QT 9/23/2024 Josh 5:13-15, It is His will we seek, not ours

Joshua 5:13–15 (ESV) —

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.

 

NOTE: Jericho is the first city in the conquest of the land, and Joshua is near the city, probably staring at it before looking down. It was a walled city like none other in the land. It required siege instruments, not the swords and arrows of Joshua's army. Leon Wood writes,

 

"The walls were of a type which made direct assault practically impossible. An approaching enemy first encountered a stone abutment, eleven feet high, back and up from which sloped a thirty-five degree plastered scarp reaching to the main wall some thirty-five vertical feet above. The steep smooth slope prohibited battering the wall by any effective device or building fires to break it. An army trying to storm the wall found difficulty in climbing the slope, and ladders to scale it could find no satisfactory footing."

 

When Joshua looks up, he encounters the Commander of the Lord's Army. The instruction to take off his sandals suggests that this is the Lord himself (like Moses encountered at the burning bush). The Lord answers Joshua's question of which side he was on with a resounding "No." God does not take sides; God is not at man's beck and call, we serve God's will.

 

What do we learn? When we think it is impossible, we need to go to God, searching His will, not His help to do our thing. We need to do His thing. God did take down Jericho in a very miraculous manner. And when we go to God, we need to throw away our support. Sandals were man-made devices to protect our feet. Joshua was commanded to stand on his bare feet, not on the works of his hands. Also, it is holy ground, which means we need to repent. Before we go to God, we go with a clear conscience, ready to do his will.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I go to God to get him to do my thing?
2. Do I go to God to know His Will?

 

PRAYER: Father, get our eyes off of ourselves and our little problems. May we seek you and what you desire to do with our lives.