Whose Side Is God On?

The Question Behind the Question (கேள்விக்குப் பின்னால் இருக்கும் கேள்வி)

Whose side is God on? That is the question on the table this morning. Most of us, if we are honest, would say without hesitation, "He is on mine." But press a little further. If God is on your side, then according to Romans 8:31, who can be against you? No one. Not "a few people are against me, but God is still with me." The verse does not leave that loophole. So when we line up our daily experience against that verse - the small wars at the workplace, the cold shoulder from a relative, the bills that will not balance - most of us cannot say it with full confidence.

That is why we have to slow down and ask the question again, properly this time, from Joshua 5.

The Setting at Jericho (எரிகோவின் அருகே)

Joshua has been chosen by God after Moses. His task is to lead Israel into the land and to dispossess the nations there. The first miracle of his leadership happens at the Jordan: the river is in flood, but the moment the priests' feet touch the water, the riverbed becomes dry ground and the people cross over. After the crossing they set up memorial stones (Joshua 4). In chapter 5, the men who had never been circumcised in the wilderness are circumcised at Gilgal. Passover is kept. The manna stops, and they begin to eat the produce of Canaan.

Now Joshua walks alone near Jericho. He has already sent spies into the city. He knows the walls. He is a commander on the eve of his first battle, and his army is ready. The first city to fall must be Jericho.

And then, in front of him, a man stands with a drawn sword in his hand.

"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, 'Are You for us or for our adversaries?' So He said, 'No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.'" - Joshua 5:13-14 (NKJV)

"யோசுவா எரிகோவின் சமீபமாயிருக்கையில், அவன் தன் கண்களை ஏறெடுத்துப் பார்க்கிறபோது, இதோ, ஒருவர் உருவின பட்டயத்தைத் தம்முடைய கையில் பிடித்துக்கொண்டு அவனுக்கு எதிராக நிற்கக் கண்டான்; யோசுவா அவரிடத்தில் போய்: நீர் எங்கள் பட்சத்தோ, எங்கள் சத்துருக்களின் பட்சத்தோ என்று கேட்டான். அதற்கு அவர்: அல்ல, நான் கர்த்தருடைய சேனையின் அதிபதியாய் இப்பொழுது வந்தேன் என்றார்." - யோசுவா 5:13-14 (TAOVBSI)

Joshua's question is the natural question of any commander. If you were on a battlefield and a man with a drawn sword stood in front of you, you would absolutely stop him and ask: friend or foe? Which side? Which group? That is reasonable. That is what every soldier would do.

But the answer is not reasonable. The answer is one Hebrew word: לֹא (lo) - No.

Not "yes, for you." Not "yes, for them." Not "I am neutral, standing between you." He refuses the binary itself. He says no to the very shape of Joshua's question.

This is one of the most important refusals in the Old Testament. Before Jericho can fall, Joshua's frame of mind has to fall first.

Three things we will see this morning: God is not your ally, He is your Lord; worship comes before warfare; and the side He has already chosen in Christ cannot be broken.

1. God Will Not Be Conscripted (தேவன் கூட்டாளி அல்ல, ஆண்டவர்)

Think carefully about Joshua's assumption. He has been sent by God. Therefore, he reasons, anyone sent by God must be on his team. When he meets a man with a drawn sword who identifies himself as "Commander of the army of the LORD," the logic seems airtight: surely this Commander is one of us. We are God's people; this is God's Commander; therefore He must belong to our group.

But the Commander says no.

Joshua's question assumes God's job is to pick a side in our human conflict. (யோசுவாவின் கேள்வி: தேவனின் வேலை நம்முடைய மனிதக் கலகங்களில் ஒரு பக்கம் சேருவது என்று எண்ணினான்.)

The Commander's "No" refuses that frame entirely. Not "yes for you," not "yes for them." He says no to the binary itself. (கர்த்தருடைய சேனையின் அதிபதியின் "அல்ல" - அந்த சட்டகத்தையே மறுக்கிறது. "ஆம், உங்களுக்காக" அல்ல; "ஆம், அவர்களுக்காக" அல்ல. அவர் கேள்வியின் வடிவத்திற்கே அல்ல என்கிறார்.)

