Whose Side Are You On?1

Josh. 5:13-6:52/26/17

I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Joshua chapter 5. If you’ve been trekking along with us so far, we’ve made it almost through chapter 5. And, as I was pondering where we’ve been thus far, we’ve seen God elevate Joshua as a replacement for Moses to lead the people of Israel into the land of Canaan, to deliver the Promised Land into their hands as a gift for them. We’ve seen Joshua send in two spies to report on the city of Jericho especially, where they met Rahab, and she confessed her faith in Yahweh, the true God, the God of Israel, who was coming to take her land away and give it to these Israelites. And we’ve seen the people of Israel cross over the Jordan River on dry ground. It took two chapters to make that trek, to make that voyage, chapters 3-4, and we remember that they were instructed to build a pillar of twelve stones for them to remember the crossing of the Jordan in particular throughout their generations. And then we come to chapter 5, and we wonder, “Are we going to actually get to fight now? Are we going to actually get to engage with the people of the land?” And, no, we’re not. In chapter 5, you remember, they took some time to circumcise all of the men of Israel and all of the boys of Israel, and they hung out a few days while they healed, and then are they ready yet? No. They’re going to celebrate the Passover, and take a day or so to do that before they go into Jericho. So, we come to the end of chapter 5, and we wonder, “Are we going to fight yet? Are we actually going to take a city yet?” And the answer is still: no. So, as we come to the end of chapter 5, we might ask the question, “What else needs to be done? What are we waiting for here?” It turns out that there are two things that still need to be done before they are going to attack Jericho. Those two things are: a promise needs to be fulfilled; God has a promise that he’s going to fulfill at the end of chapter 5, and then at the beginning chapter 6, a plan needs to be revealed. And so, God’s got two more things that he wants to do before the people of Israel actually engage in combat, so to speak, with the people of the land. And so we’re going to look at those two pieces this morning.

The end of chapter 5 is where we’ll begin, the last paragraph, verses 13-15. Let me read those verses for us, and then we will unpack them a bit. Joshua 5:13-15: 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 Yahweh. 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 Yahweh’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. Isn’t that a weird story? This is probably the strangest story in the book of Joshua in my mind. When I come to it, every time I read it, I ask, “What is going on?” Who is this commander? What’s he here for? Why does Joshua respond the way that he does? And, ultimately, I want to know what’s God up to in the midst of this strange story. Well, let’s

1 I never actually explained my sermon title in the message. It’s meant to be ironic. “Whose side are you on?” is basically the question that Joshua asks the commander of the armies of Yahweh, but Joshua was asking the wrong question. The commander’s answer of “No,” implies that Joshua should not be asking whose side the angelic commander is on. Instead, what is of crucial importance is that Joshua is on the right side. So, the question, “Whose side are you on?” while incorrect coming from Joshua, is exactly the question that this passage asks of its readers. God never comes to take our sides, to support our agendas; he always summons us to follow his agenda.

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see if we can answer some of those questions. I’ve got a few pieces I want to look at particularly. Who is this commander? How does Joshua respond? Why does Joshua respond the way that he does? And why is this important?

But before we get there, let me just walk through and make sure we get the main point here of this little encounter. So, Joshua’s out away from the camps of Israel, outside the city of Jericho, and he’s looking around. We might first ask, “What’s he doing out there?” He seems to be alone, away from the camp, looking up toward Jericho. Why is he out there? We might come back to that and give a guess. The text doesn’t say anything about what he’s doing. But instead of doing anything, he sees a man unexpectedly, a man with a sword in his hand. Now, you’ve got to put yourself in Joshua’s sandals for just a minute, before he takes them off, and you’ve got to consider, “What would he think?” You see a man out there who’s got a sword in his hand. It looks like he’s ready to fight. Your immediate assumption would probably be he’s either an Israelite soldier who’s out of his camp. Why would that be? He needs to get back in his camp. He’s one of Joshua’s underlings, perhaps. Or, he’s a Canaanite soldier coming out to fight, maybe like the story of David and Goliath. This is a champion of the Canaanites who’s come out to challenge the champion of Israel. That’d be going on in Joshua’s mind, perhaps, that this soldier from the Canaanite armies has come out to fight. And so he asks the right question, there at the end of verse 13: “Are you for us, or for our adversaries? Who’s side are you on?”

And the way that this figure answers him is surprising. Now, some of our Bible translations, in verse 14, say, “Neither,” as though the commander were saying, “I’m not on either side. I’m neutral in this.” But that’s not what the text says. The Hebrew word here is just, “No.” That doesn’t sound like it addresses Joshua’s question exactly, but that’s the point. This figure is telling him, “You’re asking the wrong question. You shouldn’t be asking whose side I’m on.”2 And so he then tells him who he is, in a vague sort of way. We might wonder, “Does this help Joshua at all?” “I am the commander of the army of Yahweh.” We’ll come back to that in just a moment and consider his true identity if we can. But, the next thing that he says is really the crucial point: “Now I have come. I’m here now.” And so, it’s almost as though, as we read through the story of Joshua, now things can get started. We’ve been reading along for five chapters, and what have we been waiting on? Well, unbeknownst to us, the readers, we’ve been waiting on this guy to show up. And now he’s here. And so the festivities, the conquest, the engagement with the people of the land can begin. And we’ll consider why that is in just a bit.

