Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 210 · July 29
The Second Question
“And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?”
Israel is camped on the plains of Jericho. They have kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, and soon after, the manna has stopped, because they are now eating the grain of the land. The city in front of them "was straitly shut up," and "none went out, and none came in." Joshua is out near the walls, with a battle to plan.
Then "there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand." Joshua walks straight up to him, which tells you something about Joshua. He asks the one question a general would ask: "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" It is a fair question with two possible answers, and the man turns down both: "Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come."
"And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?" That is Joshua's second question, and it is a different kind of question. The first asked which side heaven had taken. The second asked for orders.
So pray the second one with him. Lord, we have prayed the first question most of our lives. We have brought You our plans and asked You to be on our side in them. We have asked whose side You were on in the family quarrel, the argument and the church meeting, and we knew the answer we wanted before we finished asking. Help us set that question down. "What saith my lord unto his servant?" Let us hear Your answer before we tell You what we were hoping for. Amen.
The captain's reply was about Joshua's feet: "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy." Moses had heard almost the same words at the burning bush, before he was given anything to do. Joshua hears them when he is already in command. So the first order is about whose presence he is standing in, and the plan comes after. When the plan does come, the Lord begins it with a promise: "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho." The One who asks for your worship first already holds the battle in His hand.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 210 is We Shall Be Like Him (1 John 3:2).