"When Jesus Met Jesus?" Joshua 5:13-15 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Well, good morning, Emmanuel.

Let me invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Joshua in chapter 5.

Joshua chapter 5 is our passage for this morning.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

We'll be looking at the conclusion of a chapter that we began together last week.

Before we begin, I want to remind you that we have uh evening service tonight, 5.15, and would invite all of you to be back.

Pastor Jesse will be back from Africa.

We'll be preaching from the book of Nehemiah this evening, so I would invite you back to our evening worship at 5.15 here at Emmanuel.

Now, this morning, we're looking at Joshua chapter 5.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

So let me direct your attention there, and we'll begin our time of worship by reading from God's Word together.

If you look down at your Bibles, at Joshua chapter 5, I'll read our passage beginning in verse 13.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

Joshua chapter 5, verse 13, God's word says this.

Joshua 5:13

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before 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, No.

But I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped.

And said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant?

And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.

And Joshua did so.

This is the word of God.

Well, it has often been said, and you've heard this many times in many contexts, I'm sure, that much of life is less about what you know as who you know.

And we've been studying Joshua in chapter 5, wherein Joshua is leading the people of Israel to take the promised land, promised to their forefathers.

And on the eve of their very first battle, the Battle of Jericho, which comes in the next chapter, this passage that we just read is in fact an incident where God Himself is teaching Joshua just that.

That it's not just in practical matters that this principle is true.

It's a lesson for a spiritual life, a lesson for Joshua that applies equally to us.

That when it comes to your spiritual life, your life is less about what you know and about who you know.

A scene is set for us in verse 13 as you look down in your text, and we see that Joshua was by Jericho as he has this encounter.

And we'll remember that in the book of Joshua in chapter 1, Joshua just received the baton from Moses to lead the people of Israel after they had come out of the Exodus from Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and the new generation has arisen, and God is ready to bring them into the land.

Joshua has helped them cross the Jordan.

In chapter 5, he had been obedient to the covenant and circumcised the people.

They'd celebrated the Passover, and they were ready to begin the first battle.

But you remember, as Joshua is in the plains of Jericho, he's contemplating many things, and probably as he's contemplating what is about to happen, before this fortified city in this plain with these people ready to begin their mission, he's probably remembering a time that he had actually been here before.

You know, Joshua had been to Jericho before.

He'd been to the land before, forty years prior.

You will remember in Numbers in chapter 13, after Moses had brought the people out of Egypt, they'd brought them to the brink of the promised land.

Moses sent twelve scouts into the land to scout out the land.

And Joshua was among them.

You remember that those twelve scouts came back, and they gave the people a report.

And ten of the scouts said that we can't take the land.

The people are giants, they're too strong, they're too skilled, we can't possibly beat them.

And the people rebelled and said, No, we wish we had died in Egypt.

We're not going into this land for God to slaughter us at the hands of these enemies.

And we recalled that passage last week.

We looked at the people's rebellion against God, but this week it's worthwhile to pause and remember what Joshua said in that moment when he returned from spying out the promised land.

Because in fact, Joshua and Caleb had a very different perspective.

And I'll put it on the screen for you.

And Joshua says in Numbers in chapter 14, Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son Jefupana, who were among those who had spied out the land, they tore their clothes when the people had rebelled, and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

And if the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us.

Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us, do not fear them.

I want to point something out to you crucial in this passage.

Notice what's parallel in that text.

Joshua implores the people do not rebel and do not fear.

Rebellion against Yahweh and fear are parallel, they're one and the same.

The people rebelled against God because they were afraid.

Their fear produced rebellion, or you could say their fear was their rebellion.

And this is an important point to pause on before we move into the lesson that God's about to teach Joshua, because we do not often think about fear and rebellion going hand in glove, but that's exactly what happened in this incident.

We particularly don't think about fear that way if the fear seems to us justifiable.

And there are indeed many justified fears in our lives, are there not?

And imagine how this group of people would have justified their fear.

This is a group of people who had just escaped slavery.

They had not been trained in weapon production, they had not been trained in siege warfare, they'd not been trained in hand-to-hand combat.