He says, “I have come now.” And Joshua’s response immediately is to fall down on the ground before him, to express his servitude to him, his inferiority to this figure: “What does my lord say to his servant?” He assumes, “You’ve got something to tell me, right? You’re not just hanging out here. You’ve got something to tell me, don’t you?” And the initial command of this commander in verse 15 is, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” So, this figure tells Joshua something about the place where he’s at: “This place has been set apart especially for this encounter. This place has been set apart for this moment, for this meeting. It’s holy. It’s been set apart by God for this moment, for this meeting,

2 Cf. Rhett P. Dodson, Every Promise of Your Word: The Gospel According to Joshua (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), pg. 109, who writes, “The answer of ‘no’ was not a statement of neutrality. The reply deflects Joshua’s question in order to focus his attention on something more important. In other words, Joshua had asked the wrong question or at least he had not asked the most important question.”

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for this purpose.” And Joshua acknowledges that he’s correct, and he takes off his sandals and engages with him, as far as we can tell, no further.

Now, it’s at this point that, typically, we shift gears and move into chapter 6, because chapter 6 breaks the thought here, and we leave this story behind as this isolated story, but I don’t think that’s what we need to do. I think chapter 6 is a bad place to break the chapter, to break the story.3 I think verses 1-5 of chapter 6 especially continue his conversation with this figure. The difficulty with that is what we see in verse 2 of chapter 6, if you want to skip ahead there: “And Yahweh, the Lord, said to Joshua….” And so, is this a new moment, a different place where God is revealing something to Joshua verbally from the sky? Or, is it this figure, this man, this figure’s who has identified himself as the commander of the army, speaking for Yahweh? I think that’s what’s going on, that this commander actually verbally expresses God’s marching orders for Joshua and his army, and so we need to hold these two pieces together, and so we can see how the plan that’s going to be revealed in verses 1-5 about how to engage with Jericho is a major part of what’s going on here.

But let’s go back and see if we can unpack some of the mystery of this story a little bit in verses 13-15. Who is this commander? It’s difficult to tell. Even if we consider all of Scripture, this phrase “the commander of the army of Yahweh” doesn’t ever appear again. And so, we’re left to wonder whether this is an isolated incident. Do we ever meet this guy again? We never see him in Joshua again as far as we know. The closest thing to this phrase comes up in the book of Daniel, in chapter 8,4 in a vision of Daniel, but I won’t even ask you to turn there because it’s not helpful. It’s in a vision of Daniel. And, well, who are we talking about? We still don’t know. There’s all kind of symbolic imagery in that particular vision, and so, who are we talking about?

Well, there might be a clue here that, if you’ve been reading along since Genesis and all the way through the story—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and then into Joshua—you might’ve caught something. The way he’s described here, Joshua saw him, back in verse 13, as a man with his sword in his hand. There are only two other places in the Bible where we see a figure with a drawn sword in his hand. I’ll take you to one of them. Well, we’ll look at both of them actually. Numbers 22:31. You remember the story of Balaam? The wicked prophet hired to curse Israel comes riding in on his donkey. You remember the story perhaps. The donkey sees something in the pathway and jerks off the road, and Balaam beats his donkey to get back on the road. And they go through that routine twice. And then the third time, Balaam’s donkey actually verbally speaks to Balaam and tells him, “I’m trying to rescue you here.” And then we read verse 31 of the story, Numbers 22:31: Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Yahweh (the angel of the Lord) standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And notice his response. And he bowed down and fell on his face—just like what Joshua does.

3 Recognized by many students of Scripture. For example, see, Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words (Focus on the Bible Commentary; Scotland: Christian Focus, 2000), pg. 52, who writes, “In 5:13–6:5 the writer depicts the appearance of Yahweh’s help. These verses should be construed as a unit, the chapter division ignored, and 6:1 recognised [sic] as a parenthetical remark and placed within brackets.”

4 Dan. 8:11, translated in the ESV as “the Prince of the host.” Again, the ESV has capitalized the word “Prince” indicating their interpretation that this figure is actually God.

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We can see the next time that this occurs, 1 Chronicles 21, in the life of David. David has counted his soldiers. You remember the census that he took that displeased God? God gave him some options for punishment, and David chose to have God give a plague over the people, and then toward the end of that story, we read 1 Chronicles 21:16: And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of Yahweh (the angel of the Lord) standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces—the same response again to this figure. Now, if you read those two stories side by side, you realize that somebody having a sword drawn in their hand is not good news, right? It seems to be an indication that God has sent this figure to bring judgment against somebody.5 In Numbers 22, it’s Balaam who’s in trouble, because remember the angel was going to kill Balaam if not for the donkey, and then here in 1 Chronicles 21, the angel’s holding his sword out over Jerusalem, announcing that he’s about to strike, and David sees that and the elders fall on their faces.

