Our text this morning will be, as I mentioned, Joshua chapter 5. It's always difficult stepping into the middle of a movie, even more dangerous to step in the middle of a pastor's series. So I'm not doing one of the plagues this morning, but I am reflecting as Pastor Gordon is going through the plagues. I've been reflecting on later episodes, and one of those episodes is the text that came to my mind. for this morning and don't worry I approved it with Pastor Gordon that I'm not stepping on his toes what he has coming up in in future messages beginning at verse 1 of Joshua chapter 5 as soon as 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 that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeah Haraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the people of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor fear his voice. The Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children whom he raised up in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate the fruits of the land of Canaan that year. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword 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. Everything that we've been hearing about over these past weeks from Exodus testifies to God's faithfulness to that original promise he made to Abraham. You remember that promise? It was a two-fold promise. First of all, of an earthly seed and an earthly land, but also of a heavenly seed and a heavenly land. A greater promise that the first promise merely typified. The contest between Lord Pharaoh and Lord Yahweh that we've been hearing about really is the story behind all of the stories of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. That's why we've been able to see so many connections between what happens in Exodus and what happens in Revelation. Because it really is the story behind the stories. The attempt of the seed of the woman, sorry, the attempt of the seed of the serpent to crush the seed of the woman before he appears to crush his head. And so Pharaoh is just one of the many minions in the hand of Satan. And we've been seeing God's powerful deliverance of his people from Pharaoh's hand. And so from then on, the people of Israel were to remember, this is the God we have. This is the God who is for us, the God who delivered us from the hands of Pharaoh, as he says in Exodus 19, just before the giving of the law. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be treasured my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel and so God gives his people a land in Deuteronomy we're told when you go into the land God tells Moses to tell the Israelites don't even begin to think or say it's because of our righteousness or because we are a mighty warrior nation it's because of our power. Don't even begin to say that. It's because of God's promise to Abraham that you are being given this land. But even though it's a gift, it is never Israel's land. It is always Yahweh's land, the land of God. And he is granting the Israelites permission to live in his land. But if they behave like the nations that the Lord is driving out before them, they too will suffer the same curses. And so in Deuteronomy 10, God says, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. Later in Deuteronomy chapter 30, just as God warned Adam and Eve that in the day they ate of the fruit, they would surely die. he tells them, I declare to you today that if you break this covenant, you shall surely die. The land itself is a gift, but it can be lost. The good news is present, however, even in Deuteronomy 30, where God said, even though I have commanded you to circumcise your own hearts, You will not be obedient. You will not circumcise your own hearts. But he prophesied the day when I will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring. And so that's a backdrop to what is happening now as God is leading his people into the conquest of the land of Canaan. The first point is Yahweh saves. The second point is that Yahweh draws his sword and then finally Yahweh commands his army. The beginning of the story is really remarkable because even the name of Joshua himself signifies what God is doing in this story. The name, Yahshua, means Yahweh saves. And that is really the message of the book of Joshua. It's amazing when people talk about the holy wars of the Old Testament. They talk about it as if Israel was a warlike people like so many other nations wanting to justify itself by some religious myth about God being on their side. But the story just doesn't read that way. Throughout the book of Joshua, this is sort of their story of 4th of July. How they gained independence. This story, as it unfolds, really has a minor part for the Israelites. Like Psalm 40 and also Psalm 68, wherever this story is recounted, it is just as it is here in the book of Joshua. You did nothing. You were asleep while I gained victory over your enemies. Israel isn't cleansing the land. Israel isn't doing all these mighty deeds. Yahweh is Israel's deliverer, echoing God's work of conquering and dividing the waters in creation. And then also again, the Red Sea. The book of Joshua represents a new exodus, a new conquest. And it has the pattern of work and rest. First, it structures the whole book, crossing the Red Sea, crossing the Jordan, another Red Sea-like crossing. The conquest, which again is Yahweh's conquest, Yahweh saves, Yahweh delivers. And then the