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In chapter 5 of Joshua, it says on the evening of the fourth day, verse 10, while they were camped at Gilgal in the plains of where Jericho now. I want you to look at me a second. Let me give you a little geography lesson here. My wife and I were there not too long ago. We went to Jericho. We saw the old city. It is still there. It's just a hump of dirt. I mean, the place where the walls fell down are still present. And by the way, Joshua did declare that no one shall ever build there on that spot again. It's right there in that chapter. And do you know that no one has built there since? And people are afraid to build it. They're building all around it, but not on that spot because Joshua already declared a curse on the spot. Two thousand, no, six thousand years later, it is still there. No one has built on it. Isn't God awesome?
And so we went to visit this spot, and it was amazing. The, the Jordan River is on this side, and the Red Sea is on this side. And over here is Egypt. And there's the Red Sea. And in here is the wilderness. And here's the Jordan River. And over here is Canaan. Can you see that? So you get Egypt, Red Sea, wilderness, Jordan, and Canaan. So you got bondage, training, and freedom. And between bondage and freedom is wilderness. And separating all three of them are two rivers. That's why I say, you know, most of our life is spent between the two rivers. Why? Because God won't let us cross the last one until we pass the test in the wilderness.
Now, here's the way it works. Here is Jordan, and the wilderness, and Canaan. When they cross Jordan, right on this side of Jordan is Jericho. Jericho is the first stronghold that you meet when you cross Jordan. When we went on the bus, we crossed Jordan. And as soon as we came across the, the mound where Jericho was still there, and my mind went back four or five thousand years. And I said to myself, my goodness, I can imagine what Joshua saw when they came out of the water with the ark on their shoulders, and the priests singing, and they worshipping, and everybody happy. They're going into the promised land. Oh yeah. Remember Joshua sent some spies to check it out? They were thinking about the grapes. Everybody said grapes. They were thinking about the milk and the honey. And they thought, oh yeah, we're going into freedom here. We're gonna be good. And they start singing, "Free at last, free at last, great God Almighty, and free at last." Yes, free. You know the song we sing, "Free at last." Yes. And they got the ark on their shoulders. Everybody, the children lined up, millions walking in, "Free at last." Joshua in the front, "Free at last." "Free at last." And all of a sudden, they got to cross. And they went, "Free at last."
You see, there's a burden to freedom. The minute you enter freedom, there's trouble. Jericho was standing there with walls as thick as this building is wide. And Jericho was saying, "Free at who? If you want to be set free, you're going to get rid of me first." Yes, this is your land that God promised you, but you're going to fight for every foot of this property. Yes, it is the promised land, but the promise is going to be yours after you take it. Joshua thought that was the only problem, but that was just the first one. Behind Jericho were the Moabites, and behind them were the Hittites, and behind them were the Jebusites, and behind them were the Canaanites. And all the other "ites" were lined up, waiting for the test. You see, that's the way life is. Just when you think it's getting easier, freedom demands a fight. It's a burden. And here they cross the river.
Now, I want you to check this out because this is the message that I gotta get across to the whole church and to the world as well. Because even as our national development takes place as a country and nations in the third world, we must understand God's process. It says here in chapter 5, when they got on the plains of Jericho, where they could see it, the Bible says they ate some of the produce of the land. And what happened? Verse 12, the manna stopped. The manna stopped. What's he talking about? What manna is this? That's the manna that they got in the wilderness. That's the free food, free stuff. He says the manna stopped. And from that day forward, they never had manna again. When you enter freedom, then suddenly all of the welfare programs shut down. That's why people don't want to be free. Why? Because in slavery, you get your own food free. When you come into freedom, all the things that were done for you, you now have to do for yourself. You see, freedom has a heavy burden. The manna stops. When you enter freedom, all of the things that God did for you, now he's demanding you do it for yourself. And he works with you.
And I want you to check this here. It says that the manna stopped, and it stopped after they tasted the food from freedom. The next few verses are awesome. It says, "And then Joshua saw a man standing in the front of him with a drawn sword in his hand." And Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or against us?" Please underline that. Everybody say, "A man." This is not really a man in the sense that we know it. It was actually God. Let me prove it. It says here, the answer came, "Neither am I for you or against you." Whoops. He says, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" He said, "I'm not for you, nor for your enemies." Read on. "But as a commander of the army of the Lord, I have come." Now, as a commander of the army of the Lord, I have come. Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and worshiped him. And he said, "What message does my, my Lord have for his servant?" And the commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your shoes, for the place you are standing is holy ground." And Joshua did so.