And so, here, I wonder—and this is the best I can do—with this figure holding his sword in his hand, is he also to be understood as the angel of the Lord, the same guy as in the encounter with Balaam, the same guy who would later encounter David and threaten judgment over the people of Jerusalem. The commander of the army of Yahweh—is he the angel of the Lord? Perhaps. Probably even, I might say, but we can’t be certain about it. But that suggests to us, then, that this commander, with his sword drawn out—we don’t know where it’s pointed—but he’s coming to bring judgment. And knowing what’s going on in the story of Joshua, it’s likely that God has sent this angel to pronounce judgment on the people of Canaan. And he’s sending in the armies of Israel to execute that judgment. And so we have here the angel of the Lord. But does that really help us with the identity of this figure? Not so much. Everybody debates and discusses, Who is the angel of the Lord in Old Testament stories like these? And he is often thought to be the second person of the Trinity, the “preincarnate” appearance of Jesus. Many folks believe that; you’ve probably heard that taught, that he has come, and he is the one that we see as the angel of the Lord appearing in several passages of the Old Testament.6 Others believe that it’s somehow God himself without a focus on just the second person, taking on a physical form to address somebody, give a message to somebody. I think that we’re just viewing an angel here, personally. My opinion is that this figure an angel; he’s a general, he’s a commander, but this word “commander” is always a subordinate to the king. He’s never the superior; he’s always got somebody he reports to as well.7 And so, whatever you think about his true identity here, he comes with the authority of Yahweh. He comes with the authority of the Lord, and that was normal in the ancient world for a messenger to carry the authority of the one who originated the message. They spoke with the authority of the king. And so does this commander, it seems.8 And

5 So suggests Richard S. Hess, Joshua (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 6; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), pg. 139, who succinctly observes, “A figure with a drawn sword is one not to be toyed with. He is one who threatens divine judgment.”

6 See, for example, Donald K. Campbell, “Joshua,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary (edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck; Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1985), pg. 339.

7 Cf. David M. Howard, Jr., Joshua (The New American Commentary 5; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), pgs. 156-157, who explains, “In each of these cases, the commander was the supreme military authority, but he was subordinate to someone else, the king. In almost every case, the commander’s name is found only along with the king’s name, not by itself. Thus, the designation here—‘the commander of the army of the LORD’—indicates an authority figure, yet one whose superior is the king, who in this case is God himself.”

8 Cf. Bruce K. Waltke, “Joshua,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (4th ed.; edited by Gordon J. Wenham et al; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), pg. 243, who writes, “As secular messengers

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so I believe, when we come into chapter 6, Yahweh speaking to Joshua in verse 2 is actually coming through the mouth of this commander that appears as a man with a drawn sword. And so these two stories need to be held together. So, the commander might very well be the angel of the Lord.

Well, how does Joshua respond to him? And we have to talk a little bit more about this. Look again at verse 14 to see his response. Once this figure’s identified himself as the commander of the army of Yahweh, the ESV reads at the end of verse 14, Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped. Now, it’s that English word that trips us up. That’s the English word that we start thinking, “Well if he worshiped, and the guy welcomed the worship, and didn’t say, ‘Don’t do that,’ then he must be divine. He must be God.” If you look up at the next slide on the screen, you can see that there’s a little bit of a translation difficulty. I want to take a moment to do this because I want to alert you to something that you just can’t see when you’re just reading through your English Bibles. The word translated “worship” here—it’s the normal word for “worship, and this is true in the Old Testament and the New Testament—in the Old Testament, I counted 44 times (there might be more) that it’s referring to what one human does to another human, and it’s simply translated as “bowed down” or “paid homage.” Do you know that word “homage”? It’s to show respect to a superior, and it’s something that you do with anybody who’s over you. It can be something you do toward God but also to a human who is over you, or an angelic figure who has a superior rank to you. So, you can see the problem in the ESV is that there’s a little bit of an inconsistency, right? It says that he worshiped, but when he addresses him, then the ESV says, “What does my lord”—with a lowercase “l”—“say to his servant,” and that suggests that he’s just human, or he’s just less than God,9 because they’ve included it as lowercase.10 They’ve been a little bit inconsistent there. But if you look at the New American Standard, they’ve helped us see a little bit better perhaps what’s going on: “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down, and said to him, ‘What has my lord to say to his servant?’”

He’s just a superior; he’s a commander; he’s a high-ranking official and he ranks above Joshua. That’s really the key point. You see this figure has come not to take over, not to take the command away from Joshua. He’s not come to take Joshua’s place, but he has come to take charge.11 He’s come to take charge. “I am the commander of the army of Yahweh. I am superior in rank to you, Joshua.” And Joshua acknowledges that. And he submits to him fully. When he says, “Take your sandals off your feet because you’re standing on holy ground,” without

were fully equated with their senders (e.g. 2 Sa. 3:12-13; 1 Ki. 20:2-4), God’s angel (cf. Gn. 31:11; Ex. 3:2; 14:19) and his angelic captain (cf. Dn. 10:5, 20) were also treated with equal respect.”

