Jericho, Joshua, and Jesus: The Answer to Our Problems

In this Wednesday evening prayer meeting, Pastor Chris Parker turns the congregation to the book of Joshua, chapter 5, reading verses 13 through 15, where Joshua, standing near Jericho on the eve of battle, encounters a man with a drawn sword who identifies Himself as the captain of the host of the Lord. Framing his message as “Jericho, Joshua, and Jesus”—or, as he put it, our problems, ourselves, and then the Lord—Pastor Parker shows that before God’s people can face the walled city before them, they must first meet and worship the One who commands heaven’s armies.

He notes that this captain is no mere angel; when Joshua falls on his face to worship, he is not rebuked, pointing to a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself. The ground on which Joshua stands is declared holy, and he is told to loose the shoes from off his feet. Drawing back through chapter five and even to Exodus 4 and the account of Moses and Zipporah, Pastor Parker underscores that God required His people to be set apart and obedient—circumcised at Gilgal, their reproach rolled away—before He would give them victory.

The lesson for the believer is pointed: the Lord did not need a commanding general; He needed an obedient servant. No matter how important we think we are, what God desires is not someone trying to fight the battle for Him, but someone worshiping Him. Every believer has problems and every believer is in the battle, yet Pastor Parker closes with comfort: the one who is saved and born again is on the Lord’s side, and nothing can ever separate the believer from the love of God. The answer to our problems, he reminds the church, is not about the problem and not about us—it is all about the Lord, with whom all things are possible.