Have you ever felt stuck between your past and your future? As in, you have seen God’s faithfulness before, and you know to expect it again, but you find yourself in a kind of intermission in life—a waiting room or a holding pattern—or, as some have described it, a season of silence or the barren present?
I have and do. I was blessed to encounter a passage recently that spoke to a “parenthesis” in the life of the Israelites. You may remember that the Lord led Israel out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering. There, they were to take all the land God had set apart for them. Joshua was entrusted to lead this mission, and he was soon ready to go and fight.
However, in Gilgal, the Israelites saw a change in their circumstance. The manna stopped, and the settlement began (Joshua 5:12). They started living off the fruit of the land. Moreover, at Jericho—the next battle on the itinerary—no one was able to go out or come in (Joshua 6:1). Their enemies had fortified themselves. So—they saw an end to their past provision, but they saw a roadblock to their future plans.
What should they do next? Fortunately, in the interlude, Joshua had a revelation:
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15 ESV)
This visitation gives us great wisdom in the waiting time. First, we should not limit the Lord to our false, human dichotomies. We often plead—Lord, will it be option A or option B? The Lord loves us enough to say: “No.” Some translate His answer above to: “Neither.” With the Lord, there is likely an option C.
I remember being at a crossroads soon after my call to ministry. I grew up attending a Lutheran church, but I experienced my call at a Baptist church camp. I felt a crisis in my faith, asking: “Lord, do you want me to be a Lutheran or a Baptist?” I would stay up late, praying and crying out. Finally, the Lord used a mentor to give me His answer: “No, neither. I want you to be My servant.”
The Lord once told Israel that He was doing a work in their day that they would not believe even if they were told (Habakkuk 1:5). He told Jeremiah to call to Him, and He would show Him great and unsearchable things he did not know (Jeremiah 33:3). He tells us all that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Rather, He will do something beyond what we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). We cannot limit Him to our options alone. I am sure Joshua never imagined that simply marching around the Jericho wall would make it fall and bring the victory!
Next, we should not assume that God is always “on our side.” Joshua saw a drawn sword and wanted to know which side the visitor* was on. Was he for Israel or for Jericho? He said—“I am for the Lord.” The Lord is ready to fight for us, as long as we are for Him. Abraham Lincoln once said: “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Unless our goals and positions are grounded in Him, we cannot reasonably expect the Lord to fight for us.
We often seek to call on the Lord according to our purposes. But, truly, we are called to according to His purposes. Some object—but doesn’t the Bible teach us that “God is for us, and no one can be against us” (Romans 8:31)? Yes, but we must qualify exactly how He is for us. That passage says He is for us by working all things according to His plan—to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-30).
When we get outside of His purpose for us, He is actually against us. James tells us that God is for the humble, but opposes the proud. And, similarly, we sometimes ask but do not receive because we want to spend it on our own passions. We may be ready to go and fight, but the Lord wants us to leave our pride and passions behind. We need to put down our swords and pick up His. James likewise instructs us: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:1-10).
Someone once said there are usually three realities—there is our version of the story, their version of the story, and (in the middle somewhere) the Truth! When we aren’t sure what to do next in our relationships, and cannot come to an agreement on human terms, it serves us to gather together, humble ourselves, fall on our faces, and worship Him! By His Spirit, we can then find unity.
Finally, we should take off our shoes. One of the teachers at my church, Roy Krumnow, did a thought-provoking study on the ministry of angels, as well as the angel of the Lord. When commenting on this passage, he also shared how taking off one’s shoes was a sign in biblical times that “this person did not know what to do—they were perplexed."
Of course, some (rightly) say we take off our shoes to acknowledge His holiness—that we shouldn’t bring the stain of this world into His presence. Yet it also seems to acknowledge His omniscience. We don’t know what to do—but He does. We take off our shoes, as if to say: “If I keep going down my own paths, they will get me nowhere. I trust You to take me where only You can take me. I need You to carry me in this time.” Thus, we rest in our inability, while worshiping Him who is able.
So, not sure what to do next in life? Let’s fall to the ground and worship the Lord in His holiness. Consider putting down your sword: let’s not limit God to human parameters, but rather rest in God’s power, presence, and promises. Consider taking off your shoes: let’s not act on our own strength, but rather trust Him who makes the impossible possible.
Lord, purify us by the fire of Your Spirit, and wash us in the water of Your Word. We humble ourselves before you now, under Your mighty hand, trusting that You will exalt us at the proper time, casting all our cares upon You—because You care for us. In Jesus’ name—Amen.
(*Interestingly, there is some debate on who the visitor in Joshua 5 actually is. Some have said it is the archangel Michael, who commands the angel armies in Daniel and Revelation. However, many agree it is a theophany—the Lord Himself, in the form of a man. Why? This “angel” or messenger does not deny Joshua’s worship, like angels elsewhere in scripture. Thus, many say this is Christ, who has the power to command the angels as He states in the Gospels.)
