The sermon titled 'Joshua Did Not Fight the Battle of Jericho' focuses on the text from Joshua 5:13-15 and explores the idea that it was not Joshua, but the commander of the Lord's army, who led the battle of Jericho. The speaker emphasizes that God's presence and power are the true forces behind Israel's victories, illustrating this with Joshua's encounter with the commander, who tells him to remove his sandals because he is standing on holy ground. This mirrors Moses' experience at the burning bush, reinforcing the holiness of God's presence. The sermon highlights that while Joshua was a warrior and leader, it is ultimately God who fights for His people. The speaker draws parallels between Joshua's encounter and other biblical events, such as the prophecy in Genesis 15 and the angelic guidance in Exodus 23, to show God's sovereignty and divine plan. The sermon concludes with five applications, encouraging believers to recognize God's leadership, be holy, and see Jesus as the ultimate warrior who conquered sin and death for humanity.

All right, sermon text for today is Joshua 5 verses 13 through 15, but for context, we will start in verse 10. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread, and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna seized on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite of 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? So he said, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.

And Joshua did so. Let's unite our hearts in prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for this day, we thank you for this time, We thank you for a day to be able to come away from weekly labors, Lord God, to rest in you, especially Lord God, to come to this place to hear your word preached and proclaimed and read aloud. We pray, Lord God, for this text. We pray that you would just give us a greater vision of you and your glory, Lord God.

We thank you that you are a mighty warrior. You don't passively just sit in the heavens and watch, Lord God, but you fight for your people. You fight to accomplish your will. Lord God, give us a greater vision of your glory today, greater than when we walked in. Show us our sin, give us repentance.

And those that don't know you Lord God in this room, I just pray that this text today that they would just, you would give them a new heart Lord God. Take out the heart of stone, give them a heart of flesh. They may trust in this mighty God. It's in your sons name we pray, amen. Title of the sermon this morning is, Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho.

You've ever been to Vacation Bible School, you've sung, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. So I'm lifting our sermon title from Dale Davis' section of commentary on this. I'm really enjoying his commentary. And he argues that it actually isn't Joshua that fights the battle of Jericho at all. The children of Israel are going to fight battles, but they're not going to fight the first one.

There's a man who appears with a sword drawn, and he's at the head of a host. And he's going to be the one to fight the battle of Jericho. It's actually not Joshua. Joshua is simply an instrument of the Lord God Almighty who can make the walls of a mighty city fall to the ground and defeat all of his enemies. So that's what our text is about.

Last week what we witnessed in the text was military malpractice. It was gross negligence if the United States military crossed over into enemy territory and then stopped to do a mass surgical procedure that the military would then have to spend a week or so recovering from. You would fire all of the military leaders And so it is military malpractice unless the God who is directing those activities is in charge of it all, is in control of it all, and has the ability to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and he's directing it, if that is the case, then holiness to God is more important than military strategy. So that's what we saw in last week's text. That holiness to God, being consecrated, set apart to God, and obeying Him is more important than any military strategy.

So there the people are. Are they vulnerable? But they're not vulnerable. In human terms, you would say this is a vulnerable army, but they're not a vulnerable army because God has paralyzed the kings around them. Though they're mighty kings, God has paralyzed them.

They're unable to move because He's turned their hearts like a water course. He's made them afraid. And So they won't attack God's people because it's not God's timing and he's acting on behalf of these people. So the best thing they can do is to obey him, to circumcise all those who aren't circumcised, to give them the physical mark that they're in covenant with God, and that God has given them the land that they've just crossed into. And then observe the Passover, which is just a grand billboard that it's all of grace.

That the people aren't being treated as their sins deserve, but they're enjoying the grace of God. He's passed over them and not dealt with them as their sins deserve. In today's text, Joshua encounters the commander of the army of the Lord. It's a wonderful text. I've been looking forward to preaching it.

So without further ado, let's ask God to help us. God, please help us. Please come. Be here stirring us up to the truths that are in your Word. You have given these verses on purpose to your people, with a purpose.

