And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
JOSHUA v. 14.
The army of Israel was just beginning a hard conflict under an untried
leader. Behind them the Jordan barred their retreat, in front of them
Jericho forbade their advance. Most of them had never seen a fortified
city, and had no experience nor engines for a siege. So we may well
suppose that many doubts and fears shook the courage of the host, as it
drew around the doomed city. Their chief had his own heavy burden. He
seems to have gone apart to meditate on what his next step was to be.
Absorbed in thought, he lifts up his eyes mechanically, as brooding men
will, not expecting to see anything, and is startled by the silent
figure of 'a man with a sword drawn' in his hand, close beside him.
There is nothing supernatural in his appearance; and the immediate
thought of the leader is, 'Is this one of the enemy that has stolen
upon my solitude?' So, promptly and boldly, he strides up to him with
the quick challenge: 'Whose side are you on? Are you one of us, or from
the enemy's camp?' And then the silent lips open. 'Upon neither the one
nor the other. I am not on your side, you are on mine, for as Captain
of the Lord's host, am I come up.' And then Joshua falls on his face,
recognises his Commander-in-Chief, owns himself a subordinate, and asks
for orders. 'What saith my Lord unto his servant?'
Now let us try to gather the meaning and the lessons of this striking
incident.