possession of the land is a gift, it's my land to give you. And then fourth, the division and distribution of the land according to the tribes, as God has chosen, as God has apportioned the gifts that he's going to give to the different tribes. only then do we read that the land had rest from war. So the six days of labor, the seventh day of rest. The emphasis is repeatedly that God is, these are the verbs that are used repeatedly throughout, but God is giving Israel the land, delivering his enemies into Israel's hand. It's like he's bringing them in shackles to Israel. Israel isn't subduing them. God is subduing them, delivering them into Israel's hands, and then causing them to inherit their allotted territories. We see all throughout the story that Israel is a recipient of God's goodness and grace. And then we read in chapter 24, verse 13, I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you didn't plant. The point could hardly be made more clearly. Yahweh is fulfilling his promise of an earthly land and an earthly seed to Abraham. Israel entered, Israel conquered, Israel inherited, all by grace. God is the real hero of this whole story of Joshua's supposed conquest. It's not Joshua's conquest, it's Yahweh's conquest. Instead of subduing and destroying the serpent, Adam and Eve allowed the serpent to reign in the garden. Adam did not chase the serpent out of the garden and let the serpent bring his wife into earshot of his seducing message. And so, God's promised seed of Eve, who will crush the serpent's head, is coming, but who will it be? Will it be Israel? Already, both the conquest and the holiness of the Israelites made Israel's tenure in the land precarious. Throughout the book, the upside is God's sovereign deliverance. The downside is always the precariousness of this covenant because of the people's hearts. The book opens with a promising new day as God leads his people to conquest. But by the time we get to the end, after he says, I have done all of this, I have given you all of these gifts, I have delivered you, it's almost as if Joshua feels alone at the end of the chapter. They say, all this we will do, we will be obedient. We will do everything that the covenant requires for us to remain in this land. Joshua says, you are not able to serve the Lord, for he's a holy God. Not exactly, you know, the rousing speech you want to get at the end of the parade. and yet god knew what was in man's heart so he says you decide whether you will obey god or serve the idols but as for me in my house we will serve the lord in the episode before us yahweh draws his sword first on his own people very strange episode in the history of religions right uh god drawing his sword on his own people what what does this possibly mean well judgment begins in the house of the lord and that's why they had to be circumcised this is the generation that that was born to the wilderness generation that was barred from entering canaan because of unbelief and now this generation of young people had never been circumcised isn't that really amazing it's remarkable they had never been circumcised but this is the time where they must be circumcised why because they're entering holy land in this geographical space everything is devoted to the lord either for deliverance or for destruction everything of course belongs to God in the general sense of his providence, of his creation, his lordly power. But this land is under martial law. This land is his special place for communion with his people. And so as the land is holy, the people must be holy. His sword is drawn because the holiness of his people is required for them to live in the holy place that he has given him. And so this is why we have the circumcision for a new exodus. Circumcision was a cutting away of the foreskin as a token of the whole person so that the whole person wouldn't have a sword driven in him. It was precisely because of circumcision that the whole person didn't have to be cut off from the people but if Israel disobeys the covenant then the whole people will be cut off not just circumcised but cut off entirely and so they recognized that they were holy to the Lord by this right of circumcision that's why he says in verses 23 and 24 of the previous chapter for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea which he dried up for us until we passed over so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever and so that just as they're passing over the Jordan into God's holy land the right of circumcision Cuts them off from the land of Egypt, from the past, from slavery to sin and death. And that is why we read, Now, the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. But then, if that weren't interesting, but sort of odd enough for us, God draws his sword against Joshua. Now, why would a sword be drawn against Joshua? Joshua is the one leading the campaign. Well, the holiness of Joshua's worship, first of all, in earlier chapters, is the prerequisite for him receiving the battle plans from the Lord. Joshua's own personal holiness is important because he's representative here of the people of Israel. He's a representative of the true commander of the Lord's army, the one who would lead the people at its head, the one who was enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant. Holy ground means holy war. Everything is holy to the Lord. Everything is set apart either for salvation or