40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Joshua 5:1-15 (Episode 185)

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

Fear strikes the hearts of the people who witness the crossing of the Jordan. Why does God command circumcision for a second time? What does the cross have to do with the Promised Land? There is an order of things established which the church still uses, and the commander of the LORD'S army shows up. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network 30 Minutes in the New Testament 1517 Academy Class Great Freedom Conference in Germany Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. Also, while you're there, you can peruse around, and you might see an events page. And if you look at that events page, you might see Germany. Chad, Scott, Eric Sorensen, me, we're all going to be in Germany at the Great Freedom Conference. If you want to register for that conference, registration is now open.

So, hey, Europe, I'm looking at you. I'm talking to you. I know that there's a bunch of people that listen to this podcast in Europe. We'd love to see you there. it's in May, so check it out. Chad, Eric and I have a 1517 Academy class. You know something about this because you also have an Academy class, and I know this is not a New Testament podcast, but I have to pitch the two-pronged Luke attack that we're doing over 30 minutes. So Eric and I just started the Gospel of Luke. The first episode just came out, and next week the

first session of the life of christ according to luke drops so we're doing these things in tandem so you can get you can take the academy class get this big overview you can hit all the the high points get all the thematic elements uh all condensed down for you while you journey down in the dirt and any gritty grinding through verse by verse in the podcast so if you're you know if you're a 40 minute listener and you've never you know you've been like yeah i should probably check it out now's the perfect time because you could jump into the gospel of luke which is still chad technically old testament especially those opening chapters yeah i mean yeah yeah yeah opening chapters chapters and you think you're still reading like from i don't know deuteronomy

or isaiah or something dude you got angels and priests and all the things it sounds very old testament yeah you got old couples who are childless that's that's so old testament yeah it could nothing could be more old testament than barren people giving birth it's the it's the greatest yeah so you can jump in there uh you know if you've been meaning to to check it out now's a good time you can join us for luke and you could sign up for the academy class i'll put a link in the show notes that's going to launch next week and uh you know if you haven't taken chad's you know take that one as well and you take the old testament and the new testament academy class all right so here we are in uh in the book of joshua i think we are at chapter five

today yeah we are rolling rolling quite long uh we've uh we've crossed the jordan river you know we put moses to rest we've we've uh we prepared we've crossed the jordan river and so in chapter five we're gonna have a whole bunch of stuff crammed into this chapter we've got a discussion of the melting hearts of kings sounds pretty cool yeah and then we have a kind of this odd discussion of of circumcision and whether this is like a second circumcision or starting circumcision over again sounds less we got some it sounds less cool so we got uh we're gonna we're gonna talk we haven't talked about circumcision in a long time because well that's kind of a genesis sort of things but we're gonna discuss that for uh for a few minutes because it it does happen to be a

a pretty significant event in the life of israel and of course it has new testament implications as well then we have passover thrown in we have the mana stopping and then you get to the end of the chapter which really should have been the beginning of chapter six but anyway it's the end of chapter five and we're gonna have this real strange character show up on the scene the captain of the lord's armies oh so yeah i mean it's like wow how much can you put into one chapter A lot of good stuff to get to. All right, let's do it. Let's jump right in.

Okay, so we're going to have in this opening verse of chapter 5, we're going to hear some descriptions that we have heard a couple times before. And I'm just going to reiterate exactly what's going on here. I'll just read that opening verse of Joshua 5.1. Now, it came about when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan to the west, And all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel. So I'm thinking, here's what happened.

you know you got uh you got a lot of curiosity uh with the amorites and with some of the other people groups that are living in this general area and of course you're going to have people especially from the city of jericho who are checking things out with the israelites so you can kind of see them they're like you know on a hilltop got the binoculars out they're they're watching israel and wondering what in the world they're going to do and they see this huge group of people kind of all form up behind these guys who are dressed up as priests and they're carrying this big box and they see them walking and kind of getting close to the river and then bam all of a sudden they get to the river and the waters part and everybody walks across on dry ground

All the priests who are holding this box, which is the Ark of the Covenant, of course, are standing there in the middle of the Jordan. Everybody gets across. Some guys are picking up stones. Joshua sets up these stones in the middle of the Jordan. Everybody gets across. The priests walk all the way across, and the waters return. Can you just imagine what was going through the heads of those spies who were watching all this transpire? And then, of course, they got to go back and report this to Jericho or to the Amorites or to whoever else was watching what was transpiring with Israel.