9 Cf. Marten H. Woudstra, The Book of Joshua (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981), pg. 105, who writes simply, “Although Joshua’s use of the words my lord indicates a recognition of superiority, it falls short of ascription of deity.”

10 There is an important point in the Hebrew of this word as well. When the Hebrew word translated “lord” in this verse is referring to God, it is spelled differently. So, the spelling of this word in the Hebrew text suggests to us that this figure, whoever he might be, is not God himself. See Howard, Joshua, pg. 158, who explains, “Whether this was an act of true worship of God or a more general gesture of respect for a superior (since both can be signified by the verb used here) has been debated. However, Joshua called him “my lord,” using the generic term ʾădōnî rather than “my Lord,” using God’s name ʾădōnāy, which suggests that he may still have been unclear as to whether or not he was speaking with God himself.” In the English rendering, you can see the ay ending which is present when this word is used as a title for God.

11 For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what I was trying to say here. I meant to say, “He has not come to take sides, but to take charge,” quoting David Jackman, Joshua: People of God’s Purpose (Preaching the Word commentary series; Wheaton, IL Crossway, 2014), pg. 64.

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question, Joshua does it, because this figure is above him. And so he’s come to take command, but not to take Joshua’s place.12 He’s not going to remove Joshua’s responsibility. You see, Joshua’s response is not to say, “Well, now that you’re here, I can just go hang out. Now that you’re here, I don’t have anything else to do.” No, Joshua’s going to take his responsibility very seriously in executing the orders that this figure has given to him. And so, Joshua recognizes him as his superior and believes what he says about the place being holy and takes off his shoes.

Now, why is this important? It’s a strange story however you look at it, however you parse out the details. It’s a strange story. Why is it important? Well, I think it’s important for three different groups of people. It’s important for Joshua. And this was an interesting thought when I was reading through. Notice that there’s nobody around to see this. There are no witnesses. This is a meeting between the commander and Joshua, and nobody else has to know about it. And then I thought, well, why is it in our Bible? Why did whoever wrote this book later on choose to include the story? Well, it has some significant relevance for God’s people, ultimately, and then it also—unexpectedly—has some significant relevance for us as well. So, let’s take those apart one at a time.

What does this meeting mean for Joshua? Well, we’ve noticed already several times through the book of Joshua that he is a “new Moses.” He is acting like Moses did when Moses was around. Now Moses is gone and Joshua has taken his place, so to speak. If you flip back in your Bible to Exodus chapter 3—and you might have already been making this connection in your mind—the story about when Moses first met the Lord, when Moses first met Yahweh, the story of the burning bush has a lot of parallels here, and I think that’s important to see. So, let’s go back to Exodus 3 and just re-read that story briefly and notice some of the connections. They’ll be obvious to you, I’m sure, as you read them together. Exodus chapter 3, let me just read verses 2-5 to start. Exodus 3:2-5. Notice the character here: And the angel of Yahweh—note that, the angel of the Lord—appeared to him (that’s Moses; appeared to Moses) in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” And then notice verse 4: When Yahweh (the Lord) saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” So, notice already there that Moses the narrator, as he’s writing the story, he identifies the angel of Yahweh in the fire, and then now he says it’s God calling to him out of the bush. What does he say? Verse 5: “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” So, note the parallel; it’s obvious here. But what’s the point? Well, it seems that now Joshua—who would have known this story, right? Joshua wasn’t around for Moses’ encounter with the burning bush, but he would have known the story from later on, and he knew that that was the moment where God met with Moses to commission him to deliver the people from slavery in Egypt. And so now, God has sent this angel, this commander, to come and commission Joshua in a very special way to go in and take the land.

Now, I want to read the rest, just a few more verses in Exodus 3, because they’re going to line up with what we see in the beginning of Joshua 6, the instructions are given here. So, what does

12 In fact, we should assume his presence and involvement throughout the conquest, even though he’s never mentioned again. See James Montgomery Boice, Joshua (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005), pg. 45, who writes, “This figure undoubtedly assumed command of the armies of Israel from that moment forward and throughout the entire seven-year campaign in Canaan.”

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God say to Moses, after he takes off his sandals (we assume). Verse 6, Exodus 3:6: And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. So, in the initial encounter, he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. He says that he’s God, so he had better treat him like God, and so he hides his face so as not to look at him. Verse 7: Then Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” So, in this encounter with Moses, God tells him what he’s going to do. He says, “I’m going to send you to Pharaoh, and I am going to use you to deliver the people from Egypt, and then I’m going to take them into a land that I have already promised to them, a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, this land of the Canaanites.” God has come down to deliver them, and so it is now, and in the person of this commander, God has come down to take Joshua in finally, to use him, to lead him, to guide him, and to instruct him.13 So, that’s why it’s important for Joshua. He’s now able to see more fully than he already did his place as Moses’ successor. God has commissioned Moses that way, and now God has commissioned Joshua the same way, and so now we’re ready to go.

