Whose Side Are You On?

I know it's hard to believe, but my children aren't always angelic cherubs. Now and then... they fight. Like hissing cats, fur on end, tails bushed, ears flat, they circle one another looking for the most vulnerable spot to attack, and then they lunge, and the snarling, spitting fury is a racket that must surely be heard throughout the whole neighborhood.

(My kids, to my knowledge, have not actually lunged at each other with their teeth or their claws). 

When such flare-ups happen, they're usually quick, and either my husband or I am on hand to jump into the middle. "You, go to your room, and you, go to your room. Stay there until I come in!"

"But Mooooommmmy, he--"
"But Mooooommm, she--"

Fingers pointing every which way, my kids march off to their assigned "thinking" spots, muttering dire grumblings all the way.

I let it cool for a while, sometimes longer than other times, depending on the severity of the flare-up. And then, I gather my courage and enter their rooms one at a time to get both sides of the story.

And you know what? Almost every single time, both sides have a good point. 

"She called me names." She shouldn't have called him names.

"He won't let me play with the Legos he never uses, and I'll give them right back." He could be less selfish. 

Both of them are clinging to their point with all their willpower, and both of them stare up at me with the unasked question: Whose side are you on, Mom?

Oy. Parenting ain't easy, y'all.

And I, in my love for my kids -- even when they're acting the way they are -- really wish I could choose one side... or the other side... but neither side is the right side. My long-term goal is to raise my children to become high-quality people whose first priority is to serve the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then, to love each other with the love of Jesus. 

So, I fix my mind firmly on that goal, and I take each battle as it comes. 

Here's an upcoming battle in Joshua 5. Let's talk about it. The Israelites have accomplished something that has been a long, long time in coming. They've crossed into their Promised Land. They've crossed a flood-stage Jordan River on dry ground. The Lord has granted them so much favor that all the peoples of the land of Canaan were terrified. "Their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites" (Joshua 5:1).

Because time has gone by since the Israelites had left Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years, all the guys who have come out of Egypt, with the notable exception of Joshua and Caleb (see Numbers 13-14), are now dead, and all the new guys, their sons and the ones who are now preparing to conquer all of the Promised Land -- are still uncircumcised. 

Circumcision was, at that time, an identifier that held the chosen people of God separate from the foreign nations, and so -- before the Israelites are allowed to continue on and take the land, the Lord tells Joshua to circumcise all the men.

Joshua obediently does so, and before they can even continue on their quest, the entire nation of Israel has to take a medical leave of absence for a few days until their fighting men heal up.

While this little time stamp happens, Joshua takes a walk to where he can see Jericho. He's looking out over the city -- I would guess he's considering strategic angles from which to attack it -- and all at once, near to him, really really near, is a Man.

And He's got a drawn sword in His hand.

Instead of running away (like I would have done, because "he who runs away lives to run away another day"), Joshua approaches him. "Are you for us or for our enemies?" he asks.

Whose side are you on, Mom?

The Man says: "Neither, but as Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come." The Man states His identity (Commander of the army of the Lord) and His mission (He's come to talk to Joshua).

There's no clear and concise statement detailing whether this is a Christophany (the appearance of Christ pre-New Testament) rather than an angelic appearance (such as Michael or Gabriel, as named in other books), but I personally believe it's a Christophany, because in every other place in the Word where an angel appears to a human, and the human -- in shock and reverent respect -- falls to the ground to worship, the angel instructs the human to get up and explains that he is a fellow servant with them.

Here, the Commander doesn't do this. Here, the Scripture says: "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" (Joshua 5:14-15).

Joshua is fighting what -- to him, and to the Israelite nation -- is a bit of a "holy war," right? This is our land, promised to us by our God, and we are going to take it. It's ours.

Looking at the land from the side of the Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites, etc. -- they've lived there for a long time. A long, loooooonnng time. Since Jacob packed up his stuff and left to go live with Joseph in Egypt, right? It's been hundreds of years since that happened, and now these upstart Israelites are crossing rivers and threatening their livelihoods and their homes by their very presence. The land is ours, they've got to be thinking. We've had it for a long time. 

This is really hitting hard for me today, having spent most of yesterday -- when I should have been studying for my Praxis test this weekend -- staring at every news source I could find, reading about the "sides" of Israel and Palestine and the escalating violence, praying for peace, recognizing the place of deep pain that each side is operating out of.

Joshua asks: "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

And the Lord says: "Neither."

Now, clearly and contextually, the Scripture shows us that the Lord chose Israel as His nation in the Old Testament, and He gave them the Promised Land, and He fought their battles for them as long as they honored Him and recognized Him as their sovereign.

However, here, He declared that He was for neither side.

... Why?

You know... I don't know for sure, but here's my guess: I think the Lord was more interested in the hearts of every person involved than He was in nationalistic campaigns. Yes, He shows up with a sword and gives Joshua his military strategy for the defeat of Jericho -- but He says "Neither," because He sees Joshua -- a man who immediately bows and removes his shoes upon recognition of the Lord. And He sees Rahab -- a prostitute who immediately pledges allegiance to her new Sovereign as soon as she finds herself in His plans.

Rahab is on one side. Joshua is on the other. And the Lord is on neither side. He scraps sides, pulls out His total plan, His end goal, and tells Joshua how to accomplish it (details of that show up at the beginning of Chapter 6).

Here's the application, along with my unspoken answer to my children's unspoken question: Whose side are you on?

Neither. I'm on the side of the people the Holy Spirit is shaping. 

Romans 9:20-21: "But who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the Potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" 

Whatever vessels the Lord wants to make, are we moldable? Or do we harden our shells, stand our ground, and declare that our side is the right side?

"Does the clay say to the Potter: 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The Potter has no hands?'" (Isaiah 45:9) 

Ever seen a lump of clay being spun on a wheel with no hands to hold it steady, to mold it and shape it? The clay, via centrifugal force, loses its center, its form, and either flies off the wheel or flattens into a shapeless mass -- neither result bringing a fruitful fulfillment of any kind.

Let's let the Lord shave off from our vessels what isn't needed; the Holy Spirit is shaping each one of us into a beautiful creation. We need to focus on who He wants us to be in the long run, and even though it may not feel pleasant now, the me that He wants me to be will be the me that emerges from the wheel, the drying shelf, the firing oven... you get the point. 

It's not a matter of sides, is it? Right... left...

Neither.