Because they already know. I mean, we already know from Rahab. The word is spread about what God did to the Egyptians and what happened in the Red Sea and how they beat up Sihon and Og and all these other ones. Well, now, you know, they'd heard about this stuff. Okay. But it's one thing to hear about it. It's quite another to actually see it with your own eyes. So not only have they heard these reports about how the Israelites are the biggest and the baddest group,

and they're about to enter into the promised land, but now they actually have this eyewitness report of what happens when the Israelites cross the Jordan River. It's no wonder that Joshua 5.1 says that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer. Have you ever wondered why the people of Jericho stayed, like, pent up in their city? Like, that's why. This is why. Those dudes came back and were like, all right, look, I don't know how these guys fight, but I think we're in big trouble. Yeah.

Pretty strong indication that things are not going to go well for Jericho when the God of the Israelites is able to part the waters of the Jordan River so they cross on dry land. So, yeah, things are not looking good for the people of Jericho. So you can understand why we have this language of melting hearts and spirits departing from the inhabitants of the land. If I was one of those spies, that would have been the moment I converted. I'd have been like, sign me up. Yeah, walk down, waving the white flag. I want to be part of Israel. We see why Rahab was a very wise woman.

She knew it was coming. And this language of melting hearts, we've seen before. Rahab herself, when she described how the people of Jericho were reacting to the reports that they were hearing, she used that language. And it occurs all the way back, as we discussed in connection with Rahab, it occurs all the way back at the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15 as sort of a prophetic hymn about what would happen when the Israelites got to the promised land. So it's all coming true. And, you know, if you're a Canaanite, that's exactly what's going to be happening to you it's gonna put the literally put the fear of god in you as well as the fear of the israelites

okay so that's that's kind of sets the stage and it's sort of a you could sort of see it as as a preview of the victory that's already there as i guess is what you could say i mean if you if you're facing an enemy whose hearts have already melted and and they're so scared that the spirits have departed from them there's not going to be a whole lot of fight left in them because they're already, even before the battle begins, it's like they have sealed their own fate. They're so frightened that they've lost all hope. And so, you know, as with any fight,

if you're going in with absolutely no confidence, well, you've just like greatly increased your chance of losing. And so that's exactly what's going on here with the Canaanites. So anyway, that first verse kind of stands alone, but it tells you what was happening with the Canaanites. now second section this is verses two through nine this is where we're going to hear about something we actually haven't heard about that wasn't reported to us and that is whether or not the Israelites actually circumcised the boys that were born during the wilderness years

so we're going to hear about that now let me read those to you at that time the Lord said to Joshua make for yourselves flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time. So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gideoth Haaralot. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out of Egypt were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation, that is the men of war, that came out

of Egypt perished, because they didn't listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that he would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up, that is whom God raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them along the way. Now it came about when they had finished circumcising all the nation that they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. So you have a couple of different groups of men at this point.

Remember that up until the second year after the Israelites departed from Egypt, up until then, up until they got to the Jordan and then chickened out and were punished with all these years of wanting the wilderness. Up until then, it was assumed that of course they would go right from Mount Sinai to the Jordan, cross over and conquer the promised land. So you're kind of in your second year now. And once God said that, so once the people wouldn't cross the Jordan, once they wouldn't obey God, he said that their children would cross, but all the adults who were 20 years old and up, that they would die in the wilderness. So some of those people who were 20 years old and younger, of course, they're still around. The only ones who were 20 years old, 20 and older, who are

still with us are Joshua and Caleb, but there were a lot of people who were 20 years old and younger who were born in Egypt and they are able to, if they still made it through the years of wandering, they're alive. So some of these people, in other words, who are about to cross over, they were born in Egypt and they were children when their parents rebelled. And now after all these years of wandering, they're ready to cross over. And presumably those who were 20 years old and younger at that time, you know, they were circumcised they were circumcised back in egypt but all those who were born after that so all the

kids all the male children who were born during these years of wilderness wanderings were not circumcised now what we're not told is exactly why and i mean you can you can come across any number of explanations as to this uh some which kind of excuse the israelites and say well you know it was it was like put on hold until they got to the promised land some and this is kind of the direction i lean who think that they didn't they weren't circumcised just because it's just was one more one more way in which israel was not following the word of god during their wilderness wanderings so whatever the reason might be it's not made explicit here all we know is that as it says there all the kids all the all the male children who were born during those

