Remove your sandals

13 Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?"14 He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?"15 The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

In this chapter, it talks about how the Israelites were circumcised again. Their ancestors that were circumcised in Egypt through Abraham and all not made it because of their lack of trust in God. They rebelled and he gave them over to the desert.

This parallels my Christian journey in this last year. I committed to myself to God and tasted/saw the land of overflowing milk and honey, but I rebelled and disobeyed God. At this juncture, I want to circumscribe my heart again. I want to commit my hands, eyes and heart to God.

The most interesting thing I found in this chapter are the last two verses. Joshua questions the 'captain' whether he was for him or against him. The captain was neither, he was a captain of the host of the Lord. He did not say anything other than to say that where he was standing was holy so he should remove his sandals.

I am standing at a juncture in my life. Along with busyness, temptations, loneliness and all these changes going on in my life, God is at work inside of me.There are so many hidden motivations that are even unclear to me as to why I pursue certain things. Am I trying to do good just to satisfy myself? Am I trying to work hard to further my personal career in a selfish way? I try to be as honest as I can be about my motivations and I try to weed out my bad motivations. Nonetheless, I want to conquer the problems in my life (and I don't think that's a bad thing!) So without the 100% right motivations in my heart, I can't help but sometimes wonder..is He for me or against me? Is this the time that I finally learn what it means to totally depend on Him and glorify Him? Or is this another one of my temporary convictions? These verses reminds me that it's not about me. It's about Him. And that is the motivation I hope to carry on into my growth in this season. That as much as these struggles are about me--my pasts and my future--I hope that my journey can be about Him. Even with the swirling doubts of fears in my mind that this may be another temporary conviction, I also must have hope through faith. I must remember that where I am standing is holy ground and I need to remove my sandals and all the dirt that I carry with me. No other message was brought by the captain of the host other than the ever so powerful message, 'where you are standing is holy.'

Created 8 months ago