{"id":16880,"date":"2023-06-04T14:34:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T18:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=16880"},"modified":"2023-06-04T14:34:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T18:34:47","slug":"judges-21-who-is-the-captain-of-the-lords-host","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/judges-21-who-is-the-captain-of-the-lords-host\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges 2:1 – Who is the captain of the Lord\u2019s host?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem:<\/strong> We should not worship angels (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9) or men (Acts 10:26; Mt. 4:10). However, Joshua falls down and worships the captain of the Lord\u2019s host. Who or what was he?
\n
\nSolution:<\/strong> The captain of the Lord\u2019s host uses the same language that Yahweh uses in Exodus 3:5 (\u201cRemove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy\u201d Josh. 5:15). Throughout the OT, God appears in the form of a man (Gen. 12:7; 17:1; 18:1) or an angel (Gen. 16:7-13; 48:15-16; Ex. 3:2-6). In one instance, the angel of the Lord is said to forgive sins (Ex. 23:21), and yet, we know that only God can forgive sins (Mk. 2:7). Therefore, the angel of the Lord must be a manifestation of Yahweh himself. Some theologians speculate that this is a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Of course, this does not mean that God is an angel, any more than God is a man, just because he came in the form of one (Phil. 2:7). Since the word \u201cangel\u201d just means \u201cmessenger,\u201d we should differentiate the actions of an angel from the nature of one.<\/p>\n

(5:13) Where did this mysterious man come from? He seems to be appearing in the middle of their camp without warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cSword drawn in his hand.\u201d This expression only occurs twice in the OT, and it only refers to angelic warriors (Num. 22:23; 1 Chron. 21:16).[1]<\/p>\n

(5:14) Joshua asked him if he was a friend or foe, and the man responds, \u201cWrong question!\u201d This shows that God was in charge\u2014not Joshua. This \u201cman\u201d doesn\u2019t reappear throughout the rest of the book. Many commentators believe that this is \u201cthe Angel of the Lord.\u201d[2] After all, he is the commander of the Lord\u2019s \u201chost,\u201d which was an angelic host. Joshua\u2019s use of the word \u201cLord\u201d (\u02bfa\u1e0f\u00f4n\u00ee) doesn\u2019t imply that this person was necessarily God, because human persons were called \u201clord.\u201d But the use of the term is certainly consistent with him being God, because this title is used of God as well.<\/p>\n

(5:15) This scene really confirms that this figure is God. The language is identical to Moses meeting Yahweh in the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-6). Richard Hess holds that this is some form of God in human form writing that \u201cthere can be no doubt who this is.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

\n

[1] Hess, R. S. (1996). Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 6, p. 139). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.<\/p>\n

[2] Madvig, D. H. (1992). Joshua. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor\u2019s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, p. 276). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.<\/p>\n

[3] Hess, R. S. (1996). Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 6, p. 140). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem: We should not worship angels (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9) or men (Acts 10:26; Mt. 4:10). However, Joshua falls down and worships the captain of the Lord\u2019s host. Who or what was he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,8,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-errors","category-bible-study","category-bible-teaching","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}