November 28

The host of the Lord. - Joshua 5:14.

HAVING noticed the historical circumstances connected with the passage, let us now derive from it a subject which may be found profitable. It regards two things. First, “The host of the Lord;” and this will apply to the Israel of God now: they are so called because of their number. Now they are a multitude; and hereafter they will be found to be “a number which no man can number;” and because they are in a state of martial discipline, arrangement, and order, and readiness for conflict.

Thus the Church is held forth by Solomon, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” The Book of the Lord reminds us that they are now in a state of warfare. And the Christian life is in a very peculiar sense a warfare; and there is no one image more frequently employed in Scripture in describing the partakers of Divine grace, than the image taken from the condition of a soldier. Paul therefore, speaking to his son Timothy, says, “Warring a good warfare,” “fighting the good fight of faith;” and when he takes his final review of life, he not only says, “I have kept the faith, and I have finished my course, but I have fought a good fight.”

And in the addresses to the seven Churches of Asia there is a promise, a glorious promise, made to each of them; it is made in each instance to him that overcometh. There is an obvious truth and force in the metaphor; and the Christian finds that it corresponds with his experience. He is called not only to work and to walk, but to fight; and he finds that he can neither walk nor work without fighting. The world is a foe to the Christian, not only by its persecutions; the friendship of the world is enmity with God; its smiles are much more dangerous than its frowns.

The world is only one of the enemies that the Christian has to contend with; for, says the Apostle, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities; against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places.” “Our adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour:” and “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit;” there is the “evil heart of unbelief, that departeth from the living God,” there is “the sin that dwelleth in us,” enfeebling all our powers.

It is not a trifling nor an easy conflict which every Christian is engaged in now; he must be constrained to say with the Apostle, “So fight I not as one that beateth the air;” that is, I am not like one vapouring away, while the enemy is at a distance, and brandishing my weapons in a feigned combat. I have to beat not the air but the adversary; we have closed upon each other; it is a dreadful struggle, and I must conquer or be conquered and undone for ever. There is much to be said of this warfare which cannot be said of any other. This will bear examination.

This is a just and necessary war; the cause is truth and righteousness and peace; and the issue will be glorious.