But why is this story in the Bible, other than to say that Joshua is like Moses? Well, it seems to me that this is the place where we remember that there was actually a promise about this event, about this angel coming. Back in Exodus 23, there was a promise that was given that we haven’t seen anything about in the book of Joshua thus far. And it seems to me that what we have here is the fulfillment of this promise, or the beginning of it at least.14 Exodus 23, God said to Moses to deliver to the people: Behold, I send an angel before you—notice what he’s supposed to do—to guard you on the way and (secondly) to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say—notice that; obey his voice and do all that I say; they’re kind of equated there—then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. So, I think what we have in Joshua 5 is the arrival of this angel. Now, he had been with them in the wilderness all along, but now we’re coming to a new stage of the fulfillment of this promise, where he’s going to bring them into the land, and they’re going to take possession of it. And so, God has promised that this angel would come and would be a guarding presence for them and would enable them to come into the place that he has prepared. Note that language about the land of Canaan.

13 Cf. John Goldingay, Joshua, Judges & Ruth for Everyone (For Everyone series; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2011), pg. 23, who writes, “God’s command to Moses to remove his shoes because he stands on holy ground led into God’s declaration of intent to deliver Israel from Egypt and into the commission to go to Pharaoh to bid him let Israel go. The commander’s parallel command to Joshua leads into God’s declaration of intent to give Jericho into his power and leads into the commission to process around the city, in effect to bid it surrender to Israel.”

14 Noted by, among others, V. Phillips Long, “Joshua,” in The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), pg. 401.

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With this promise on the table, and it now being fulfilled in the book of Joshua and in the story of the conquest, I was reminded about the promise that’s given to all of God’s people, promises that are embodied not just in an angel, but in God’s own Son. You see, God doesn’t just send an angel to protect us. God doesn’t just send an angel to ensure that we make it to the finish line. God sent his very own Son to protect us and to ensure that we make it to the finish line. Let me show you some of those passages. So, why is this story important for us? The promise is the same for us, but it’s ramped up; it’s even better for us! It’s not just an angel’s responsibility; Jesus has taken that responsibility himself. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3-5 give us a statement of this promise that God is committed to guarding us. Just like he sent that angel to guard the people of Israel, God has committed himself to guard us, to protect us every day, all day, now and forever. Notice the way it’s worded, 1 Peter 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance—that’s that place that we’re coming to—to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven. If you think that the land of Canaan was great, flowing with milk and honey, our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading; it’s kept in heaven for us; it’s not on a little plot of land. It’s kept in heaven for us, being preserved for us until we attain full possession of it. But he wants to say something about you, all you Christians; the inheritance is being kept for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. You see, God has committed himself to protecting you. This text tells us, 1 Peter 1:3, “God has caused us to be born again.” From the moment that you were born again, God has been at work in your life to protect you, to ensure that you will make it to the finish line, to ensure that you will receive the full inheritance on the last day.

God has committed himself; he doesn’t send an angel to do it for him. He’s committed himself to do it, and more particularly, Jesus himself is active in your life every moment of every day to guard you. 1 John 5:18 needs a little unpacking to see clearly what John is saying here, but these are rich and glorious verses that you ought to meditate on and marinate in. John says that We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. John uses a play on words here. He starts by saying “everyone who has been born of God”; that’s a reference to all Christians. Everyone who has been born again, everyone who has been born again, all Christians. And then he says this: every Christian, all Christians “do not keep on sinning.” That’s a terrifying verse. Right? If you know yourself at all, when you look in the mirror and examine your own life, and then you read this verse, you wonder, right? What is he saying? What does he mean? How could it be? Because I seem to keep on sinning. I do sin. You do sin. I know you do. I do, too. All Christians do, and John knows it. If you read 1 John, you know that he admits that we keep on sinning, so what is this thing? I think he means we do not pursue sin as a lifestyle. Genuine Christians don’t run after sin. We don’t pursue it; we don’t hunger for it; we don’t want it. When it happens, we fight it; we run from it; we admit it openly. That’s what he says earlier in the letter, 1 John 1, at the end of the chapter and then into 1 John 2. Christians admit when they sin and they hate it. That’s a proper posture toward sin. But we do still sin. And so, what he’s saying here is that we don’t pursue sin as a lifestyle. That’s not what we want to do.

What’s the flipside, and how is that even true? Why is it true that you and I don’t want sin? He who was born of God—and so he uses a play on words here; he changes the tense. “He who

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was born of God”—that’s a reference to Jesus. So, if you have your Bible open there, you could write “Jesus” up above it and you would be able to see it more clearly. Jesus protects him! And that’s a present tense verb, just like it was in 1 Peter 1. Jesus is ongoing, actively protecting you. He’s at work in your life. What’s the result of that protection? It’s almost too good to be true: the evil one does not touch him. Satan does not touch him. We don’t have time to explore all of the wonder that’s in that verse, but you ought to meditate on that. You ought to stare at that and think about how it impacts the way you think about the way the devil works in the world and in your life. This needs to be a banner over your life, to remember that Jesus himself is engaged and committed to protect you every moment of every day. And if he’s on your side, if he’s the one protecting you, are you going to be afraid of what the devil can do? I hope you’re not.