He is not neutral either. A neutral person says, "I am not in this fight." But the Commander has a drawn sword. He has come to fight. He simply has His own purpose, and that purpose is larger than Jericho. (அவர் நடுநிலையாளர் அல்ல. அவருக்கு அவருடைய சொந்த நோக்கம் உண்டு - அந்த நோக்கம் எரிகோவை விட பெரியது. உருவின பட்டயம் அவருடையது - அவருடைய திட்டத்தை முன்னேற்றவே, நம் திட்டத்தை அங்கீகரிக்கவே அல்ல.)

This is the disease of presumption - assuming our cause is His cause, our nation is His nation, our anger is His anger, our enemies are His enemies. Israel falls into exactly this disease one chapter later at Ai. (இது அகந்தையின் வியாதி - நம் காரியம் அவருடைய காரியம், நம் ஜனம் அவருடைய ஜனம், நம் கோபம் அவருடைய கோபம் என்று எண்ணுவது. அடுத்த அதிகாரத்திலேயே ஆயி நகரில் இஸ்ரவேலர் இந்த வியாதியில் விழுவார்கள்.)

There is a danger in our own piety that needs to be named. We tend to treat God as a kind of charm - a தாயத்து, the amulet a sorcerer ties around a person to guarantee good luck. We say His name, and we expect: my business will grow, my house will be built, my children will pass their exams, no one who opposes me will succeed. We turn the living God into a partner we have hired for our project. We make Him a bulldozer we drive in front of us to flatten every obstacle in our way.

But God is not your amulet. He is not your bodyguard. He is not the friend you call to break your neighbour's head when there is a quarrel at the boundary wall. God is not your mascot. He is your Lord. (தேவன் உங்கள் தாயத்து அல்ல; அவர் உங்கள் ஆண்டவர்.) He did not come so you could enlist Him. He came so you would lay down the question and follow.

The moment Joshua hears the word "No," something shifts. He does not argue. He does not ask a second tactical question. He falls on his face and worships, and his next word is no longer "us versus them" but "my Lord" - "என் ஆண்டவரே." The question of sides has been swallowed up in the recognition of who is actually standing in front of him.

Many scholars believe the Man with the drawn sword here is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Two clues point that way. First, Joshua worships Him, and He does not refuse the worship - which angels in Scripture always do, even great angels like the one who meets Daniel. Second, the next words out of His mouth are the same words Moses heard at the burning bush.

2. Worship Precedes Warfare (ஆராதனை போரின் முன்னே)

"Then the Commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, 'Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.' And Joshua did so." - Joshua 5:15 (NKJV)

"அப்பொழுது கர்த்தருடைய சேனையினதிபதி யோசுவாவை நோக்கி: உன் கால்களிலிருக்கிற பாதரட்சைகளைக் கழற்றிப்போடு, நீ நிற்கிற இடம் பரிசுத்தமானது என்றார்; யோசுவா அப்படியே செய்தான்." - யோசுவா 5:15 (TAOVBSI)

"Then He said, 'Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.'" - Exodus 3:5 (NKJV) - the burning bush echo

Before Jericho falls, sandals come off. Worship precedes warfare. (எரிகோ விழுவதற்கு முன்பு, செருப்புகள் கழன்றுவிட வேண்டும். ஆராதனை போரின் முன்னே வருகிறது.) This order is inviolable. God's first call is never to fight for Him; it is to bow before Him.

Notice the silence in Joshua 5. Before Joshua kneels, the Commander gives no battle plan. No strategy. No instructions on how to take the city. The conversation moves from "who is on whose side?" to "take off your sandals" - and only after Joshua has worshipped does chapter 6 open with the strange, specific instructions: march around the city, blow the trumpets, shout, and the walls will fall.

This is the same instruction Moses received at the burning bush. (இது மோசே முட்செடியில் பெற்ற அதே கட்டளை.) Joshua now stands where Moses stood - not just as a successor, but as a worshipper. Leadership is downstream of worship. (தலைமை, ஆராதனையின் கீழ் வழியாகவே வருகிறது.)

The moment Joshua falls and worships, the entire conversation changes. It stops being a tactical briefing and becomes a covenantal encounter. Strategy follows surrender, not the other way around. (யோசுவா முகங்குப்புற விழுந்து ஆராதிக்கும் வேளையில், உரையாடல் மாறுகிறது. திட்டம், ஒப்புக்கொடுத்தலை பின்தொடர்கிறது.)

Until I lay myself down, I cannot receive His strategy. Until I take off my plans, His plans cannot rest on me. Most of our prayer frustrations begin here - we ask for direction without surrendering our posture. We want the map without bowing to the Mapmaker.