And here they are standing against a bunch of fortified cities that, as far as they're concerned, are packed to the gills with Goliaths.

A bunch of armed cities with Goliaths, a bunch against a bunch of escaped slaves toddling about in the wilderness in their flip-flops.

And you can imagine if one of these Israelites were to sit down around your small group, and as you're sharing, one of these Israelites shared their perspective.

You would sympathize with them.

Their fear seems justifiable from their perspective.

And yet God calls their fear rebellion.

Their fear produced rebellion.

They refused to obey God because of what seemed to them a justifiable fear.

And God says, because of your rebellion, you will not see the land.

And no one in that generation saw the land.

All of them perished.

In fact, God says that the people who were afraid of the inhabitants of Canaan and would not obey my voice despised me.

This is exactly what God says in Numbers 14, verse 23.

Numbers 14:23

None of those who despised me shall see the land.

What Joshua understood, and the people needed to learn is that fear and obedience, trust and faith are not about your skill and your ability.

What the people needed was not combat training.

Obedience is not about skill and ability.

Obedience is about faith and worship and love for God.

It's not about what you know, it's about who you know.

Do you know the living God and do you know his character?

And do you trust his promises?

Do you trust his word?

Do you trust God's ability to fulfill his promise more than your ability to achieve them?

That's what the people needed to learn.

You notice that there was one person, in fact, two people, who did understand this, because you look at this verse that I kept on the screen for us on purpose, verse 9 of Numbers 14.

Joshua and Caleb implored the people do not rebel against the Lord, do not fear the people of this land, for their bred for us, their protection is moved from removed from them, because the Lord is with us.

So do not fear them.

Joshua understood it wasn't about what he knew about siege warfare, because in fact he didn't know anything about it.

What was important wasn't what he knew, it what was important was who he knew.

He knew the living God.

He knew the living God had made a promise, and that God would fulfill his promise, and what mattered was that Joshua would obey the living God.

Faith and spiritual life is less about what you know than who you know.

That's the lesson for us in this text.

And that's the lesson that God is going to give to Joshua in this appearance to him on the plains of Jericho on the eve of this great battle.

But notice that Joshua is a person who has learned this before, and yet it's a lesson that needs to be repeated over and over and over and over.

And so I trust this morning.

If you do not yet know the living God, the message of this text for you is that the most important thing in your life is not what you know or what you achieve, it's who you know.

It's that you know the true God.

And if you know and love the true God, then the message for you in this text is that you would grow in the grace and knowledge of this God.

That's what we're going to see in this text, and we'll walk through this passage and we'll see two lessons for us.

This text has two lessons.

We'll see who is this commander and how am I to approach him?

Who is this commander, and how shall I approach him?

Well, let's begin to look at the passage together.

Who is this commander?

Look down at the passage, and we're going to go over it very quickly, and then we'll come back and look at some of the details.

So just let me read through it.

And as I read through it, see if this recalls any echoes in your mind of other passages in scripture you've heard before.

Look at verse 13.

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with a sword drawn.

And Joshua went up to him and said, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

And he said, No.

But I'm the commander of the army of the Lord, now I have come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped him, and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant?

And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.

And Joshua did so.

So Joshua is on the plains, contemplating what's going to happen, probably remembering what happened forty years ago.

And as he looks up, he sees a man, probably an impressive-looking man.

And Joshua, as the commander of the armies of Israel, goes to him and asks, Are you for us or for them?

And this man says, No, hit the dust, take your shoes off because you're standing on holy ground.

Does this sound familiar?

Of course it sounds familiar.

This sounds very much like what happened to the last commander of Israel, Moses.

When God called Moses to take the people out of Egypt, he first appeared to him and told him, Take off your shoes because you're standing on holy ground.

You remember the scene as Moses is in the wilderness in Sinai?

He goes to the mountain to fetch a sheep, and he sees a bush that's burning and yet it is not consumed, and says, I'll turn aside and see this great sight.

How is this bush burning and not consumed?

And Exodus chapter 3 says that when he turned aside, it was God in that bush.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and Moses said, Here I am.

