The Commander of the Lord\u2019s army revealed himself to Joshua, and Joshua correctly concluded that this was God and that he was to see himself as a servant so he fell on his face and worshipped Him. The Lord told Joshua, “Take off your sandals.” This act was a familiar sign of respect and submission, and appears in at least two other places when God revealed Himself to men. It happened to Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28:10\u201321) and to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). In the presence of the Lord, these earthly places were suddenly transformed into hallowed ground and great humility was immediately required.<\/p>\n
The fact that God chose to reveal Himself here to Joshua was further evidence that the conquest of the Promised Land was to be accomplished by God’s power alone and not by humanity’s strength. The army of the Lord, or hosts of heaven, also appears several times in Scripture. It is mentioned when Elisha’s servant was shown the Syrian army surrounded by the hosts of heaven (2 Kings 6:16\u201318). And again when Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane that Father God would quickly dispatch “12 legions of angels” if Jesus requested it (Matt. 26:53).<\/p>\n
Jesus is the Suffering Savior, but He is also the Commander of the Heavenly Hosts. Joshua was about to go into battle against the stronghold of Jericho. Joshua saw Jericho with all its fortifications and then he looked up and saw the Commander Jesus. Although Jesus stood opposite him, Jesus was not in opposition to him. Jesus had His sword drawn, and Joshua went to Him, bowing down in submission. Jesus told Joshua that He did not come to take sides but to take over.\u00a0How we need to let our Commander take over again today in our own spiritual battles. We can only be effective in the spiritual battles of life when we submit to God\u2019s presence and authority. We start in prayer by taking off our shoes as a reminder that there is to be nothing between God and us.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we joyfully submit and surrender to Your Lordship in our lives again this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua 5 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>by the sea, heard that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. 2<\/sup>\u00a0At that time the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.\u00a0\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.\u00a0\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And this\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt,\u00a0that were\u00a0<\/em>males,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people\u00a0that were\u00a0<\/em>born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt,\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>they had not circumcised.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people\u00a0that were\u00a0<\/em>men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the\u00a0LORD: unto whom the\u00a0LORD\u00a0sware that he would not shew them the land, which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And their children,\u00a0whom\u00a0<\/em>he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.\u00a0 10<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched\u00a0corn\u00a0<\/em>in the selfsame day. 12<\/sup> And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. 13<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him,\u00a0Art\u00a0<\/em>thou for us, or for our adversaries?\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And he said, Nay; but\u00a0as\u00a0<\/em>captain of the host of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0am 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?\u00a0\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And the captain of the\u00a0LORD\u2019S\u00a0host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>holy. And Joshua did so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commander of the Lord\u2019s army revealed himself to Joshua, and Joshua correctly concluded that this was God and that he was to see himself as a servant so he fell on his face and worshipped Him. The Lord told Joshua, “Take off your sandals.” This act was a familiar sign of respect and submission, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6125"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16050,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions\/16050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}