Whose Side Are You On, Anyway?
[Keeping the Darkness At Bay, Part Eight. See also one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven.]
For our next segment of Keeping the Darkness at Bay, I want to sort of continue where Enemy Who? left off. In that post, my focus was on how you treat people you disagree with, people positioned as your so-called enemy. We looked at the dangers of keeping an us-versus-them mentality. Indeed, we need to treat people with dignity and humility, but it’s hard for many people to do so when they’re constantly encouraged to pick sides.
Once battle lines are drawn, it’s easy to treat people on the other end of the battlefield as the other, as the enemy, as an evil, inhuman force.
You should never dehumanize your enemy. You should never treat your enemy like an enemy at all. But we get so stuck in our own rightness.
I’m not hating them. Part of love is showing them the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
There is some truth to this mentality, but there are issues. Oftentimes we get more concerned with teaching someone the truth that we don’t recognize their human faculties of logic and experience. Just because something makes sense to you doesn’t mean their brain will come to the exact same conclusion.
Instead of letting someone be free to think things out, we, in pride, will assume the other who disagrees with us to be inherently stupid or hopelessly deceived.
Instead of having a discussion, we like giving ultimatums. Instead of encouraging someone to be thoughtful, we pressure them to conform.
Conformity should never be the goal; instead, we should strive to encourage growth and maturity. Pressuring someone to conform to your way of thinking may be an effective strategy for some people, but ultimately the change is shallow and you’re not actually helping them. If you’re pressuring someone to conform to your way of thinking (even if you’re right in everything you believe), you’re still guilty of manipulation.
One of the biggest errors that leads to such manipulation is how we use God.
God is on my side.
You are not on my side.
Therefore, God is not on your side, and if you want to be right, you need to switch to my side, or else!
The problem with this approach is that it’s a lazy, simplistic, breeding ground for pride.
Of course, the protest for many Christians is obvious: “I know the Bible. God is on my side. Are you telling me not to hold to scripture and compromise my beliefs?”
That is not what I’m saying. You can stick to what you believe without being a manipulative jerk. You can be patient, have conversation, and go on a journey without compromising your beliefs.
But one step to this process of humility is letting go of the notion that God is automatically on your side and therefore it’s your job to change the person to be just like you.
I know, it still sounds weird. But let me explain with scripture so it makes more sense.
Who’s Side is God On?
Our story example today comes from the biblical book of Joshua. Most of us, especially if you’re a Christian, have heard the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. It’s a timeless tale that reminds us that God is bigger than us and more powerful than us.
The key to this story is trust. Trusting God enough to follow a weeklong battle plan that on the surface seems nonsensical. For six days, the Israelites marched around Jericho’s wall one time. On the seventh day, they marched around the wall seven times and screamed, and then the walls collapsed, enabling them to easily take the city.
It’s a cool story. Inspiring. You should read it. But that’s actually not the part of the story I want to talk about today. We’re only going to be looking at the beginning of the Jericho story—the thing that inspired Joshua to do battle my marching with music, the thing that gave Joshua the directions to begin with.
The Commander
Joshua 5:13-6:2 (ESV)
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor…”
The first part we need to understand from this passage: Who is the Commander of the Army of the LORD?
Considering that Joshua worships the Commander and the Commander instructs Joshua to remove the sandals from his feel because he’s on holy ground—intentionally mirroring Moses’s Burning Bush incident—most theologians agree and most Christian readers can deduce that this “Commander” is not just a commander, or even an angel. This is a theophany, a physical appearance of God Himself.
(For this scene and pretty much every reference in the Old Testament to the Angel of the LORD, this God appearance is widely believed to be a pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus, “The Image of the Invisible God.” It’s a little off topic, but it’s a really cool area to study if you’re interested in stuff like that.)
So Joshua is bowing down to his Commander, the LORD of Hosts, the pre-born Jesus. Joshua is having a full-blown encounter with God.
Why is this important?
Joshua doesn’t recognize him at first. Now, we don’t need to read too deeply into this fact. It might’ve been night time. What I really want to focus on is the question Joshua asks this mystery man.
Friend or foe? Are you with me or are you with my enemies?
The Lord identifies himself as the commander, Joshua worships Him, the Commander gives Joshua instructions to defeat Jericho, and the rest is history. But before he identifies himself, The Commander answers Joshua’s question: No.
This one word answer is one of the most paradigm-bending responses in the entire canon of scripture. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.
Why does this “No” matter? Doesn’t everyone know that Jesus is impartial?
Look at the context. This is Joshua. New leader of Israel after Moses’s death. Joshua used to follow Moses into the Tent of Meeting. Moses led the Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt. Moses went to the mountain top and received the law from the very lips of God. The Israelites under Joshua are finally stepping into their destiny to take the promised land.
The Israelites come from Israel, also known as Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham is the guy who God promised to use his seed to bless the nations. Abraham, the guy whose descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky, even though he was childless and old.
Leading Israel into the promised land was the next step in fulfilling God’s plan to bless the nations. The ultimate fulfillment came in Jesus, a descendent of Abraham. Jesus, who blessed all through his sacrifice, making the way for reconciliation to God.
Joshua grew up under Moses’s influence. He saw the manna from heaven. He saw the congregation following God’s physical pillar of cloud and fire. He saw the miracles. He had faith, even as a spy when him and Caleb believed God would help them subdue the land while the other spies feared, sowed doubt into the community, and delayed Israel’s progress a full forty years while an entire generation died in the wilderness. Joshua saw the plagues in Egypt, saw the bronze snake lifted in the desert, saw the quail drop from the sky, saw water gush forth from a rock on two separate occasions.
And now, theophany-pre-birth Jesus stands before Joshua as the Commander of the Army of the LORD, and tells Joshua, “No, I’m not on your side.”
Let’s not forget: God chose Israel. He elected Israel to be the people through whom God would bless the nations. If anyone could be considered God’s favorite, wouldn’t it make sense for that favorite to be Israel? Yet God’s not actually on Israel’s side.
God chose Israel. God used Israel to fulfill his good purpose, but he doesn’t love them any more or less than anyone else. He chose them, but he doesn’t favor them in the sense that he’s always on their side.
If you read through the Old Testament, Israel got cocky on more than one occasion, thinking they were good because God is theirs, only for them to fall into captivity after breaking their covenant with God on countless instances. God judged Israel just as he judged other nations. And God loves Israel just as he loves other nations.
The Application
Let’s bring this back around. Why does this matter?
Often times, ancient Israel took their position for granted. They were prideful. You should learn from that mistake.
God is not automatically “on your side.” Don’t use God as a weapon in arguments or fights. Instead of leveraging God, you should listen to Him and obey, even when his battle plan doesn’t make sense to you.
God is not allied with any one person, country, political party, or ideology. God transcends all of it. Instead of assuming God’s on our side, we need to strive every day to stay on his side.
His way means interacting with love, humility, and empathy. His way is strong, thoughtful, and dignifying.
If you want to be on God’s side, if you want to succeed in keeping the darkness at bay, humbly work to live submitted to the Holy Spirit, bearing the fruits of the Spirit in every interaction.
Remember: The Lord is always with you. God is omnipresent, and if you’re a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. He will always be by your side. But before assuming he’s on your side, as if you’re the commanding officer, make sure you take off your shoes, bow down, and listen to the one who gives the orders.
The Commander’s directions don’t always make physical sense in the moment, but they will always stretch your faith, increase your trust, and conform you even more to his likeness.
If you’re serious about keeping the darkness at bay, be humble and treat people with respect. And don’t break the chain of command.