And God said to him, Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you're standing is holy ground.

And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

It was God speaking to Moses, God revealing himself to Moses.

It was God who would be with Moses.

It was God who would fulfill his promises to Moses.

And you know that in the next chapter, all of Exodus chapter 4 is about Moses telling God all the reasons why he's unsuited and unfit to do any of these things.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

And the lesson that God has for Moses is it doesn't matter what you know, it doesn't matter that you have a stammer and a stutter, it doesn't matter who you are or what you know or where you've been or what you do.

What matters is that you know me.

It matters not that you are rich or mighty or wise.

What matters is that you know me and I will fulfill my I will fulfill my promises, my covenants, my word.

And just as God appeared to Moses when he called him to take the people out of Egypt, so God is appearing to Joshua as he calls him to bring the people into the promised land.

Now, we'll see the certainly, just as Moses sees God in the wilderness, Joshua sees God in the promised land.

That's why there's this verbal repetition in chapter fifty chapter 5, verse 15, where God tells Moses to take off your feet.

It's the same God that appeared to Moses, appearing to Joshua, and yet there's a little bit of a difference between this passage and the Exodus appearance, isn't there?

God appears to Moses in a burning bush, and here he appears to Moses as a man.

Who Joshua, at first glance, thinks is just a man.

That's why he goes to him and asks, Are you for us or for them?

So we might ask the question, can God appear as a man?

Certainly the answer is yes, right?

We're Christians.

We believe in Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate.

Philippians chapter 2 says that though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being found in human form.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross, so that God has highly exalted him, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is Yahweh to the glory of God the Father.

So certainly God can appear in human form.

He did in Jesus Christ.

But what about in the Old Testament?

What about in the Old Covenant before the incarnation?

Can God appear in human form?

And in fact, there are a number of passages we'll look at too briefly where God does exactly that.

Give you one example.

Genesis in chapter 18, God has promised to Abraham that he's going to have a son, and now Abram is really, really, really old.

And so is his wife, Sarah.

And they think that ain't gonna happen.

And so to confirm his promise that he will do what he says he will do, he appears to Abram.

And Genesis chapter 18 says he appears to him this way.

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

Genesis 18, verse 1, the Lord appeared to Abram by the oaks of Mamreh.

Genesis 18:1

And Abram lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a flaming bush, a man with a flaming sword.

No, three men were standing in front of him.

The one who speaks to Moses, excuse me, speaks to Abraham is a man.

This is God appearing in human form in the Old Testament.

And in fact, this is not that uncommon in the Old Testament.

The place where we discover that the people of Israel will be known forever as the people of Israel happens when God appears to their forefather Jacob as a man.

You remember where God changes Jacob's name from Jacob to Israel is in Genesis in chapter 32, before Jacob is about to reunite with his brother Esau.

He's at a river at night by himself.

In Genesis chapter 32, it's worth reading an extended passage to remind ourselves of this.

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 32 says, A man wrestled with him, that is with Jacob, until the breaking of the day.

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

And when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, Let me go, for the day has broken, but Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

And he said to him, What is your name?

And he said, Jacob.

Then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.

For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed, and the name Israel indeed sounds like Hebrew for strives with God.

Then Jacob said, Please tell me your name.

But he said, Why is it that you ask my name?

And there he blessed him.

So Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.

What's happening is that God is appearing as a man in order to teach them who he is, that he will fulfill his promises, that even though Jacob is deathly afraid that his brother Esau will still be angry with him and will kill him.

God's promised Jacob that he will bless him and fulfill the promise of his father Abraham through his line, and so he will preserve him and be with him, because God will be faithful to his covenants.

And so just as God has appeared to a man as a man to Abraham and to Jacob and in other places in the Old Testament, so he is doing so here to Joshua to confirm to him, I will fulfill my covenants.

It doesn't matter if you know how to take a fortified city with your intellectual or military know-how.

What matters is that you know me.

Now we might ask one more question about this commander.

Who is he?

Well, he is God, God appearing as a man.

And yet as we come into the New Testament, the revelation of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, is fleshed out even more fully.

