Whose Side Are You On?

 By: Lauren Thomas 

Scripture clearly teaches us that Jesus is our victorious rescuer and redeemer, that God fights our battles, that He is for us in Christ (Romans 8:31). But sometimes, I wonder if we have something backwards about this.

Before the epic fall of Jericho in Joshua 6, a new leader had taken Moses’ place in leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land: Joshua. God had only performed one miracle through this new leader, compared to the many that God had worked through Moses. And now that the people of Israel stood on this side of the Jordan, Joshua must have felt lots of pressure and anxiety. He had to lead an untrained army against fortified cities and deliver God’s promised land to God’s people.

 

One day, likely feeling all this pressure and stress, he was surveying the city of Jericho from afar, when he looked and noticed a man with a drawn sword.

 

Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” ¹⁴ And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”

Joshua 5:13b-14a ESV

 

An interesting answer. Interesting, in that it turned the question around on Joshua: whose side are you on?

 

Joshua’s response was to fall on his face in worship.

 

Then he asked,” “What does my lord say to his servant?” The commander of the Lord’s armies told Joshua to take off his sandals, a signal and symbol of recognition: that this place of confrontation was holy, because God was there.  

 

I’ve listened to people ask, “why is God doing this to me? Why is God testing me? What is God trying to teach me?” They ask these questions because their life doesn’t look the way they want it to. They feel that God is being mean to them. They shake their fist at God and ask Him, “whose side are you on anyway?”

 

But what if the real question is “whose side are we on?”? God isn’t interested in being a means to our end. He’s not interested in giving us constant personal victories. What he cares about is that we, 1) like Joshua decide whose side we are on, 2) that we give Him His due worship, 3) that we recognize His place of holiness in our lives.

 

I like to think that Joshua’s encounter in Joshua 5 was a watershed moment. For, later in his life, Joshua said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). He learned a valuable lesson in that holy confrontation, when his question was turned back on himself.

 

It is a holy confrontation which shows us God is sovereign and which changes our perspective. When we choose to be on God’s side, what we previously thought were our battles might not seem so important anymore. Instead, we choose to keep our eyes on the Lord and fight the battles He commissions us to fight. And He will give us victory.

 

Reflection:

What battles are you facing? Why do you want to win these battles? Are your eyes on the battle or on the Lord? If you’ve been asking God whose side He is on, maybe it’s time to tell God whose side YOU are on.