for destruction. People, pots and pans and parrots, everything that is in that land is set apart for the Lord, either for salvation, if there is obedience to the covenant, or for destruction, for transgression. And so we have a fascinating episode here. When Joshua was by Jericho lifting up his eyes, he looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? It's a good question. Obviously, he's not wearing the regalia and battle clothing of one side or the other. And on the battlefield, someone who looks a little bit ominous, walking your way with a sword drawn, not a sword in a sheath, but a sword drawn, might make you wonder if he's on your side or the side of the enemy. So he asks him. And I love the response. No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. Now that's a confusing thing to say on the battlefield. Or at least a confusing thing to hear. Imagine Joshua saying, I've gone through a lot here as the commander of the Lord's army. I'm the commander of the Lord. But he doesn't argue with it. He accedes to his greater authority. He recognizes that he isn't the commander of the Lord's army. Whoever this is, he's someone greater than Joshua himself. And the commander of the Lord's army simply says no in answer to his question, are you for us or against us? It's a very unsettling thing to hear from someone you're terrified of on the battlefield. Are you on our side or on their side? No. Neither. Now, I don't know whether Abraham Lincoln had any, you know, had an orthodox faith. That's all very questionable. But it is interesting. A union mother who lost her son once wrote Abraham Lincoln and said, at least you must know that God is on your side. And he wrote back to her and said, Madam, my concern is not to know that God is on my side. but to be sure that I am on his. Now that's sort of what is going on here when the angel of the Lord says, look, you need to be clear about whose side you're on. This is holy land, do you realize? And the same sword that circumcised the people is now standing there drawn at Joshua. Is he going to be cut off entirely? Not just circumcised, but cut off by the sword of the Lord. The sword is drawn. Whose side are you on? In chapter 6, the sword is drawn against the nations. I'm not going to be going into chapter 6, but it underscores the conditional character of this covenant that was sworn by Israel at Mount Sinai. The same devastation that God is about to bring upon the pagan idolaters in his land is the very threat that he issues against Israel for polluting his land if they turn from obedience. Everything is holy to the Lord. And so they march six days, and on the 7th, Jericho falls. Because, again we read, Jericho was given into their hand by God. Again, it's a very odd military campaign, right? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to, what the battle plan says that I received from the Lord. We're going to march around Jericho for six days. And then the seventh, the priests will blow their ram's horn in front of the ark. And then, at the long blast on the seventh day, amid Israel's shouts, the city's walls will fall. And there will be no more Jericho. This just underscores again that Yahweh is the one who's doing this. They're marching around the city. Not with swords flashing. They're marching around the city. And then on the seventh day, once again, this work and rest. Six days on the seventh kind of pattern. On that seventh day, God will, on his day of the everlasting Sabbath, God will give over the enemies into Israel's hand. he did what was commanded the walls came tumbling down and then the final section discloses the temporary and conditional character of this earthly rest as for the lord's part we read not one word has failed of all the good things the lord your god promised concerning you not one good thing god promised to abraham has failed god has brought them into the land but now it's theirs to keep or to lose so the lord will bring upon you all the evil things that he has brought upon these men until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the lord your god has given you if you transgress the covenant of the lord your god which he commanded you this day. Then third and finally, Yahweh as the commander of his own army. In the fullness of time, God sent John the Baptist to proclaim something similar, to call Israel to circumcise its heart, to repent, to prepare for the coming of the Lord. In many ways, John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet. Judgment begins in the house of God just as it did in Joshua chapter 5. Israel must be circumcised. The trees that do not produce fruit will be chopped down. But of course, Israel can't circumcise its own heart. This is the day, finally now, when God will circumcise himself, the hearts of his people. As John says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Baptism, then, is the new circumcision for the new exodus. It is the new right for the new conquest by the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth, just as also the Passover was instituted in the upper room, the new Passover, the Lord's body and blood. And so who is this commander-in-chief? Is he a human being? Certainly, there are cases of human beings being addressed in such royal fashion as Lord, could refer to a human being. Perhaps an angel, doesn't say that he was an angel, but angels do figure prominently in the history of the patriarchs