And so the author of the Gospel of John, the Apostle John, tells us that no one has ever seen God.

The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

And so we might ask, even more specifically, based on New Testament revelation, which person of the Godhead is this?

And it seems without a doubt, this is the Son of God appearing to Joshua.

This is Jesus, the commander of the armies of the Lord, is the eternal Son of God.

Jesus.

This is when Joshua met Jesus.

Or we could say, this is when Jesus met Jesus, because they are the same name.

The name that the angel in Matthew chapter 1 told Joseph to give his son was Yoshua, Joshua, or in Greek, Jesus, Jesus.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

They're the same name.

This is Jesus meeting Jesus.

Now we might ask another question.

So you can't see the Father?

So there's a part of God that's just hidden and veiled forever?

And that's exactly the question that Philip asked Jesus, isn't it, in John in chapter 14?

When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.

Philip's question to him is, Show us the Father, and it is enough.

And you remember Jesus' answer to Philip?

He says, Philip, have I been with you for so long and you still do not know me?

If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

How can you say, Show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

To see Jesus Christ is to see all that is God.

He is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his existence.

He is the image of the invisible God.

It is none less than God Himself appearing to Joshua, teaching him who he is, teaching him something of his character and his nature.

Why is Jesus appearing to Joshua?

And it's in a sense, it's a little bit simple.

He's teaching Joshua exactly where he's going to be.

He's going to be fulfilling his promises.

That's what this story is about.

The beginning of the book of Genesis, God promises to Abraham that he's going to bless him, give him a great nation in a land, and through that people in that land, he will send a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

And here is Jesus, faithfully with his people, fulfilling that promise.

Telling Joshua, You do not have the ability to do what I have commanded you, but I will fulfill my promise.

I will command what I will, and I will enable what I command.

I will bring this people into this land, and I will preserve this people in spite of their apostasy and in spite of the enemies around them, I will preserve them.

So that one day in the future I'll fulfill the climax of that covenant.

That a blessing would go to all the nations, and that would happen when this God appeared as a man, would come finally as a man to be born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law.

This appearance of Jesus to Joshua, this isn't a man who'd been living for 40 years and all of a sudden shows up to Joshua.

This is something of a foretaste of what is to come.

What is to come when Jesus would be born of a woman and would live a full human life, tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, so that he would fulfill the law, he would live the perfect life that we were required to live, so that he could be our mediator, so that he could give us a perfect righteousness, so that through faith a perfect life could be counted as ours, so that we could stand before the living God who requires holiness to enter his presence, clothed in the perfect holiness of our mediator, God in human flesh, Jesus Christ the Son of God.

And what Joshua is beholding now is that this God is going to fulfill that.

Jesus is going to save his people from their sins.

And before Joshua engages in his task, he needs to learn.

In fact, maybe we could say even more accurately, he doesn't need to learn, he needs to be reminded.

Because he already knows that what matters is knowing God, not knowing how to win the battle.

But he needs to be reminded that what matters is knowing the living God.

The condition for obedience is not your ability to fulfill the command, the condition for obedience is believing in the God who commanded it.

So this is the most important.

Important thing that Joshua can possibly learn.

And do you know this is also the most important thing about you?

The most important thing about you is that you know this God.

You know, this is not natural.

Most people, when they think of God or they think of religion, they're interested in results.

What are the results that I can get from religion?

Can religion produce morality that could change society?

Can religion produce an experience that would give me some joy?

Can religion produce X, Y, and Z?

We're interested in results.

What can I get out of this?

That's not the most important thing in your life.

The most important thing in your life is not results you can get from religion.

The most important thing in your life is that you know the true God.

That you know him.

That you are right before him, that you've been justified before him.

The most important thing in your life is that you know this God who upholds the universe by the word of his power.

That's who is appearing before Joshua.

That's who this commander is, and it's the most important thing in his life that he knows him.

It's the most important thing in our lives that we know him.

And that leads to the second question in this text.

This commander is the living God appearing as a man.

Then the next question is, how can I approach him?

And that's what occupies the rest of this passage.

How can I approach him?

