My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
| 84 |
| COMMANDER OF THE ARMY OF THE LORD |
| Joshua 5:14 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?” |
| Moses assistant became a great leader, leading the infant nation into many battles, finding victory after victory, until he had secured the extent of the national boundaries for the fledgling country. A truly amazing man, but in our verse here, we find one of Joshua’s greatest character reveals. He was a mighty general, a terror to those who opposed him, because of his relation to the True Commander of the army of the Lord. Joshua had approached this unknown man, and immediately took to determine his stance before the nation of Israel. Are you for us, or for our adversaries? The theophany’s answer was amazing. He did not answer Joshua’s direct question, but described Himself as the Commander of the Lord’s army. He would not align Himself simply with either the nation of Israel or their adversaries. Yes – Israel was the chosen nation to enter the promised land, and yes, God’s will would be to provide success to the armies of the Israelites as they conquered the land. But here in this verse, the Lord describes Himself, not as the commander of the armies of the nation of Israel, or of any other nation, be they friend or foe, but of the otherworldly forces He led. He is not some national god that is competing with some other national god, warring and fighting to gain prominence. He is the True God, over all and will not be relegated to a lower position, simply standing by to support the goals of a portion of His creation, against another portion of His creation. How ludicrous to think that of Him. This concept, that the Lord is above our national interests, and that it up to us to decide to follow Him, and not for Him to align with our current desires, is repeated over and over again throughout the Old and New Testament. The first time this idea became very clear to me was in Exodus 23:20-22. See The Lord’s Enemy for some additional thoughts on this topic No matter, when we come to the Lord, we are to consider His will, and not how He is to conform to our wishes or goals. Joshua immediately took the correction, and we would be wise to follow his example. After all, centuries later, we can hear the Master telling a woman at the well, that He is not a Messiah of the Jews only but of the entire world. She also sought to claim God as her national god, or at least questioned the truth, and Jesus would have nothing of it. He clearly described salvation as not being only for the nation of Israel, but for all who worship Him in spirit and truth. He is the Commander of the Lord’s Army! |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
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Amen
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