Listen to me for a second. Where did you hear that similar story before? Moses. Now, here's how you know when the individual in the Old Testament is Jesus. Whenever an angel appears before man, and the man kneels down to worship the angel, in every case, the angel picked him back up. Angel says, "Don't worship me. I am just like you." In every case. Read the Bible. Everywhere that's done, he picked the man back up. He never let the man worship him. But this is an account here where this particular individual left Joshua on the ground. Secondly, Joshua calling what? "My Lord." And what is he? The commander. The commander. A commander. The commander of what? The army of the Lord. The host of the Lord, which means he commands everything that God created. Which is what? Jesus. Why? Because he created all things. So here is God showing up to Joshua. Joshua is about to enter what? Freedom. And the first person he meets is who? God. Oh boy. When Moses was about to go and deliver them out of Egypt, the first person he met was who? God. And God told him what? "Take your shoes off." Now, how did God introduce himself to Moses? Through a burning bush. And Moses went over to the bush because it was very interesting. And Moses was intrigued. And Moses said to himself, "This is interesting." He was there. He was intrigued. And God says, "Moses." He says, "Yes." He says, "I am the Lord." He says, "Yes." He said, "Take your shoes off." He took his shoes off. He said, "For the land you stand is holy ground." Yes. And he began to give Moses instructions about what he must do to deliver the people.
Now, it's a different situation. This is not deliverance now. This is freedom we're getting ready for. And here comes Joshua in the land of freedom. The first spot on the land, God meets him. But this time, please underline these words. You might have missed this, but it says there was a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword. Underline the words "drawn sword." This time, God shows up as a fighter. This is no little quaint bush burning to get your attention. He's now telling Joshua, "I am still God, but look what I'm dressed in. I got an armor on this time, and I got a sword this time." In other words, freedom demands a fight. I was with you in the wilderness, and I fed you like a father, and I healed you like a doctor, and I sewed your clothes like a seamstress, and I paid for everything in the desert. He says, "But now, this is a brand new level of life. You've come into maturity now. And you better put your sword on." You remember last session, we dealt with that. Jesus told disciples, he said, "Send you out and don't take a purse, don't take money, don't take sandals, don't take nothing, just go. I'll take care of everything. It's already paid for." The second time he sent him out, he says, "You better take everything plus a sword." In other words, when you grow up, God is demanding that you become responsible for the fight.
This appearance of Jesus, of the Lord, shocked Joshua. Now, here's something cool. When God showed up, Joshua did not recognize God. I want you to get this point. It's very important to me. When I understood this, Joshua actually didn't know whether God was on his side or on the enemy's side. Come on. Think about that question. "Are you on my side?" In other words, based on what you brought, this don't look like you. You brought tribulation and tests and trials. You bring in a fight. You ain't God. I've been taught by my church that you don't fight. That you are a God who meets every need and you take care of me. But now you're giving me a sword. You see, our mentality and our concept of God has been created by our experience in the past. And we got to be careful because what I'm telling you is the same God who was with this ministry 10 years ago. Hang on. Look like the same God the next 10 years. Some of you got to say, "God's not with us anymore. Something's gone wrong." No, it's still God. It's just that he wants you to do more work now.
I've been telling God, "Oh God, I wish I had the ministry the way it was 10 years ago." In another man's place where the other man paid the rent. I mean, I paid for the lights, and the other man took care of the lawn, and the other man manicured. When he was in the hotel, it was great. We came into the hotel. Remember we were in the hotel? Yeah, it was so wonderful. Hallelujah. We went to church through the gardens. It was wonderful in the hotel. He asked me, "Walking?" And then there was a little pool, and there were fountains. It was our church meeting place. And there was a man there clipping the hedge. We never paid him. The hotel was paying him. There was a man changing the bulb in the room we were using, and we weren't paying him. The hotel was paying him and paying for the bulb. But we sure enjoyed that. And we were so proud to say, "We meet in the hotel." Hallelujah. Come to our meeting. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. And now we tell them, "Come here, and the roof ain't finished, and the front ain't finished, and the yard ain't got nothing in it. I mean, don't come."
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Everybody say, "Fight." When you take on your own responsibility, then you gotta receive the sword of God. This appearance of God was so unexpected. Joshua said, "Are you God, or are you on our enemy's side?" I believe that there are times when you really rebuke God. How many of you have done that before? I rebuke God many times. This, I rebuke you, God. This ain't the devil. This is me. He said, "But no, no, no. You, I always say, 'Use a good God.'" I say, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm good at what I'm doing. And right now, I'm training you how to be responsible." God is not going to give you a warm and fuzzy every time you meet him. He's not going to bless you with free manna and nice clothes and take your water off the rock. One time, when God comes to you, he's going to tell you, "Take your own well." You say, "But Lord, last, last 10 years, you gave us water from the rock." Yeah, I know. The next 10 years, you're gonna find your own water. Joshua didn't recognize God because when you grow up, you enter the area of responsibility, and you meet a fighter. Can I suggest to you then that when the season of maturity has come, the miracle supply stops? I want to say this very carefully because some folks are saying, "Are you saying that miracles cease?" No. What happens then is God demands that you become a part of the miracle. You see, when they were eating manna, the manna came from the heavens, and they didn't do anything to get it. Matter of fact, they were murmuring while it was coming down. They were living rotten, and God was still feeding them. But when you grow up, God expects you to live clean, to live righteous, to be holy, to walk circumspect, and to be a part of the miracle. And therefore, God will not finish this building for us. He will not complete what you started for you.