The moment had arrived.  

Forty years of wandering were finished. God’s people had their feet firmly planted on the Promised Land.

We need to be on God’s side

Joshua had already sent spies ahead to Jericho. They reported that the citizens of that mighty city were scared to death. They knew that the God who parted the Red Sea was now on their doorstep.

Yet before the Israelites stood a mighty roadblock.

When Joshua looked up, he saw a man with a sword. “Are you for us or for our enemies?” Joshua asked. Whose side are you on?

An innocent enough question. The answer may surprise us.

“Neither,” says God. Neither? Wasn’t God on the side of Israel?

God’s answer to Joshua is not denying the great comfort we find in knowing that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). God’s answer is aimed at helping us remember who is the master and who is the servant.

We may want God to be on our side. But what is most important is that we are on God’s side. It is not we who set the agenda and then give God the chance to decide if he is for us or against us. It is God who sets the agenda.

Joshua fell to his face. He asked the commander of the army of the Lord for his orders.

God sets the agenda

Do we sometimes try to set the agenda and give the orders? Do we then sit back and wonder whether God will be on our side? We have a list of things we want to happen. Then we ask, “Whose side are you on, God?” Somewhere deep inside, we can wonder why God isn’t getting on board with our plans. How unintentionally arrogant we can be! How easily we can forget our place. How deserving we are of a harsh reply.

How we treasure the account of Joshua, a man once standing whose face was now on the ground. The ground was holy because the God standing before Joshua is holy. And yet somehow, a sinful human was permitted to remain on that which was holy. Surely the promised Son was the source of survival for Joshua as he is for us as well. We can remain in the presence of the holy not because we have never looked toward God with an agenda of arrogance, but because God humbled himself to be our Savior and took our sin to be his own.

We are forgiven. We have the privilege of being servants of the Most High. And like Joshua, we rejoice to ask, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”