The Names of God
08/26/2001 - Jehovah Tsebaioth, "The Lord of Hosts"
For the last five weeks, we have been enjoying a teaching series called "The Names of God." Bruce Carter, who is away on vacation with this family this week, has been sharing about the different names that God used in the Old Testament to introduce himself to his people. We've looked at names like ...
El Elyon, God Most High
El Shaddai, God Almighty
Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Provides
Jehovah Rophi, The Lord Who Heals
Each name has revealed a different aspect of God's character and personality and each name has created in us a desire to learn more about this awesome God who loves us so much that he goes out of his way to reveal himself to us.
Last week we learned about Jehovah Nissi, The Lord Our Banner. Bruce shared with us the story of the battle between the armies of Israel and the Amalekites. Moses ordered Joshua to lead the battle while he went up to the top of the hill to pray. As long as Moses lifted his hands to God, the armies of Israel would advance. When Moses grew tired and let his hands fall, the battle would turn against them. At one point Aaron and Hur pulled up a rock for Moses to sit on and they stood next to him and helped him hold his arms up.
After the battle was won, Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my banner. Bruce reminded us that God wants to be our banner to go before us in our daily battles, to rally us and direct us. The battle is not ours ... it is the Lord's and because of that we need to pray ... God will go before us in battle when we acknowledge him as our banner in prayer.
This week we want to look at the name Jehovah Tsebaioth, the Lord of hosts. I really feel like this week's teaching picks up where last week's teaching left off and elaborates on the truth that our battles are really God's battles and he wants to fight them for us but there are things that we need to do to turn him loose ... last week we learned that we need to pray ... this week we will learn four other requirements needed for victory in the battle.
Our story opens up in the book of Joshua, chapter 5 ... Joshua is all by himself somewhere near the city of Jericho in the land that God had promised to Moses and his people.
This is the same Joshua who followed the orders of Moses in our story last week and led the armies of Israel into battle against the Amalakites. The Amalakite attack occurred shortly after the Israelites fled from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. A lot had happened to the children of Israel since that great military victory over the Amalakites and Joshua had seen it all.
In fact, it wasn't long after the victory over the Amalakites that Joshua was chosen to be one of 12 spies to cross over into the promised land to see what was waiting for them on the other side of the Jordan River.
For 40 days, these 12 men explored the land from one end to the other. They came back with samples of the bounty of the land ... pomegranates and figs and huge bunches of grapes that were so big it took two men to carry them ... they reported that God was right when he said the land was flowing with milk and honey.
But ten of the 12 spies also brought back fearful reports of the size and strength of the people in the land and detailed descriptions of their large, fortified cities. One of those cities was Jericho. Archaeologists today believe that the walls of Jericho were so wide that chariot could race around the tops of them.
Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed that God would give them victory no matter how big and strong the enemy appeared.
NUMBERS 14:7-9 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."
But it was too late ... the people were already convinced by the report of the other 10 spies that the conquest of the land was impossible. They began to complain that God had brought them to the dessert to die and they even picked up stones to silence Joshua and Caleb.
So they wandered in the dessert for 40 years, one year for every day that the spies were in the land. It was a 40 year interval that was not part of God's original plan. It was a 40 year consequence of their lack of faith in the God who had delivered them from Egypt. During those 40 years every one of them that was 20 years or older when the spies came back from the promised land died in the dessert. Only their children would survive to see the land of Canaan.
At the end of those 40 years, Moses, the great servant of God and leader of the children of Israel, died at the age of 120 leaving Joshua to take his place. After 30 days of mourning, God spoke to Joshua and told him it was now time to take the children of Israel across the Jordan River and into the land that he had promised them.
That brings us back to Joshua, chapter 5, verse 13, with Joshua standing alone somewhere outside the walls of Jericho in the land of Canaan.
What is going through his mind? Surely he is wondering how God is going to deliver this great, walled city into their hands. Perhaps he is remembering the first time he saw this city 40 years ago when he and 11 other spies snuck across the Jordan River to scout out the land.
But, no doubt, he is also replaying in his mind the unpredictable events of the last several weeks ...
