Marvelous Musings: Joshua 5:13-15

Written by Zhey Chua |Posted on May 7, 2009 | Comments

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 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?”
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.

I was reading along the book of Joshua the other night and this passage made me stand up straight on my bed. I must have re-read it three more times then offered to read it aloud to Warren. Incidentally, he was reading along another passage (another book!) that has a connection to what I was reading:

“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and 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, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. – Exodus 23:20-24

A bunch of questions started swirling in my mind most of which were;

a) “Who is this commander of the Lord’s army?

b) If he was God, why would he refer to himself as the commander of God’s army? Why not just ‘I am God’?”

c) Why did he order Joshua to remove his sandals and why did he say “you are standing on Holy ground’?

d) Why did Joshua say “What does my lord say to his servant?” (emphasis added)

e) Why did Joshua worship the Commander of the Lord’s army?

f) And lastly, he appeared to Joshua as a man (see: 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.). Something else to think about, isn’t it?

Pre-conclusion: Is this man, whom Joshua referred to as lord, whom he worshipped and called himself the Commander of the Lord’s army none other than Jesus Christ himself? I wouldn’t think of no one else, but for confirmation I sought for more information.

John MacArthur answers this nagging question on the MacArthur Study Bible, thus:

“5:13-15 Commander. The Lord Jesus Christ in a pre-incarnate appearance (Christophany). He came as the Angel (Messenger) of the Lord, as if he were a man. Joshua fittingly was reverent in worship. The Commander, sword drawn, showed a posture indicating He was set to give Israel victory over the Canaanites.”

… And here’s another musing that caught my attention this morning while reviewing the above passages:

And the angel of the LORD appeared to him 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.”
When 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.”
Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” -Exodus 3: 2-5