The Commander of The Lord’s Army

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Previously on the Chosen People. 00:00:04 Speaker 2: The people of Jericho are terrified of us. Our very presence on this side of the river has broken their morale. Every rumor in town confirmed it. But they are on high alert. The city is fortified and they are preparing for a siege. 00:00:22 Speaker 3: And what of the walls. We've taken fortified cities before, But their walls were built into the basalt rock formations, the footholds for our climbers. 00:00:32 Speaker 4: And we have no siege towers, ramps or scaling ladders. What are we going to do? 00:00:39 Speaker 5: I have given you every place for the soul of your foot will trend. Just as I promised Moses, no wood would stand against us, or as who live. I would be with you, just as I us with Moses. 00:00:56 Speaker 4: I will not leave you. 00:00:58 Speaker 3: Nor abandon you. 00:01:06 Speaker 6: What do you do when God himself shows up, not as a comfort, but as a commander. Sheloh, my friends from here in the holy land of Israel. I'm l Extein with international Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and welcome to the Chosen People. Joshua stands at the edge of something vast, The wilderness behind him, the promises of God ahead. But this isn't just a military campaign. This is about faith, a faith tested by the desert, sand and silence, a faith challenged by walls so tall that they seem to touch the sky itself. And then, in the midst of anticipation and fear, something happens, something divine. How often do we stand at a crossroads unaware that God himself is about to show up? This story grabs you, and it doesn't let go. Joshua, prepared for battle, ready to claim the land promised him by God, encounter something entirely unexpected. Suddenly the ground beneath Joshua's feet shifts. He thought he knew how things worked. God was with Israel, right, But now it's clear that God is not simply here to bless Israel's plans. God's agenda is much bigger than that. Joshua, like us, is left with a choice. Does he continue to assume God is backing his every move or does he fall to the ground, surrendering to something far greater. 00:02:41 Speaker 1: You heard the latest rum is Israea rehab feigned interest in Yasib. She had dealt with many self important members of the King's council in her profession, but Yasib was perhaps one of the more insufferable. He leaned forward conspiratorially to tell her secrets. She probably already knew. Rahab had many spies throughout the city, and news always came to her ears first. Men were far more likely to share information to her. Girls. Pleasure was a much more efficient way of gaining information than torture or fear. Dealing with secrets was yet another source of Rahab's influence in Jericho. There was a reason Raehab owned a house in a city where so few other men or women could boast the same h. No, tell me, master, Yesib, what have you heard the. 00:03:36 Speaker 4: Castle Izabas you see the Amorites and Canaanhiite kings to the west are scared. They're all beside themselves worrying about those Hebrews outside the city. 00:03:46 Speaker 2: Ah, but not concerned enough to send aid to augment our defenses. 00:03:51 Speaker 4: I assume, no, not so concerned as that they're worried. They'll come for them next when they're finished with us first Sihan and Oji and now us. And you heard about what their god did down the plains with the river. 00:04:06 Speaker 1: Raehab nodded. She had it was remarkable, and she also knew about the fears of Jericho suffering the same fate as the other Amorite cities. It was all anyone could talk about lately, and understandably so. But she also had the assurance of the oath of the two Israelite spies, Caleb and Salmon, promised that her family would be spared when the city was inevitably sacked, but who could say how long they could last within the walls if the siege dragged on too long. Raehab's kindling of faith still burned, but it waned as each day played out. 00:04:45 Speaker 3: Has the castle received word on whether or not the Israelites are on the move. 00:04:51 Speaker 1: A careful question. As the days went by, the city had become a dangerous place, even more than it already was fo it was worth more than gold, and thieves would gut you for an extra portion with the sealed city gates. Traders patroning her businesses had also dried up. Her only customers were Yasib and men like him, desperate and lost enough to spend the last of their coins on fleeting, meaningless nights of pleasure as the world around them went to hell. 00:05:24 Speaker 4: They don't know when the attack will come. I don't know why they haven't passed their advantage yet, but I suppose then I wouldn't be here drinking with you if they moved already. 00:05:38 Speaker 1: Rayhab laughed with the cynical official, and they both drained their cups before she led the man upstairs. She sighed at the truth of his words. No, if the Israelites had already taken the city, she would not be here at all. She would have to wait just a little longer for her rescue. Now two miles away on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites had just observed Passover. They had eaten unleavened bread and roasted grain from the ample produce of the land. Gone were the days of daily manner. Israel would eat from the crops of Canaan from now on. Joshua called his council to his tent to receive an update on how the men, especially the fighting men, were recovering from their recent circumcisions. It had been one week since their crossing of the Jordan. Since then, the Lord had commanded Joshua to circumcise the generation born in the wilderness. The Israelites had obeyed the command, but The soldiers were understandably wary of being incapacitated so close to their enemies. The men on Joshua's council, with the exception of Finnahas, were circumcised as infants on their eighth day, as was the custom of their forbearers, but the practice had not been obs in the wilderness. Joshua did not envy them having to endure the procedure as adults, but he applauded their obedience to what the Lord commanded. This was a necessary step in preparation for taking the promised land. Eliezer agreed wholeheartedly and affirmed to the other counselors and the recently recovered Finnahaus beside him. He gently squeezed his son's hand and rallied the room. 00:07:27 Speaker 3: Yes, we'll be ready. 