You see, after the death of Moses, Joshua obeyed God and ordered his officers to prepare the people, 1.5 million Israelites, to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. God told Joshua to have the priests go first, carrying the ark of the covenant of God, and walk right on into the Jordan River ...
Joshua 3:15-17 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
As a warrior, Joshua knew this was a perfect time to attack the city of Jericho. Forty thousand of his armed men had been the first to cross the Jordan behind the priests. His army was pumped up and his own public opinion polls were at an all time high. When the people of Jericho saw the armies march across the Jordan River followed by 1.5 million Israelites they ran into their walled city, slammed the doors, and locked all the deadbolts. All of a sudden these Israelites, who they had laughed at for the past 40 years as they wandered aimlessly in the dessert, were now miraculously on their doorstep and they were scared to death. If ever there was the perfect time to attack, this was it.
But God had a different plan. God told Joshua to circumcise all the men of Israel, all the sons of those who had rebelled against God in the dessert. And so, rather than charging the walls of Jericho, every man in Israel's camp underwent the painful blade of circumcision. And they remained in the camp until they were healed ...
I am sure that as Joshua is standing alone outside the walls of Jericho, he is wondering what that was all about.
And if that were not confusing enough, the day that the last man recovered from the pain of circumcision turned out to be the very day that Israel celebrated the Passover. And so, as one people they celebrated the Passover. They remembered that night 41 years ago when each household had sacrificed an unblemished lamb to God and applied the blood of the sacrifice to the doorposts of their homes.
They remembered how the angel of God took the life of every first born son of Egypt but passed over their houses and spared their sons. It was a holy day of sacrifice and confession and reflection and worship.
On the day following the Passover celebration, for the very first time, they ate some of the produce of the land ... unleavened bread and roasted grain. And on that day the manna, God's daily miraculous provision of food, stopped. And as Joshua stood alone outside the walls of Jericho, he knew that this was a significant turning point in the unfolding adventure of God.
Joshua 5:13-6:5 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"
"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"
The commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.
Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."
And if you read ahead or if you already know the rest of the story, that is exactly what happened ...
As Joshua is standing alone outside the walls of Jericho, he encounters a mysterious man with a sword in his hand. Joshua asks him if he is on their side or on the side of Jericho.
Look again at verse 14 ...
"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD [Jehovah Tsebaioth, The Lord of Hosts] I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence.
At first his answer sounds strange. Why would he answer "neither"? Why wouldn't he tell Joshua that he was for him? The answer follows the word "but."
"I am neither for your army or for the army of Jericho BUT I am commander of the army of the LORD." Jehovah Tsebaioth, the Lord of hosts. When Joshua heard those words, he fell on his face in humility and worship. All questions about how this great city would be conquered were vanquished. Joshua was face to face with the real commander in chief.
This was not just some mighty human warrior. This was the commander of the heavenly armies of God in the spiritual realm. Many believe that this was an Old Testament appearance of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God ... the captain of the host is Jesus! And he is telling Joshua that this is a battle between the heavenly forces of God and the demonic forces of Satan. Joshua now knew who was ultimately in charge.
But why now? Why didn't He appear 40 years earlier and spare God's people all of those years of misery in the desert?
One of the books that Bruce and I have been reading to help us prepare for this series is called Hallowed Be Thy Names, written by David Wilkerson. In that book, David Wilkerson suggests that the Lord of Hosts chose this time to reveal himself because this time the people were in a position to receive him. They had met the four requirements of anyone who truly wants to experience God's complete victory.
I believe these requirements apply to us as a church. I believe these requirements apply to us individually. And I want to conclude our time together this morning by sharing these four requirements for experiencing God's supernatural victory in our lives and in the life of Valley View Community Church.
1. We have to cross our Jordan River
We have to turn our backs on compromise, worldliness, and unbelief.
We see it all around us. We see people content to "play church" while denying the very reality and power of God.
We see it in us. We grow so content in this world's value system. We are so quickly caught up in the sin and materialism that's all around us.
At some point we have to say, "that is enough" and leave the grumblings and faithlessness to die in the dessert. Crossing our Jordan means that we have looked across at the Jericho in our life, that evil stronghold that continually keeps us from enjoying the fullness of life that God has promised us, and we have determined to experience the victory that Jehovah Tsebaioth, the Lord of hosts, has secured for us.
