The Captain of the LORD'S Army

Christophany is a big word. Wikipedia has this definition,

"A Christophany is an appearance or non-physical manifestation of Christ. Traditionally the term refers to visions of Christ after his ascension, such as the bright light of the conversion of Paul the Apostle. Also, following the example of Justin Martyr, who identified the Angel of the Lord with the Logos, some appearances of angels in the (Old Testament) are identified by some Christians as pre-incarnate appearances of Christ."

There are several big words in this definition. "Manifestation" Logos Preincarnate" may all be new to you. So, what do they all mean?

Manifestation - an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something,

Logos - is a Greek term meaning something declared, a thought, a weighty saying. For example, logos was the word used in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Logos..."

Preincarnate - is a personal appearance of Jesus Christ before his physical birth.

Christophany - We see one in Joshua 5, where the great general Joshua meets the Captain of the LORD'S Army.

In this case, the trumps the authority of the General because the Captain is Jesus Christ. How can I make such a claim? I make it by observing the context of this conversation. Look again at the exchange.

Joshua, whose name means "Jehovah saves," meets the yet unnamed Captain. The meeting is significant. Do you remember what Jesus' name means? Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew, Joshua! Isn't that cool?

The Captain tells Joshua that he is neither for him nor his enemies, but as commander of the LORD'S Army, he demands Joshua remove his sandals. Why? Here you will need to think back to a specific time when God used this command.

The Captain says that the sandals have to come off because Joshua is now standing on Holy ground. Do you know who else heard these words? RIGHT, Moses. Do you remember where Moses was? Correct again. At the burning bush.

But, wait. The burning bush place was nowhere near the Jordan River where Joshua now stood. So, how was this Holy ground? It was holy because God was there. God's presence makes the place holy.

If God makes a place holy and God is invisible, how was Joshua seeing the person? Look at the interchange again, Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" (Joshua 5:13).

Please put on your thinking caps, and let's figure this out.

Joshua sees a man,
He speaks to the man
The man has a sword
The man answers Joshua's questions
The man identified himself as the Captain of the LORD'S Army.
The man tells Joshua to remove his sandals because the ground is holy
Joshua fell on his face in reverence
The Captain didn't recuse the worship
Joshua removed his sandals.

That is what we have. If we understand that only God receives worship, this can't be God the Father because he is visible. Then we deduce that this was Jesus Christ in an Old Testament appearance.

The Captain has a drawn sword to assure Joshua that the people would have God's army on their side. The Holy ground experience was to duplicate what Moses had seen and done and thus solidify Joshua's authority as God's man for the job.

The lesson for us is that we, too, are in spiritual warfare, and Jesus has gone before us to conquer the foe. He is holy and demands our worship. We can trust in his direction and direct participation in our struggles. So, we worship him as our commander and protector.

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