Who's Side Are You On?

By Derek Johnston

World Cup fever is starting to grip a large percentage of the world just now. There’s already been a few good games and a few good goals. There’s also been the inevitable controversial refereeing decisions. One wonders in how many languages, “Whose side are you on Ref?” will have been asked before the tournament ends. 

Someone once asked a similar question in the Bible - Joshua. Of course, it wasn’t in a football match. The stakes were even higher because it was in the war of conquest. The Israelites had just crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. Joshua had been Moses’ assistant, but now Moses had died and it was Joshua who was now in command. Under his leadership the Israelites had recommitted themselves to the Lord and just beyond their camp lay the city of Jericho whose famously strong walls would soon come tumbling down before them.

But before that happened there was this curious incident where Joshua, close to the city of Jericho saw a figure. A man was standing before him with a drawn sword. Clearly this figure was impressive and imposing. A drawn sword would suggest that conflict was imminent. Even divine judgement.

And so Joshua asked him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” In other words, ‘whose side are you on?’ The figure responded, “Neither…but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come” This figure served not one or the other, but only God.

Joshua recognised that in front of him was no ordinary warrior. This was a being from another realm. Another world. This was a messenger from God. 

Perhaps even a manifestation of God. Why say that? Well, Joshua fell on his feet, facedown to the ground in reverence but wasn’t rebuked for doing so. Usually when that happens in the Bible the angel tells the person don’t do it and to get back on their feet. He was then told to remove his sandals as he was standing on holy ground. Instruction which has echoes of Moses meeting God at the burning bush. And if chapter 6:2 flows on from this, as seems to be the case (remember chapter divisions in the Bible were added later), then the figure is identified as being the Lord who then proceeded to instruct him. So the figure seems to be some manifestation of God. It makes us even wonder if this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

Whoever exactly it was, the answer the figure gave Joshua to his question, ‘Are you with us or our enemies?’ was “Neither,” but God’s.

Joshua’s question and the response he got reminds us of the old Bob Dylan song in the 60’s, ‘With God on our side’. It’s the typical Dylan protest song. It talks about people going to war and justifying it with the presumptuous claim that God is on their side. The song exposes the misuse of God’s name by the powerful to justify their own ideologies and actions. As it can be by the not so powerful to justify their own agenda.

It’s not impossible for Christians and churches to do the same today. In the face of great challenges we can come up with plans and schemes and then assume it must all be good because God is on our side. After all this is the God who fights for his people and brings down walls. But God does not exist to serve us. We exist to serve him. Sure in an act of great mercy he served us through the work of Christ. But that was to save us and make us fit to serve him. The point is, the proper question for us to ask is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on his. Do we submit to his authority, his command over our lives? Do we bow before him, like Joshua, and accept his word? Because it’s only then we can be assured that he will bless our labours and plans. Only then will the great walls before us fall.

Joshua successfully led the Israelites to take much of the land promised to them. But it’s striking that towards the end of his life the one who asked the figure, ‘who’s side are you on?’ posed the question to the people, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). 

The question we all need to ask and answer is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on his.