Joshua 5:13-15

A CHRISTOPHANY

"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: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as the prince of the host of Jehovah am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the prince of Jehovah's host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."

There cannot be any doubt about the Divinity of the Prince of the Host of Jehovah who appeared to Joshua in this scene. The very fact of Joshua's worshipping him, coupled with the acceptance of that worship, proves the Divine nature of this Visitant. If this Holy One had been any created being, he would have forbidden Joshua to worship him, as did the angel for the apostle John (Revelation 19:10; 22:9). There are a number of these remarkable appearances in the O.T. Dummelow identified the Person here with "The Angel of Jehovah (Exodus 3:2)," adding that, "The Angel of Jehovah is not a created angel but Jehovah Himself in the act of self-manifestation."[27] "There can be no doubt that this was God Himself seen as human form."[28] "This is none other than the Angel of the Lord, the Lord himself (Exodus 23:20-21), the pre-incarnate Christ in visible form."[29] There is a second reason for ascribing divinity to this Prince of the hosts, and that is seen in His command for Joshua to "take thy shoe from off thy foot," indicating that the ground was holy where he stood. We take the words here to apply to BOTH feet. "The hosts here are not the hosts of Israel, but the angelic hosts of heaven."[30]

Some commentators understand this experience of Joshua as a subjective vision, nothing more or any different from that which may be seen today, "by modern man in his place of worship, or driving in an automobile or riding in an airplane. Usually there are no bystanders, but if so, they recognize only that the central character in the event is having an experience in which they do not share."[31] Such explanations are totally unacceptable. The subjective dreamers in cases like Morton mentioned cannot walk up to the "vision," address a question to it, and then fall down and worship it! No, this is merely another instance of the ingenious cavil of unbelievers who will NOT believe the sacred record. When one encounters this type of explanation for events which are dearly supernatural, he should remember that such explanations are NOT based upon logic, insight, or knowledge of any kind, but are purely the last recourse of critical writers who do not believe in any miracles, anything supernatural, or predictive prophecy of any kind, and who have never been known to refer to a given passage as "the Word of God." Notice too that the "central character" of this vision is understood to be, not God in human form, but Joshua. It should be remembered that Joshua, not God, took off his shoes!

Critics have bemoaned the fact that no specific instructions were here given to Joshua, although he had clearly asked for instructions. Blair thought that "by making Joshua 6:1 a parenthesis, the narrative containing instructions for Joshua continues onward from Joshua 6:2."[32] Cook also declared emphatically that, "Joshua 6:1 is parenthetical ... the narrative continues in Joshua 6:2."[33] That heavenly instructions indeed came to Joshua and supernaturally guided him in the conquest is evident in all that followed.

1. The fall of Jericho in the manner revealed was an unqualified miracle;
2. The master strategy of splitting Canaan in two by a frontal assault on the middle of it (taking Jericho); and
3. The reduction of the remaining factions one at a time has never been improved by any or all of the generals of human history.

Thus, despite the fact of our ignorance of just HOW or WHEN God revealed all of the instructions which Joshua evidently followed, he did indeed have Divine guidance in the conquest of Canaan.

The Sovereign, the General, the Captain, the Prince of the armies of Jehovah appeared here with a drawn sword. What does this mean? It means that the war Joshua was then engaged in was NOT Joshua's war, it was GOD's war! The Almighty God, completely disgusted at last with the unprecedented wickedness of the peoples of Canaan, was at that moment determined to destroy them. God, long before, had reached a similar decision with the antediluvian world, and the Great Deluge took them all away (except for Noah and his family). The extermination of these peoples in Canaan by the hand of the Israelites was no less merciful than the destruction in the flood. No problem arises from its being, in fact, different. The mercy in both instances lay in the truth that it was no longer possible for the love and honor of God to survive in the rotting cultures that were destroyed.

"Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ...?" As Matthew Henry declared, "This implies that the conflict between Israel and the Canaanites, between Christ and Beelzebub, will admit of no neutrality. As Christ himself said it, `He that is not for us is against us.'"[34]