The Captain of the Lord's Host

CONFLICT is about to begin, and the Captain of the host has not yet appeared. He reveals Himself at the last moment, but precisely at the needed one, " when Joshua was by Jericho." (Ver. 13.) Faith can count on Him for the time of need. Gilgal and the heavenly repast are, as we have seen, the preparations for warfare; the power, the plan, the order, the time of battle, all that and much more is the responsibility of the Captain of the host. Such a way of fighting will be incomprehensible to one who has not been at Gilgal. He would set to work with his own contrivances, would engage the enemy too soon or too late, would rush forward without the Captain of the host, make a false movement, fall, and be conquered, leaving nothing but a catalog of defeats.
Notice with what marvelous grace this representative of Jehovah adapts Himself to the circumstances of His people, this Angel of Jehovah of whom the Old Testament so often speaks-Jehovah Himself under this mysterious character, for it is said of Him (Ex. 23:21) "My name is in him." As others have observed, He presents Himself with Israel as a Deliverer at the Red Sea, as the Companion of their journeyings in the desert, as Lord of Hosts in Canaan, and later on when the kingdom is established, He dwells in peace amongst them.
Blessed condescension! What assurance it gives to our souls. Here we see Him sword in hand, and it is this sword which will deal the blows. Israel needs no other.
Three times in the course of the people's history; the Angel of Jehovah intervenes with the drawn sword in his hand. The first time it is to preserve them from threatened dangers, when Balaam; on his way to curse. Israel, encounters the messenger who obstructs his road (Num. 22:28); the second time, in our chapter, it is to fight with them and obtain the victory for them; the third time, alas! it is to judge the people who had sinned in the person of their king. (1 Chron. 21:16.)
Beloved, we also have to do with the Angel in these three ways. How many times, without our even being aware of it, He meets the enemy who seeks to accuse or curse us; how often He, in grace, associates us in the combat against the powers of darkness in the heavenly places; how often, too, He reveals Himself to us as He did to David, with His drawn sword turned against the city of God; that is to say, as the One who, for His own, is a consuming fire, who chastens and humbles them, but in order afterward to replace His sword in its sheath, and in the end restore them.
Even that is consoling, in spite of all; but it is a terrible thing for a man to-be met, like Balaam, by the Angel with the drawn sword, because, for a reward, he was selling the gift he had received from God to the devil, the accuser of the brethren. Such a path is that of a reprobate who does not know God, but how many Christians, alas I in these days of ruin, associate themselves in some manner with the way of Balaam; how many in company with the enemy of the people of God, though clad in the prophet's dress, place themselves in the hands of the world to do the enemy's work.
" And Joshua went unto him and said unto him: Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" It is impossible to be neutral in the fight, and we ought all, like Joshua, to understand this. " 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 who reveals Himself to Joshua as Lord of hosts claims also His character of holiness.
It is impossible for those who are called to fight under a divine leader to remain associated, individually or corporately, with evil or defilement in the walk. It was partly on account of having disregarded this principle that the people were defeated before Ai. To keep unjudged evil in the -heart exposes us to the judgment of God and renders us defenseless in the hands of the enemy; it is the same thing with evil in the assembly. If God is holy in redemption, as He shelved Himself to be to Moses in the bush (Ex. 3:5)-and where did He make a more brilliant display of His holiness?-let us remember that He is not less holy in the combat, and that we can only engage in it after having loosened the shoes off our feet.