bringing down the walls of Jericho. He spoke to Joshua this way because the heart of Joshua and the people of Israel, who were about to see the work of the holy God, mattered so greatly. The heart that Israel and Joshua carried as they set out for Jericho would decide the outcome of the battle. They therefore had to sanctify their hearts and keep their faith as God’s holy people.

In the same way, the world in which you stand is the holiest place of all for revealing the glory of God, because only when his people live holy lives with sanctified hearts can the Holy Spirit work, so that God can accomplish his holy work. In this dark and chaotic world, we must first show our faith to God, and only then will God judge the world for our sake. If you want to be blessed by God, I hope you will take off your worldly shoes and trust him with all your heart. May you show him the obedience of taking off your worldly shoes, so that God may be on your side.

Joshua and the Israelites could arm themselves with the weapons of the world, but unless God worked, they could not bring down the walls of Jericho. In the same way, however much worldly strength and ability you gather, you can never overcome the world unless God helps you. Even with all his wisdom and ability, Joshua could not take Jericho. Only when the commander of Yahweh’s army stood before Israel and attacked Jericho could they enter the fallen city. This world is by no means an easy place. Unless God goes before us and helps us, we can never win, so let us always keep a sanctified faith.

Matthew 11:2-3

2Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”

John the Baptist sent his disciples to put this question to Jesus because he found it strange that Jesus did nothing, though John, who had worked for him all this time, was locked in prison. And though Jesus had declared that the ax already lay at the root of the trees, John could not understand why, as King of the Jews, he took no concrete action at all, let alone bring judgment.

John had rebuked Herod for taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, and was imprisoned in the fortress of Machaerus, a natural stronghold surrounded on every side by cliffs. When John, in such peril, sent his disciples to ask why Jesus would not help him, Jesus said nothing about rescuing John, nor did he tell him not to doubt because he was the Messiah. He only told them to go and tell John the things they were hearing and seeing.

Matthew 11:5

5the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

These words may sound as though they had nothing to do with the question John’s disciples had brought. When trouble came, John the Baptist could not understand why Jesus did not help him, though he had given himself to the work of God, and so he was complaining.

But in saying this, Jesus was telling him that just as John the Baptist had taken up the work of God, he too was simply working to accomplish God’s will. Because Jesus works only to accomplish Yahweh’s will, he gave a spiritual answer: John’s imprisonment, and even the suffering of the cross that Jesus himself would bear, were all an offering of themselves for the Kingdom of God.

The blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, the lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, the dead being raised, and the poor having good news preached to them are signs that God is at work, and Jesus is saying that in the midst of it all, you and I are instruments for salvation. Only when this truth stands firm in you can you serve without expecting anything in return. Only then will you become children who, even when you do not receive at once what you want, endure and live sanctified lives rather than complaining.

Just as the commander attacked Jericho and won the victory for Israel, if you rely on God in faith, the Holy Spirit will part the world before you and bless your life so that you can cross on dry ground. Remember that the place where you now stand is holy, and I hope you will offer yourself as an instrument for the glory of God.

May you always live as children of God, on God’s side, in the assurance of faith. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.