captain of the Lord's army — Blog

1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 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. 5 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.” 6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.” 7 And he said to the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.”

8 And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. 9 The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 10 But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” 11 So he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. 14 And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. – Joshua 6:2-14 ESV

Joshua and the people of Israel stood on the western banks of the Jordan River, camped at a place called Gilgal. They were just a few miles from the city of Jericho, which would be the site of their first attempt at possessing the land provided to them by God. The men of Israel had followed the Lord’s command and been circumcised. The nation had just celebrated their first Passover in the new land. And Joshua had received a reassuring visit from the captain of the Lord’s armies, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ Himself. Now, Joshua received news that they were to take the city of Jericho, but the battle strategy given to him by the Lord was anything but conventional. In fact, it was outright strange. They were preparing to attack one of the most formidable cities in the entire region, an 8-1/2 acre walled fortress guarded by, according to the Lord’s own description, “mighty men of valor.” And yet, God’s battle plan involved the army of Israel walking around the circumference of the city, following the ark of the covenant as it was carried by the Levitical priests. They were to do this for six consecutive days, then on the seventh and final day, they were to march around the city seven times, and after their final lap, the priests were to blow their shofars, the people were to shout, and the walls would fall. That was the plan.

And the truly amazing thing is that there is absolutely no indication in the text that the people showed any signs of dissent or disagreement with this plan. In fact, it tells us that Joshua commanded the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord” (Joshua 6:7 ESV), and “just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the Lord went forward…” (Joshua 8:8 ESV). They simply obeyed. What a stark contrast to the day, 40 years earlier, when the people of Israel stood on the eastern shores of the Jordan, ready to enter the land of promise, but they refused to do so. They heard the reports of the spies and listened to their warnings about giants in the land, and they stood their ground, disobeying the express will of God and threatening to kill Moses and Aaron.

Yet, on this occasion, the people responded with willing obedience. And it is important to consider just how strange this battle plan must have sounded to them. They were an ill-equipped and inexperienced band of former farmers and peasants who had spent the last 40 years wandering around the desert. They were not seasoned soldiers and they lacked any of the weapons of modern warfare that the troops inside the walls of Jericho would have had. Not only that, they were going up against a city that had a virtually impenetrable barrier around it. They had no siege engines. They lacked any kind of trebuchet or catapult that could bring down the walls of the city. No, all they had was a strange-sounding battle plan that involved a great deal of walking and waiting.

Imagine what it was like that very first evening, as the men made their way back to their camp in Gilgal. They had walked the circumference of the city wall, in silence, as the priests blew their shofars and the enemy soldiers on the walls hurled taunts and ridicule their way. These men must have questioned the wisdom behind this bizarre tactic. That night, around the camp fires, there must have been whispered discussions regarding the credibility of the Lord’s battle plan. But they obeyed. They got up the next morning and did it all over again.

And the people of Jericho must have scratched their heads in wonder as they watched, day after day, the inexplicable ritual taking place just outside their walls. What were these crazy Jews doing? What did they hope to accomplish by walking around the city in a some kind of strange parade? The people of Jericho must have felt comfortable and safe inside their city, surrounded by their walls and protected by their superior army. But little did they know that God Almighty was the one behind all the events taking place just on the other side of their impregnable walls.

Yet, the people of Israel kept walking. For six days, they did what God had told them to do. In the face of opposition, in spite of their own doubts and in direct contradiction to all common sense, they obeyed. God had promised to bring down the walls. But that promise was directly tied to their faith and their faith was to be displayed in the form of obedience. Partial obedience would not suffice. A single trip around the walls was not going to bring them down. Half-hearted commitment was not going to result in a full-out victory. They were going to have to take God at His word, and obediently follow His directions – down to the very last word.

God’s will doesn’t aways make sense. His ways are sometimes strange and illogical to us. But Joshua seemed to know that their capture of Jericho was going to require complete dependence upon God. He knew they were undermanned and poorly equipped for the job of taking the city of Jericho. He realized that any hope they had of conquering the land of Canaan was directly tied to their reliance upon God. The captain of the Lord’s armies had appeared to Joshua with a sword in His hand, and He had claimed, “I have come.” He was there to do battle on behalf of the people of Israel. And He had a plan. His was not a normal, run-of-the-mill battle plan, but a divinely ordained strategy that was going to unleash the power of heaven through the willing obedience of ordinary men. The greatest effort required of the people of Israel was not their daily walk around the walls. It was their faith. It was their continued confidence in God’s plan and their faithful reliance upon His promise: “the wall of the city will fall down flat” (Joshua 6:5 ESV). Their faith in God, while demonstrated by their obedience to the will of God, was going to ultimately manifest itself in the miraculous display of the power of God. The walls would fall. Their faithful walking and waiting would turn impenetrable walls to rubble, an unconquerable army to fallen foes, and a ragtag group of wandering Israelites into a powerful force led by the captain of the Lord’s armies.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