I pray that you would stir up our hearts to zeal in these verses to know that you are with your people. You are a mighty warrior fighting for your people. Still us with so much faith, growing faith and confidence in you to take care of every need that we have in this life. I pray in Jesus name, amen. Well this morning I'm dividing the text into two, so hopefully your Bibles are still open to Joshua chapter 5.

I'm going to begin with verses 13 and the first part of 14. I think the natural break is actually at about the midpoint of 14. So follow along as I read Joshua 5, 13 and into the first part of 14. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite 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?

So he said, No, But as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come." So in this text we have the commander of the army of the Lord, that's actually his self-designation, he calls himself that. Joshua is near Jericho, The text reads as though he is by himself. No one else is mentioned in the text except this commander of the Lord's army. Listen to chapter 6 verse 1. I'm just going to the first verse and next week's text.

Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. So the inhabitants in and around Jericho have retreated to behind the wall. The people are in fear of and invading people of two million people. Numbers 26 says that the army, the men 20 or older who can fight are about 600, 000 men.

And so Jericho has retreated to behind the wall. So they're not encountering inhabitants of the land. They've gone into Jericho. They're securely shut inside. That's what chapter 6 verse 1 says.

So it's not so strange that Joshua would go near Jericho because the inhabitants are inside behind the wall. Joshua looks up and he sees someone. He sees a man with his sword drawn. So Whoever this is, is combat ready. It has a sword, and it's not a sheathed sword.

It's a drawn sword. Whoever this is, is combat ready. It is ready for action. Joshua retreats. No, that's not what the text says.

Joshua doesn't retreat. Joshua actually advances. He moves towards this person and he asks a question, Are you for us or are you for our enemies? Now, we do well at this point to just remind ourselves who Joshua is. Joshua is a warrior in his own right.

I find myself not thinking of Joshua that way, but Scripture actually positions Joshua as a warrior. When we first meet Joshua, It is a warrior, it is a commander in battle. Listen to Exodus chapter 17. This is Exodus chapter 17 verses 8 through 13. Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

So the people have just come out of Egypt. God has just brought them out of their bondage, have crossed over the Red Sea, and now a nation is coming out to fight with them, the nation of Amalek. Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim, and Moses said to Joshua, choose us men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands one on one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." So this is our introduction to Joshua, a man of war, a warrior in his own right, and a leader in battle of the armies of Israel.

We tend to think, at least I tend to think, of Joshua pre the book of Joshua as an administrative assistant to Moses. That is the wrong way to think about Joshua. He was the assistant to Moses. He was often in the presence of God with Moses. But he's introduced as a warrior and a leader in battle.

Joshua is about 80 years old. Don't think of him as a normal 80 year old. The life spans were longer then. He had been one of the twelve spies. That was a military incursion.

You get that, don't you? The twelve spies going into the land of Canaan for forty days to spy out the land was a military incursion. Joshua was a man who had led the troops into battle and he was chosen as a spy for this military incursion. His partner, his fellow faithful spy Caleb, decades later also is what we would consider an old man asks for the land of giants. Why?

Because he said, my vigor isn't diminished, and we can take them." So Joshua is really cut of the same cloth. When he is faced with a man who has a drawn sword, he doesn't retreat, he advances, and he asks this question, are you for us or for our enemies? Here's the response, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. So question, are you for us or are you for our enemies? Answer no.

I'm here as the commander of the Lord's army. That is not an answer to the question. You are correct. As Job found out, God asks the questions and you answer him. God asked the questions.

You answer him. Job found that out. He had told his friends, if I could just have an audience with God, if God would just put me on trial, I would mount a defense. I would make my case. But when he comes face to face with God, that's not how it plays out.

Job says, I place my hand over my mouth. You ask the questions. This one is not just some soldier to put on one side of the ledger or the other. Here's a soldier, is he on team A or is he on team B? No, the commander of the Lord's army is setting Joshua straight that he's thinking in the wrong categories.

He's not a soldier to be placed on one side of the ledger or the other. He is the commander of the whole effort. Joshua is the one to be placed on one side of the ledger or the other, not this one with a drawn sword. The commander of the army of the Lord is at the head of the host of heaven, And he is come combat ready, ready for action to defeat his own enemies. So he's not denying being for Joshua.

