Joshua 5 : 13, What's the Meaning of the Captain of the Host of the Lord?
1) Direct Answer
“The Captain of the host of the LORD” in Joshua 5:13–15 is the LORD Himself appearing in a man-form—the pre-incarnate Christ—coming as the Commander of Heaven’s armies to take charge of Israel’s battles.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Joshua falls on his face and worships Him, and He accepts it and says, “Loose thy shoe… for the place whereon thou standest is holy” (Joshua 5:14–15). That matches the burning bush where the LORD said the ground was holy (Exodus 3:5). Created angels do not accept worship (Revelation 22:8–9), but this One does, which shows He is God.
- He appears with a drawn sword (Joshua 5:13), like the One who judges by the sword of His mouth (Revelation 19:11–15; Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17).
- He comes as Captain—just as Jesus is called the “Captain of our salvation” (Hebrews 2:10). The same LORD who led Israel now leads His people to victory by His Word.
- The “host of the LORD” are His armies—both the heavenly host and His covenant people on earth (see Exodus 12:41; Psalm 103:20–21). He is supreme over both.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If this were a mere angel, he would refuse worship, but he receives it and declares the ground holy—so this is the LORD.
- Joshua asks, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The answer is higher: “Nay; but as Captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.” In other words, the question isn’t whether God is on our side; the issue is whether we are under His command.
- The drawn sword shows the battle is the Lord’s; victory comes by exact obedience to His Word—just like Jericho fell when Israel followed His instruction.
4) Reinforcing Statement
It’s not three Gods. The one God, who later was manifested in flesh as Jesus Christ, stood before Joshua as the Captain of the LORD’s host. He still leads His people today, and every wall falls when we stand under His command.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
God has a Provided Lamb
64-0620E §28
Blind Bartimaeus thinking, "That wasn't five hundred yards from where I'm sitting right now, where the mighty host of the Lord, the captain of the host, and Joshua bowed at his feet. Oh, if I'd only been there in them tents, blind then. I'd have asked the mighty captain of the Lord's host if He'd give me my sight, and He would have done it." Little did he know that that same captain was less than a hundred yards from him. That's what we make our failures tonight. We try to place all the glory in Christ way back in...
Exploits of faith
53-1213E §59
Joshua raised up there a little later on and took that sword in his hand, crossed across there and just before he got into the walls of Jericho, well, there stood the ... a man with his sword drawed. He said ... Joshua drawed his sword, said, "Are you for us, are you for them?" He said, "Nay, but I'm the Captain of the host of the Lord." Yes, sir. "And I'm come..." And they marched around those walls and let down a shout and they took Palestine because God give it to them by promise. It was theirs back there in the...
Israel and the Church: Israel in the homeland
53-0329 §58
Joshua was walking around, a couple days later, just looking over the place. Everything was closed up there, 'cause God had put fear on them all, of the Palestine dwellers up around Jericho. Joshua was walking along, and he looked, he seen Somebody. He pulled his sword. He said... And this other Man pulled His sword. He said, "Who are You for? Are You for us, or are You for our enemies?" He said, "Nay, but I'm the Captain of the Host of the Lord. Take off the shoes upon your feet, for the ground you stand on is hol...
Speak to the Rock and it shall give forth His Water
60-0723 §44
Joshua, his walk come over Jordan, after he'd made that great decision, stilled the people, said, "We're able to take it." God said, "Joshua, you're the one who knows all about it. I'll just let you lead the children from now on." He got over to his first campaign, he got up against Jericho wall. He walked around it and said, "Now, how am I going to get over it? How am I going to ascend them walls? They got all those rocks and things laying up there, their bows and things ready to shoot; and here we are out here mo...
The great warrior Joshua
55-0119 §33
Here come Joshua back, and Caleb, and said, "The land is real. Here's the evidence." Praise be to God. "Here's the evidence that God's promise is true. We have the evidence here to prove it." They said, "Well," the others said, "You can't do it. You can't do it, you get too much fanaticism mixed into it. We just can't, over... If you do, we're just going to break up all of our congregations, we're going to do this..." My, if that ain't the same old whine today. That's right. "Oh, it'll never work, I tell you, you c...