For many of us, this is a line in the sand. This is a significant turning point in our adventure with Christ. We trusted Him a long time ago, but we have been living in a relationship with Him that has not been pure. We have allowed other loves to constantly rob us of all that could be ours in Christ.
But now that has to change. We need to look across to our Jericho and cross the line. When we do that we are declaring war against the stronghold that risen up in our lives.
The second requirement for experiencing God's victory is this ...
2. We have to face the sharp knife of circumcision
Of course, I am not talking about literal, physical circumcision. Paul said in Romans 2:29 ... circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Philippians 3:3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh ...
We have to do away with all confidence in the flesh. We have to fully embrace the fact that we are powerless to bring down our personal Jericho.
Just like physical circumcision brought 40,000 mighty soldiers to the end of their self-confidence, sometimes God brings us to the end of ourselves - to the end of our self-reliance and, amazingly, a Holy Spirit calm falls on us and we are ready to listen to God and allow Him to fight our battle for us.
We have to do away with all confidence in the flesh before we can move forward to victory over our Jericho.
3. We have to experience the Passover
The observance of Passover included the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb releasing the people from the guilt of their sins.
We have to experience God's complete forgiveness. One thing I love about Valley View Community Church is that we are open and honest about our sin. We know that we all foul up and we are not about to pretend that we've got it all together. But we cannot stop there. We must lay it down on the altar of God where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, poured out his blood and covered all of our sin. We need to let the blood of Christ wash away our guilt and experience his forgiveness.
There is one last requirement that we must meet before Jehovah Tsebaioth, the Lord of hosts, leads us to victory. We have crossed our Jordan River, turning our backs on compromise, worldliness, and unbelief. We have faced the sharp knife of circumcision and have put aside all confidence in the flesh. We have experienced the Passover, laying our sins on the altar and realizing God's complete forgiveness.
4. We have to face our Jericho
We have to face whatever it is that is keeping us from the victorious, abundant life that God has promised us in Jesus Christ.
We all have our Jerichos, some repetitive sin, some kind of lust, or materialism, or anger. Some addiction or fear or worry or doubt that has existed in our lives for so long that it looms before us like a fortified city with walls so thick you could race stock cars on the top of it.
The tragedy is that we become convinced that there is nothing anyone can do about it and we settle for a life of desert wandering. All the while God is saying, "that Jericho in your life has to come down," and Jesus himself, the commander of God's heavenly army is standing in the ready waiting for us to get serious about it ...
You have to know that the minute you gave your life to Jesus, our enemy, Satan, began to look for a choice spot of real estate in our heart where he could begin building our Jericho. That is what he is all about. He is the destroyer.
If he can't keep us from trusting in Christ and receiving the gift of eternal life, then he will build a spiritual stronghold in our life that will choke out any chance of experiencing the abundant life that Christ desires for us. Unless that Jericho comes down, we will never enter into the fullness of Christ.
When we get serious about facing our Jericho, Jesus steps up to the front of the charge with all the power of the heavenly armies to give us specific directions on how to take the city.
We must simply obey his commands. We must move forward in faith and obedience. We don't know how He is going to do it but we know that He is going to bring down our Jericho.
There will be moments when it seems like nothing is happening. We are marching forward in obedience but the stronghold is still there. Imagine how the armies of Israel felt after the sixth day of marching. They didn't see any evidence that God at work. But then, on the seventh day, the walls completely collapsed and the city was immediately reduced to a pile of rubble.
We have to start by crossing our Jordan, turning our backs on the compromise, worldliness, and unbelief that we see all around us and that we see in our own lives.
We need to face the sharp knife of circumcision, the circumcision of our hearts, and put aside all confidence in the flesh, in our own ability to tear down the stronghold in our life.
We have to experience the Passover, confess our sins to God and experience His complete forgiveness and freedom from guilt.
And then we have to fall in step behind Jehovah Tsebaioth, the Lord of hosts, the commander of the armies of God, as he leads us forward to demolish our Jericho and enter into the abundant life that Jesus promised to us.
Do you believe that He can do it?