Traipsing around the the Internet, I discovered that the verse Joshua 5:13-14 gave people some trouble. The scene is the children of Israel under Joshua’s leadership have crossed the Jordan River into Canaan and find themselves confronted with the city of Jericho strongly fortified by a wall. “
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? 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?“
Some suppose that the man that met Joshua was an angel, others posit that it was pre - incarnate Jesus Christ. I agree with the latter for the man received worship. But in any event, the fact that the man replied “Neither” when Joshua asked “whose side are you on” can be interpreted asking “are you on our side” and the answer being “No.” And as such, people wonder “How can God - or an angel speaking for God - give an answer like that? Is not God always guiding, leading, going out before, and on the side of His People? Is this the God that will never leave nor forsake us? And as the pagan inhabitants of Jericho were evil, how can God just stand on the sidelines and be a neutral observer rather than exist evil?” In addition to what implication these questions may have on the nature of God, it also is a seeming Bible contradiction.
Well, let me take an attempt at resolving it. Let us start with
Do We Wait On God? Or Does God Wait On Us?,