So, the promise that was given here, that was being fulfilled here for this commander who’s come to give some measure of protection for the armies of Israel, we get it even better. The Son of God is committed to protect his people. But there’s one other piece that was mentioned in that promise in Exodus 23, that the angel was going to be at work in them to bring them in to the place that God had prepared. Did you catch that phrase? Canaan is pictured as the place that God had prepared for them. It reminded me of John 14’s famous words that Jesus spoke to his disciples the night before he died. John 14 verses 2-3: In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. You can be sure, Christian, confident that you’re going to make it to the finish line because Jesus has committed himself to get you there. It’s not because of anything you do. Your assurance can’t be based on how strong you are, how good your fighting, how deep your Bible study is, how much you pray. None of that will get you to the finish line on the last day! Jesus will! He’s promised to do it. He bought you with his blood; he’s not going to let you go. And he’s not going to let anybody else take you away either. So, rest in that. Be assured by those glorious promises.

Back to Joshua 5. So, here in this story, the commander has come as a fulfillment of a promise made to the people back in the book of Exodus. But, also, before they could go on in, a plan had to be revealed. So, let’s look at that briefly, chapter 6 verses 1-5. Now, when you read verse 1 of chapter 6, you need to put parentheses around it in your Bibles, because the narrator steps back and says, “Oh yeah, let me tell you something about Jericho.”15 And then he goes right back into the conversation that Joshua’s having with this commander. So, verse 1, chapter 6 verse 1: Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. So, what’s the point of this? Why does he make that notice? Well, there’s actually a theological point here, I think, that we need to see. If you remember the story from chapter 2, with Rahab, do you remember what the spies learned from Rahab? She said, “Everybody here is terrified. Our hearts are melted because we heard how God dried up the waters of the Red Sea when y’all left Egypt.” Well, now God has worked to dry up the waters of the Jordan as well, and the word is spreading, and their hearts are melting. People are terrified of the people of Israel. So, what do they do? They lock their gates; nobody’s allowed in or out. They shut everything up. But what are they saying in that? What are they communicating? They’re saying, “We do not accept Yahweh’s claim. We reject this God of Israel, who says he can take our land

15 Cf. Howard, Joshua, pg. 168, who comments simply, “This verse sets the stage for the episode at Jericho and is grammatically and syntactically not part of the narrative story line.”

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and give it to whom he wants.” They’re rejecting Yahweh’s claim over their territory and over their lives.16 And what you need to see in that moment is that they didn’t have to do that. Rahab didn’t. Rahab didn’t; she accepted Yahweh’s claim. She was terrified just like the rest of them, but her terror led her to beg for mercy. It led her to draw close to God, rather than to run from God. And every Canaanite in this land has that choice to make. As we read through the book of Joshua, you keep remembering that, because the story won’t draw our attention to that very often, but you need to keep remembering that they could’ve responded differently. Instead of shutting their doors, they could’ve opened wide and said, “Come on in! We surrender!” That’s what Rahab and her family did. But, unfortunately, if you know the rest of the story, there won’t be many others like that. But here, they are rejecting God’s claim out of terror, and it’s a terror that causes them to say, “We don’t want anything to do with that God. We’re going to try to escape. We’re going to try to protect ourselves from him, even though he’s coming.”

So, what about this plan? Let me just read quickly through verses 2-5, and we’ll see God laying out the plan that Joshua is to take. And Yahweh said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” We read that, and we think, “That’s no kind of military strategy. That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard, as far as to take a city. Really?” But I want to taper that just a little bit. You often hear that this is strange, and Joshua would have heard it as strange. It is strange; let’s not take away all the weirdness of it. But it’s not that strange. In the ancient world, it was common for an army, a pagan army, to take their idols of their gods, and to march around a city. They do that. What are they doing? They’re saying, “We’re claiming this city for our gods.”17 Now, normally, they only do it once, and then right after that, they fight. They have a battle to prove whether their gods can actually take the city or not. So, it’s not that weird. Joshua would’ve heard this and thought, “I know what that is,” except the part about doing it once every day for six days. That’s a little strange. And then on the seventh day, we’re going to do it seven times, and then we’re going to blow the trumpets—that’s weird. But, the really weird part is the promise: the wall of the city will fall down flat. That’s the weird part. But that’s the way God’s promises are oftentimes.

16 Cf. Hess, Joshua, pgs. 140-141, who writes, “Jericho has refused to hear the message of Israel, proclaimed in the great deeds of the exodus, in the crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan, and in the military victories that had already occurred. The act of shutting forms a physical barrier to Israel’s divinely ordained movement to take possession of the land.”

17 See Robert G. Boling and G. Ernest Wright, Joshua (The Anchor Yale Bible 6; orig. pub. New York: Doubleday, 1974; repr. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), pg. 206, who writes, “It has been suggested that the practice involved is based on ‘the widespread custom of laying claim to territory by so tracing out its bounds. Such circulatory marches often formed part of the ceremonies at the installation of kings’….In this case the speaker in these verses would be the Divine King, marking out the first piece of Canaan to be recovered with the cooperation of the [children of] Israel.”

