Title: The Presence of God
Joshua 5:13-15
“The commander of the army of the LORD said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stood is holy, and Joshua did so” (verse 15).
When Joshua was near Jericho, he met the commander of the army of God. He experienced the presence of God. In verse 15, God's presence is accompanied by holiness. Before the capture of Jericho, they experienced God's holy presence. By experiencing the presence of God, I came to realize that the key to conquering Jericho is holiness. God's presence means walking with Him. God's presence is acknowledging that He is our Lord. How can we experience the presence of God? In the text, there are two scenes in which the Israelites obeyed God's command in Gilgal. They are ‘circumcision’ and ‘Passover’.
First, they experienced the presence of God through circumcision. This circumcision started from the time of Abraham (Genesis 17:10-14). Circumcision is the act of cutting off a man's sheepskin with a flint as a token of the chosen people. It means to cut off sins and be sanctified. It means that you want to be sanctified before the Lord. He made us realize that the key to victory is holiness. Circumcision usually takes about 10 days, which means that all men in the Israeli army lose their fighting power during that time.
In the past, when Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped by Shechem's son, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's older brothers, could not contain their anger and made a false covenant with Shechem. It was a promise to give you a dina if you were circumcised. Simeon and Levi destroyed Shechem and his family, who had circumcised as promised. Knowing these events, it was not easy for them to obey the order of circumcision ahead of the war. But they obeyed. Even if it is different from my thoughts, if it is a command from God, we must obey it. Through this obedience, we can experience the presence of God.
Second, we experienced the presence of God by keeping the Passover (verse 10). Originally, the Passover was a festival established to commemorate God's deliverance of their firstborn from death when the Israelites escaped from Egypt (Exodus 12:14,21). Through the Passover, they were reminded once again of God's work of salvation. The blood of a one-year-old lamb is essential for the Passover, which means the blood of Jesus Christ. It means that you can experience the presence of God when you experience the blood of Jesus. When we experience the cross of Jesus, our sin problem and the fundamental problem of life are solved.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us cut off our sins and experience the Holy Presence of God every moment by experiencing the blood of Jesus Christ every day. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.