In Joshua 5:13, on the eve of battle in Jericho, Joshua looked up and saw a man with his sword drawn.
His first thought, as would mine be, was: are you for us or for the enemy? The man’s answer implied
that, in fact, the wrong question was being asked. Instead, Joshua should decide whose side he was on.
The Commander of the LORD’s army was the real starting point, and Joshua should orient himself as one
level down on the org chart.
When I invite the LORD down into my business, I implicitly ask him to come on my terms. “I need help
with this problem – will you fix it?” Or “Here is my five-year plan – will you bless it?” Or “Here are my
goals for the next month – will you help me accomplish them?”
When the Commander of the LORD’s army shows up and I realize I’m not in charge, I start from a
different place: “What problems do you have that you want me to be the hands and feet to solve?”
“What is your five-year plan that I need to engage within?” “What goals do you have for me to
accomplish over the next month?” I must answer his questions rather than he answer mine.
How we see the world in front of us completely changes when we move from Owner to portfolio
manager. Now we are dealing with someone else’s money, and thus their priorities.
The existential point here is that Joshua thought his title was “Commander of the LORD’s army” until
someone showed up with sword drawn and informed him that job was already taken. Joshua’s potential
thinking on the day before a major battle – where stress has the tendency to narrow one’s focus to see
nothing but what is immediately in front of them – that everything relied on his plans, his ideas, his
strategy, was shattered in an instant in the best possible way.
We may feel that the Commander of the LORD’s army “demoted” Joshua here from the one in charge to
one who takes orders, but when the LORD is in charge we feel the opposite effect: Joshua is
strengthened immensely by the comfort of knowing he reports to the One who is really in charge. As
Joshua took his sandals off, I imagine he didn’t feel “less in charge” but rather far more confident in the
outcome of the battle he was about to fight.
We are to lift up our eyes beyond our immediate circumstances to see that the battle lies in another
realm entirely: “our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the power of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil over this present
darkness…” (Ephesians 6:12). When we look up, we realize the fight isn’t about the LORD helping us
finish a job, or win a bid against a competitor, or even defeat cancer (although all of those things are
nice…especially the last one!), but against the rulers in the spiritual realm illegally occupying God’s
world.
All things are spiritual, but not all things are physical. In Joshua’s case, a physical enemy was to be
removed from a physical place, obviously backed up by a spiritual force that also needed to be removed.
But sometimes nothing physical needs to move; instead, a physical enemy needs to be saved or
redeemed as they are held hostage by the enemy, and thus treating the person as the enemy doesn’t
help liberate them.
That is why it’s so important to “look up” and see the Commander of the LORD’s army reminding us that
this is HIS battle and that we should get HIS marching orders. Otherwise, we are prone to pick the wrong priority and march forward in the wrong direction. Winning the bid or the lawsuit or buying the
company or getting the girl or acing the test or getting our kid into the best college may not be the
LORD’s priority in this moment. Only by realizing we are on HIS team rather than him being on our team
can we see the bigger picture correctly.
Failing at what I’m currently working on isn’t the worst thing that can happen. We of all people can win
by losing. When the enemy takes something from me, inflicts me with an illness, or whatever – it’s only
temporary. He’s on a leash!!! Jesus taught us that we can win by losing because he lost his very life on
purpose so that we could live forever with him.
The enemy can inflict pain, yes, but it’s only temporary. What we have gained we have for Eternity and
no one can snatch it from us. So when we lose, we should remember that we’ve already won. This is
NOT prosperity gospel: we must have a theology that can handle loss for the Enemy to lose ground
himself. When we can handle loss and see the bigger picture, only then can we handle gain without
seeing it as the only way the LORD can show himself strong. It was through weakness that he showed his
power, and he will do so through us repeatedly.
This is our attitude in B4T.