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So, what we have here is what we could call a military liturgy.18 You know what a liturgy is? A liturgy is the order of service, the order of a worship service, the order of songs in your bulletin; that’s a liturgy. So, they’re talking about a liturgy here; we’re going to have worship as we go around this city with the ark of the covenant leading the way. So, Pastor Barry mentioned a couple of weeks ago how worship would precede the warfare. In chapter 5, we saw circumcision and the celebration of the Passover festival; that’s acts of worship and then they’re going to go in and have the warfare. But truly once we get in there, we’re going to see that, not only does worship precede the warfare, but the warfare actually is worship also. And so, we’ll try to unpack more of that in a couple of weeks when we come back to Joshua chapter 6.

So, at the end of all of this, we see two things from this whole story here. The last things that needed to be done so that Joshua could lead the people in and actually take the city of Jericho is that a promise needed to be fulfilled—God needed to keep a promise—and God needed to reveal a plan, a strategy, instructions for their movement in. And I’d like to suggest to you, as we think about applying this story to our situation and our lives, that this is the same thing that’s going to ensure success in your life, whatever endeavors you might face—whether we’re talking about growing in your spiritual life or talking about improving as a husband or a wife, doing a better job parenting your children, wrestling with your finances—whatever you’re pursuing in life, whatever you’re working toward, what’s going to guarantee success? It’s the same things are guarantee success for Joshua and the military. God’s got to keep his promises, and we’ve got to follow his revealed plans. So, these two pieces—God’s got to keep his promises and we’ve got to follow God’s revealed plans.

Flip to the book of Philippians with me, and we’ll be done in just a few minutes. The book of Philippians—we’ll look at a couple of passages in the first couple of passages. But these two dynamics are what guarantee success, no matter what you’re looking at in your life, it’s these two pieces—God’s got to keep his promises, and we’ve got to follow God’s revealed plan. Now, those two statements are not equal. They don’t stand as part one and part two; they don’t stand as—well, God’s got to keep his promise, and that’s 50% of the problem, and I’ve got to follow his revealed plan, and that’s 50% of the problem. That’s not the relationship between God keeping his promises and us following his revealed plan to ensure success in our lives. They’re related a little bit differently, and it’s really important as Christians that we understand the relationship here, because if we get it out of sync, we slide real easily into legalism, and we slide real easily into just exhausted burnout, because we just think it’s all up to us. Even if we think it’s mostly up to us, we get burned out when we forget the proper relationship between these two, so let’s talk about that a little bit.

Philippians chapter 1 verses 6-11 is where we’ll start. I’ll move pretty quickly. And I am sure of this, Paul writes, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That’s a promise. Just note that. The promise of God right here to you as a Christian. We could think back to 1 Peter 1 that we were just looking at, the good work that he began was when he caused you to be born again. He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Verse 7: It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in

18 Cf. J. Gordon McConville and Stephen N. Williams, Joshua (The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), pg. 33, who write, “The action now commanded is both military and religious. The surrounding of the city, a regular military maneuvre [sic], takes on here the aspect of a religious procession.”

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my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer—notice that—my prayer that your love may abound more and more. Notice that connection. Paul is praying that these Philippian believers would grow in their love. How are they going to grow in their love? If God answers his prayer, they’re going to grow in their love. But they’ve got to actually love, right? They’ve got to actually reach out to other people; they’ve got to express their love. But if they do, isn’t it because God was answering his prayer? You see, he’s asking God to cause their love to abound. He’s asking God to cause their love to abound more and more. I pray this for you, and so if you grow in love, one aspect of that is because God is responding to my prayers and perhaps the prayers others. I hope you pray this for yourself and for your neighbor. You grow in love when God answers these kinds of prayers. He does it. He’s at work in it.

Carrying on: with all knowledge and discernment. Is your knowledge and discernment going to increase as you express love for your neighbor? If God answers this kind of a prayer, if God is at work, it will. What’s the result? So that you may approve what is excellent. So that you can see what is best, what is most beautiful, and embrace it. If you do that, it’s because God is at work. And what’s the final result that he has in view? And this is really what we can see—what does completion on the day of Jesus Christ look like? And so—therefore, as a result—you will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So, don’t hold up your hard work and God’s work as these components that work together in tandem: God does half and I do half. Don’t even think God’s got to do 95% and I’ve got to do 5%, and that’s the way it works. That’s not what he’s saying.

Let me show you more clearly in Philippians 2:12-13, verses that I’ve turned to in my own private life, and I’ve spoken them much here as well, because they’re so important to me. This is the key; how does this relate? How do we understand the relationship between God keeping his promises to protect me from sin, for example, to grow me in righteousness, to enable me to make it to the last day a believer? How does that work? Paul writes, and he gives a long introduction her in this verse: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence—a long introduction, preface to say this; here’s the command—work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out! Put forth lots of effort! Work really hard! The Christian life is not a life of passivity. It is not true that we should be living our Christian lives letting God do stuff, and we’re not doing stuff. Letting go, so that we might let God do stuff—that’s not true Christianity. We work…and God works.