13 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?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. 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?” 15 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. – Joshua 5:10-15 ESV

Not long after Joshua had instructed the men of Israel to undergo the rite of circumcision, the time came for the nation to keep the Passover celebration God had instituted in Egypt. Those outside of the covenant community of Israel were prohibited by the Mosaic law from taking part in the Passover, so the timing of the circumcision of the Hebrew males was critical. Circumcision was a sign of their covenant relationship with God and made them legally approved to participate in the Passover. So much of what we see in this passage points toward God’s divine time table as He prepares His people for an important transition in their covenant relationship with Him. He is leading a new generation of Israelites because the older, rebellious generation had died off. They have a new commander, in the form of Joshua, because Moses had died in the wilderness. They are in a new place, the land of promise, having miraculously crossed over the Jordan and entered into Canaan. And for the first time in over 40 years, they are celebrating Passover in the land God had promised to give them. He had delivered them from captivity in Egypt, led them across the wilderness, and had now delivered them into the land. It was a new day.

And almost as a sign of that new day, the manna that had sustained them during their 40-plus years of wilderness wandering, went away. It was there one day and gone the next, because it was no longer necessary. God had led them into a land that was filled with everything they would need to feed and sustain themselves. His miraculous provision of daily bread would not be needed. And it’s interesting to recall the circumstances under which God had first given them the manna. It had been early on in the days after their exodus from Egypt and it had occurred in the wilderness at a place called Sin. It had been just two months since they had walked out of Egypt as a free people, having been delivered by the hand of God. Now, they found themselves in Sin, without food and running out of patience with Moses.

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” – Exodus 16:2-3 ESV

God heard their grumbling and complaining. But rather than punish them, He promised to provide for them.

“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” – Exodus 16:12 ESV

Each evening, God provided His people with quail. And each morning, the people woke up to find manna covering the ground. He met their needs. He sustained them all the years they were in the wilderness. But now that they were in the land of promise, there was no longer a need for quail and manna. The land God had given them would now sustain them. And this was in keeping with the promise that God had made to Moses when He called him to be the emancipator of the people of Israel.

“I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” – Exodus 3:17 ESV

The land would meet their needs, but they would be required to conquer the nations that occupied the land. They were going to have to transform themselves from wanderers to warriors. Under Joshua’s leadership, they were going to have to take over the land that God had given them. And the very first place they were going to conquer was Jericho, which lay just a few miles from Gilgal, where they were camped. As Joshua went to reconnoiter the situation at Jericho, he had an unexpected encounter. He ran across a man who was carrying a sword in his hand. He was obviously a warrior, but Joshua did not recognize him. So, Joshua naturally asked him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And the man responded, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come” (Joshua 5:14 ESV).

This is a pivotal moment in the story. The manna was gone, but the Messiah had come. This encounter was between Joshua, the leader of the people of Israel and Jesus, the Son of God and the commander of the Lord’s armies. This was a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance by Jesus Himself. And we can tell from the reaction of Joshua, that he understood the significance of the moment and the holiness of the one to whom he was talking. The passage tells us that Joshua “fell on his face to the earth and worshiped.” He recognized that this was no ordinary man, but a vision of God Himself. And the captain or Prince of the Lord’s armies commanded Joshua: “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy” (Joshua 5:14 ESV). These are the same words Moses heard emanating from the burning bush when he had encountered God in the wilderness of Horeb (Exodus 3). Joshua, like Moses, found himself standing in the presence of deity. And the appearance of the Son of God in the form of a warrior was meant to be a reminder that God was going to be with them. They were not alone. Even as they faced the formidable and foreboding task of attempting to take the fortified city of Jericho, God was letting them know that He would be right there with them.

“I have come.” Those were the words that Joshua heard him say, and those words were meant to provide Joshua with assurance. As the captain of the host stood with sword in hand, Joshua was being given a visual and verbal reminder that the battle was not theirs, but God’s. He would be fighting for them. This was a new day. Their entrance into Canaan was going to bring with it new challenges. Joshua led a people who lacked formal training as soldiers. They had no siege engines or chariots. Their weapons consisted of spears, slings, and bows. They lacked armor. But they had God on their side. And as we will see in the very next chapter, the most fortified city they would face would prove to be no match for the commander of the army of the Lord.

March. Madness.

I Have Come.