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.”
– Joshua 5:13-14

People sometimes talk about “trigger” moments: situations that are similar enough to past trauma to elicit a response, not only to current events, but to what happened in the past. Triggers can be nearly anything—words, events, personalities, places, patterns, sounds—and they tend to evoke a level of fear, dread, fatigue, anxiety, insecurity or aggression that is disproportionate to the immediate situation. 

This moment at the end of Joshua chapter 5 must have, I think, been a trigger moment for Joshua. He had stood at this place before, forty years past. At that time, he was a much younger man, full of excitement to arrive at the promised land, but his enthusiasm and vision only got him nearly stoned to death by his own people. He watched every single one of his generation, except for Caleb, die over the next four decades in the wilderness. Now, he’s back, only Moses is gone. Joshua has to lead them now. He’s older, probably in his 80’s. He remembers what fear did to his people. He himself is untested. And he’s facing the first formidable challenge of his mission: the walled city of Jericho. No doubt his anticipation of the future is tinged by grief, regret and fear.

In the sections before this, a story has already been unraveling: an echo of Moses’ story, told in reverse. Just as Moses led his people across the parted waters of the Red Sea, Joshua led them across the parted Jordan River. Just as before that crossing, there had been the first Passover on Egyptian soil, and a strange story of circumcision (Exodus 4), so too Joshua after the crossing leads his people through their first Passover on new soil and circumcises the nation. And now, just as it all began when Moses took off his shoes on holy ground, Joshua too will have his barefoot moment. And that moment will come in that very place he’s been to before.

Who is this man? Many commentators believe that he is, in fact, Jesus. He is no mere angel, for angels, as created beings, are not worshiped (Revelation 22). He is the Uncreated, the One who comes from God and yet is God, who reveals that God can and does come in human form to deliver his people. He is God incarnate, a preliminary manifestation of Christ. He comes as Lord. He comes as Commander. He comes as one who blasts Joshua’s agendas and categories out of the water with a simple word—“No”—who gives him a strategy for the future as effective as it is illogical, to demonstrate His power.

But the point is that he comes. Behold. Many years later, the angel would say to Mary, Behold. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31)—Jesus, the Hebrew pronunciation of “Joshua,” meaning “Yahweh helps.” Behold, Jesus, the new Joshua. Except this time he comes not as a warrior with drawn sword, but as a helpless baby. But Joshua couldn’t have known all of that. He simply followed God through his fear, all the long way back to the walled city of his past, to the reminder of his grief and hopes. And there, Jesus met him.