JOSHUA 5:13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" 14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" 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 so.
We have seen this in the Bible before, haven’t we? Do you remember what God told Moses at the burning bush? You are standing on Holy ground. I believe this is sign of Joshua being handed over the leadership of the Israelites from Moses. There are a few things I would like to point out about this encounter, but we should establish WHO it was that was talking to Joshua first. Remember that our text says "a man" was standing there. This isn’t the only incident where man came face to face with God, is it? There are numerous mentions in the Old Testament...as a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve talked with God. Let’s look further.
John 1:18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. This is clearly a reference to Jesus. Even Jesus Himself said in John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. So, clearly the only one that has ever seen the Father is Jesus Christ. In the many instances of man having face to face encounters with God, it was really the pre-incarnate Christ who represented the Father on earth. We know that Christ was with the Father from the beginning.....JOHN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. Now, there ARE angels of the Lord.... like Micheal, and Gabriel. but I believe where the word "man" is used to describe a heavenly being, it refers to the "Son of man"...which is Jesus Himself. I want to show you a how Joshua handled this encounter and see what we can learn from it.
First, Joshua asked "are you for us or against us?" Jesus didn’t answer that question. He merely said "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Now most of us at that point would have said "Hey! Didn’t you hear me? Are you for us or against us?" But what did Joshua do? Our text tells us that Joshua fell to his face (in reverence) and asked "what message do you have for me, your servant?"
Whenever most of us come face to face with Christ, we are full of questions. Matter of fact, we are so busy asking questions and making requests that Christ can’t even get a word in edgewise! Did you ever try to hold a conversation like that? Someone asks you "How are you doing?" and then won’t let you answer them before they are already talking about something else. See, they are asking to hear from you, but they don’t really care about your response! Sometimes when we ask how some situation is going in some Christian’s life, they say "well,.....we’re just waiting to hear from God." Most times when we pray we get so busy asking that we don’t have time to listen. We usually pray and tell God what we need and want, then we have to hurry up and get up.....gotta go, we’re busy! I believe that more Christians would hear from Christ if they would just take the time to listen!
Joshua immediately recognized that he was in his Master’s presence....and he then submitted totally to Him. You see, being in His presence is an honor, a distinction that other religions don’t get to have with their Gods. Too often we Christians take Gods presence for granted and we don’t give it the reverence and honor that it deserves. The first thing that Joshua was told was "take off your sandals, you are standing on Holy ground." WOW!
Now, I don’t think that God intends for us all to come to the altar and get barefooted.....that could be somewhat offensive for some of us! But I DO believe that God (Christ) wants us to approach Him with the dignity and respect that He deserves...which is ALL you can give, for when we bow our heads to communicate with Jesus, WE are then standing on Holy ground....and we need to listen and ask Him "What can your servant do for You today, Lord?" instead of telling Him what we expect Him to do for us.
I want to read further...JOSHUA 6:1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." WELL! That probably sounded pretty strange to Joshua! What do you mean "march around the city for 6 days?" Don’t you realize how far that is? Jericho was a BIG city in those times. It took a full day to get around it! A lot of Christians won’t even walk to the front of the church to the altar, much less put themselves out like that! After all, couldn’t God just have blown those walls over without all that work? Can’t He take care of our problems without us having to do anything?
Of course He could......but He usually doesn’t. See, God wants us to become transformed so we can be ready for His Kingdom! We have to learn lessons....and we usually don’t want to learn, we just WANT! You see people wearing T-shirts all the time.."I want what I want when I want" or "My way or the hi-way". We are a selfish, selfish generation, and until we can start growing up into the ways of the Lord, we are just gonna be standing there staring at those walls that we need to break down saying "I wonder when God is going to do something about these walls? I told Him they needed to come down!"
Listen. Joshua didn’t say "Hey! That sounds like too much work!" Look in vs 6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." 7 And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD." He didn’t question what the Lord told him, he just did it. Kinda like a Nike commercial only better! Let’s read on... vs 8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!"
Can you imagine what those people in Jericho were thinking? Here are all these people marching around the walls of the city, blowing trumpets, carrying the Ark....and not saying a word. Do you think we could get that many Christians together today and have everybody keep their mouths shut all day long and march? Today it is "Onward Christian Soldiers...but not for too long, I have to get my nails done!" Don’t you know about the third day some of those Israelites were just dying to complain? Joshua said "don’t say a word until I tell you". How often do we jump ahead of God....speak too soon, take action before God was ready for us to? So how does it pay off to do things the way God tells us to? Vs 20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Smooth and easy....just the way God planned it. The people were obedient, reverent, and submissive to God’s plan....even though they may have thought it was crazy at the time. That’s how God plans for your walls to come down....smooth and easy! So what can we take from this story?
1. Jesus is Lord! He is the King of Kings and His word never fails. He is omnipotent!
2. We need to seek His presence. In order to do that, we need to be quiet and listen to Him!
3. He is Holy. Revere Him, respect Him and recognize His authority! Recognize that you are standing on Holy ground
4. When He speaks, we need to not only listen, but do! James 1:22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
We will NEVER achieve what God has for us if we refuse to listen to Him because it’s "too much work" for us. God will NOT make every wall in your life come down easily....though you will never know how many walls He already HAS blown down for you. Hear Him today; we are standing on Holy ground!
