Who is the commander of the Lord’s army?<\/p>\n\t
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the LORD’S army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so<\/em>” (Joshua 5:13-15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Bible does not state who the person is, though we are presented with one hint: Joshua fell down and worshiped him without rebuke. We know that men are not to be worshiped (Acts 10:25-26) and neither are angels (Revelation 22:8-9). Thus we must conclude that the person was divine, that is, a part of the Godhead (Matthew 4:1).<\/p>\n
A few verses later, in Joshua 6:2, the speaker is referred to as the Lord (Yahweh). Now we can argue whether it was the commander or God speaking through the commander and not come to a conclusion since both forms of address are done in other places. However, it does add evidence to the other points made.<\/p>\n
Also, we note that by the commander’s presence, the ground was made holy — something usually only associated with God.<\/p>\n
In John’s vision in Revelation, Jesus is portrayed as leading a great army, starting in Revelation 19:11. Thus, most assume that the Commander was Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Who is the commander of the Lord’s army? Answer: “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,564],"class_list":["post-7660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god","tag-joshua"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-achan-punished-because-he-did-not-confess-his-sin-to-joshua\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":0},"title":"Was Achan punished because he did not confess his sin to Joshua?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can somebody be punished for not telling their leaders about the sin they have committed, like how Achan was punished for not telling Moses about his sin until God found him out? Answer: \"But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-achans-family-destroyed-along-with-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":1},"title":"Was Achan\u2019s family destroyed along with him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Achan's family destroyed along with him? I have found through other commentaries, Henry; Clarke; Jamison, Faucett, and Brown, etc. both yes and no answers. I'd like to know before this Sunday morning's Bible class. Thank you in advance. Answer: \"Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28621,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-kill-the-amalekites\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":2},"title":"Why did God kill the Amalekites?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering, for example, when the Israelites were attacked or they attacked someone else, Moses held up his staff and it helped Joshua's army, but if the staff was held down then the war went for the enemy. Obviously, the power of the staff came from God, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/taking-the-gifts-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":3},"title":"Taking the Gifts of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner \"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, See I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor\" (Joshua 6:2). According to some theories of Gift and Grace, this promise says, ``(1) you already have the city and can't lose it;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/questions-about-the-battle-of-jericho\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":4},"title":"Questions about the Battle of Jericho","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am getting ready to give the lesson Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. I have a few things that I had not noticed before and wondered if you had considered them. In Joshua 5:15 a reference is made to \"sandal\" NKJV or \"shoe\" KJV. Since this is in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43661,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-moses-write-about-his-death-before-his-book-was-finished\/","url_meta":{"origin":7660,"position":5},"title":"How did Moses write about his death before his book was finished?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So how did Moses write about his death before the first five books of the Old Testament ended? Answer: Joshua was the prophet who came after Moses \"Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}