Today’s a focused post. About a final preparation for victory at Jericho: but (I think), one of the most powerful verses in the old testament!
Looking around the impending battlefield, Joshua sees an armed warrior and asks: `Are you for us, or for our enemies?’ The answer is really striking: `NEITHER!`
(Then he adds: `As commander of the army of the Lord I have now come!` (Josh 5:14).)
Wow! Which is saying: God is not on your team! (Although, by grace, and hallelujah!, we can be on His!)
Life with God is always for His purposes (which in the end are joyous, loving,
and absolutely perfect for us too of course!); but not first for ours…!
Joshua gets the point. `Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”` Maybe some guidance, some tactics, some how-tos?
The answer is just this: `“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so…`
Holiness is (again, cf 1:8) what really counts first…. Judgment is coming on Jericho and the other Canaanites, after 400 years of deep wickedness and warning. But in the presence of a holy God we don’t play games either. So the command here is exactly the same as that to Moses, when God started commissioning him at the burning bush: `Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’
(Just as I write this it also makes me wonder: not to be legalistic, but for my own sake should I maybe kneel more often to pray? Kneeling mattered more to a past generation than to ours…)
But it’s that first verse that hits me hard. `Are You for us, or for our enemies?’ And the reply comes back: `NEITHER!’ Daily relationship with God is not first about furthering my pleasure, my benefit, my self-esteem (though these will most surely result in time from a true relationship with Him!) That would miss the whole point. Vitally, our daily relationship with God is first for the furtherance of His purposes, and – astoundingly; can this really be? – leading to His joy and pleasure (and if we get that right it will guarantee ours!): first and always!
So then: one really powerful verse to carry with us for a couple of days, and absorb (`Meditate on these things day and night`, 1:8)… `Are You for us, or for our enemies?’ `NEITHER!’…!
