Joshua 5:13
“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?””
What does Joshua 5:13 mean?
Joshua encounters a mysterious armed figure near Jericho and instinctively asks which side he's on, a question that reveals how Joshua's mind was working at that moment. He was focused on the military conflict ahead, naturally sorting the world into allies and adversaries. What makes this encounter significant is what comes next in the passage: the figure reveals himself as the commander of God's army, suggesting that Joshua's question, while understandable, was based on incomplete understanding of what was actually happening. Sometimes when we're in the thick of our struggles, we're asking the right survival questions, but God is inviting us to see a bigger picture altogether. This moment invites us to wonder what we might be missing when we're locked into our own perspective about who's with us and who's against us.