Skip to main content

 

One more with Joshua and then on to Gideon.

The Israelites had crossed the Jordan and were encamped near the fortified city of Jericho. Joshua sees in front of him a Man standing with a drawn sword. He must have looked imposing, but Joshua walked up to Him and said, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?” The Man said, “Neither. I am here as the Captain of the Army Hosts of the Lord. Take off your sandals, Joshua. You are on holy ground.” Joshua didn’t hesitate. He fell on his face in worship, asking the Lord what he was to do.

Remember the last time someone was asked to take off their sandals because the ground they were standing on was holy? It was Moses as he stood before the burning bush and God was speaking to him from the flaming plant. God’s Presence made the place holy.

No angel ever asked a person to remove their sandals because the ground they stood on was holy. No angel ever allowed a human being to fall down in worship. Only God, Himself, can make a place holy by His Presence. I believe this was a Theophany…an appearing of God, the Eternal Son, before Joshua. The Lord was telling Joshua that He was in charge. What was going to happen, the taking of Jericho and the rest of the Promised Land would depend upon God being with them. God was there, not to take sides, but to accomplish His will and fulfill His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Lord then told Joshua that he was to march the army around Jericho each day for seven days. The Levites were to lead the march with the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders. On the seventh day, they were to march around seven times and at the end of the seventh time, they were all to shout and blow their ram’s horns. That is not a tactic they teach at West Point. It was not about what they would do! It was about them seeing what God would do IF they were simply obedient. On that seventh day, the fortified walls of Jericho fell outwardly by God’s power and the city was conquered.

This tactic was not repeated anywhere else. God was not setting up a repeatable strategy. He was showing them what He could and would do if they but trusted Him enough to obey and do as He commanded. THAT IS a principle for us. We can stand and watch the salvation of the Lord worked out and lived out among us if we will but take Him at His Word, believe Him and simply do what He has asked us to do. We will see the effect of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ manifested in the Power of the Holy Spirit as the sick are healed, the dead are raised, lepers are cleansed, and demons are cast out…the darkness and repercussions of sin being pushed back.

Will you simply believe His love for you? He is there ready to do far above and beyond anything you could ever ask or imagine by the Power of His Holy Spirit living in you, Christian.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHAT DO YOU BLESS? It would be an act of utter folly and disaster were I to choose to "bless" what God will not bless. God's wrath is set against anything and anyone that would try and hinder you becoming all He created you to be and to grow in by being united to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing arbitrary about the Word of God. He is very specific on what will make for life and what will not. Human life only becomes human life when the Holy Spirit becomes Life withing a believer. Being united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus becomes a new creation and begins to live Life as God intended. God begins the good work, and He is the One who will bring it to competition. Somethings will NEVER make for life. What God calls sin, missing the mark of what will make for life, is always sin regardless of what culture anywhere and anytime say to the contrary. Sin cannot save, heal, redeem, restore or remake...
Post a Comment
Read more
BEWARE DECEPTION   Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. Deuteronomy 12:29-30 “When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ Pragmatics was the downfall of Israel when they took possession of the Promised Land. To the unredeemed eye, it seemed that the fertility gods and agricultural gods of the pagan nations actually were helping the indigenous peoples. Just because something works does not make it right or good.  God promised to prosper His people if they would trust Him to the point of obeying His Word. God's Word is not empty. When He directs and commands, it is always for...
Post a Comment
Read more
 INFINITELY MORE Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now all glory to God, Who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.   Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." In the Gospel of John, many of His followers turned away because of the covenant commitment He required of those who would follow Him. That covenant declared that what was to happen to Jesus would also happen to them. We, too, must lay our lives down and choose the will and way of God's Kingdom over all else. Those in the crowd knew that in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders were plotting and planning Jesus' destruction. To follow Jesus to that degree required denying self and the thrall of the world and its ways, even to the point of laying one's life down by refusing to deny the Lord and His salvation. Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, " Are you also going to leave?" ( John 6:67-...
Post a Comment
Read more