Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?" He replied, "Neither; 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 he said to him, "What do you command your servant, my lord?" The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. Joshua 5
Do we feel like there is an army of the Lord surrounding us, protecting us in thick and thin? Do we recognize that where we are throughout the day, and in this instant, is holy ground, because the Lord God is present? The battle against Satan continues day after day, and we have Christ our king protecting us with his armies, regardless of the circumstances. We are his beloved, we are the ones he has called to walk with and bring his gospel to the world, a gospel that is about the ongoing, day after day redemption of our lives and this world into the kingdom of God.
As a child of Christ we are promised that we have overcome the evil one (1 John). Paul writes that the Lord will rescue him from every evil deed and bring him safely into his heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4). In Psalm 91, God declares, "because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name." The prophet Zechariah said that the Lord would protect the people of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them (Zechariah 12).
