Week 11 Joshua 5
It’s rare for a supernatural being to appear to a regular person. So when a supernatural being appears to Joshua it’s an exception to the rule.
At first Joshua just saw a man facing him with a sword in his hand. But it turned out that the ‘man’ was actually the commander of the Lord’s army. So when the Commander told Joshua to: ‘take off your sandals…Joshua did as he was told. And that’s the end of the chapter.
So then there’s a double-space in my bible. Then there’s a subtitle in italics (The Fall of Jericho). And then a big number 6. And the next chapter begins: now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. It looks like I’m leaving Joshua standing barefoot back in chapter 5. I’m moving on to Jericho. At least that’s what I thought until the very next verse says that the Lord said to Joshua… (and that’s followed by four verses of the Lord (the Commander?) speaking).
So I get a couple of bible-reader’s alerts.
First of all the Jericho Closure in 6:1 is just a sidelight (personally I think the writer should have used brackets to show that).
Secondly the chapter break between 5:15 and 6:1 shouldn’t (in my view) be there (I blame the chapter-break guy for that).
Anyway two quick reminders. A) don’t be lulled by sidebars that break the story-line. B) don’t be diverted by unhelpful chapter breaks.
Note: quotes from Joshua 5:13 14 15 6:1 2 (NLT)