Siding with the Captain

In the first five chapters of Joshua are tremendous issues as the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth goes in. This is the official beginning of God coming to fulfill His purpose with the nation Israel. The ark, the symbol of His presence, is out before them, leading them.

Jordan explains, “He comes up to the Jordan River, and when the priests reach out to step right into the brim of the water, the verse says in chapter 3 that the water coming down from the north stopped and where it says it stops, by the way, is a city about 30 miles upstream. So this thing takes a little while and that water quits flowing and then goes all the way down to the Dead Sea and there’s just this big dry river bed out there.

“And so the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Israelis that cross Jordan, they literally cross the dry river bed without any water in sight. When the priest stands there in the river bed, and the people file across and come out on the other side, they then put memorial stones in the river and on the bank. They’re marking the spot where Jesus Christ at the Second Advent will cross the Jordan going into Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives.

“They’re going to go into the land, go across that river, and they are an armed camp going in to take away some people’s land from them and they’re doing it under the command of God and God Almighty is going to fight for them. They’re going to see ‘the living God,’ not some dead god that loses his head when he falls over, or the golden calf Aaron made for them.

“That term ‘the living God’ is a title used for God when He wants to describe Himself as a God who can get the job done and can act and do things. It’s used in contrast to dead gods, or idols. He’s going into a land owned and possessed by idols. They’re going into a land that is literally the stronghold of the earth of the satanic policy of evil, held by idolatry.

“As Joshua 3 says, ‘And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)
[16] That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.
[17] And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.’

“Then in chapter 4, they put some memorials, take the stones and put them in the river and on the land and they mark the spot where they did that. That’s the same spot where later Elijah goes out of the land. It’s the same spot where centuries later John the Baptist comes and preaches repentance and baptizes the Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan.

“That’s also the same spot Jesus Christ revisits when He comes back and goes to the Mount of Olives. He comes from the east to the west across the Jordan River. That’s because the thing that goes on here in Joshua is going to be the issue all the way out to the Second Advent.

“The issue is demonstrated very clearly in verse 11 (‘Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan’) and 13 (‘And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan’) by the title given to the Lord in this passage. That’s a tremendously important title. It has to do with His sovereign rule in the earth. It’s a kingdom, or messianic title, that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Psalm 97 is a Second Advent psalm looking to when the Lord comes back to reign. 97:5 says, ‘The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.’ Revelation 1 says every eye shall see Him and wail because of Him.

“When He comes back to reign, that’s His title. He’s the Lord of the whole earth. Micah 4 says, ‘And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
[3] And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’

“That’s like Isaiah 2 but we’re talking about the kingdom here and the time it’s established. Verse 7 says, ‘And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.’

At the end of verse 8 it says ‘the kingdom shall come to the daughter of mount Zion.’ Go down to verse 13: ‘Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.’

“I’m trying to get you to see that that title ‘the Lord of the whole earth’ is a title used over and over in connection with the kingdom; his rule in the earth in the kingdom. Literally what you have going on here in Joshua is He’s coming in with His nation and they are going into the land of Palestine, the land of Canaan, for the purpose of possessing, or repossessing it, from the satanic policy of evil. So what we have here is Jehovah formally beginning the repossession of the earth through the nation Israel.

“Come to II Chronicles and notice a contrast in this title. You’ve skipped all the way over to the captivity, to the 5th course of judgment. In Joshua, they go into the land and fail and the Book of Judges is the first course of judgment of Leviticus 26.

“Finally they’re carried away into Babylonian captivity in II Chronicles 36, and after being held 70 years (just like Jeremiah said they would be), the Word of the Lord comes to Cyrus (like Isaiah had been told that it would) and we read these words in II Chron. 36:22: ‘Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
[23] Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.’

“Through their failure He finally withdraws and becomes the Lord God of Heaven on EXILE, as it were. That’s why it’s ‘in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom on the earth.’ He has to come back WITH IT. That’s why it’s called the kingdom of HEAVEN. Not because it belongs there, or that it’s located there; it’s the Lord God of all the earth establishing the kingdom, but He has to bring it from the place where it’s been placed in rejection.

