Joshua 5

(1) When all the *Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how *the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with ***fear because of them.

*Amorite kings west: More Amorites lived east of the Jordan. They had already been subdued.
- Numbers 21:21-24: The Israelites sent ambassadors to King Sihon of the Amorites with this message: “Let us travel through your land. We will be careful not to go through your fields and vineyards. We won’t even drink water from your wells. We will stay on the king’s road until we have passed through your territory.” But King Sihon refused to let them cross his territory. Instead, he mobilized his entire army and attacked Israel in the wilderness, engaging them in battle at Jahaz. But the Israelites slaughtered them with their swords and occupied their land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River. They went only as far as the Ammonite border because the boundary of the Ammonites was fortified.
**the Lord: YHWH
***fear:
- Exodus 23:27:“I will send my terror ahead of you and create panic among all the people whose lands you invade. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
- Joshua 2:9-11: “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.
- There is a limit to divine patience, and the Canaanites had reached it: the iniquity of "the Amorites was full" and the cup of God’s wrath was to be poured out, using the Israelites as the instruments of his holy jihad against Canaan.
- They were the instruments of Satan under whose control they were; their fear denotes Satan's
  fear. He knew the power of YHWH, Who had brought them into the land. Satan had tried repeatedly
  to prevent this day, but he had only succeeded in stalling it for 40 years.
- Essential to spiritual victory is our understanding that in Christ all the enemies we face are defeated foes.
  - Romans 8:37: No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
  - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
  - Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

(2) At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make *flint knives and **circumcise this second generation of Israelites.”

*flint knives: God specified knives of flint even though this was the Late Bronze Age and bronze implements were common. the Septuagint of Joshua 24:30 tells us that these very flint knives were later buried with Joshua.
*circumcise:

Why did God literally cripple Israel’s army before they needed to fight? Don’t you want to have your men go into the battle when they are the strongest, fittest and most rested? Not with God. God wants us to be dependent and trusting in Him alone before we can make walls tumble.
This is not the only time that God had done this. In Judges 7, God told Gideon that his 32,000 strong army was too much to fight the Midianite Alliance. Eventually God sent 300 men, armed with trumpets and pots to destroy the great army of the Medianites.
Circumcision was a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Circumcision reminded God’s people that they were holy - chosen - set-apart by God and they need to remain pure in their relationship with Him. They were never to forget that they were God's covenant people. But they dare not enter this battle in any other way but in the strength of the Lord Almighty.
The Israelites had apparently practiced circumcision of boys on the eighth day while in Egypt. But, during their wilderness journeyings, a whole generation of men and boys were uncircumcised. But, to observe Passover required the circumcision of all male participants and the time for Passover had come.
Genesis 17:10: This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.
Exodus 4:24-26: On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
Exodus 12:48: “If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, let all their males be circumcised. Only then may they celebrate the Passover with you like any native-born Israelite. But no uncircumcised male may ever eat the Passover meal.
What are the typical lessons of all this? Circumcision stands for the carrying out of the sentence of death to the flesh. The death of Christ is for His people a circumcision. "When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature." (Colossians 2:11). But this fact that we are dead to sin by the circumcision, the death of Christ must be carried out practically. The sharp knife has to be applied to the flesh and the things of the flesh.
Leviticus 12:3: On the eighth day the boy’s foreskin must be circumcised.
Acts 15:1: While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ...
Romans 2:29: No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
Romans 4:11: Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous - even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith.
1 Corinthians 7:18: For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now.
Philippians 3:3: For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
Colossians 2:11-14: When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

(3) So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at *Gibeath-haaraloth.

*Gibeath-haaraloth means “hill of foreskins.”

(4) Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when
they left Egypt had died in the wilderness.

(5) Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus,
during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.

(6) The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old
enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord
vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and
honey.

Numbers 14:23: They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it.
Psalm 95:8-11: The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’

(7) So Joshua circumcised their sons - those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places - for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land.

(8) After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were *healed.

