Watch Out Now!

The biggest idol we face in life is....our self. We love us some us. And we like everybody to think like us, agree with us, talk like us etc. And, sad to say, we are prone to remaking God in our own image. He believes what we believe, supports what we support, condemns what we condemn, and even looks like us!
I hear the raging battle in our country right now over Health Care Reform and it reminds me of a story in the Bible. Moses had died and his apprentice Joshua has assumed the leadership of the children of Israel. As preparation for battle was being made, Joshua encountered someone in his path.
"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?" 14 And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?" 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so." Joshua 5:13-15 ESV
It would have been easy for Joshua to assume that anybody that he did not know or recognize was against him. He is called after all to lead a nation into a land hostile to the ways of his people and the ways of The Lord. He was probably consumed with his mission. Look at his question: "Are you for us, or our adversaries?"
As we wage cultural wars and political debates we like to place people into boxes. We like to take polarizing, either/or positions. "He's liberal. I'm conservative. She's libertarian. He is watering down the message. And so on and so on. But there is The Third Way. The question (as cliched as it is)is not what side is God on, but are we on God's side? If we asked Jesus are you liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, I believe that he would say "I AM THAT I AM!" "I am God."
May we all make sure that we are on the side of the one who says "I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come."
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