Oct 13 2008
As Commander of the Army of the Lord I Have Now Come
This teaching is an excerpt from our Radio Antioch Podcast, Episode 4.
A few weeks ago, I was in the prayer room at a local church outside of Chicago. I was the guest speaker that morning, and was due to preach in about 45 minutes. I always ask the Lord to intervene when I preach. My ideal Sunday would be for the presence of the Lord to fall during worship, so that the congregation spends the whole service in His presence, making my preaching unnecessary. Most of the time I don’t get my wish, so I preach anyway. But it is not unusual for the Lord to “adjust” my sermons during this time. During the prayer, the Lord brought these scriptures to my attention:
Joshua 5:1
Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
Joshua 5:13-15
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
[14] “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
[15] The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
This was a totally different subject than my message for that morning. Over the next few minutes I knew that the Lord was giving me a word for the congregation, and I believe, also for those who would read this on the internet.
With the recent financial meltdown and the looming election, I have been receiving many emails. One email said that I should vote for One particular candidate, because HE would fix the financial crisis. Another message said that I should vote for the Other candidate, because HE would fix the financial crisis. Now, I consider myself an independent voter, as I vote for the candidate and not by party lines, and have over time voted not only for candidates from both major parties, but independents as well. And honestly, I have been pretty disgusted with what has come out of Washington from both parties in these recent times.
I also have received emails reminding us that America has killed many times the number of people with Abortion as the Nazis ever killed in concentration camps. (A fact, look it up) This statistic always upsets me. But another one that upset me was a claim that only about 25% of evangelical Christians actually vote. (Before writing this, I looked this one up, and most sources claim this number is in the low 40% range, which is still terrible.)
When the Lord brought this scripture to mind, all of the churn revealed in these mails came into razor-sharp focus. I let it digest for a while, then during the sermon related the prayer room story and what I felt the Lord was saying:
When Joshua confronted the Angel, he instantly recognized it as a heavenly being. His confronting question: Are you for US or our ENEMIES? The implied question seems to be “Are you from God, or from the Enemy? The answer is telling: NEITHER! I am here to do GOD’S BUSINESS! It may have been stunning to Joshua to hear that his people’s agenda was not entirely in line with God’s thought. I am sure that there are people on all sides of this election that feel that God is on their side. But I feel God saying that we are not to be of one party, or the other, but need to get on our faces and discern what is God’s agenda. The Angel then said to Joshua: “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” At this point Joshua drops his agenda a prostrates himself. I feel the Lord is saying that the Christians need to not only quit buying into all of the political rhetoric, and quit with their apathy. Like Joshua, we need to get on our faces and align ourselves with the Lord’s agenda. It does not matter if we like one candidate or another, or how our family traditionally votes. We are part of the Army of God, and His thoughts and Agenda are far beyond our own. We need to humble ourselves, forget our pre-conceived notions, PRAY until we hear from God on how to vote, then be obedient.
Notice something else: unlike other angelic encounters, the angel actually allowed Joshua to worship him. (Contrast this with Rev. 19:10) Could it be that this was more than merely an Angel? Joshua thought so, naming him “Lord” in verse 14. And the command that followed was the same words that the Lord used to Moses , “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” Like Joshua, we have our eyes on the fight, both in the financial and political realms and do not realize that the Lord Himself is calling us to obedience.
Photo courtesy Christophe Dune, used with permission. Taken in the Campo Marzio, in Rome.
