Pick A Team

Scenario: Joshua has led Israel across the Jordan. They have finally arrived in the Land and they know that they have enemies to defeat and drive out of the Land. The second generation has been circumcised, Passover has happened, the manna has ceased, and Joshua finds himself by Jericho. And then I'm struck by this interaction:

"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."" Joshua 5:13-14a

People who are much smarter than I am have debated, and will continue to debate, whether or not this was a theophany or "just" an angel, so we won't even touch that here. We'll just take it at face value that this was the "commander of the army of the LORD (ESV)" or the "captain of the host of the LORD (NASB)".

Here's what stood out to me: the question Joshua asked was "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" and the answer was "No". Ummm...excuse me? That wasn't really a yes or no question. What gives? I suppose it's not a matter of if God is on our side or not - it's a matter of if we are on God's side or not. God doesn't need to be on "our side" because....well, He's God. There's that whole sovereign, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent thing, you know. But we definitely need to be on God's side. Again....that whole sovereign, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent thing.

Another thing that struck me in these verses is that Joshua was in a situation where he knew that enemies were present, yet he approached a man with a drawn sword ("Joshua went to him and said") BEFORE he knew the answer to "are you for us, or for our adversaries?" Uh, that would be intimidating. What if that guy was an ENEMY?! But Joshua was told FOUR times in the first chapter of Joshua to "be strong and courageous". So, I guess he was just giving us a good example of following instructions. Israelites don't always follow instructions well, so this is encouraging!

That's all. Just interesting to me. I like studying Joshua.