00:07:28 Speaker 7: In more ways than one, the Lord has rolled away the disgrace from Egypt. At last, it is fitting that our men will bear the covenant mark when they go into battle. 00:07:38 Speaker 1: Finnahaus nodded boldly. On behalf of his generation. His uncle Ishamar took the opportunity to voice the unspoken question before. 00:07:46 Speaker 4: Them, Yes, yes, And now that the men have recovered and passover has been observed all good and worthy things. We come at last to the point of action. When do you plan to lead the armies to Jericho? 00:08:00 Speaker 2: I happen to agree with Ihamar. What is our strategy with Jericho, Joshua, now that the men have recovered, should we build siege towers or ladders to climb the walls? I have the archers and metal workers prepared for our attack. 00:08:15 Speaker 1: The five pairs of eyes in Joshua's trusted council were all fixed on him eagerly. Joshua still wasn't used to that part, the silence of others waiting for some profound plan of action. He wasn't like Moses. He didn't have the voice of the Lord continually whispering in his ear. Joshua hesitated. It wasn't that he didn't have ideas of how to mount a defense against the walls of Jericho. He spent years combing through ideas and learning all he could about military tactics. Joshua knew they could only go forward now. They couldn't retreat or go around Jericho. To leave their women, children, and livestock on the plains of Jericho would mean death. They were vulnerable and with nothing but the river at their backs, they would be easy targets. Jericho had to be taken first. The question was how Joshua winced. When he realized that he had gone too long without responding, he tightened his jaw and side. He had to let go of the pressure of being exactly like Moses. The Lord had called Joshua. As Joshua, he had to lean into what he knew best. He was a strategist and soldier, a man of the marching from the moment he was plucked from his flock into the inner circle of Moses. He had been a fighting man, and fight he would. But Joshua was a good soldier. He wouldn't march without a command. He needed to seek the Lord. He turned to his council with a raised chest. 00:09:52 Speaker 3: I know we have waited a long time for this. Some it's been decades and for others entire lifetime. And oh, you all look to me to lead as you once did Moses. But I would call on you brothers to wait a little bit longer. The Lord has not yet revealed to me the next move, but he will. He mustn't move until he gives the command. We cannot go forth without his guidance. Together we will be strong. We will be courageous. Rak chas amats, we will not be discouraged, for the Lord our God is with us. 00:10:33 Speaker 1: The same five men pounded the table with Joshua's stirring speech, than we will be frown a. 00:10:42 Speaker 4: That's we will be courageous. 00:10:44 Speaker 7: The Lord our God is with us. 00:10:51 Speaker 1: Joshua woke well before dawn and found himself walking along the banks of the Jordan River. The white noise of the waters intermixed with the faint tunes of song birds rising. All was calm. One would never know that a monolithic wall hoarding thousands of bloodthirsty Canaanites were only a few miles away. Joshua found little peace as of late sleep eluded him. The morning was still dim and a ghostly glow of fog lingered over the coursing body of water. Joshua could scarcely make out the river below its banks in the darkness. Joshua's breath was barely visible in the dark, cool morning air. As the sun started to peek over the ridge of the mountains, the faint silhouette of Jericho was appearing. The impending sunrise was beginning to light the famed palms preceding it. A sudden stillness behind Joshua caused the hairs on his arms to stand on end. The river noise seemed far away. Joshua's hand instinctively reached for the blade on his left hip. He freed it from its scabbard a half a second later and whirled around to face the threat. A man stood on the bank before him, the sunrise silhouetting his frame. Metal armor gleamed in the pre dawn. He stood about twenty paces away, and a great sword and shield donned each arm. Joshua squinted into the steadily expanding sunrise and crouched in a practiced defensive stance. 00:12:29 Speaker 2: Who are you? 00:12:30 Speaker 3: What's your business? 00:12:31 Speaker 1: The man remained silent, but continued his slow pace toward him. Joshua rolled his neck back, bracing for a possible fight. The man stopped about twenty feet in front of him. He clearly wasn't one of Joshua's men, none of them dawned such immaculate armor, and he didn't seem to be Canaanite, especially since a Canaanite soldier would miss the opportunity to ambush him. The man seemed to be neither friend nor Then there was the stillness that accompanied him. It was an other worldly stillness. The earth rippled slightly underneath the man's feet. Joshua peered closely at the warrior, donned in the armor of a commander, yet wearing no banner or crest. That's when a thought passed through Joshua's mind. Memories of old stories re emerged in his consciousness. He remembered the story of Abraham and the King of Salem. He recalled the adversary that wrestled with Jacob. He thought about the way Moses described the burning bush pulsing with power. These thoughts gave way to a question, which Joshua shouted into the distance between them. 00:13:48 Speaker 2: Were you for us? For our enemies? 