Week 9 Joshua
There’s an interesting story in chapter five.
Joshua had crossed onto the western side of the Jordan River not far from the city of Jericho. You get the sense he was alone, although the bible doesn’t say that. What it does say is that: he looked up and saw a man facing him.
Nothing spooky about the guy, he wasn’t glowing, Joshua couldn’t see right through him. Since the guy was carrying a sword Joshua asked if he was friend-or-foe and the guy said: I am the commander of the Lord’s army. So then Joshua realized he was talking with someone from another place. An inaccessible-to-Joshua place. And Joshua realized that with this guy – this real non-guy – he would have to move with caution.
Where exactly was the place the guy came from? Hard to say but it was from somewhere where under normal circumstances Joshua couldn’t see him, hear him, or talk to him. I guess the place – in spatial or geographic terms – could have been very close. I guess it could have been a space overlapping Joshua’s space or maybe in a space that extended just beyond Joshua’s sensory-detection range. Wherever it was it wasn’t Joshua’s place.
Where I live I don’t get many reminders about a more-than-just material place. The main focus is just Alberta.
So reading a story like this one helps fill that gap.
Note: quotes from Joshua 5:13, 14 (NLT)