He's denying that those are the right terms to think of this in. These are his own enemies that he has now come to defeat. So actually he did answer the question, because The Amorites and the Canaanites are not the Israelite's enemies, strictly speaking. They are God's enemies, and God is using Israel to bring judgment on them. Listen to Genesis 15.

Genesis 15 is when God comes to Abram, I'll be using Abraham because that's how we think of him, but God comes to Abram in Genesis 15 to make a covenant with him and to make these promises that are being fulfilled in Joshua. Listen to Genesis 15 verses 12 and into verse 18. Genesis 15 starting in verse 12. Now, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.

Then he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for 400 years." So this is God prophesying of their captivity in Egypt, their slavery in Egypt. Verse 14, And also the nation whom they serve I will judge. Afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age.

But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, To your descendants, I have given this land." So God isn't giving Israel an inhabited land because he has nowhere else to put them. Do you understand that? I have to clear out this innocent people in order to give my people a land.

That's not what's happening. He's dealing with his enemies. He has borne with the increasing rebellion of the Canaanites and the Amorites for 400 years. So this is the end of tremendous Patience in the face of rebellion. They have been God's enemies in increasing ways for 400 years.

And now the iniquity of the Amorites is full and God is bringing the Israelites to judge them. Israel will fight battles, the Lord helping them, and win those battles. Of course they will. But will they fight the first battle? No they will not.

The Lord of hosts, when we read in our text that he is the commander of the army of the Lord, that word translated army is the same Hebrew word that is translated hosts in Lord of hosts. A phrase used of God more than 250 times in the Old Testament. God is the Lord of Hosts. The same Hebrew word used here translated army. Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho.

The commander of the army of the Lord and his hosts, of which he is at the head of, fought this first battle to take the promised land. So back to our text. Joshua 5 now verses 14b starting in the middle of 14 through 15. Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy.

Joshua did so. Here in this verse and a half we have the holiness of the commander. This one with a drawn sword has called himself the commander of the army of the Lord and now we see that he is holy in this section. Up to this point if we had been asked who is the commander of the Lord's army we would have answered Joshua. Now Joshua understands that this is not the ultimate answer.

It's not that it would be inappropriate to call Joshua the commander of the Lord's army in a sense that he is, but it's not the ultimate answer. God is the Lord of hosts. Joshua realizes that in this instance he won't be giving the orders, but he'll be receiving and obeying the orders. He says, what does my Lord say to His servant? What he says here communicates that he's eager to understand and committed to doing his commander's will.

Don't you think that's true? When he says, what does my Lord say to his servant, he's communicating that he wants to know what the will of his commander is. That he's not the commander of the Lord's army. That the Lord of hosts is at the head of the Lord's army. He wants to know what his orders are and he's committed to obeying those orders.

Joshua fell on his face and he worshiped. Does that mean in that instance that Joshua understood this was God himself? Well, we don't know exactly what Joshua understood and when, but we do know that when angels are worshiped in Scripture, they tell the worshiper to stop. So I want to begin there, not with what Joshua knew and when, but with this fact. In scripture, when angels are receiving worship, they tell the worshipper to stop.

And I want to use as an example of that Revelation 22. So this is the last chapter of the Bible. Let me read Revelation chapter 22 verses 8 and 9. Of course the Apostle John is the author of Revelation. Revelation 22 verse 8.

Now I John saw and heard these things, when I heard and saw I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, See that you do not do that, for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God." Almost the exact same thing, the exact same words occur in Revelation 19. John had already fell at the feet of an angel. That tells you that these beings are awesome.

They draw forth our awe when we encounter them. And they make us want to fall on our faces and worship. But they know to say, see that you don't do that. I'm your fellow servant. Worship God.

We have nothing like that in our text. We have no rebuke of Joshua, no correction of Joshua as he falls down and he worships. Whatever Joshua knew up to this point, what is actually happening is put beyond all doubt in verse 15. Look at verse 15 again. Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.

Now, turn to Exodus 3. Of course we have to go to Exodus 3 here. Exodus 3 is the burning bush passage, exactly the same words appear. By the way, my Bible reading plan had me in Exodus 1-3 this morning. All that to say God is supernatural.

