“Joshua Worships Jehovah Sabaoth’s Prince” Joshua 5:14-15

“Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries? And He said, Nay, but as the Captain of the Host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto Him, What saith my Lord unto His servant?”  And the Captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standeth is holy.  And Joshua did so.”  Joshua 5:14-15

Nothing more is said; Nothing more needs to be said;  If you had an encounter like this with the ‘Prince of YeHoVaH Sabaoth‘ would you be anxious to share the details?  I didn’t think so.  They have just crossed the Rubicon, I mean the Jordan River, during spring flood season, all 2.5 to 3 million of them; the manna has stopped falling, the Amalakites, Amorites, Canaanites, and Electriclites are armed and ready to destroy them and all Joshua has is a bunch of ‘Manna Pickers’ and ‘Quail Grabbers’ and even that has stopped.  So, after they celebrated Passover and circumcised all the males, (ouch!) he decided to take a walk by himself and take a look at his first obstacle, Jericho.  It is on this evening walk, alone that he meets this Man, with His sword drawn, ready for battle, who turns out to be none other then the ‘Captain of the LORD’s Host.’  How long did Joshua stay on his face in prayer, worshipping Him?  Probably all night, I would say this was an evening walk when it was cooler, and what did they talk about?  Probably, the battle strategy for Jericho, chapter six.

Joshua needs the same kind of ‘God Experience’ which Moses had in Exodus chapter three with the “Burning Bush.’  In Exodus 3:5 Moses was told by God to take off his shoes because he was standing on ‘Holy Ground’ also.  Then God revealed Himself to Moses and His Almighty power and sent him to free His people.  And he became the ‘Servant of the LORD’ and now Joshua was to take God’s chosen people from the desert into the ‘Promised Land.’  So, he needed the same kind of ‘Burning Bush’ experience or ‘God Experience’ that Moses had.  This same word (sha-kha; to bow down, prostrate yourself before God) is used to honor God in prayer, like Abraham on Mt. Moriah in Gen. 22:5; and of Elkanah, Hannah’s husband in 1 Sam. 1:3; and many others in the Tenach.

Joshua probably took a moonlight walk since the word Jericho means “city of the moon” or “fragrant place.”  I have said it before and I will say it again, “It’s a great day to take a walk, eat an apple and talk to God.”  I have personally met God on more walks in His creation, alone than at any other time, and so have many of your great Christian hero’s like Hudson Taylor, Oswald Chambers, Charles Finney, David Brainard, and the list goes on.  I’ll never forget the Wednesday night prayer meeting at Lakes Pond Baptist Church in CT, when I went up to the alter and the pastor’s son-in-law came up to pray with me and took off his shoes.  He gave me a verse that night, Lev. 6:13, “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”  I think he is the pastor of that church now and my son-in-law is the pastor of my home church in Clinton, CT; God’s providence is so amazing. Amen? So, is the ‘Captain of the LORD’s Host,’ have you ever met Him?  I’m sure you have, you just might not be aware of when it was.  We need to be sensitive to His leading, to His voice, to His touch, to His word, because His sword is always drawn, because our adversary always is on the prowl seeking whom he may devour.

The first thing Joshua, the servant of the LORD did when he realized he was in the presence of God, was to fall (na-fal; to throw oneself down, to prostrate oneself on the ground, Job  1:20) on his face (pa-nem) and worship and pray and request from the Lord His desires and will.  How often we come with our petitions, requests and prayer lists, never giving any attention or time to God’s needs or desires.  Have you ever asked God what He wanted or what was on His list or how His day was going or what you could do for Him?  Or maybe, don’t even ask Him for anything just thank Him and praise Him for Who He is!  Joshua just fell down prostrate and worshipped, then he took off his shoes and listened for awhile.  Have you ever done that? Taken off your shoes and just listened for a while, in silence?  Silence can be deafening at times but God want’s us to be ‘Still’ and ‘Know’ Him, Ps.46:10. (Still as a Stone!) That is probably one of the hardest things for man to do, “Be Still and Listen.”  That’s what Joshua did in Josh. 5:14-15, listened to that still, small voice, with a drawn sword.  Oh, how we need that today, we can’t seem to go anywhere, anymore without our i-pods, cell phones, i-pads, templates, note-books, face-book, twitter, etc. etc. I wonder if God uses a cell-phone or if the angels use face-book?  I bet the Spirit world good or bad is not addicted to the internet but they sure have us addicted for good and bad and especially Christians today. Just look around the church on Sunday morning or listen to the cell phones go off during the sermon or invitation.

Many of the Church Fathers felt that Joshua should be part of the Pentateuch because the children of Israel were not in the ‘Promised Land’ yet.  They were still on the other side of the Jordan and had a lot of fighting to do to conquer it.  So that is why we thought it best to include Joshua in our “Portraits of Prayer in the Pentateuch.”  There are only about thirteen places we will pitch our tent and camp out in the early chapters of Joshua so we hope you will enjoy your journey with us. So, leave your manna behind, there is plenty of corn in the ‘Promised Land’ waiting for us to enjoy.  Till next time, we’ll see you. “…Between The Lines…”

“Joshua Worship’s YeHoVaH Sabaoth’s Prince” Joshua 5:14-15  5/10/18