For or Against? Neither

Scripture: Joshua 5: 13-15 and Ephesians 6: 10-17

Sermon: For or Against? Neither

Topics: warfare, battles, scandal, kingdom

Rev. Mike Abma

Joshua 5: 13-1513 

Once when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?’ ¹⁴He replied, ‘Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and he said to him, ‘What do you command your servant, my lord?’ ¹⁵The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so.

Ephesians 6: 10-17

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. ¹¹Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹²For our^* struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. ¹⁵As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. ¹⁶With all of these,^* take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

On my computer I have Pandora Internet Radio.

Pandora’s motto is “listening only to the music you like.”

You give your preferences, and Pandora only plays music within those preferences.

I think we may tend to read the Bible in the same way.

We have our likes, and we have our dislikes.

We like one passage, we’re not sure we like another.

We like the book of Ruth. But we’re not sure we like the book of Judges.

We like a number of passages in the book of Joshua, and we dislike other passages.

We like Rahab, the hooker with a heart for God,

but we do not like how everyone else in her city of Jericho gets wiped out.

We like how the land gets divided up among all the tribes,

but we do not like how Achan – the one who took those treasures from Jericho and hid them under his tent – we don’t like how Achan, his whole family, and everything he owns, gets stoned to death in the valley of Achor.

The book of Joshua has some of the most exhilarating stories in the Old Testament.

And yet, it has some of the most disturbing and brutal ones as well.

So what do we do with this book of Joshua?

Is there a way to

say This is the Word of the Lord; Thanks be to God

not only for the passages we like,

but even for the passages we don’t?

A NEW BEGINNING

We read from the end of Joshua 5.

Israel has just crossed the border.

They have just crossed the Jordan river.

They are on the outskirts of the city of Jericho.

They are about to engage in their first battle.

As yet, no blood has been shed, no violence has taken place.

So far, so good.

This is a time of New Beginnings for Israel.

The manna has stopped, and they have begun to eat the produce of this new land.

The old generation that left Egypt but rebelled in the desert is dead.

The new generation now stands ready to inherit the promises.

To make official this new start,

to dramatically display this new beginning,

the males in Israel are circumcised,

and the Passover is celebrated.

These two rituals draw their minds and their memory to the reality that

they are children of Abraham and of the covenant;

they are descended from rescued slaves.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Then we have this passage about Joshua’s meeting with this mysterious divine messenger.

In a way, this divine encounter

has echoes with Abraham’s meeting with God,

and Jacob’s meeting with God,

and especially Moses’ meeting with God at the burning bush.

The striking thing about this particular encounter in Joshua 5

is that this divine messenger has a drawn sword in his hand.

A drawn sword.

Swords had double-edges.

They also had double purposes.

A sword could be used to protect you

A sword could also be used to threaten you.

So which is it here?

Is this drawn sword a threat or an encouragement?

Joshua must have thought the same thing, because his first question is this:

” How will you use that sword?

Are you friend or foe?

Are you with us, or with our enemies?

Whose side are you on?”

Whose side are you on?

In war, that is the question we ask.

We ask it of everyone.

We even ask it of God — “God, whose side are you on?”

If you are at all familiar with the history of warfare,

you know that this was a perennial question: God, whose side are you on?

In medieval warfare, you may know that an army always travelled with a chaplain.

One of the key roles of a chaplain was to take confessions and serve Mass – the Eucharist — before a battle.

The Confession and Eucharist served several functions:

if a soldier died on the battlefield, at least they would die in a state of forgiveness;

But soldiers also looked to the Eucharist for signs that God was on their side.

That is why pre-battle Eucharist ceremonies were filled with seemingly miraculous events — the bread or host,

sometimes would appear red in color,

sometimes it was even claimed to bleed,

and sometimes it would simply not run out no matter how many soldiers were served.

All these were taken as signs, sure signs, that God was on their side.^[1]

Here we have this passage in which Israel has just celebrated its two most defining rituals – circumcision and Passover.

They are about to begin their first big battle.

The challenge of Jericho looms before them.

Is it any wonder that Joshua asks this question: are you with us or against us?

The shock of this passage is the answer: Neither.

God is neither for them nor against them.

God is neither straightforwardly for Israel,

nor was he straightforwardly against the Canaanites.

It is not as simple as that.

In fact, the answer “Neither” implies that the wrong question has been asked.

The question should not be whether God is for us or against us.

The question should really be,

are we for God or are we against God,

The question is: Are we on God’s side?

BATTLE OF TWO WORLDVIEWS

In the book of Joshua, there are God’s people,

and there are the people of Canaan.

The difference is not ultimately ethnic or linguistic.

The difference is religious.

The conquest of the Promised Land involved a battle of two ways of looking at the world.

One way looked for

safety in military power

security in economic strength,

and vision in dynamic leadership.

The other way of looking at the world

told stories of God’s relationship with us:

Of being set apart as holy – thus the sign of circumcision.

Of being rescued from oppression and death – thus the feast of

Passover

And of living in the Holy Presence of God – thus the way of life of the

Torah.

Do you know that already in Deuteronomy 17, Israel is warned that if they ever have a king, that king must never do these things:

they must never acquire too many horses;

they must never acquire too much silver and gold;

they must never have too many wives and think too highly of themselves.

Why not?

Why not horses? Because horses represented military power – don’t rely on horses and chariots for your safety.

Why not silver and gold? Because silver and gold represented economic strength — don’t rely on wealth for your security.

And why not many wives and a high view of yourself? Because once you have too high a view of yourself, your will trumps God’s will;

The way you want to live life trumps the way God’s wants you to live.