wilderness years were not circumcised so it's time now to to take care of that and so that's what happens so joshua makes these flint knives and all there's like this i guess mass circumcision there's there's going to be there's a whole lot of children born during those 40 years of various ages everything from those recently born to those who were born kind of the beginning of those wondering years so you can have adults as well as teens as well as very young children who are being circumcised. And that's why you have to wait in the camp for a while until everybody's healed

and they're ready for marching forward. So that's kind of going on here, but there's kind of an underlying theme here too, which I think is significant. And you see this not only with the circumcision, but also with the celebration of Passover. It's almost like Israel is entering into a new chapter and kind of everything that's happening to them now or everything that's about to happen to them

it's sort of like god's reboot if you will it's like he's getting things started again if you know what i mean so when he when he gave the covenant of circumcision to to abram abraham and all his household were circumcised and this was the beginning of circumcision this is a new beginning because now the children of Abraham are entering into the land that God promised to Abraham, and so you have a circumcision going on. And not only that, but as we'll see in a minute, you also have a Passover celebrated, and you have them eating of the produce of the land. So it's almost as if everything, because they're turning over a new leaf in the history of Israel and beginning anew on this promised land

that there's a lot of new things that have to take place. I'm pro, if you're going to circumcise me, do it early. I'm in that camp. You're in that, yeah, in the younger baby camp. Yeah, I'd rather not remember it if it's all the same to everybody else. Can you imagine, Chad, if we were able to say, man, remember when we got circumcised?

That was rough. That was just not supposed to be that way. Every dude out there who's listening to this podcast right now is nodding in agreement. Yes. I don't think there's any dispute over that. But it did happen with some older children, some teens, and some adults in this particular case. Well, it's not like it would be the most shocking thing ever to consider. I wonder if these guys happened to not do something that God told them to do.

It's not as though this is something that's unprecedented for this particular people. Yeah, I mean, we saw that, of course, in a multitude of different ways during the wilderness wanderings. And I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but it looks as if this is also only the third Passover that's celebrated. So it doesn't seem as if they celebrated. We know they celebrated, of course, the first Passover in Egypt. And then we know from the book of Numbers, I think chapter 9, that they celebrated the Passover on the anniversary of their second year. so their second year out in in the wilderness but there's no record whatsoever of another passover that was celebrated and there's no also there's no record that that they weren't supposed to i

mean if they celebrated the second year they were out why didn't they celebrate the third or the fourth or the fifth i guess i guess it's possible that it didn't have the the things necessary to celebrate it too yeah yeah that's always that's always a possibility because a meal is a little specific yes yeah yeah yeah it could be it could be the case i i do want to mention this is this is sort of a uh a side note and a possibility possible other other explanation of some of this language that's used here so i mentioned earlier that you've got two groups so you have those who were who are who are older they were 20 years or we'll say 19 and younger who were circumcised in Egypt and who are still alive. Then you also, of course, have those who were born

after God punished them by these wilderness wanderings who were not circumcised. Now that first group, those who were 19 or younger when Israel rebelled, there is the chance that the strange language in verse 2 actually applies to them. So verse 2 says that God commands Joshua to make these flint knives, and this odd language, it says, circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time. There was a practice in ancient Egypt where it was sort of a, I guess you would call it a modified or semi-circumcision, where the foreskin was not removed, but it was split. We have evidence of this from ancient Egypt. It was sort of a, I don't know why the Egyptians would have practiced this, because we do know that they practiced, like a lot of groups did, practiced what we think of as circumcision.

But there was sort of this partial circumcision that happened with some Egyptians. Some scholars think that's what this is talking about, because how would you circumcise someone a second time, right? And so some explain this as the second time is actually referring to a full circumcision. so this is this is taking what they would have done in egypt kind of this semi-circumcision where the fourkins fourkins foreskin is only split and actually removing it fully and that's why you have this language of circumcise again the sons of israel the second time so all those who were 19 and younger who may have received this kind of strange egyptian circumcision might have actually been fully circumcised along with all those who were born

