Captain, my Captain

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. – Joshua 5.13-15

Bible scholars differ about physical appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. These are called Theophanies or Christophanies. Of Christ existed for all eternity so I have no problem with the idea that He could have visited earth before His incarnation as a baby in Bethlehem.

Here is one of those incidents.

Joshua was on a mission to see what was ahead. While there, near Jericho, he met a man and of course he was curious who it was. He was even more curious because they man had a sword. So Joshua asked him ‘are you for us or against us.’

Now, we know from the end of the verse that this was something special because the man says ‘take off your shoes because this is holy ground’ but Joshua didn’t know that yet.

The man introduces Himself as 'Captain of the Lord of Hosts.' Jesus promised that he would captain them in their conquest. He would lead them and show them the way.

Later on Jesus is referred to as the ‘Captain of our Salvation.’ As our captain He will lead many sons to glory and show us the way.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. – Hebrews 2.10

In the classic Walt Whitman poem we read of a deep devotion for a very influential person in the poets life. Sadly, at the end, we read that the captain ‘lies fallen cold and dead.’ In the poem the writer calls out for his captain to ‘rise up’ but of course he cannot.

Praise God that the Captain of our Salvation did rise from the dead and will lead us into eternity.