‘Are you for us or our enemies?’ Joshua 5:13

Joshua entered the boundaries of Jericho at the start of Israel’s move into Canaan after the Exodus and 40 years of desert wanderings. There seems to have been a misunderstanding about the nature of what God was seeking to do – using Israel to eradicate sin from the land and establish a kingdom of righteous true-God worshippers.

It is no accident then that Joshua meets a man with a sword drawn in his hand. ‘Are you for us or our enemies?’ The man exclaims ‘No!’ He is for neither and reveals that he is none other than the ‘Commander of the LORD’s army’. Joshua, realising that he was standing before the Lord God, fell face down to the ground in reverence.

What was the Lord’s message to Joshua? ‘Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy.’

In today’s war-torn world it is easy for us to be like Joshua and take a side – or even assume God is on our side. What I draw from this passage is that the only side God takes is the one that gives Him glory, and establishes justice, loves kindness, and is walking humbly with Him (see Micah 6:8). Something we see far too little of in any religion these days.

With the war in Gaza growing more terrible each day, plus the situation with Iran, it is easy to see how it only sharpens hatred or increases confusion in most people. On one hand there is the most terrible suffering, enforced famine, and the killing of thousands of innocents in Gaza. On the other hand, innocents were also murdered in Israel, hostages are still not released, attacks against Jewish people, most of whom have nothing to do with Israel, have gone up over 1,000% in many Western cities. Antisemitism and Islamophobia flourish.

There is little justice, kindness, or walking humbly with God. Whose side do you take while the Lord shouts ‘No!’

As gospel people, we should only take God’s side. His is one which seeks holiness, righteousness, justice, kindness and humility. There is only one way to live this kind of radical life – the heart must be converted from sin to righteousness through repentance and faith in the Holy One of Israel, the Commander of the army of the Lord, the Saviour, the Messiah, Jesus.

Like Joshua, too many Christians miss the point and take a human side. We are called to take God’s side. When we take His side, we fall on our faces to the ground and we give ourselves to His will. We submit to His word and repent of our sin.

The March issue of en had an article written by an Orthodox Jewish writer who called for Christians to give a ‘little Jesus’ to Gazans. He was a ‘little’ right. In fact, as evangelicals, we need to give a LOT of Jesus to Gazans. We also need to give a LOT of Jesus to Jewish people, including Israelis. Without the completely life-transforming change that only Jesus brings, there is no hope for peace in the Middle East. So what are you waiting for?

Surely it is time for Christians who say we love the Lord, but love taking sides, to stop withholding the only One who can save Arabs and Jews from themselves and their self-preservationist hatred. Christians need to stop wasting time pontificating on who is right and who is wrong and see that both sides need God’s justice, goodness and mercy, before it is too late and they receive God’s judgment. Not ensuring the gospel is shared with both Arab and Jewish peoples is a sin of omission.

We hold the solution to peace in the Middle East. What will you do to bring Jesus back to the peoples living on the land that God called holy?