Is God’s Presence With Us?

“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.’ 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 5:13-15).
 
Commander of the LORD’s Army
The story is a familiar one: Shortly before the Israelites received their battle orders for taking the heavily walled city of Jericho—orders that included arguably the most unusual war strategy ever, one that involved marching around walls, blowing trumpets, and giving loud shouts (Joshua 6:2-5)—Joshua had an interesting encounter with a man with drawn sword, who identified himself as the commander of the LORD’s forces. Declaring that

​he was for neither side, not even for the Israelites—we serve God and not the other way around—the man then commanded Joshua to remove his footwear for the place on which Joshua stood was holy ground.
 
Bible commentators have long wondered at the identity of the man who met Joshua outside Jericho. Was he an angel or plausibly God Himself? If I were a betting man, I’d go with the latter. The other prominent incident in Scripture where a man was told to go barefoot on ground declared as holy is of course the burning bush incident where Moses encountered God (Exodus 3:5). Not just an angel, but God Himself (Exodus 3:6). Maybe!
 
Minion or Master?
On the other hand, in incident after incident where angels and humans interacted—Gabriel on any of his visits with Daniel (e.g., Daniel 9:20-27) or when he delivered to Mary news of the coming birth of the Son of God through her womb (Luke 1:26-38)—the exchanges were typically conducted without any reference to grounds being hallowed and the requirement to go barefoot. Why so? Perhaps it has to do with the Presence of God, which renders any place where God Himself treads holy and consecrated. Maybe it is akin to what some folks call a “thin place of encounter,” where the line that supposedly divides Heaven and Earth feels exceptionally thin and God’s Presence can be keenly felt.
 
That said, since angels are God’s heavenly representatives and serve as extensions of His authority and power, shouldn’t that make the places where angels tread holy as well? Possibly. But the requirement to kick off shoes and prostrate on holy ground is not enforced—presumably because God, despite being omnipresent, has chosen to deploy His intermediaries instead of making a personal appearance. When the King appears, everything changes! And make no mistake: there’s a massive difference between angels going about their Master’s business versus the Master Himself showing up! (And that’s what makes the Incarnation so powerfully precious because the LORD Himself took personal responsibility to make atonement for His creation.) Indeed, when the apostle John fell in worship before powerful angels bearing profound revelations, he was immediately told not to do so because the angels themselves were, like John, servants of God and therefore unworthy of adoration and veneration (Revelation 19:10, 22:8-9).
 
But I Will Not Go With You
This distinction between angelic presence and God’s Presence is highlighted in a powerful and quite distressing way in Exodus 33. In His holy anger against the rebellious Israelites—who’d somehow convinced a complicit Aaron to replace the unseen God with a visible and tangible golden calf (Exodus 32)—God told Moses and the people to leave Mount Sinai and make their way toward the Promised Land. But there was a catch: God would dispatch an angel to aid the Israelites, but God Himself won’t be joining the road trip because He didn’t want, in His anger, to destroy the people along the way (Exodus 33:2-3).
 
But Moses somehow “persuaded” God to “change his mind”! Granted, the notion of God changing his mind in response to our prayers is decidedly murky, since even Balaam—the prophet whose devious counsel led Israel into sin (Numbers 31:16)—once said that God isn’t a human being that He should change His mind (Numbers 23:19a). Maybe God’s exasperated “But I will not go with you” to the Israelites (in Exodus 33:3) was a divine throwdown and invitation for someone, anyone, to “stand in the gap” before God on behalf of the people (Ezekiel 22:30).
 
Don’t Send Us If You’re Not Coming Along
And Moses, the man of God, rose to the occasion:
 
“Moses said to the LORD, ‘You have been telling me, “Lead these people,” but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, “I know you by name and you have found favor with me.” If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.’ The LORD replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?’ And the LORD said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name'” (Exodus 33:12-17).
 
Rebellious as they were, the Israelites, Moses argued, belonged to God. Nothing would so distinguish the chosen people of God than the fact that God Himself personally travels with His people. But Moses went even further: Even if God’s appointed angel were to successfully deliver His people to the Promised Land, big deal! So long as God isn’t going with us, all of it—including all the success, prosperity, and victory we may have—would be utterly pointless even if we were to make it safely into the Promised Land!!!
 
Promise Keeper
Which brings me back to Joshua’s encounter with the commander of the LORD’s army outside Jericho. If the man whom Joshua met was an angel from God sent to fulfill God’s purposes, that itself would’ve been marvelous. But as we have seen, the presence of an angel does not necessarily mean that God Himself is personally present. The fact that Joshua was told to remove his footwear and worship on holy ground—and no heavenly angel would accept man’s worship—perhaps indicates that the man with drawn weapon outside Jericho was none other than God Himself!
 
Rather than delegating the task to an angel (as He’d summarily declared in Exodus 33:3), the LORD decided to get personally involved. Indeed, He was already there, outside Jericho, before Joshua and the Israelites showed up. In response to Moses’ plea, God reconsidered His original stance and assured Moses that His Presence would travel together with Moses and the people of Israel. Among all the important things that God’s physical presence and personal involvement at Jericho meant, this one stands out: God kept His promise—His Presence went and stayed with Israel all the way!
 
 * All Bible quotations are from the New International Version (NIV