#DailyDevotion Are You Ready To Inherit The Earth

June 30

Josh 5:1—6:5

Jos 5:13-15  When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”  (14)  And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”  (15)  And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

In the beginning of the Chapter we read of the great patience of the Lord God. The Israelites who died in the wilderness did not circumcise their children as the Lord had commanded. You might remember the Lord almost killed Moses on the way to Egypt because his boys were not circumcised. But now they have entered into the Promised Land. Before the Lord would deliver the land to them, they must become his nation, a nation who is the promised seed of Abraham and who sign of God’s covenant with him was circumcision.

Now who appears before Joshua by Jericho but the commander of the army of the Lord. Joshua did not recognize him at first. With him beginning a military operation of taking over the land he wants to know whose side this fellow with the sword was on. It is then we learn who it is. Jacob falls to the ground for this is none other than the Angel of the Lord. Now the Angel of the Lord is equal to the Lord and receives divine worship. He is the same person who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Now was Joshua is receiving the fulfillment of the Lord mission to Moses. As Moses had to remove his sandals, Joshua is commanded to do the same. The ground was holy because the Angel of the Lord was there. And so we see here two persons of the Godhead, the Lord and the Angel of the Lord and yet there are not two Lords but one Lord.

This Angel of the Lord is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Angel of the Lord is the Word of God. The one who leads his people into battle to conquer the inhabitants of Canaan in judgment against them is our Jesus. This same Jesus is the commander of the Lord’s Army. He came in mercy when he humbled himself to become one of us. But like in the account of Joshua, on the last day, he comes again with the army of the Lord to execute judgment upon the peoples of the earth. His angels shall gather up all the wicked, all those who rejected his offer of forgiveness and did not repent of their sins to slaughter them and then to cast them into the Lake of Fire. Then as Israelites received the land as an inheritance, we who circumcised our hearts and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ shall receive our inheritance, the new earth. On the day of Jesus’ judgment where will you reside, what will you inherit?

Heavenly Father, you sent your Son to lead your army to defeat the inhabitants of Canaan for the Israelites once to fulfill your promise to Abraham. You have also sent him into the flesh to conquer sin, death and the devil for us that we may inherit the earth. Grant us such faith in him that we circumcise our hearts that we may be prepared as your people to enter into that inheritance. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.