This kind of thing happens all the time. Exodus chapter 3. Let me read verses 1-6. Exodus 3 verse 1. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father and all the priests of Midian.

They led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, here I am. And he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, 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 where he was afraid to look upon God.

Now Ground is not inherently holy. God is holy. The presence of this holy, holy, holy God is what makes common ground holy ground. Tomorrow that ground will be common ground. Because it isn't inhabited by the special presence of God.

I say the special presence of God because God is everywhere. There's nowhere that God is not. That doesn't mean that we should never wear shoes because God is everywhere. The special presence of God is what makes common ground holy ground. And then when God's special presence in there it will be common ground again it is the special God that makes the ground special that makes the ground separated for his use now I think of who Joshua is Moses is not to us what Moses was to Joshua.

Joshua, to say that Joshua knew Moses is such an understatement. For 40 years, the person most closely associated with Moses is Joshua. Did you hear that? For 40 years, for four full decades, the one person most closely associated with Moses is Joshua. Put him over Aaron because Aaron died.

Maybe it was a tie with Aaron until he died. So if anyone who has heard the stories of the burning bush again and again and again my guess is it was Joshua he knew those words uttered to Moses I want you to remember how the book of Joshua began So it hasn't been that long ago, but just look at the first verses of the book of Joshua. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory." Now look, verse 5 is really the punchline here. Look at verse 5. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you." In a very literal way, in an explicitly literal way, He is now with Joshua in exactly the same way that he was with Moses. To this point, we know that Joshua is spoken to. We don't really know what form that takes, how that happens.

Now he is appeared to and spoken to. Now God is with Joshua just as he had been with Moses. The conflict is getting ready to start. The war is almost on. God shows up to make sure that Joshua knows it is his conflict.

It is God's conflict. Not Joshua's conflict. Joshua doesn't fight the battle of Jericho. And that he is with Joshua just as he was with Moses. The battle is the Lord's.

Who said that? David said that. David said that to Goliath. David wasn't worried that he wasn't in armor. David wasn't worried that he just had a sling and pebbles.

David wasn't worried that Goliath did have armor. David wasn't worried that Goliath was nine foot tall and he was the champion of the Philistines. He said the battle is the Lord and then he slew him. And then he slew him. 1 Samuel 17 verse 47.

David speaks those words to Goliath, the battle is the Lord's. Finally, this is the fulfillment of a prophecy that I didn't remember at all. I was surprised by this. Turn to Exodus 23. Exodus 23.

Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments. And this is really just an extended giving of the law, meaning beyond the Ten Commandments. Now God is speaking the commandments that are sort of under the categories of the Ten Commandments. In the chapters that follow after that. So it's still God speaking.

And this is said in Exodus chapter 23 verses 20-23. God says this, Behold, I send an angel before you. You already see that the translators have made a choice here to capitalize angel. This isn't just an angel, but this is the angel of the Lord, God in angelic form. Behold I send a capital A angel for you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

Beware of him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him." Isn't this so interesting? Do you remember this section? I don't remember this section. God is promising that he's going to send a capital A angel and God's name is in him and he can forgive and pardon sins before them to bring them into the land.

Verse 22, but if you obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites and Hittites and Perizzites and Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites. I will cut them off. Are you for us or for our enemies? No!

No! I'm the angel of the Lord, the commander of the Lord's army sent before you. I can pardon your iniquities. The name of God is in me. You must listen to me.

You must obey me. I'll ask the questions. This is an angel who can forgive sins and the name of God is in him. Verse 21. To this point, I haven't said anything about Trinitarian distinctions.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But for the record, I agree with most commentators, which say This is the pre-incarnate Word of God, who would later be born and be called Jesus. John chapter 1 and John chapter 6 says that no one has seen God, but that Jesus reveals Him, Jesus declares Him, Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. So I think by the process of elimination you say, this is not God the Father who no one has seen. This is not God the Spirit who is like the wind.

You see the results but you don't see Him. This is the pre-incarnate Word of God who would come in the fullness of time, be born of a woman, and we would call him Jesus. I think this is him. There are other such appearances, the first being Genesis chapter 18, when three strangers come to Abraham's tent. And that passage starts, the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, appeared to Abraham.

