As the children of Israel moved toward Jericho after crossing over the Jordan lives were changing forever (Jos 5). What had been forty years of wandering because of unfaithfulness was coming to an end as they moved into the long awaited Promised Land. As they went across the Jordan River on dry ground just as their fathers before them had crossed through the Red Sea after God took them out of Egypt, they took a stone representing each tribe from the middle of the Jordan and made a memorial for their children to remember. Each one of the males born in the wilderness was circumcised marking them as covenant people as had been commanded by God to Abraham.
The children of Israel celebrated Passover and on the day after Passover Joshua reported they ate of the produce of the land. The next day the bread, the manna God provided daily except for the Sabbath Day for almost forty years never again came to the earth. With one exception the book of Joshua is a book of new beginnings and great victories for God’s people. Victories they did not know about yet, but would soon experience were in front of them. Oh, this generation had learned a thing or two about focusing, building and maintaining a faith in the almighty God. It was a faith though they were still developing as they marched toward their first battle in Jericho.
The Bible tells us as Joshua approached that great walled-city Jericho he saw a Man with His sword drawn. Joshua asked, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” The Man answered saying, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come…Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy” (Jos 5.13-15). Upon seeing the Commander Joshua fell and worshiped Him. It is believed this appearance as the Commander of the Lord’s Army was none other than a preincarnate (fleshly) appearance of Jesus Christ. The Angel of the Lord appears many times in the Old Testament with many of the same characteristics of our Lord and Savior. But that is another thought for another time.
The lesson for us is as Christians we walk on this earth today as sanctified holy people. We are holy priests for God in a world filled with evil and darkness (1 Pet 2.5). As Christians we may know our Lord is on our side and will not leave us (Matt 11.28-29; Jn 14.1-6). We have a Captain (Heb 2.10), an Anchor (Heb 6.19), a King of kings (Rev 17.14; 19.18), a Brother (Heb 2.11), a Savior (Lk 2.11) who is not an adversary but who is on our side.