But what’s the relationship between those two things? Why does he command? He says, “Work out your own salvation.” Work really, really hard, toward the goal of making it on the last day…with fear and trembling. Why that? Why? Why should we work with fear and trembling? What’s up with that? That’s what verse 13 is to explain. Why should we work hard, and why should we work with fear and trembling? For it is God who works in you—that’s one of those present tense verbs; we’ve got to milk it for all it’s worth—it is God who is working in you, moment by moment, day by day, God is working in you. If you’re a Christian, that’s true of you. God is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So, what is that saying? If you want to please God, it’s because God is at work in you. You see, we boil it down, and we say, “I

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want to because I want to! I choose to!” But you’ve got to see that there’s something behind and underneath your choice. Yes, you choose to! Yes, you want to! But, why? It’s not just because I chose to. God is at work under and behind your choosing and my choosing. He always is. He’s at work under it; he’s at work behind at; and he’s at work through it, so that it works. If you do anything that actually pleases God, it’s because God is at work in you!19

Since that is true, since God himself is working in your life, work really hard! Work really hard with fear and trembling! This fear and trembling is not a sense of dread or terror that you’re not going to make it or that you’re going to fail. It’s a seriousness that you take your Christian life. It’s the seriousness with which you look at your sin. I’ve got to read this story, and then we’ll be done, I promise. I’ve got to read this story by way of illustrating what this means, because we get this so confused sometimes. Some of you will relate to this because you’re handymen; I am not, so I have to read somebody else’s account. So, this is a handyman who’s commenting on this verse, trying to help us see how fear and trembling goes into our effort in Christian life. He says this: “When we bought our first house, there were some issues with the electrical panels that needed to be fixed before our loan would be approved. Being sort of a handy person and wanting to save some money, I decided to do the work myself. It involved installing a new circuit breaker box.” (Now at this point, I’m calling Roy Kettula; if y’all don’t know him, he’s a professional electrician. And I’d be taking my hands off that. But this guy is braver than I am, I suppose, or more experienced, or something.) He says this: “The day of the project, the power company came to disconnect the power and said they would come back at 4:00 pm to hook it back up. The linemen explained to me the consequences of touching the 220 volt cables, wished me well, and then drove off.” Here’s his response: “The cold sweat and knot in my stomach demonstrated my fear. It was not a debilitating fear, but one that drove me to pay the utmost attention to what I was doing—to make sure I did exactly what was expected of me. The fear was grounded (pun intended) in an accurate view of my limitations and what 220 volts could do to me.” He then draws the parallel to this passage and our Christian lives; he says this: “Having too high a view of myself and my abilities (independent of God) is disastrous.” (You see, that would be if he thought he could do it, even though the warning came, he thought, “Ah, no big deal; I can handle this.” But he doesn’t.) “Arrogance leads us to push the limits too much, to do things in our own strength. [On the other side] conversely, having too low a view of ourselves is not helpful either, making us doubt God’s love or purposes for us. We need to remember that God chose to redeem us for His good pleasure, making us His children and coheirs with Christ!”20 You see, he could have done two things. He could’ve said, “I’ve got this, no big deal. I’m not afraid; I’ll just jump in and it’ll be fine.” Or he could’ve said, “Nah, I’m taking my hands off and calling somebody else.” He didn’t do either of those. He worked very precisely, very carefully, because he knew

19 Cf. Frank Thielman, Philippians (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), pg. 145, whose comments capture the point well: “How can we work out our own salvation if God is the one who is at work in us? The answer seems simply to be to work as hard as Paul himself did in his apostolic calling and as diligently as he expected the Philippians to work at their unity, but then, at the end of the day, to recognize humbly that any success we have at doing what God commands comes from God himself. His indwelling Spirit has reshaped our wills so that they may decide to do what he commands, and his Spirit has given us the energy and ingenuity to accomplish God’s ‘good purpose.’ The result of this is that although at various times we may feel that we have put our noses to the grindstone and been obedient even when we did not feel like doing it, we can in the end take no credit. We can make no claim upon God; we can only say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’ (Luke 17:10).”

20 Steven E. Runge, Philippians (High Definition Commentary; Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2011), s.v. Phil. 2:12-18.

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the dangers that were there, and so it is here. For the Christian life, for all of us who are Christians, we should be pursuing obedience to the Lord with a seriousness that recognizes that the God of the universe has chosen to use you, to work in your life, to touch you. He cares about you. That ought to drive you to—the right word is awe. We don’t use it enough, and so it’s not helpful, maybe, but awe that God would work through me is something that I hope can captivate your life and motivate you to live with zeal.21

21 Cf. Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), pg. 237, who writes, “One does not live out the gospel casually or lightly, but as one who knows what it means to stand in awe of the living God. On the other hand, nothing of failure or lack of confidence is implied. The gospel is God’s thing, and the God who has saved his people is an awesome God. Thus ‘working out the salvation’ that God has given them should be done with a sense of ‘holy awe and wonder’ before the God with whom they—and we—have to do.”

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