Joshua 5 - James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD’S HOST

‘And 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.’

Joshua 5:13

I. There is a lesson here, not inappropriate to the present times, in the fact that Christ appeared to Joshua as a ‘man of war.’ Would that image have been used, would Christ have assumed that form, if all war were out of the question?

II. It is still more important to remark how strikingly the manifestations of Christ accommodate themselves to the various circumstances of His people.—To Abraham, a wanderer and sojourner in Canaan, He manifests Himself as a wayfaring man. To Jacob, on the eve of an expected conflict with his brother, Christ shows Himself as a comforter. To Joshua, a soldier and an officer, Christ, too, is a soldier in command.

III. Joshua stood before the heavenly Captain, with the shoes from off his feet, to receive orders about the conducting of the siege.—So let it be with us all. As soon as a providence, a word, a will, of God shows the special presence of Deity, let it have supremacy, and every human authority, however high, stand in the posture of silent obedience.

—Rev. Jas. Vaughan.

Illustrations

(1) ‘I believe, as the vast majority of careful students of the course of Old Testament revelation and its relation to the New Testament completion believe, that we have here not a record of the appearance of a created superhuman person, but that of a preliminary manifestation of the Eternal Word of God, who, in the fulness of time, “became flesh and dwelt among us.” ’

(2) ‘The angelic hosts are conceived of as an embattled host, comparable to an army in the strictness of their discipline and their obedience to a single will. It is the modern thought that the universe is a Cosmos and not a Chaos, an ordered unit, with the addition of the truth beyond the reach and range of science, that its unity is the expression of a personal will. It is the same thought which the centurion had, to Christ’s wonder, when he compared his own power as an officer in a legion, where his will was implicitly obeyed, to the power of Christ over diseases and sorrows and miseries and death, and recognised that all these were His servants, to whom, if His autocratic lips chose to say “Go,” they went, and if He said, “Do this,’ they did it. So the Lord of the universe and its ordered ranks is Jesus Christ. That is the truth which was flashed from the unknown, like a vanishing meteor in the midnight, before the face of Joshua, and which stands like the noonday sun, unsetting and irradiating for us who live under the Gospel.’

FOR OR AGAINST?

‘Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?’

Joshua 5:13

I. The faithful fighter.

(a) Called, or ordained (Numbers 27:18), as we are by Baptism, or Confirmation.

(b) Instructed and trained under his captain, undaunted, found faithful in lesser things, willing to obey (Joshua 1:7-8). The Christian to be under orders, disciplined.

(c) Whole-hearted. No neutrality, strong against disloyalty.

II. “For or against?”

(a) The Church asks it. Whole-hearted Christians needed for Church’s work.

(b) The Spirit asks it. Joshua-like loyalty to holiness needed.

(c) The Saviour asks it. “I did all this for thee, what art thou giving to Me?”

III. On whose side are we fighting?

—Rev. F. S. Legg.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Ponder Jesus’ solemn word, “He that is not with Me, is against Me.” There is no neutrality in this warfare. Either we are for Him or we are for His adversary. “Under which King? speak or die!” As sensible men, not indifferent to your highest and lasting well-being, ask yourselves, “Can I, with my ten thousand, meet Him with His twenty thousand?” Put yourselves under His orders, and He will be on your side. “He will teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight; will cover your heads in the day of battle,” and bring you at last, palm-bearing and laurel-crowned, to that blissful state where there will still be service.’

(2) ‘Joshua saw the man with a sword in his hand. O that Christ might come in our time with the sword of the Divine Spirit in His hand; come to effect deeds of love but yet deeds of power; come with His two-edged sword to smite our sins, to cut to the heart His adversaries, to slay their unbelief, to lay their iniquities dead before Him. The sword is drawn, not scabbarded, as, alas! it has been so long in many churches, but made bare for present active use. It is in His hand, not in the minister’s hand, not even in an angel’s hand, but the sword drawn is in His hand. Oh, what power there is in the Gospel when Jesus holds the hilt, and what gashes it makes into hearts that were hard as adamant, when Jesus cuts right and left at the hearts and consciences of men! Brethren, seek this presence, and seeking it, believe it; and when you hear the Gospel preached, or when you meet together for prayer, think you see in the centre of the assembly the Champion of Israel, with uplifted sword, prepared to do great exploits as in days of old.’