JOSHUA 5 - WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Joshua 5
With election day fast approaching for the 2020 Presidential election, both sides are busy making claims that right, justice, history and even God is on their side. How does one decide? Whose side is God on? That is what Joshua wanted to know as he prepared to lead the Israelites in their conquest of the land of Canaan. God had miraculously dried up the river Jordan, allowing the children of Israel to cross safely into the heart of the land they were to conquer.
As they prepared for war, God told the Israelites to dedicate themselves to Him by circumcising all the men, in keeping with the Covenant God had made with Abraham. Circumcision was a reminder that the Israelites were to be set apart to God. It should also be noted that their obedience to being circumcised as they stood on the brink of war, which left them vulnerable to their enemies, was a testimony to the trust they had in the Lord and their faith in His deliverance.
And then as a final symbolic act, testifying that God had finally led them home, and looking forward to the feast we will someday celebrate with the Lord, as Jesus foretold in Matthew 26:29 (“I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”); the Israelites celebrated their first Passover in Canaan.
Having dedicated themselves, and feasted and rejoiced in the goodness of God, their leader Joshua looked and saw what he thought to be a man, dressed for battle, whom he approached and questioned. “Are you for us, or for our adversaries”.
Like so many of us, Joshua saw the world in an us v. them reality.
This was particularly true for Joshua who was directly on a mission from the Lord, fulfilling God’s promise to the children of Israel to give them the land of Canaan. Secure in being on the right side, Joshua boldly asks this warrior, “are you for us or against us”. The response must have taken Joshua by surprise. “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And recognizing that he was standing before a manifestation of God Himself, Joshua responds in the only appropriate manner: ‘And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”’
God does not choose sides; God does not have a side; God does not have an agenda. He is! His existence is the only true reality.
As Jesus proclaimed: He is the way, the truth and life, itself. And so even as Joshua is on the brink of destiny, fulfilling the very purpose for which God has made Him a leader of His people, God intervenes to remind Him that there is a higher purpose than even his mission. And the commander of the Lord'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.
Whatever side we may believe is right; whatever objective we may think is our priority, may we, like Joshua, be ever reminded that life has a higher purpose: worshipping our creator, whose presence in our life makes everywhere we tread holy ground.