in the wilderness wanderings. That's some speculation, but at least it's one way in which those kind of odd words in verse two have been interpreted. But whatever's happening, we do know that this was God's way, as it says toward the end there, of rolling away the reproach of Egypt from you. So this was sort of the final way. This is the way I think about it anyway. This was the final way in which God takes away completely everything that had been associated with the sufferings that they endured in Egypt. So with the slavery and even their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and the kind of the talk that sometimes is discussed in the Torah about how the nations would have

doubted whether God could actually fulfill the promise that he made to the Israelites. kind of the sarcasm of the nations like all of that put together all of the reproach of Egypt this is God's final way of taking care of that through this circumcision claiming these people as his own putting actually in their flesh the stamp of his adoption of them in which they bear in their own bodies the mark that they belong that they belong to him and the way this is phrased is kind of interesting too. It says, this is verse 9, the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. Well, the reason it's called Gilgal is because that particular word that's used for rolling away

is galal. So it has the consonant G-L-L. That's the Hebrew verb for roll away. And so you have Gilgal as the name of the place so it's the it's the rolling away place interestingly this is the root of that word for roll away galal is related to it so it has the idea of like removing or rolling so you kind of have this round idea and interestingly it's it's related to the Aramaic word for Golgotha, which is, which is kind of fascinating because of course, Golgotha means skull, which is round, which is shaped in a round sort of fashion. So in linguistically, anyway, this Hebrew word is related to the Aramaic word for Golgotha with rolling away and round, which is, which, uh, is just fascinating theologically because of course

It's at Golgotha where finally the reproach, not just of Egypt, but of all sin and of all death and everything that's against us is finally rolled away, is taken care of, is removed from us by the death of Christ. It's kind of a fascinating, I guess you could say it's sort of a homiletical twist that you could put on that particular word. At Gilgal, God rolled away the reproach of Egypt from the Israelites by circumcising them. But at Golgotha, God rolled away the reproach of sin and death and hell and everything against us by the death of his own son, by the sacrifice that he made on our behalf. One thing that's interesting about the promised land, obviously it's the land that God promised to give Israel, but it's also the land in which he will fulfill all his promises, right? I mean, like the ultimate fulfillment of the promise is in Christ. And so the promised land is, yeah, it's geographical for the children of Israel, but it's also the land that God just so happens that he's going to fulfill the promise made to Eve.

That's the land that the promise will be fulfilled in, the ultimate promise, which is, of course, the death of Christ and the rolling away of all of creation's transgression. It's not that it's wrong to think of the promised land as a geographical place. it is in a narrower sense and i would say in a more permanent sense is the land in which god fulfills his promise to redeem his people that's a great that's a great way to put it i'd actually never thought about it in that way but that's yeah that's a that's a perfect way of expressing it you kind of get that you get the twofold twofold promise going on there yeah god promised the land to abraham but he promised him the land so that he would have a land to fulfill his

promises right right i mean you see adam and eve get kicked out of a land or the garden uh into this fallen world and then a promise is made like there's gonna be a different land and i'm gonna fulfill all my promises there and so and and in fulfilling that promise the part of that promise is to make all things new right but this is the land that i'm going to do that in it's going to start here um and it's going to start in a very backwards way because it's going to start with the death of my son which isn't going to make make any sense to anybody but that's how i'm going to redeem all of this uh so yeah i think that there's now as we as we think about the promised land it's easy to get caught up in some sort of uh political distraction where you're like

well that's the promised land and we need to keep that and it's like no like after you have the death of christ like the promise has been fulfilled like the what that land was meant to do has been done like what was supposed to take place there has taken place yeah so now the the new promised land if you will the kingdom of god is still a place it just happens to be whatever place god is working in spirit and truth to bring the good news of the kingdom to people so of course that's going to happen at particular places because well we're creatures we we're always in a particular place. But the kingdom of God spreads out. And it's still specific, of course, because the kingdom of God is where the gospel is preached. And so you can kind of picture wherever that's happening,

whether it's in a church or some other context, but where the word of God is brought to bear on the lives of people in that particular place, that's where the promised land is, because that's where God is dwelling at that particular moment in order to bring the good news of the Messiah to that particular person or to those particular people. So it's not as the promised land has disappeared it's just that christ has universalized it because he says to go into all nations and to make disciples by bringing this good news of the kingdom of god to them well yeah i mean at the once that once you have the cross the promised land becomes even bigger uh at least the promise of the promised land which is in new heavens and a new earth

