Joshua 5:13-15

Oh yeah, a big hulking. Are you turning into the Hulk? That's good. Oh, that's right. All right. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Joshua. We're going to finish off chapter five, talking about the commander of the Lord's army. So interesting topic. Difficult. Lots of discussion about it. So let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is that we get to read your word, and what a joy it is to serve you as our King. Lord, we thank you that you lead us, you guide us, and you protect us. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would teach us this morning. Let us walk in your ways. Let us learn from you, and let us learn to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we are at Joshua chapter five, Verses 13 through 15. You want to read that, Deborah? Sure.
And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went into him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? No. We said, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your feet. Oh, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Okay, so we have to ask ourselves three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the and see what are we called to do. All right, so what is this about?
So they've just crossed over the Jordan River, so like they had with the Red Sea with Moses, now they've done that with Joshua, they cross over from the Acacia Grove, now they're in Canaan, they've eaten of the land, the manna has stopped, and before they start a single battle to conquer the land.
This weird scenario comes up. What happens? It comes to pass. It comes to pass when Joshua is by Jericho. I wonder if Joshua is scouting out the best way to get in. Well, I think they're just at the camp. They've got a camp near Jericho. He lifts up his eyes and what does he see? He sees a guy standing. So he sees a guy standing. And he has a sword in his hand. Whoa. That's a friendly sight, right? Yeah. So you see, you have a guy, he's standing there, he's got a sword drawn in his hand. And what's Joshua's first thing he says to him? Are you a friend or an enemy? Friend or foe? Do I have to fight you to the death? Interesting. Interesting. So are you for us or for our adversaries? Friend or foe? Enemy or ally?
And what's this guy's answer? What's his very first word? No. I don't fit your categories, buddy. What's he say? But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. All right. I'm going to let you hold this Bible. I'm going to grab my Hebrew over here real quick. And there's just some interesting things that happen here. So Joshua 5. Verse 14.
Interestingly, my Hebrew Bible is big enough for me to actually be able to read, while my English Bible keeps getting smaller and smaller. I don't know why they make Bibles that get smaller. It doesn't make any sense to me. Don't you think as you got older, your Bible would get bigger?
Okay. So, uh... Wait, I forgot it goes like this. I'm like, is it right there? Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, Amir, so, and he said, lo. So, for I am the prince or the commander of the armies of Jehovah, of the Lord. Right? No. For I am the prince or the captain of the armies of the Lord. What does that mean? I don't know.
Joshua is also probably just scratching his head. Well, notice what Joshua does. Oh, I think. How does Joshua respond? He immediately thinks like, oh, this guy's an angel. I have to bow down and worship him. Now, isn't that interesting? So, and he worships him. So he bows down to him. Usually angels will say like, get up. Now that's interesting. That's really interesting, right? Because somehow this commander or this prince of the Lord's army, Joshua bows down to him. It's literally, he gets down on his face before him. And what does he call him? What's the conversation like? What does my Lord say to his servant?
And his is capitalized. Yeah, and so... And he said to him, what Lord, so Adonai is... the Greek equivalents, so that would be, actually we're just doing this in our Greek lesson today. Kyrios, Lord. It just means like master. So he recognizes that somehow this prince, this ruler of the commander of the armies of the Lord is over him.
But you're right, that angel, like in Revelation when John bows down to the angel, what does he say? Get up, don't do that, right? So some theologians, this is where there's a lot of questions and people have tried to scratch their heads and wonder about this. Is he just doing this formally and is he really just bowing himself but he's not actually worshiping him? Is he just showing him honor?
Or there are some theologians who will say this is what's called a, and I'm not 100% convinced of this, but it's an interesting theory. They say this may be a Christophany. a appearance of Jesus before he was in the flesh. I'm confused. Yeah, now one of the reasons why I'm a little bit hesitant on that, right, is because I think Jesus really did come in the flesh one time at his incarnation. Right, and so I'm a little bit hesitant on saying definitively this is a Christophany. Maybe it was just that like the Spirit of the Lord was in the angel. It was like... Well, the angel definitely speaks for the Lord, for certain, right?
But the question still is, when he bows down to him, is he really worshiping him, or is he just showing him honor, right? And so— Like he must do to, like, one— When the commander of the army would walk in, like in the old times, you might bow down to him just to show him honor. Yeah, exactly. We actually do the exact opposite in our country, right? When I was in the military, right, the captain came in, we'd say, attention on deck, right, and everybody would stand up. So it's just interesting that there's a difference there, but if you were to go to Japan, you're right, and the commander walked in, you would bow.
Okay, so, and notice what does he say? He shows him this reverence, he shows him this honor. What does my Lord, he immediately somehow recognizes that this guy really is Jehovah's Prince of the Armies. So instead of calling, this guy, my Lord, he's more like saying, like, what messages have you brought from? Well, no, I'm not, I'm not sure he's going that way. He, this guy really is commanding the Lord's army somehow.