*healed:

They were put in the place where they could trust in nothing but God alone - a hard place, but a good place.
Why didn't the Canaanites take this opportunity to destroy the Israelites when they were at their weakest? A perfect time for the enemy to attack!
Genesis 34:24-25 describes how Simeon and Levi killed all the men in a city after tricking them into having them all circumcised. While the men were unable to fight properly, they were slaughtered in retaliation, because the prince of that city had raped Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi. This could have been the fate of Israel here in Joshua 5:
- Genesis 34:24-26: So all the men in the town council agreed with Hamor and Shechem, and every male in the town was circumcised. But three days later, when their wounds were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, who were Dinah’s full brothers, took their swords and entered the town without opposition. Then they slaughtered every male there, including Hamor and his son Shechem. They killed them with their swords, then took Dinah from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp.

(9) Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have *rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

*rolled away:

Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew word galal, meaning “to roll” and galgal, meaning "wheel". A play on words. There's another "rolling away" in the Bible - where the stone was rolled away from the entrance to the tomb that held Jesus.
As the foreskin of each male sex organ was cut away, God says that symbolically and spiritually all the reproach, failure, shame, guilt, and humiliation they had carried with them through all the years since the exodus from Egypt - all that had been "rolled away". The last 40 years have been wiped away. They were given again the sign of their right relationship with God.

(10) While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated *Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.

Passover:

Moses had neglected Passover too! Before they could successfully occupy the Land and before the "commander of the Lord's army" could appear, they needed to reinstitute circumcision and Passover. Before God can bless and lead, we must obey His rules and direction.
This is the third recorded Passover; the last one being at the foot of Mount Sinai 39 years earlier.
On the 14th of Abib they celebrate the Passover. Exactly 40 years to the day that their fathers celebrated the Passover in Egypt. God is making a point - the timing of their arrival was preplanned!
Exodus 12:18: The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first
month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month.
Exodus 12:24-25: “Remember, these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever. When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony.
Leviticus 23:5: “The Lord’s Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.

(11) The very next day they began to eat *unleavened bread and roasted grain **harvested from the land.

*unleavened bread:

Feast of unleavened bread ended 21st Abib (Nisan) at
evening, exactly forty years from Exodus 12:41:
- Exodus 12:37-42: That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men, plus all the women and children. A rabble of non-Israelites went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock. For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food. The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the Lord’s forces left the land. On this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation.
In the Feast of Unleavened Bread that followed the Passover, the people were able to use the grain of the land to make bread. God now provided for His people's need for daily bread by giving them the produce of the land rather than manna, which now ceased:

**harvested from the land: Apparently dried grain in the storehouses of the Canaanites who had fled into Jericho.

(12) No *manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was
never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.

*manna:

Exodus 16:31: The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers.
Exodus 16:35: So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
Numbers 11:4-6: Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
John 6:49-51: Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
We see some other examples of special provision in the Bible:
- God sent a raven to feed Elijah during a severe famine (1 Kings 17:4-6), and later brought him to the home of a widow who only had enough flour and oil for one last meal to feed herself and her son. But because God touched it, "There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers..." until the famine was over (1 Kings 17:16).

(13) When Joshua was *near the town of Jericho, he **looked up and saw ***a man standing in front of him with ****sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you *****friend or foe?”

*near Jericho:

Evidently, Joshua was reconnoitering near Jericho, which was only about two miles from Gilgal. He was planning his strategy when he met this mighty warrior standing before him with sword drawn ready for battle.
Joshua had never led an attack on a fortified city that was prepared for a long siege. In fact, of all the walled cities in Palestine, Jericho was probably the most invincible. There was also the question of armaments. Israel's army had no siege engines, no battering rams, no catapults and no moving towers. Their only weapons were slings, arrows, and spears - which were like straws against the walls of Jericho.
Before the country could be divided, a wedge had to be driven from the Jordan River valley to the mountains. The first obstacle was at this point: Jericho. Jericho was a military fortress built to defend the approach to the high country. It could not be bypassed; to bypass Jericho would mean leaving a large military force at one’s rear. The strategy used by Joshua in conquering Canaan was later emulated by General Allenby in World War I.