00:13:51 Speaker 1: Joshua could not read the man's expression, as his helmet and the position of the sun obscured his face from view. Nor did he move, not to strike or attack, but not to lower his weapons in peace either neither a simple answer but far from comforting. 00:14:10 Speaker 2: Then who are you? 00:14:11 Speaker 3: I have come as commander of the Lord's army? 00:14:15 Speaker 1: Recognitions snapped Joshua in the face, though he did not understand fully. He dropped his weapon immediately and bowed low with his face to the ground in homage. 00:14:28 Speaker 7: Tell me what some you will want to say to a servant, Remove the sandals from your feet. 00:14:33 Speaker 1: For where you are standing is holy ground. Joshua scrambled to do as he did, resumed his subservient position on the banks of the river, and waited to finally receive the Lord's direction. 00:14:54 Speaker 6: The reality is that God doesn't fit neatly into our categories. His ways are higher than ours. He is not our personal mascot, not just a handy deity that we can summon to fulfill our ambition or fight our battles. This encounter forces Joshua and us to confront a deeper truth. God's allegiance to his own plan, and our task is not to claim him for our purposes, but to surrender to him. When Joshua falls to the ground, he's acknowledging something we all need to realize. God is not for us and the way that we want him to be. We are the ones who must align ourselves with him. So often we make the mistake of shaping God into an image that suits us. Our cause is our desires, our view of the world, but here the commander of Heaven's armies remind Joshua of the bigger picture. Back when Joshua and the Israelites cross the Jordan River, we saw Joshua order to remove his shoes, the same as Moses was comm before the crossing of the sea, And here, just before the battle for Jericho, Joshua receives the same command. The Jewish ages explained that shoes represent the physical world. We walk with our shoes on the physical ground. According to our sages, Joshua was being told that Jericho could not be conquered by physical means, but could only be defeated through God's miracles. So the sage is say, when Joshua took off his shoes, he was discarding the idea of triumph by military force alone. We saw this idea of shoes representing the physical world all the way back at the Burning Bush, when God told Moses to take off his shoes. God and Moses were speaking in the world of the spirit in Hebrew. He said, tin onna alaim al jaraklime, take off your shoes from your feet. Even today, Jewish people don't wear leather shoes. On Yom Ki Poor, the holiest day of the year the day of Atonement, when we pray all day long on that day, we don't think about the physical world at all. We only focus on God and his spirit. Don't get me wrong. The physical world is important to all of us, of course, including people of faith, but our goals can only be accomplished when we go beyond the physical and into God's spiritual world. This story strikes at the core of how we relate to God. Rebba Abraham Jeshua Heschel warned us against turning God into a projection of our own desires. He wrote, God is of no importance unless he is of supreme importance. It's a reminder that God is not just a tool for us to use. God's plan is sovereign, and it doesn't fit into the boxes that we create. This is a challenging idea, isn't it. Are we agents of God's will or are we trying to twist His will to fit ours. Today's Bible story reminds us to stop insisting on our way and to humbly accept God's. We live in a world where we're constantly trying to assert that God is on our side. We pray for our plans, hoping for success. We vote, assuming our politics have divine backing. We enter into conflicts personal, professional, and even political, believing that God is standing with us and against those who oppose us. But this story challenges that. It forces us to ask, am I seeking God's will? Or am I just hoping that he'll bless mine? The real question is not whether God is on our side. The question is whether we are on his. What if, like Joshua, we find ourselves standing on holy ground without even realizing it. What if instead of expecting God to endorse our plans, we need to fall on our faces in humility and ask Him to show us his This week, as you face battles in your life, my friends, whether they'd be in your relationships, your workplace, or your personal struggles, I want you to ask yourself, am I aligning with God's will? Or am I just asking him to align with mine? Shalem, my friends from here in the Holy Land, Let's surrender to God's will and in doing so find a strength that only comes from walking in step with him. 00:19:34 Speaker 1: You can listen to the Chosen People with Isle Exstein add free by downloading and subscribing to the Prey dot Com app today. This Prey dot Com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Shellabaga and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with Yile Eckstein. Edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul colto Fu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvado, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc, Thomas Copeland, Junior, Rosanna Pilcher, and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Aaron Salvado, bre Rosalie and Chris Baig. Special thanks to Bishop Paul Lanier, Robin van Ettin, kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot Com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review.