which is the ultimate fulfillment of the promised land, which is a new everything. Jared Wilson actually said something that I thought was brilliant, where he said, when you think about new heavens and new earth, you have to know that it's all of God's creation. God is making all things new. He's not making all new things. Oh, that's good. I like that. I'd steal that from Jared. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's a good way to phrase it, that he's reclaiming all of this. yeah yeah which i think is is something that we we can't hear enough because we have so kind of etherealized the afterlife that a lot of people don't even realize that when their scriptures

talk about a new heavens and a new earth it's actually talking about yeah it's a it's a new heavens and new earth i mean we're gonna we're gonna have a physical place in which to dwell with our physical resurrected bodies for for all eternity we're not going to be spirits floating in the clouds. We're going to be human beings who have these glorified, resurrected bodies, and we're living in this new creation that God has brought about at the return of Christ. Yeah, yeah. And it's a good way to think about, if you want to know what heaven's like, it's like this, minus all the decay and sin and brokenness. That's what it is. It's the new heavens, new earth. It's this made new. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's keep moving.

We got to wrap up this chapter. So I touched on the next couple of verses already, 10 and 11. Let me read those. When the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the 14th day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. Let me read a little bit more.

And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land so that the sons of israel no longer had manna but they ate some of the yield of the of the land of canaan during that year so you got a couple things going on here first of all of course you have the celebration of the passover and as i mentioned earlier this is at least from what we know this is only the third passover ever the first one in the land of egypt the second one is talked about in i believe it's book of numbers chapter nine anyway it's that second year that they're out first month second year and now this one and and as we've been talking it it dawned on me that would it would kind of make sense because one of the stipulations that would make sense that

this is only the third one one of the stipulations for anyone any male part partaking of the passover is that they be circumcised so had israel celebrated more passovers in the wilderness and not circumcised their their children they would have been uh transgressing one of the the primary commandments that's connected with with the passover is that no uncircumcised male may partake of it so maybe again that's one of the reasons they didn't celebrate the passover because they weren't circumcising their their sons but whatever the reason was we do know that now that they finally got to the promised land, they celebrate this Passover. And not only do they celebrate it, but there's also a cessation of the gift of manna, because now they have finally

reached the land that is going to provide them with the crops that they need, of which manna itself was sort of a foretaste, if you will. So manna was the food for the journey. It was the food for traveling through the wilderness, and so that when you, once you get to the promised land, then that food for the journey is going to cease, because it was only there as a temporary nourishment while you were journeying to this promised land of rest. And that's why in the Christian church from some pretty early days, manna was always understood to be a foreshadowing of the supper, of the Eucharist. In fact, sometimes you'll hear, especially Roman Catholics will talk about viaticum, which is a Latin phrase actually meaning like provisions or food for the journey,

sometimes connected with what used to be called last rites. It's basically where if someone is sick, the priest brings them the Lord's Supper. This is understood to be food for the journey, especially if one is near death. And it's this idea of receiving the Lord's body and blood before you lead this life and are received by him. But the idea behind that is that no matter where we're at, whether we're sick or whether we're healthy, we're all on this journey through life. And we're all, as it were, going through this land of exile in which we are strangers and pilgrims. And we ourselves are journeying toward the promised land of rest. And so along the way, God gives us a new kind of manna. He gives us himself. He gives us, as John 6 will say, he gives us this flesh from

heaven, this bread from heaven, which is his very flesh. And this is our food for the journey. This is our daily bread. This is the way in which God provides us, not just with some kind of physical nourishment, but a nourishment that is himself, in which he gives us forgiveness. And he takes away our death and gives us life, and he takes away our condemnation, he gives us salvation. And so everything that we're consuming in the Lord's Supper, in this new kind of manna, is that which sustains us as we journey through life, receiving the forgiveness of sins, receiving life, receiving all that Christ has won for us, so that it takes care of us. It's this food for the journey as we make our way toward the land of rest in which we'll finally reach our goal. The church has maintained this order as well, because to be circumcised was your entrance into Israel. This is what made you a part of Israel, and then you were able to partake of the Passover.