And now, having really so far we've kind of skimmed through the passage and just seen an overview.

Now we need to go back through and we need to pay a little bit more attention to the details.

So look down at your book, at your Bibles and your laps, and look at verse 13 again.

Notice it says in verse 13, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifts up his eyes, looks, and behold, a man is standing before him with a sword drawn.

And what does Joshua do?

He goes and says, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

That is a wild thing to do.

This was probably an impressive-looking person.

But Joshua is a confident man.

He's the commander of the armies of Israel.

This is his responsibility.

And the way he approaches him conveys the sense of a demand.

In fact, the New Living Translation translated it that way.

Joshua demanded of the man.

Who are you?

Are you for us or for our enemies?

That kind of laconic speech is perfect for the way you would speak in the battlefield.

If you were a sentinel and you saw a man who appeared dangerous, you would say, friend or foe.

And Joshua is essentially saying to this man, I'll give you two options, buddy.

You can either fight me to the death or you can get on your knees and bow to me.

Because God's given us this land and I'm in charge here.

And notice how this man answers Joshua.

It's stunning.

Look at verse 14.

And this man says to Joshua, No.

Are you for us or for our enemies?

No.

It sounds like a non sequitur at first.

No.

Wrong question.

Will I fight you or bow to you?

Wrong question.

None of those are viable options.

Wrong question.

It's not whether I will bow to you, it's rather whether you will bow to me.

That's the question.

God's entirely reorienting Joshua's frame of mind.

Will you bow to me?

I have not come for you to inquire of me whether I'm on your side or not.

I have come to ask whether you are on my side.

I've not come to ask for directions.

I have come to give you directions.

This is the real battle of Jericho.

The real battle of Jericho was not how much military know-how Joshua had.

The real battle of Jericho was whether he would bow to the God who was before him.

That's why God says to him, No, because I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come.

And as soon as Joshua sees who it is, he knows what to do.

Look at verse 14.

Immediately what he does is he hits the deck.

Joshua fell to the earth and worshiped him and said, What does my Lord say to his servant?

That's the way to come to God.

In fact, we could translate this word, ebed, translated servant, often in the Old Testament.

We could translate it as slave.

That's what an ebid was, someone who was owned by another.

What does my Lord say to my slave?

I'm entirely yours.

This is the way to come to God.

This is the way to come to Jesus, is to bow to him, to worship him, and say, What do you say to your slave?

I belong to you.

I'm not giving instructions, I'm not calling the shots, I'm bowing and saying, What does my Lord say to me?

Command me, Savior.

Your Jesus will not join your campaign.

Joshua's got a campaign.

He's looking for a few good men, and yet this is not one of them.

And so it is for us.

This Jesus will not join your campaign.

He will not be part of your program.

He will not be part of achieving your goals.

This Jesus is here to command you not to give advice.

We want so many things from Jesus.

I want to know if Jesus is for my family.

I got plans for my family.

And you do too.

I got good plans for my family.

I got a lot of things that I want to do.

I've got four little kids, and I love them, and I have great dreams for them, and I want to know if Jesus is for me or against me.

And I got plans for my career.

I got places I want to go and things I want to achieve.

And I want to know if Jesus is for me or against me.

And you got things in your life that you want to do.

You have an agenda and you want to know if Jesus is for you or against you.

And if you are speaking to the real Jesus, you will inevitably hear this resounding answer when you ask that question.

No! It's the wrong question.

The question is not, will you be behind me?

Will you be beside me?

The question is, will you bow before him?

This is the commander of the army of the Lord.

Will you bow before him?

This is the only way to approach the real God, which is not the way we naturally conceive of him.

It is the default human condition to go through life with these dreams, with these agendas, with desires, hopes, and goals, and to want to find a God who will be on my team, who will help me.

When I encounter a problem, when I am in distress, to turn to God and look for help.

And in this passage, God is saying with resounding authority, no, those are not the terms by which we can come to the real God.

This is the commander of the armies of the Lord.

He is not our assistant.