And it is no accident that Jericho's walls do not fall because Israel digs at them with crowbars. They do not breach the wall with battering rams or catapults. They worship. They march in silence, the priests blow the rams' horns, the people shout, and the wall collapses. It is worship that brings down Jericho, not engineering.

But notice what happens one chapter later. In Joshua 7, the same army marches against a far smaller city - Ai - and is humiliated. Why? Because Achan has taken what was devoted to destruction at Jericho. Sin in the camp. Joshua falls on his face and asks God why. And God says, in effect, this is not a tactical problem; Israel has sinned. The same God who gave Jericho refuses to give Ai while there is hidden disobedience in the camp.

God's commitment is to His holiness, not to our victories. (தேவனின் உறுதி அவருடைய பரிசுத்தத்தோடு, நம் வெற்றியோடு அல்ல.) Presumption is always one chapter away from defeat.

This is why our spiritual life so often feels stuck. Why does the same problem keep returning? Why does the breakthrough never come? Why does it feel as if we have been praying through the night and nothing has shifted? We close our eyes and sing; we fast through the day; and still the wall does not move. The reason is not that singing is wrong or that fasting is wrong. The reason is that we have skipped the order. We have asked for the strategy without taking off the sandals. We have wanted Jericho without Gilgal. We have wanted Romans 8 without Joshua 5.

Take the sandals off. Take the uncleanness off. Stand on the holy ground first - and then watch what God does.

3. The Side He Has Already Chosen Cannot Be Broken (அவர் தேர்ந்தெடுத்த பட்சம் முறிக்கப்பட முடியாது)

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" - Romans 8:31-32 (NKJV)

"ஆனபடியால் இவைகளைக்குறித்து நாம் என்னசொல்லுவோம்? தேவன் நம்முடைய பட்சத்திலிருந்தால் நமக்கு விரோதமாயிருப்பவன் யார்? தம்முடைய சொந்த குமாரனென்றும் பாராமல் நம்மெல்லாருக்காகவும் அவரை ஒப்புக்கொடுத்தவர், அவரோடேகூட மற்ற எல்லாவற்றையும் நமக்கு அருளாதிருப்பது எப்படி?" - ரோமர் 8:31-32 (TAOVBSI)

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:37-39 (NKJV)

After we kneel, after we lay down our binary, Paul speaks the second word: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" This is the gospel's answer to the Commander's "No." (நாம் முழங்காலிட்டபின், நம் இரட்டை மறுத்தபின், பவுல் இரண்டாம் வார்த்தையைச் சொல்கிறார்.)

The "if" here functions as "since." Since He gave His own Son - the proof was settled at the Cross. God's for-us-ness is not contingent on our performance; it was sealed in blood. (இங்கே "என்றால்" என்பது "ஏனெனில்" என்ற பொருளில். தேவனின் நம் பட்சத்திலிருத்தல் நம் செயலின் மேல் தங்கியதல்ல; இரத்தத்தில் முத்திரையிடப்பட்டது.)

But read on carefully, because Paul does not promise what we sometimes hear preachers promise. He does not say there will be no tribulation, no famine, no persecution, no sword. In fact, in Romans 8:35, he lists them all: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. He puts them on the table. Trouble will come. People will oppose you. There will be hunger. There will be the sword. (இக்கட்டு வரும், பஞ்சம் வரும், துன்பம் வரும், பட்டயம் வரும்.)

What Paul says is something far stronger than "none of this will touch you." He says none of it can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (இவை எதுவும் கிறிஸ்துவின் அன்பினின்று நம்மை பிரிக்க முடியாது.) The believer is not promised a life without enemies; the believer is promised that no enemy can sever the love that holds him.

The order is everything: Joshua 5 first, then Romans 8. (வரிசை எல்லாமே - முதலில் யோசுவா 5, பின்பு ரோமர் 8.) Kneel first, then stand secure. Swap the order, and you reduce God to a mascot. Keep the order, and He becomes your unshakeable ground.

This is the believer's confidence - not that I have made God my ally, but that He has made me His own in Christ. (இது விசுவாசியின் தைரியம் - நான் தேவனை என் கூட்டாளி ஆக்கினேன் என்பதல்ல, அவர் என்னைக் கிறிஸ்துவில் தம்முடையவராக்கினார் என்பதே.) The Commander whose drawn sword once made Joshua bow is the same Christ whose pierced hands now hold us fast. The sword that stood before Joshua at Jericho and the nails that pierced the hands of Jesus at Golgotha belong to the same Lord. We fall at the same feet.