Likewise, we are baptized into the church, and then we are able to partake of the Lord's Supper, which is for the sustaining of our faith and the forgiveness of sins as we live this life, right? I mean, and Paul makes this connection where he talks about how baptism is the circumcision of the heart, right? And so baptism is where you are thrown into Christ. It's where you're thrown into the church. And then once that is the case, you are able to partake of the body and blood of Christ. That's why almost every church baptism is, if there's any prerequisite for the Lord's Supper, it's that. Have you been baptized?

baptized baptism throws you onto the path and then the lord's supper is a food for the journey right yeah it's it's one of the ways in which one of the many ways in which the the church in her practice following of course the new testament itself has kind of adopted this as you say this pattern we get from the old testament because yeah there was there was a way in in israel and that way in was through circumcision or if as we know from later text this is not from the Old Testament, but from Jewish texts in the first century or thereabouts, if you were, say you were a Gentile woman and wanted to convert to the faith, then you went to this ritual bath in what was called a mikvah. So there was a way males would be circumcised and women would receive

this baptism, if you will, in this ceremonial washing. So there were ways in which even the Jews of the first century at the time of Christ received people into the faith, but there was this initiation, if you will, this way of getting in. And for the males, it was circumcision. For the women, it was the baptism. And this sets a pattern, of course, that we still follow today. There was a practice which was pretty common in the early church, and it's still followed by some churches today, where a lot of the baptisms would take place on what's called sometimes Easter vigil. It's the Saturday night before Easter Sunday in which they would be baptized and then immediately enter into the church for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. So it was this

idea of first you are washed, first you are brought into the death and resurrection of Christ, and then you are brought into his assembly in which you celebrate his supper around the altar, and continues to be the pattern that we still have today. Okay, so they get there, and they eat the produce of the land. Passover is celebrated. Manna ceases because now they have reached their reward. Now, we've got a few minutes left. It's enough to kind of get into these last three verses,

which, as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, really should have been the beginning of Chapter 6. But once again, we have this strange chapter division going on in the Old Testament. Just three verses. Let me read those to you. Now, it came about when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, neither or no. Rather, I indeed come now as captain of the host of the lord and joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him what is my lord to say

to his servant and the captain of the lord's host said to joshua remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy and joshua did so dude this is so cool this is super cool this answer is so good because what you would expect uh god to say like are you for us or for our enemies you know and uh and he would be like well for you but that's that's not what he says he says no yeah i i was re i was flying back actually from from oregon yesterday and on the airplane i was reading going through the hebrew and in this and when i when i was translating that verse i just almost laughed out loud because it was just it's humorous it's like no wrong it's like if it's like wrong question wrong um because the way we think about this stuff is that

you're either for me or you're for those other guys and what is great about this is that even though god is going to give israel the victory what he is saying that is that he is he's not for one group of people and against another group of people but that he's the the right the right answer this question is that i'm i'm for everybody i mean yeah in the law and the broads and you know in the big scheme of things like that what i am doing in this land is going to be for all people so the answer to your question is no so good yeah it's one of the best it's one of the best verses we've seen so far actually i mean just it there's there's a whole lot packed into that one that one word now now

Chad, we have to also assume, or I would have to assume, I'd assume that this is Christ, because angels don't let you worship them. Exactly right. Yeah, they would stop that, in fact. Yeah, this is not something they allow. And so this goes on, and this man allows it to happen. And then, of course, you see this same thing that happened with Moses,

where he says, hey, this is holy ground. So do you also have this reaffirmation that Joshua is now the guy? Yeah, we'll get into this more next time because this is only the beginning of this interaction between Joshua and this messenger. There's a whole lot of language in this that is echoing earlier appearances, not only of God appearing to Moses in the burning bush,

but this whole language of him lifting his eyes and looking and behold this man standing there that is basically a direct quote from genesis app 18 when abraham lifts his eyes and looks and behold there are three men approaching his tent and this if you remember this is when the lord appears with with two angels so this is already the language of theophany of god appearance and as we'll we'll get into it more next episode but yeah this is this is christ this is the the word of the father who's appearing to joshua with a message for him yeah yeah stay tuned pretty cool stuff man it's good to know that uh when the question is posed to christ who are you for uh if you give him two options his answer is going to be no because as we know christ is for all this

is my body broken for you and whoever you are it's for you and so he is he is not opposed in that sense uh to anyone he is for all so amen it's good to see jesus uh really embracing that uh messianic identity yes it is yeah all right already in joshua guys if you would uh like to support the podcast if it's been helpful you can do so by going over to 1517 and then uh clicking on the donate button you can become a contributor thank you so much to those of you who do that chad i'll see you next week we'll talk more about this all right see you then