**looked up:

Perhaps he'd been looking down in prayer asking for guidance and now looked up to heaven for advice and saw this unusual figure before him. He probably wondered, "How on earth are this city and its walls going to be breached". God was bringing him to a place that he had not been in before, to face things he had no experience of - as He does to us at times. God sometimes brings us to these places in our lives to help us to learn that we must ABSOLUTELY depend on Him and not on our own abilities to succeed at the task He's assigned to us (like raising children, being a great spouse, etc.) And then, as he lifts his eyes, this strange armed figure appears before him.

***a man: a "Theophany". A theophany is a visual manifestation of God by, through and in the Son.

So, with whom was Joshua speaking in verse 1? Was God speaking to Joshua through the high priest then and directly now?
This is none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah Himself. "Lord" here is Hebrew Yahweh.
Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. SO, knowing that God has no hands, who is this kneeling in the dust and kneading the clay into the man?
Genesis 3:8: When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. SO, since God has not legs, who is this walking in the garden? Who was it that walked with Enoch?
Genesis 12:7: Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 17:1: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai - ‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
Genesis 18:1,10: The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. ... Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
Genesis 18:20-22: So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.” The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham.
Genesis 28:13; 16-17: At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. ... Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
Genesis 31:13: I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”
Genesis 32:28-30: “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. “Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”
Exodus 3:2-6: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 23:20-23: “See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you. Pay close attention to him, and obey his instructions. Do not rebel against him, for he is my representative, and he will not forgive your rebellion. But if you are careful to obey him, following all my instructions, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, so you may live there. And I will destroy them completely.
Exodus 19:20; 33:18-34:8: The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain. ... Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.” Then the Lord told Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed. Be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain.” So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected - even children in the third and fourth generations.” Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.
Exodus 33:11: Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.
Numbers 12:6-8: And the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”
Judges 6:11-22: Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree. The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
Judges 13:16-18: “I will stay,” the angel of the Lord replied, “but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel of the Lord.) Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.” “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you to understand.” Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground. The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!” But his wife said, “If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”
Daniel 3:22-25: And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!”
Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.
John 1:1-3; 14: In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ... So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
John 8:56-58: Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!”
John 14:9: Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
A theophany is a visual manifestation of God by, through, and in the Son. In the New Testament, there is no mention of the angel of the Lord; the Messiah himself is this person.

***sword in his hand:

Numbers 22:23, 31: Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road. ... Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
1 Chronicles 21:16: David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, reaching out over Jerusalem. So David and the leaders of Israel put on burlap to show their deep distress and fell face down on the ground.
The sword is freely used in carrying out the divine judgments upon the ungodly tenants of the land. Yet, the first drawn sword, mentioned in the book, is in the hand of the Lord as He appeared unto Joshua. He fights for His people. He will yet execute the righteous judgments in the earth - it will be when He appears the second time.
Joshua may have thought, “Since he is not one of ours, could he be the enemy, or perhaps someone who has come to help us?” But, in view of the answer given to Joshua, Joshua’s question reveals a typical mindset that poses a threat and a hindrance to our effectiveness in the service of the Savior.
Joshua needed to acknowledge God’s claim over Joshua for God’s purposes. We tend to approach our battles and causes backwards; we turn things all around and try to get God to support us rather than to submit and follow Him. Certainly, the battle was a joint venture,
God and the people of Israel under Joshua’s leadership as appointed by the Lord (1:1-9). But Joshua, as with all of us in the army of the King, must be following the Lord, submitting to His authority, taking our orders from Him and resting the battle in His hands because we realize it is really His battle as the Supreme Commander. There seems to be no question that Joshua understood this as evidenced by his question, “What do you want your servant to do?” Here he was asking the Lord for orders and it was surely then that he received the directions for taking Jericho which we read about in chapter 6.
But after being confronted by the divine Commander, he was reminded of a truth he had heard Moses declare many years earlier when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea:
- Exodus 14:13: But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.
- 1 Samuel 17:47: And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
God is not present to fight our battles or help in our causes or jump to our rescue when we get in trouble as though He were a genie in a bottle. Instead, it reminds us that the battle is His and that our role is that of soldier/servant. We are here to serve Him, to do His will, to follow Him and depend on Him completely. We tend to get involved in our project or goals or dreams and ask Him, "Well, are you with me or not?"

