On what side you are on?
We are constantly bombarded with these kinds of questions:
Are you Pro-Choice or Pro-Life? Are you Christian or Messianic? Are you Evangelical or Catholic? Are you Left, or Right? Are you Jew or Gentile?
But then it comes the caveats for those questions:
If you believe the death sentence you are not really Pro-Life. If you are not (Christian/Messianic) you are not a believer. If you are not (Evangelical/Catholic) you are not a real believer. If you are Jew, you cannot be Christian; if you are Christian, you cannot be Jew. If you are from the Left, you are Communist; if you are from the Right, you are a Tyrant.
So where do we draw the line?
Well, you can take a decision based on various points, based on your heart which Yahweh says is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9-10), you can take the democratic approach follow the greater group, or you can just sit and rest, bind your knees and ask the Holy Spirit (Ruaḥ HaKodesh) and let us go back to the Word of Yah.
Do you know there is a character in the Bible that this question was asked? And we can learn a lot of the reply.
Yehoshua (Joshua) 5:13-15 (TS2009) ~ ‘And it came to be, when Yehoshua was by Yeriḥo, that he lifted his eyes and looked and saw a Man standing opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Yehoshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” And He said, “No, for I have now come as Captain of the host of יהוה.” And Yehoshua fell on his face to the earth and did obeisance, and said to Him, “What is my Master saying to His servant?” And the Captain of the host of יהוה said to Yehoshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is set-apart.” And Yehoshua did so.’
I am convinced this character was Yahweh Himself, the Angel of Yahweh, the same one who showed up to Moses on Mount Horeb (Sinai) in the burning bush. The One that showed up to Hagar by the springs of water, the One who wrestled with Jacob and gave him a new name, Israel. Not an ordinary character, not an ordinary messenger (angel), but Yahweh’s presence Himself, the Yeshua who was before Abraham was. But this is a “question” to answer on another post, which will come out soon.
But I digress, pay attention to His reply:
No, for I have now come as Captain of the host of Yahweh.
What it is interesting here is how He completely rejected the question. In some English and Spanish translations, it is portraited like this:
No … but I am the Commander of ADONAI’s Arm; I have come just now. (CJB)
No … but I am the Commander of the Army of the LORD. Now I have come. (ESV)
No … pero como Príncipe del Ejército de JEHOVA he venido ahora. (RV1960)
Nay … but as Captain of the Host of the LORD am I now come. (KJV)
Nay .. but I am Captain of the Host of the LORD; I am now come. (JPS 1917)
Neither … Rather, I have now come as Commander of ADONAI’s Army. (TLV)
Neither … but as Commander of the Army of the LORD I have come now. (NIV)
Neither one … I am the Commander of the Lord’s Army. (NLT)
There are important key words in this passage, independent of who you think this angel (Messenger) is. Some of our translations is missing one of the key words of this passage. So, the best way to know who’s lacking is by looking at the Jewish scriptures-based translations. The most popular are the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), Tree of Life Version (TLV) and Jewish Publication Society Bible (JPS). Honorary mention to the Legacy Standard Version (LSB), which uses the Jewish scripts to translate the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the Greek scripts to translate the Brit Ḥadashah (“New” Covenant).
This is how it is found in the Masoretic text removing cantillation and vowel points.
The direct translation would be:
No rather I captain-of the host-YHWH now
As many has concluded, the New Living Translation (NLT) is lacking an important part of the response. Which is unfortunate. But that is why you cannot rely in this translation as your source of doctrine.
For me, and let’s point that out clearly, that’s for me, the key words in this Messenger response are: “No”, “I”, and “now”. And of course, let me explain why.
First, you need to understand the question that came before to this response: “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” (v.13)
The Angel of Yahweh says neither… what does this entails? If you want to find out more about this… stay tuned.
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