And then the two angels are sent to Sodom. They interact with Lot and they ultimately destroy Sodom. But it's clearly God who stays to speak with Abraham. Genesis 32, Then a man wrestles with Jacob until daylight, and Jacob says, I have seen God and lived. So there are other appearances like this.

I've chosen to make this an exposition of Joshua chapter 5, and not a topical sermon on Christophanes or appearances of God the Son before the incarnation. Because I think the main point of the passage is, God is a warrior who fights for his people. God is a warrior who fights for his people. That's the main point of the passage. Applications, I'll give you five.

Applications, I'll give you five. Number one, God is at the head of a host, a A mighty host. He is the Lord of hosts. In 2 Kings chapter 6, Elisha and a young man, a servant of his, are surrounded by the Syrian army. And the servant, this young man, is fearful.

And Elisha says, there are more with us than there are with our enemies. And he prays that the young man might be able to see with spiritual eyes. And he sees that there is actually a ring of chariots of fire and angelic warriors around them. We don't get any visibility in Joshua chapter 5 to the army that the commander of the Lord's army is commanding. They're there to be seen with spiritual eyes.

God is at the head of a host, and we can be and we should be so strong and courageous when we are fighting the Lord's battles. You don't need to fear anything when you're fighting the Lord's battles. There is a man with a drawn sword there when you are fighting the Lord's battles. He is at the head of a mighty host. Number two, these hosts that he leads are for his battles, not my battles, not your battles.

God, are you for me or against me? No. But as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come." He asked the questions, we answered them. He leads, we follow. We don't contrive plans and then hope or even ask that the Lord would come and fight the battle that we've picked.

We follow Him into battle. We don't go into battle and then ask the Lord of hosts along for the ride. That leads to number three. Are you like Joshua eager to understand and committed to doing the will of God? What does Joshua say?

What does my Lord say to his servant? He bowed his face to the earth and he worshipped and he said, what does my Lord say to his servant? He was eager to understand his Lord's will and he was committed to doing his Lord's will. Are you eager to understand your Lord's will and committed to doing your Lord's will? We need to be growing in this.

Growing in eagerness to understand and do our Lord's will. Number four. Are you holy? Are you holy? When God comes and occupies the ground, this common ground becomes holy ground.

Ground that makes it not only appropriate but necessary that you take off your shoes. Because He has made it special ground. He set it apart to Himself by His presence. You holy? Has God consecrated you to himself, set you apart for his own good purposes according to his wisdom?

Are you playing along with that? God's special presence makes everything that is near holy. We are not special in an inherent sense. We're not just simply special. We are special because of our connection with God.

Ground becomes holy when God occupies the ground. We need to be a holy people. We're called to be holy as God is holy. Wherever he occupies the ground, that's holy. Number five.

Number five. This commander of the Lord's army humbled himself to bleed and die for sinners. This is Jesus. It's anachronistic to call him Jesus here in Joshua chapter 5 because he hasn't appeared in time in scripture as Jesus yet. Maybe it's more technically correct to call him the word and the word became flesh.

Maybe. But let's throw technical correctness to the side for a minute and say, there's Jesus! He is the Lord of hosts! He is the commander of the army of the Lord! Heaven is at his back and call.

He humbled himself. The bleed and die for sinners. This should just leave us dumbstruck, speechless. It's wonderful. Even Jesus on earth, even Jesus in the incarnation, even Jesus in the cross in a sense is a man with a drawn sword.

He is slaying our enemies. He is. Sin and death were no match for him. He has conquered them. He is the Lord of hosts on behalf of his people.

God, thank you for a glimpse of Jesus in the Old Testament. Thank you for the Lord of Hosts, the commander of the Lord's army. All of heaven at His command. Thank you that he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. Set aside his glory to come as a baby, to humble himself, take on the form of a servant.

Yield himself up to death, even the shameful humiliating death on the cross so that we could be set free from our greatest enemies. Sin and death could be conquered. Pray that we would see this Commander of the Lord's Army in all His beauty, His breadth and depth in Scripture, not just here but across Scripture, and it would make our hearts happy to be His. Not to simply be for or against us, but to be our King and our Brother. Praise you in Jesus' name, Amen.