“All of that begins, and the ground is being set for that, in the book of Joshua. Don’t just think that what’s going on here is a bunch of stories. There’s a tremendous doctrinal issue about the role of the nation Israel in the purpose and program of God.

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“In chapter 5, Joshua circumcises the nation (a type of the regathering and reestablishing of the identity of Israel) and then at the end of the chapter, verse 13 says, ‘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?’

“Joshua’s ready to go the next day against Jericho, and the evening before he walks out, he’s just going to take a survey of the land before his evening rest and there’s a fellow standing there with a sword in his hand.

"Joshua says, ‘Are you for us or against us?! Let’s have it out right now!’ Verse 14: ‘And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD 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? 15] And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.’

“He said, ‘I’m not on your side or anybody else’s side. The question is not whose side am I on. The question is, ‘I’m the boss!' The question isn’t ‘Am I on your side?’ The question is ‘Are you on my side? Because I’m the captain of the host of the Lord.’

“What the Lord’s telling him is,‘The ground you’re standing on is holy; you made a mistake.’ He’s to recognize the purpose God had. What Joshua needed to do was recognize God’s perspective on the land of Canaan. There going into the land in order to possess it for a specific purpose for which God created them for and that has to do with establishing His authority in the planet through a kingdom that’s going to be established in that piece of real estate.

“This is the Lord Jesus Christ and He comes as the Captain of the Lord’s host and that will remind them of back in Exodus 17 about Jehovah Nissi, ‘the Lord our Conqueror.’ The Lord is the one who’s going to avenge Israel, avenge the Gentiles for their rebellion and so He comes as the warrior.

“The issue there about holy ground; the issue is Joshua is to get a divine perspective of the land. He’s not to think of the land from a human viewpoint but this is the very land God promised Abraham to accomplish his reconciliation program.

“You remember Moses had that same thing happen to him back in exodus 3. When someone was told to remove their shoe in Leviticus, the reason was they had failed in an obligation. Ruth 4 when the man can’t redeem her, he takes his shoe off. It’s a demonstration of a failure of an obligation.

“Moses had failed to recognize what God was doing. You see, the idea about the ground being holy, if it’s just the holy ground in the sense of the righteousness of God being there, you wouldn’t take your shoes off. The shoes are made of animal skins.

“The shedding of blood would be between your feet and your flesh and the holy ground. That would be what you’d want there. Something more than what people generally say. They didn’t recognize the value of what God was doing in that land. Joshua’s being instructed and rebuked here about, ‘Hey, it isn’t whose side you’re on; it’s whose side the Lord’s on. It’s you being on HIS side and understanding what HE’S doing!’

“The Captain is going to be the nation’s military leader. He’s going to be Jehovah Nissi, going out and conquering for them. You look in your Bible’s margin notes and you’ll see Jehovah Nissi is often translated ‘the Lord our banner.’

“The idea is the army would go out and have their insignia that led ahead and that banner was leading the charge. He’s going to go out and avenge His people against their enemy.

“Look at all those kings. There’s an awful lot of people that they dispossess and they didn’t just dispossess them; they murderated them! They went in with the mandate that they were to utterly destroy them.

“Joshua 6:21. People say, ‘Oh, the were brutal to kill the women and the kids!’ This is not a surgical strike; this is a scorched earth policy. You go in and you kill everybody!

"Joshua 8:26 and 9:24. I mean, Moses said, ‘Go kill ‘em all!’ and they’re coming in to do it. You see, when He says back in verse 1, ‘Keep my commandments,’ one of the commandments is, ‘Go kill everybody in the land.’

“ ‘Go up there and take that land and once you do, you don’t conquer it, you don’t get them to surrender. It’s unconditional surrender after you’ve slaughtered everybody. And don’t leave one person left alive. Kill the men, young and old. Kill the women, kills the kids. Wipe ‘em all out!’

“ Can you understand why somebody thinks the God of the Old Testament was a bloodthirsty, savage barbarian?!”

(Editor’s note: to be continued . . .)