as emissaries of the Lord. Or is he God? We have to resist flights of fancy here, but there are all sorts of theophanies, that is, appearances of God in the Old Testament. There are Christophanies, where even the Son, who will become incarnate, appears before Christmas, before he appears in the fullness of time. He comes as an angel of the Lord. You see this in many passages where he's referred to as the angel of the Lord, and yet as the Lord Yahweh himself. If you want to look at these later in the day, Genesis 16, verses 7 through 14, or 22, 11 through 19. One of my favorites, Zechariah 3, the wonderful vision there of Yahweh, the angel of the Lord, Satan the accuser, and Joshua the high priest who's in filthy rags. And the angel of the Lord is himself Yahweh. In all of these passages, you have examples of the angel of the Lord being referred to as Yahweh himself. Or in Genesis 18, with Sodom and Gomorrah, there are three angels, but one of the angels is identified as the angel of the Lord. And while the other two angels go and rescue Lot, the angel of the Lord returns to the throne room to execute vengeance from heaven. We're in Exodus 23, verses 20 to 22. Behold, I send my angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I've prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression. For my name is in him. My name, Yahweh, is in him. Only God can forgive sins. And retains it. And that is precisely what this angel of the Lord does. But the most decisive for our answer here, I think, is the allusion to Exodus chapter 3. Very similar episode to Exodus chapter 3. Notice what happens. What does the commander of the Lord's army say? He says, take off your sandals for your standing on holy ground. It's exactly what he told Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3. It's clear it's all three. The commander of the Lord's army is the one who will become human in the fullness of time from the Virgin Mary. He's also the angel of the Lord who appears in many times and places in the Old Testament, who is himself the Lord, and he is therefore also God. Look at how Hebrews 2 weaves all of this together. it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It's been said somewhere in the Bible, What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him but we see him for who for a little while was made lower than the angels namely jesus crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone for it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source that's why he's not ashamed to call them brothers saying i will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation i will sing your praise and again i will put my trust in him and again behold i and the children god has given me Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. That's a summary of the fulfillment of our passage in Joshua 5, isn't it? He made himself holy. By submission to everything the Lord had commanded and then pushed the sword into his own heart. Not for himself, but for his people. The greater Joshua, the same name as Joshua, Yeshua. The Lord saves. You will call his name Yeshua, Jesus. Because he will save his people from their sins. He was cut off, as Isaiah 53 prophesies, cut off from the land of the living for the sins of his people, so that many may be justified. And because he was cut off through baptism into Christ, we are cut off, not from God, but from Egypt. Colossians 2, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. His circumcision, death, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. You know, we tend to think that the real wars, the big ones, The ones that we really take seriously are the ones covered on CNN. Those are part of the fading age, this passing evil age in which we're living. Really the war, the great war, the story behind all of the stories is the war between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent. Jesus Christ, our Savior, has conquered not a part of the earth, but the whole earth. He has given us not a temporary conditional inheritance, but an eternal one that is reserved for us in heaven. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, Paul says, but with principalities and powers in heavenly places. The meek will not inherit a sliver of Palestinian real estate. The meek will inherit the earth. Finally, the fall of Jericho is echoed in the fall of Babylon in the book of Revelation. The seven trumpets of Revelation 8 through 11. The seven bowls of wrath echoing, as we've heard, the plagues on Egypt. And I'd like to close with Revelation 19, verses 10 through 16. The angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony concerning Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and by the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's pray. Our Father, we praise you for your mercy in sending your Son, our great defender, to save us from the kingdom of death and hell. We are by nature rebels, corrupting your world, but you have gained victory, and by your son's death have put into effect our eternal inheritance. By his resurrection conquest, we have entered your Sabbath rest. And so we can say with the Apostle Paul and all of your saints in glory, if God is for us, who can be against us? Subdue our hearts by your Holy Spirit and keep our eyes fixed on our commander-in-chief to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. For it is in his name that we pray. Amen.