*****friend or foe: In a sense, the Man refuses to answer Joshua’s question because it is not the right question, and it is not the most important question to be asked at the time. The question really wasn’t if the Lord was on Joshua’s side. The proper question was if Joshua was on the Lord’s side.

(14) “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the *commander of the Lord’s army.” At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in **reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to ***do?”

*commander of the Lord's army:

God is telling Joshua here that He is in charge of the battle, not Joshua! And, the battle has already been won because the real battle is against Satan and his forces.
He neither came to support Joshua nor to support the enemy, but for a far higher purpose. He came as Commander of the army of the Lord. This could be no other than the Lord Himself, and Joshua fully gives Him this place.
Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Behind the hardness of hearts against the truth, and the indifference of men and women to the
gospel of Christ is the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who believe not.
Behind the divided home, the broken heart, the ruined life, wars, injustice, false religions like
Islam is Satan, who in these last days of grace is turning on all his power, for he knows that his
time is short. Who was guiding Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden and so many others
in the past - and for what purpose? And who today is guiding such men as Ahmadinejad of Iran, Kim
Jong-il of North Korea, Hamas, Hasan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and so many other evil men? Who guides
the drug traffic?
Jesus appears again as the Commander of the Lord’s army in Revelation at Megiddo and also in Zechariah 14:3: Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.

**reverence (worship): Though the title Commander of the army of the Lord could perhaps apply to an angel (such as Michael, based on a passages like Daniel 12:1 and Revelation 12:7), Joshua’s falling down and worshipping is inconsistent with angels, who never receive worship. Revelation 22:9: But he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God!”
***do:

He had come to instruct Joshua in the plan to capture Jericho. Joshua will carry out a plan in the following chapter that is so improbable it could only have been initiated at the direct command of God. Most of all, He had come to conquer Israel - before Israel could conquer anything else in the promised land, they had to be conquered by God - and Joshua’s total submission shows that they are conquered by Him. This is the missing element in a life of victory for many Christians; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God.

Despite all that he has done, there is a lesson that he still has not learned, His question is this: We have to take the city of Jericho. How is God going to fit into that purpose? And God comes to him and says to him: Joshua, that is never the question you should be asking. You should never be asking the question: How is God going to enable me to do this? The only question that is relevant for the servant of God is this: How am I going to fit into the purposes which God has designed? How am I going to fit into the ways in which God is going to win His victory? Not, How is God going to fit into my plans? But, Are you prepared to fit into God’s plans?

(15) The commander of *the Lord’s army replied, “**Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.

*the Lord's army:

1 Kings 22:19: Then Micaiah continued, “Listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the armies of heaven around him, on his right and on his left.
2 Kings 6:11-17: The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called his officers together and demanded, “Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?” “It’s not us, my lord the king,” one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!” “Go and find out where he is,” the king commanded, “so I can send troops to seize him.” And the report came back: “Elisha is at Dothan.” So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
Psalm 148:2: Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
Matthew 26:53: Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands (12 legions) of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?
1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves.
Revelation 19:11: Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.

**Take off your sandals:

The command to remove his sandals would have convinced Joshua that this was the same God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush:
- Exodus 3:5: “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
Wherever God is, there is holiness. Even Canaan is holy when God stands upon its soil. And we must be holy if we would cooperate with him. We must put off the old man, with his affections and lusts; we must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit; we must cast off the works of darkness, and array ourselves in the His light.

Joshua 6:1-2: Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.

God not only instructed Joshua concerning what he should do in the battle ahead, but this theophany assured Joshua that Yahweh would also personally lead His people in battle. We need not conclude, however, that this divine Leader continued to be visible after this. There is no reference to Him in the record of the battle that follows. His appearance on this occasion simply impressed Joshua with the fact that God would be leading Israel.

Before Israel could conquer anything else in the promised land, they had to be conquered by God - and Joshua’s total submission shows that they are conquered by Him. This is the missing element in a life of victory for many Christians; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://joshua-biblestudy.blogspot.com/2011/07/joshua-references-and-sources.html

Joshua

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Joshua 5

Joshua 5

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