You know your Old Testament.

You know that David and Solomon are the two best-known kings of the Old Testament.

However, have you ever wondered why we have so many stories about David but so few stories about Solomon.

Why is that?

Even though David had to fight many more wars,

and even though Solomon’s empire was richer, more stable, more peaceful,

a golden age, so to speak, why so many stories of David and not Solomon?

It is because Solomon

had too many horses,

he had too much silver and gold,

he had too many wives and thought too highly of himself.

Solomon began trusting in everything Canaan,

and everything the world has always trusted in:

the safety of military power

the security in economic strength

and his own dynamic vision of leadership.

rather than trusting in

the reality that he had been

chosen by God

that he received mercy from God

and his life was about living the will of God.

THE POWER OF STORY

One of my favorite novels when I was growing up was Richard Adam’s story about rabbits called Watership Down.

Do any of you remember that classic book?

The book begins in a rabbit community called Sandleford.

Sandleford promised security for its rabbits

because it was a well-ordered society of rabbits

in a very well-defined class-structure.

There was the leader rabbit,

his cabinet,

and then different levels of rabbits,

all the way down to the servant or slave level.

Every rabbit had a place; every rabbit had a role;

And you simply had to know your place and role.

But a small, runty rabbit has visions of a different kind of life. (Fiver)

He is joined by his brother rabbit, who has leadership skills. (Hazel)

They form a small group of rabbits,

who all have the same vision and dream,

finding Watership Down – the rabbit’s Promised Land.

Their vision is based on the old traditional rabbit stories —

stories about their creator and maker.

Their vision causes them to eventually escape from Sandelford.

They have many adventures on their way

to this Promised Land for rabbits

this Watership Down.

But when they are close,

they encounter another rabbit community called Efrafa.

Again, this was a tightly-knit rabbit community.

But this time, this community promised safety mainly through

military strength.

In fact, this rabbit community was run like a military compound.

Again, this group of rabbits,

I’ll call them the Watership-Down-rabbits,

almost get swallowed up and destroyed by the Efrafa rabbits.

But they persevere, and are not destroyed or swallowed up.

So what sets the Watership-Down-rabbits apart from all the other communities of rabbits they meet?

Well, they live by a different story – in fact, telling stories is a major part of their life, particularly the stories of their Creator;

They also live by faith — believing that living the will of their Creator is the most important thing in life.

And they have a different vision of community – there is no leader, per se, instead everyone is equal and everyone uses their gifts for the good of all.

How does this community of rabbits survive in such a harsh world?

How do they make it to Watership Down, their Promised Land?

Well, to paraphrase a song,

“Not by their weapons,

Not by their power,

But by the Spirit of their Creator they are led.”

The same is true in the book of Joshua.

It is not a book about military strength or strategy.

It is not a book about economic power.

It is not a book about dynamic leadership.

It is a book about a community of people

that listens to a different voice

that obeys a different call

that lives by a different code.

PRIORTIES IN PRAYER

In those lonely, quiet, stressful times,

when we are on the brink of some of our greatest challenges,

when we are facings some of our biggest battles

when we are struggling with some of our biggest decisions

That is the time we pray.

That is the time we long to meet God.

That is the time we want God to bless

whatever we plan to do, or decide.

Our first impulse is to ask:

God, are you with me?

God, are you on my side?

God, will you bless what I plan to do and give me victory?

We desperately want to squeeze God

into our stories,

our agendas

our life-plans

our dreams of victory.

But God stops us,

shocks us,

and reminds us

that because we belong to him,

he does not belong to us in that way.

He reminds us that

life is not about Him doing our will,

but it is about us doing his will.

It is not about God first of all seeking to bless our endeavors,

But it is about us seeking first His Kingdom.

In that list of weapons in Ephesians 6,

Almost all the weapons are defensive:

The belt of truth

The breastplate of righteousness

The shoes of peace

The shield of faith

The helmet of salvation.

They are all defensive pieces of armor

that allow us to stand firm

in who we are,

and what God has called us to do.

But there is one offensive weapon:

the sword of the Spirit.

which is also described as the word of God.

The word of God is often called a double-edged sword.

Double-edged.

What does that mean?

Many see it as having an edge of justice and an edge of mercy.

an edge that threatens and an edges that protects.

But I think the double-edged nature of this sword

may also have another meaning.

It is the reality that

the edge of the sword of the Spirit,

the Word of God

needs to be applied first to ourselves

before we apply it to others.

Before we wield the sword of the Spirit in the world,

it must be wielded in our lives

taking the log out of our own eye

before we start trying to do surgery on someone else’s eye;

pruning what is dead

so that we can bear more fruit in our lives;

cutting away the temptations of

safety, security and doing it ourselves

so that we rely fully and only on the Lord.

CONCLUSION

There is a certain scandal to the book of Joshua.

God leads his people,

and many Canaanites and their kings are executed

so that God’s people can live.

Years later

there is another scandal.

There is a new King Joshua.

And when this new King Joshua engages in battle,

he also follows not his own will, but his Father’s will.

And this King Joshua ends up dying on a cross just outside the city.

What is harder to absorb? What is the greater scandal?

The scandal that God allowed the people of the Canaanite kings to die,

or the scandal that God allowed the people of this crucified King Joshua – to live?

Before the scandal of the cross,

we can only bow and worship

for we know this ground is holy.

We can only bow

and ask,

“My Lord,

what do you command of your servants?”

Amen

1. From my MA thesis in medieval history “Religious Observances in Medieval Warfare,” University of Toronto, 1985. ↑