FAITH, WORKS, VICTORY – PART SIX
Monday – June 4, 2018, Sivan 21, 5778
Thank you, Lord, for another day to speak the Kingdom of God forward by faith in love as led of the Holy Spirit. The children of Israel obtained the victory over Jericho by obedience (love), faith, and doing the works (walking) prepared for them. The walls came down and the Israelites had an easy victory over what seemed to be a formidable enemy. God will do the same for us if we will follow the same pattern, a pattern that is repeated throughout this Holy Book. Well, dear brothers and sister, welcome back to this powerful and faith building teaching from the Faith Hall of Fame. Let us read our text aloud.
Hebrews 11:30-32 (KJV)
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
Last Friday I left off with the following passage of Scripture when Joshua encounters “a man” who identifies himself as “captain of the host of the LORD”.
Joshua 5:13-15 (KJV)
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
15 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.
This person that Joshua encounters before the defeat of Jericho looks to be an ordinary man at first sight. This man is armed with a drawn sword, the sword is in his hand not in its scabbard. Remember that the “sword” in Scripture represent the Word of God. The “hand” is representative of power, in this case the Holy Spirit and Power.
Ephesians 6:17 (KJV)
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
We also know that the Word of God is the One who came and obliterated all sin and we call Him Jesus. The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Joshua (Joshua is a type and shadow of Christ Jesus), meaning “Jehovah-saved”. Joshua was Anointed to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land and Christ Jesus has done the same for us. Back to our secondary text, we see the sword is drawn, the Word of God and Anointing of God are being released into this situation, the battle is already on, well before they received their marching orders. Joshua wants to know if this “man” is an enemy or a friend. It is then that we find out this is the “captain of the host of the LORD”. Joshua immediately prostrates himself before this “man”. The “man”, the “captain of the host of the LORD” does not rebuke this submission, humbling, and in this way, we know that we are talking about a Divine being and not an angel. In short, “the captain of the LORD’S host” is the one we call the Lord Jesus Christ today. This is the preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ (The Word), fully God, appearing to Joshua in the form of a man.
The difference of this appearing and later from the womb of Mary is that here He is appearing as a man, but from the womb of Mary He is a man with flesh just as we all have. In the earthly ministry of Jesus, He did not just appear to be a man, He was a man. His (Jesus’) Spirit man was the same as had existed from eternity but absent the eternal memories, and the three major characteristics that make God, God. He learned Who He was before entering the earthly ministry recorded in the Gospels and of course at the Resurrection and His restoration as God all the other attributes and eternal memories were restored. The three major characteristics of God are omnipotence (all powerful), omnipresence (everywhere present), and omniscient (all knowing). Now that I have the religious people all stirred up and those who are being diligent to be like Christ Jesus rejoicing let’s return to our secondary text.
It appears that between verses fourteen and fifteen Joshua has stood back up and the Captain of the Host of the LORD tells him to take his shoes off for this is holy ground upon which they are standing. As you have studied your Bible you have seen this in other places like Moses at the burning bush.
Exodus 3:5 (KJV)
5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
We do not see this at all in any encounter with Jesus nor throughout the New Testament. The shoes in that day were made of dead animal skin (leather) as they are today. Those animals were sacrificed to cloth man, a type of the covering of sin by innocent animals. These encounters however are on the way to the Cross and the ratifying of the New Covenant, not worthy to be present in these encounters. With the sacrifice of the Lamb of God we enter boldly into the Most Holy Place. We do not enter from time to time, but we are continually in the Most Holy Place. Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow on the journey to tear down the walls of Jericho and the walls the enemy erects in our individual lives.
Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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