You know, this reminds me when Jesus, the way he introduces himself to Joshua, saying, I'm the commander of the armies of the Lord, it reminds us, doesn't it, of Matthew chapter 26, when Jesus in his incarnation, on his trial, tells those who are wrongfully accusing him and arraigning him, don't you know that with a single word I could ask of my father, and he would send 12 legions of angels to assist me?

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Twelve legions of angels.

A legion, the Roman military term, usually was about 6,000 soldiers.

They would have all of their bagmen and all of their assistants.

There'd be about 12,000 people traveling with a Roman legion.

Now, military personnel among us would be able to put that into better context than civilians like me.

When I hear numbers like that, I like to tell myself, break it down like you're seven.

There are about 1,500 police officers in Fairfax County.

So take four times the entire police force in Fairfax County to make one Legion.

Jesus says, I'm gonna get 12 of them.

48 times all the power in Fairfax County.

That's 72,000.

That's more than a stadium.

And these are not police officers with a glock.

These are angels, angels, angels of the Lord with flaming swords who cannot die.

And Jesus says, snap, and they're here.

This is not someone you ask for a little bit of help.

We could put it, we could put it another way.

Hebrews chapter 1 says that this Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

You know, the distance from Earth to the moon is about 240,000 miles.

So if the distance from the earth to the moon were about the width of a sheet of paper, then the distance from the earth to the nearest star other than the sun would be a stack of paper 34,000 feet high.

Seventeen times the tallest skyscraper in the world.

And that's just to the nearest star, not to the edge of the galaxy or the next one or the next.

And scripture says this Jesus upholds all of that with a single word of his power.

Isaiah chapter 40 says this God holds all the galaxies in his hand, just in the fold of his palm.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

This is not a person you invite into your life to be your assistant to help you do what you want to do.

The only reasonable response to this God is to see who he is in Scripture and to hit the deck and worship him and say, What does my Lord say to his slave?

Command me, I'm yours.

This is the only way to come into the presence of this God.

This is the only way to approach this commander.

And it Jesus just confirms this in verse 15.

Joshua has hit the deck, he's on his face, he's asking, What do you command?

What do you want?

There's no deed, there's no merits, there are no works, there are no ceremonies, there's simply this word from the Lord in verse 15.

Look down in your Bibles, verse 15.

And the commander of the Lord's army says to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.

And Joshua did so.

Take off your shoes.

Recognize that you are a sinner.

And trust me.

Why take off your shoes?

Well, because the place is holy.

In other words, this is a way for God to communicate to Joshua, to give him a palpable sense that the place where you are standing is holy because I am here, because I am holy, and you are not.

And in the presence of God, this is the very first thing that you see.

When Isaiah sees the Lord in Isaiah 6, he says, Woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips.

When Job sees the Lord, he says, I repent and sackcloth and ashes and I cover my mouth.

When Luke, excuse me, when Peter in Luke in chapter 5 realizes who Jesus is, who's in the boat with him, his immediate response isn't to say, Wow, cool, God's with us.

His immediate response is to say, get away from me, I'm a sinful man.

And what is it to say that God is holy?

Well, his holiness.

I mean, it's central to who he is.

The angels in heaven ceaselessly sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the commander of hosts, is unceasingly, essentially holy.

Holy means to be set apart.

For God to be holy is to be utterly transcendent.

He's not just like you but a little bit bigger.

You can hold a globe in your hand and he holds the actual world in his hand.

No, no, no.

He's not like you but bigger.

He's entirely categorically different from you.

He's in a whole different world.

He is existence himself, and everything that exists exists by the word of his power.

He's in an entirely different category from you.

He's not like you but bigger.

He is God himself.

And because he is utterly holy, utterly transcendent, he's morally pure.

Absolutely, infinitely set apart from anything that is evil or ugly or fallen.

He's absolutely spotlessly pure.

And to be in his presence is to recognize that I am not.

Woe is me.

I am a sinful man.

I have broken the law, and before him I see my sin.

And the only thing that I can do is take off my feet and say, Command me, I trust you, I love you, I believe in you, I want to belong to you.

What do you command your slave?

This is the way to approach the holy God.