So the believer's question is no longer "Is God on my side?" That question is settled at the Cross. The believer's question is: am I living on His side? Am I walking in such a way that His love, which can never be separated from me, is also not grieved by me? Am I on His holy ground, or am I trying to drag Him onto mine?

The Mercy of the Commander's "No" (அதிபதியின் "அல்ல" - இரக்கம்)

The Commander's "No" is mercy. (அதிபதியின் "அல்ல" என்பது இரக்கம்.) If He had said, "Yes, I am for you," Joshua would have walked away from that meeting thinking the battle was about Israel. He would have thought Jericho was an Israelite project that God had agreed to bless.

Instead Joshua walked away knowing the battle was about God. (ஆனால் யோசுவா திரும்பினான், போர் தேவனைப் பற்றியது என்று அறிந்து.) That single inversion changed everything. The war is not mine that God helps me with; the war is God's that He has graciously brought me into.

This will change everything for us too - once we stop asking "Is God on my side?" and start asking "Am I on His?" (தேவன் என் பட்சத்தில் இருக்கிறாரா என்று கேட்பதை நிறுத்தி, நான் அவருடைய பட்சத்தில் இருக்கிறேனா என்று கேட்க ஆரம்பித்தால்.)

The reason the Jericho fight was won and the Ai fight was lost is not that God changed sides. God did not move. Israel moved - out of the holy ground, into presumption, into hidden sin. The cause of the war was never Joshua, never Israel, never even the wickedness of Jericho in isolation. The cause of the war was God's larger plan for the redemption of the world. He gives victory where He pleases, for the sake of His purpose, not ours.

Three Things to Carry Into the Week (இந்த வாரத்திற்கான மூன்று காரியங்கள்)

1. Stop asking God to bless plans you have not first laid down before Him. (முதலில் அவர் முன்பு கீழே வைக்காத திட்டங்களை ஆசீர்வதிக்கும்படி தேவனிடம் கேட்பதை நிறுத்துங்கள்.)

2. Before you fight any battle, check whose battle it is. (எந்த போரிலும் நீங்கள் இறங்கும் முன், அது யாருடைய போர் என்று சோதியுங்கள்.)

3. When fear comes, run to Romans 8 for ground. The Cross has settled what cannot be unsettled. (பயம் வரும்போது, அஸ்திவாரத்திற்காய் ரோமர் 8-க்கு ஓடுங்கள். அசைக்கப்பட முடியாததை சிலுவை முடித்துவைத்திருக்கிறது.)

A Declaration to Pray Together (ஒன்றாக சொல்வோம்)

Lord, I am not asking whose side You are on. I am asking that I would be on Yours. I take off my sandals. I lay down my plans, my battles, my certainties. And because You have already given Your Son for me, I stand on this ground: no enemy, no fear, no failure, no sorrow can separate me from Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

கர்த்தாவே, நீர் யாருடைய பக்கம் என்று கேட்கவில்லை; நான் உம்முடைய பக்கம் இருக்க வேண்டும் என்று கேட்கிறேன். என் செருப்புகளைக் கழற்றுகிறேன். என் திட்டங்களையும், போர்களையும், உறுதியையும் உமது பாதத்தில் வைக்கிறேன். நீர் உமது சொந்த குமாரனைத் தந்தபடியால், இந்த நிலத்தில் நிற்கிறேன்: எந்த சத்துருவும், பயமும், தோல்வியும், துக்கமும் என்னை உமது அன்பினின்று பிரிக்க முடியாது. இயேசுவின் நாமத்தில், ஆமென்.

One Thing To Do This Week (இந்த வாரம் ஒரு செயல்)

Spend five minutes in quiet this week, taking off your sandals before God. Lay one plan, one battle, one certainty before Him. Ask not "Bless this, Lord" but "What are You doing here, Lord?" Then listen. (இந்த வாரம் ஐந்து நிமிடங்களை அமைதியில் செலவழியுங்கள் - தேவனுக்கு முன்பாக உங்கள் செருப்புகளைக் கழற்றி. ஒரு திட்டம், ஒரு போர், ஒரு உறுதி - அவருக்கு முன்பு கீழே வையுங்கள். "இதை ஆசீர்வதியும், கர்த்தாவே" என்று கேட்காமல், "நீர் இங்கே என்ன செய்கிறீர், கர்த்தாவே?" என்று கேட்டு, பின்பு கேளுங்கள்.)