After the people had had their time in the grave and they had healed, they came and celebrated the Passover and had a party. After years and years of having cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they finally got to eat a real meal. They ate the food of the land and they said,

"Bye bye to manna forever. Good riddance! I never want to see that stuff again."

If you had a certain kind of cereal rammed down your throats as a kid, you probably find that even now as an adult just the smell of it makes you feel ill.

Have you noticed what tastes people have in food, and how fussy some people are about what they will and won't eat? Usually it is what was rammed down their throat as a child, and they just got so sick of it they never want to see it again.

I can imagine the most difficult thing that Joshua could ever have had to do, would have been to tell the people that they had to eat manna again. They would have said,

"Oh no, not again."

So this was party time. It was celebration time.

They said, "We're going to have a real feast. We're going to eat the good stuff. We're going to eat the food of the land."

It is time for resurrection. The death is over. You have had your time in the grave. It is now time to rise up and party. It is time to get into action; do some fun stuff and get the show on the road.

A new level of spirituality will arise. A new anointing will come. A new power of God will come and a new understanding of the Word.

There will be a new commitment from the people. They will be changed. They will be zealous and enthusiastic about going on and moving into what God has for them.

Dealing with His Confidence

The people were ready, but now it was Joshua's turn. He had been pretty well trained. He had his whole time there with Moses being trained at his side. He had spent time in the presence of the Lord. He had his time of going to fight the battles while Moses stood with his rod.

He had a lot of training, and you would think that now that he had moved into his ministry office, been through the tests and succeeded, that it was okay. There was nothing that God needed to deal with in Joshua anymore.

It was not true. There was still a little bit in Joshua that God had to deal with. It wasn't insecurity. He was not insecure by any means. No insecure man stands up between a crowd of men and tells them he is going to circumcise them I can assure you. You were a pretty bold strong man to do that.

No, Joshua's problem was the complete opposite. He was over-confident in himself and in his natural strength.

This man was a warrior. He had gone out and defeated Amalek. He had led the armies of God to defeat the enemy and conquered every single one. He had a long record behind him. He must have been so decorated with medals that it was dragging him down.

You often see these big army officers with all their medals and stuff weighing them down, and you say,

"Oh, awesome. He's a mighty man."

That was Joshua. He was full of selfish strengths and he didn't have an iota of discernment. It was all natural, all mind, all flesh. It was great and God could use that, but it had to be dealt with first.

Do you remember Moses in Egypt?

He said, "I am the deliverer, educated in the wisdom of Egypt."

They call him 'The Prince of Egypt' in the movies.

"I am going to deliver you people with my strength."

God said, "No you're not."

Humiliation

Moses was reduced to rubble. He stood there like a stupid shepherd and didn't even want to go and do the job when God told him to.

Joshua had his turn here. God was about to deal with Joshua before he conquered a single city in the Promised Land. Why was this? Because Joshua wanted to do things the old way, and God had said,

"No, Joshua you change. You have to do it differently."

Joshua had all of his experience of going out and conquering. He knew how to do it. He was a man of war; an expert. But God said,

"You see that degree you have in warfare? Joshua, burn it. It's not going to work anymore. It has to change. You will be doing things a bit differently Joshua."

I can imagine Joshua saying,

"Yeah yeah.. just wait till I get in there, man. We'll sort these guys out."

He was ready to kill. He wanted to just take his sword and do his usual thing. So Joshua came to Jericho. This great, mighty man of valor and general of the Army was all set and poised. And who should appear before him but the Angel of the Lord.

He had such wonderful discernment he didn't even know it was an Angel. He thought this was just a warrior. Joshua's first approach was,

"Are you a friend? Then you can come and join us. If you're an enemy then I'm going to kill you."

He had his hand on his sword. He was ready.

He said, "Are you for us or against us? Speak up."

Here was mister high and mighty; mister strong warrior saying,

"I'll sort you out in two ticks if you are against us, so you'd better be for us. I'm warning you."

The man said, "I've come as the Captain of the Lord's host. You don't know who you are talking to!"

Joshua had been with Moses for a while and he realized it was time to copy his master. He had seen how many times Moses fell on his face, and I think he figured this was a good time to act just like Moses. That is exactly what he did - mister big and strong, high and mighty.

Repeat Call

God said, "You don't know what you are dealing with here. You are not going to win this battle your way, Joshua. You're going to do it my way.

"Now get back to the first call that you are carrying out, Joshua. The first call was to Moses. Now I am taking you right back where Moses started."

You see Joshua had not been there when Moses was up on the mountain and saw the burning bush. Moses told Joshua about it, but he wasn't there though. So God gave Joshua a repeat or a replay, except he was the star actor of what happened to Moses this time. The Angel said,

"Take off your shoes, Joshua. The place you are standing on is Holy ground."

Do you remember, that is what the Angel of the Lord said to Moses through the burning bush? Now I don't know what taking off your shoes meant, but I kind of feel that it is possibly a very humiliating experience to go walking bare feet.

I think that if you took off your shoes in front of somebody it was kind of humbling. Joshua was being cut down a few notches. He had to take off his shoes. And you know Joshua had the sense to not argue like Moses did.

What happened to Moses when God spoke to him? He brought out his analytical arguments.

He said, "Lord, if I do this, then that will happen. If we do this, then that will happen. If I go, this will happen."

I think God became so fed up with Moses eventually, but Joshua had the sense to obey. Maybe it was because he wasn't analytical.

"I mean the Angel said, 'Take off your shoes.' What is so complicated about that? So okay, let me take off my shoes."

Passed the Test

He did as he was told and he passed the test immediately. He fell on his face and humbled himself and was prepared immediately to acknowledge God and say,

"I'll do what you tell me, Lord. Hey if you want me to approach this thing differently, I'm ready for change. I'm not afraid to change. I'm not afraid to obey. I'm not afraid to humble myself even before the people if that is what it requires. I'm available to you, Lord. You just use me in whichever way you want to use me."

Joshua knew how to die quickly. I pray that all Joshua apostles out there are paying attention.

Learn how to die quickly, otherwise the Angel is going to take out His sword, push you down on the ground and pull your shoes off. Then you will know all about it. He will probably make you grovel around in the dirt a little bit, just for fun.

Watch it; let go of your natural strengths. I don't care how strong you are, you cannot depend on those. You can only depend on the Lord.

So Joshua learned total dependence on the Lord alone, and now he was ready to listen to God's plan. And God gave His plan to Joshua, and as he feared it was different. In fact it was absurd.

"You want me to what?"

"Just go and walk around the city and play music."

"And then?"

"Do it again."

"And then?"

"Do it again and again and again."

"And then?"

"Shout."

"Umm God, let me just let you know something. I've had a bit of experience in warfare, and you know that is not the way that you conquer the enemy. Lord, I'm not calling you stupid or anything, but it really sounds absurd. I don't know how it is going to happen, but if that's what you say Lord, let's do it."

Joshua was ready to obey. He didn't argue like Moses. He said,

"Okay, we're ready to go."