SERVANTS TO GIANT KILLERS

SERVANTS TO GIANT KILLERS

                “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?” And he said, “No, rather I indeed come now as the 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? And 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.” Joshua 5:13-15.

                Now we have every reason to believe that this encounter that Joshua had was an encounter with the pre-incarnate Christ. No angel would allow a man to worship Him. Furthermore, this was the same God who had met Moses at the burning bush and whereas God had called Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, He was now calling Joshua to lead the people into the Promised Land.

                Joshua chapter five leads us through a series of events that clearly show that this experience forms a picture of our move from the Old Covenant and into the New Covenant. Moses had delivered the people into the Law, to become servants of the Law, but in the New Covenant we have a new circumcision which is a circumcision, being cut off from our flesh to now live by the Spirit.

                By God’s command Joshua circumcised all of the males and he said “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you and so they named the place Gilgal.” Now while they were camped at Gilgal and healing from their circumcisions, they observed the feast of Passover and on that very day they ate some of the produce of the Promised Land and on the very next day the Manna ceased.

                The manna had sustained them in the wilderness. The Law also had preserved them and by keeping it they became faithful servants of the Lord, but something new was about to take place. God had to change them from servants to giant killers. For this He needed to give them something more than the Law… something more than manna.  You see, the Law is holy and righteous and good, but it offers no power to keep it… and even if a person were to keep all of the Law it would not restore them to God’s image. Sin is more than breaking the Law, Sin means that we fall short of the glory of God and only the glory of God living in us can restore us to that image.

                So, while crossing over into the Promised Land of the Spirit, in no way implies that we will now break the law, it does, however, imply that we will be transformed from servants into giant killers. Our life in the wilderness is now over and we have been cut off from Egypt by circumcision of the heart. We have partaken of the true Passover Lamb and now we are ready to conquer new territory in the power of the Lord. The old manna will no longer do. We now need to eat the breakfast of champions which is made of Spirit and Truth.

                We need our encounter with the Captain of the hosts of the Lord. And this is precisely what Paul means in Galatians when he says that the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. In fact he says”

                “But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (The Captain of the hosts of the Lord.) And why do we no longer need a tutor? It is because the Law is now being fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:4

                Like I said earlier, this in no way implies that the Law is invalid or done away, for after all, even in the Promised Land they were required to obey God and to smash the idols of the pagans and to route them out of the land. Likewise when we are born again, we become equipped with the weapons of war by which we may drive the giants out of our own lives and to conquer the land.

                People on both sides of the Law issue often have it wrong. Some say the Law was done away, but neither Paul nor Jesus, or any other teaching, or even the types and shadows imply that God’s eternal Law is done away. Even the animal sacrifices are not done away; rather they are replaced with  “better sacrifices than these” and the blood of a better covenant offered by a High Priest who will never die. He becomes then at the cross, the only true singularity. All history, past present and future is swallowed up into the vortex of the cross.

                Jesus said; “And I if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.”  All of human history is being dragged toward the cross. It is the center of all space-time. Everything, before and after it, is being sucked into the vortex of God’s forgiveness and redemption. The only way you can escape God’s plan for humanity is to join the resistance… to side with the Nachash and to join the global camp of the antichrist. We literally have to trample over the body of the Good Shepherd and plunge into the darkness… to escape the fold and to face the harsh wind of the wilderness alone.

                Some rebellious people said they would follow Satan at all cost and Jesus said, “ Over My dead body. So they killed Him, but even in His death He paid for their forgiveness.

                What Jesus Christ did, as Captain of the Lord’s host, was to conquer the giants for us and through us as He leads us into the Promised Land. It is only when we lose faith in Him that we begin to lose battles. When we run in fear from the giants or try to make nice with them, we lose, but as long as we march under the banner of the Captain of the Lord’s hosts, we will drive out every demon, every giant.

                Just as Joshua led God’s people into victory as they drove all of the giants out of the land, so did Jesus say: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall injure you.” Luke 10:19.

                Listen church: We have survived in the wilderness long enough. We have thought it good enough to be servants of the Law, but it is time to have our encounter with the Captain of the hosts of the Lord.

                At the first Pentecost God gave them the Law as a tutor to lead them to Christ. In other words,
God gave them Moses as a faithful servant to lead them to Joshua, who is a type of Christ. There we lay down our servant’s clothes and put on the full armor of God. We lay down Saul’s armor and we begin to fight our battles in “the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted.” 1 Sam. 17:45. You see, Saul had a wilderness mentality, but David came at Goliath in the power of the same Captain of the Lord’s host that Joshua had fought under.

                So the Law will make us faithful servants, but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make us into giant killers and we need to learn how to more effectively fight using the armor of God and the authority that Jesus Christ has bestowed upon us. We are moving quickly into earth’s final battle and in the end only the Remnant will be saved. So, gear up, my friends. We were designed not only to survive, but to conquer in the power of the Lord and in the strength of His might.

EPILOGUE

                Even though we are training to be giant killers; that does not preclude our role as servants of the Most High God. We should never become arrogant as Christians, for Jesus has assured us that without Him we can do nothing. We march under the banner of the Captain of the Lord’s hosts.

                Likewise we are forced to admit that most of the giants we face are on the inside. We need to sever our connection to Egypt/Babylon, for the manna of the wilderness is about to dry up and we will need to know how to fight our battles being nourished by the food of the Promised Land. We need the bread and wine of the New Covenant and the rivers of living water that from Christ alone.

                We need to learn to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19 Champions are forged in the fires of adversity and sons are forged in the disciplines of their Father. These things we must incorporate into our training program because according to Bible Prophecy, the giants we will soon face will be the ones outside of us and as such, we will need to have already dealt with the ones on the inside. Selah.