And so this commander of the Lord's army in verse 15, what's he saying? He says, take your sandal off your foot, just like Moses had to take his sandal off. Now, that's another reason why people think maybe this is a Christophany, right? Because you're right.
Moses, when he's supposed to take the Israelites out of Egypt to go conquer the promised land, he has this experience, doesn't he? So they're parallel stories, aren't they? Was Moses searching out the burning bush? And yet God revealed himself to Moses. And now...
Yeah, but now there's this Joshua dude, and he's being told take off your sandals For the place where you stand is holy no hold on they're not at Mount Sinai. They're not why is that place holy? Yeah, it's because this guy's there So somehow, this Tsar Ts'va Adonai, or Jehovah, right? This prince or commander of the armies...
He's able to make the very ground holy. Yeah. This is a weird interaction, isn't it? Maybe it's like... Well, this could be an angel or I'm not sure an angel makes the ground holy but But I think this could also not just be a Christophany, this could be a theophany. The same way as in the book of Genesis when God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
So I think this is some way in which God is revealing himself to Joshua. And he really knows that he is speaking to the true Lord, the commander of the Lord's armies. So can Joshua take a bunch of pride in his leadership? Who's he following? The Lord. That's right. Who's really in charge? The Lord. And if the Lord isn't with them? Yeah. But if the Lord is with them? Yeah, who could be against them, right? All right. So, whoo, that was, and Joshua did so. That's it, right?
Joshua takes off his sandals and that's it. Then we don't get any other discussion, right? Unlike Moses' story where we get the whole interaction between him and God. Here, there's nothing. It's just like he takes off his sandals and he like walks away and when he looks back, he goes, It might be, yeah. So, what's this whole section about? Three verses, it's taking us a while to get through, three verses. Probably how you don't know who people are at first until you start to talk to them. You think that's what this section is about? You think that's what this section is about is about recognizing who people really are I don't think that that's what Joshua thought this was about I Think this was about Joshua writing about himself meeting the commander of the armies of the Lord.
I But it is a sign that the Lord is going to be with them. Well, you're right. There's theological depth. You're right. God would comfort them, but this is a historical narrative. I think this actually happened. Do you think this is just a fanciful story? Nope. No, I think this is history. I think Joshua really saw this. And this is what this commander of the armies of the Lord actually said. Wait a minute, did Joshua write this book? Yeah, I think so. Yep. So, all right, so he's finishing his memoir on this.
He says, I met the commander of the lords of the armies. God had put me in charge. God had commissioned me. God had brought the people to listen to me. But at the end of the day, it's the commander of the lord of the armies. He was the one who was truly leading the people. I wonder if he, like, was talking to the, um, who he came back to camp or, like, if he was away. And, like, he was like, I'm at the command of the Lord's armies.
And some of the guys were like, I'm jealous. So do you think that this, when we, by the way, I have in my Bible, verse 14 underlined, but somebody might say verse 15, but Joshua, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? That's what I have underlined for Beth's verse. Let's talk about sea calling. Does this call us to bow down to angels? Does this call us to worship angels? Does this call us to treat angels like God? Did you know that there's certain religious groups who will say that?
Dead serious. There's a whole group that will say Jesus was nothing more than an angel. Jesus was probably this commander of the Lord of armies and he's just an angel. And Jesus accepts angelic worship, angelic kingly obscence. If that's the case, then why does he say that he's the son of God, but he's also God? Well, there's a difference between Jesus and them, isn't it? The book of Hebrews, he's greater than all the angels. To which of the angels did he ever say, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool? The whole point of Hebrews chapter one and two is that, no, Jesus ain't no angel, buddy. He truly is the God man. And so, no, we don't bow down to angels.
I think this is either a Christophany or a theophany. But when God tells us to do something, We do it, right? I think we should listen. We should have reverence. We should bow before him in humility and know that he leads us. All right, this got real long. I'm gonna pray for us, okay? God, thank you so much for this fun passage, Lord. It's amazing. There's things that we scratch our heads about, but Lord, we are amazed because we know that you can break through this, what seems at times, according to our modern world, like a barrier or a wall between the spiritual world and the physical. But you know no such barrier. You are the king of heaven and earth.
And so, Father, we pray that you would please teach us to follow you. And we pray that you would continue to build your kingdom, that you would do your work, for we know that you, indeed, are the commander of the armies in heaven, and that you have even sent Jesus, who at his very wish could command a legion of angels. So, Lord, we pray that you would please teach us to follow you. Let us love you and walk in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. May God bless you. May you not be just scratching your head, but I pray that you would have a great deal of reverence and awe for who God is and follow in his ways. I'll see you next time. Bye.