When you see the real Jesus, the only thing to do is to hear him say, No, I'm not your assistant.

Hit the deck, take off your shoes, and worship him.

You want to find courage for your life.

Courage in your life is not going to be found in increasing your skill set.

Jesus has commanded you many things.

He's not commanded you to take a city, but he's commanded you to make disciples.

And your engagement in that duty, your obedience to that command is not conditioned on your ability to make disciples.

You don't need to wait until you have more skill and more training to make disciples.

You need to believe that God commands what he will and he enables what he commands.

It's not so much about what you know, it's who you know.

Do you know this God?

Then will you tell the truth about him to us to others?

God has commanded you to flee from sin.

You don't need to wait until some new resolution time comes.

You need to flee from sin.

And believe that God will enable you to humbly repent of your sin and not wait for some time when the right opportunity comes, but believe that God is with you now.

This is a way to come to the living God.

You want courage in your life is to know that you know that you know Him, and He will enable your obedience.

Now there's one last question, one final question in this text.

If you're thinking about this text, you're puzzling over the fact that here is this warrior with a drawn sword standing before Joshua, bowing before him, and he's told him, the place you're standing on is holy, and you are not.

I'm utterly holy, I cannot dwell in the presence of sin.

Then the question is, why doesn't the sword come down?

Joshua himself has rebelled against the living God.

Joshua's not blameless.

Joshua is a sinner.

That's why he's taking off his shoes, confessing that that's exactly what he is, a sinner before a holy God.

So why does the sword not come down?

And the answer revealed to us in Scripture is the sword doesn't come down because just as Jesus is giving us a foretaste of his incarnation in this passage, so he would complete it a thousand years after this, when he'd be born of a woman, live a perfect life, go to a cross, and the sword of God's divine judgment would fall on him.

The reason that sinners can come into the presence of a holy God is because God got off his throne and endured the sword on our behalf.

What a shock! How fantastic it would have been for the hosts of heaven in his incarnation to behold their eternal commander taking off his holy robes, getting off his throne and coming into this world.

How astonishing for the hosts of heaven to behold their commander enduring the greatest torment that can possibly experience in this earth.

How fantastic for them to see their commander humbling himself, to endure mocking and spitting from mere mortals, to behold him allowing himself to be arraigned and condemned for the person who is the living God, the fountain of life itself, to die, he who created the world and gives life to all its creatures, to be killed by his very own creatures, and for the one who for eternity had been infinitely beloved by God the Father.

In his death, to endure unspeakable anguish at the hand of the wrath of his own father.

This is the Jesus who was standing before Joshua, and can you not agree that this Jesus is worth nothing less than to fall at his face and worship him?

This Jesus is deserving of nothing less than unconditional surrender.

This Jesus is worth nothing less than absolute loyalty and obedience, humble, contrite trust.

This Jesus, the commander of heaven's armies, who stood in our place and endured our death on our behalf, and now told Joshua and is telling us, I'm not coming into the world for you to invite me into your life to be your assistant.

Rather, I came into the world and died on your behalf so that you can enter into my life, so that you can bow before me and come into my divine life.

This is the real Jesus.

The most important thing in our lives is to know him.

And when you know him, you can stand before any other person.

You want courage in your life, blessing in your life, confidence in your life, then see the real Jesus.

Hear him say no.

Hit the deck, take off your shoes, worship him.

This is where you find courage for all of your life.

Father, thank you that you have given us your word and you have taught us who you are so that we might indeed know you.

And we do ask that you would seal this passage to our hearts and you would give us courage as we live and obey your commandments.

Father, we ask that as we've gazed into your word, that you would give us your spirit and stir in us love and affection for Jesus Christ.

Father, we ask that you would cause us to wonder the reality that you, the commander of heaven's armies, would die for us.

Father, thank you that you that you considered us.

Father, thank you that you took account of us.

Thank you, God, that you provided for all of our needs in your Son Jesus Christ.

Christ, thank you that you emptied yourself by taking on the form of a man and humbled yourself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Stir in us hearts that love and trust, fear and reverence you.

Give us hearts that love you and fear no man.

I pray this in your name.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.