Bible Code: Yehoshua and the Captain of Heaven
In our survey of the Bible code and the Messiah, as found in the Hebrew Scripture, we are coming to a peculiar encounter of Yehoshua, who has just been appointed the leader of the nation of Israel, and a man who claimed to be the captain of the heavenly forces.
As we said previously, the reader has to expect that the subject mentioned in this article regarding the Bible code found in the Book of Joshua is a matter of private interpretation to the best knowledge of the present author. The reason being is that these codes outline hidden messages in the Biblical stories, and their decoding is not always an easy task, especially when they have layered background and are open for more than one interpretation.
Such is the case of the encounter of Yehoshua with the captain of the host of YHVH: a story that must also be read in the context of other stories Yehoshua experienced and what the Bible code has been intended to convey by its Author. To this peculiar encounter with the captain of the heaven and the Bible code we now turn.
The battle plan for Yericho. Who gave it?
Israel walked forty years in the wilderness until all men of battle who came out of Egypt died, because they refused to take the Land which YHVH had sworn to the fathers that He would give their descendants.
This new nation crossed the Yarden River, and Yehoshua circumcised those who were born in the desert in the last thirty-eight years. And Israel stayed in the camp until the men were healed. Then, the nation performed the first Pesach after they left Mount Sinai thirty-eight years earlier on the plain of Yericho. On that day the manna ceased, and they ate the grain of the new land.
The Bible code revealed in the encounter of Yehoshua and the captain of the heavenly army.
And Yehoshua facing the city of Yericho saw a man standing against him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Yehoshua, the captain of the army of Israel, went to him and with his sword in his hand and said to the stranger, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” But the man said, “No, for I am captain of the host of Yehovah”. Realizing who was standing against him, Yehoshua fell on his face to the earth in deep reverence and said, “What is my master saying to his servant?” And the captain of the army said told Yehoshua to take off his sandals, for he was a mere mortal man standing on a set-apart ground. And Yehoshua did as the captain said (Jos 5:13-15).
Note: The term “the host (army) of Yehovah” is synonymous with “the host of heaven”, as seen in 1Ki 22:19, i.e., the armies of angels, as in Psa 148:2 and Psa 103:21. Yehoshua must have at once recognized the stranger as a messenger of YHVH. But by no means he fell down on the ground and worshipped an angel, for the word שָׁחָה shachah, does not always mean “to worship a deity”, but very frequently means nothing more than the deep respect as seen in Gen 23:12, when Avraham bowed down before the people from whom he bought the cave to bury his wife Sarah. Yehoshua did not address the man by אֲדֹנָי Adonai, a term reserved only to YHVH Elohim, but simply as אֲדֹנִי adoni, “my master”. Nevertheless, he regarded him as a superior being, as soon as the man commanded him to take off his shoes, for the messenger of YHVH must have given Yehoshua some kind of sign which prompted the reverence he paid to him. We now return to the text.
With the words “I am the captain (Hebrew, שַׂר sar), the man made clear to Yehoshua who he was and that in the position of a commander of the heavenly forces he had come to him explain the object of his mission.
This peculiar encounter with the messenger of YHVH must have reminded Yehoshua of the appearance of a messenger to Mosheh in the burning bush, when he was commanded to take off the shoes, see Exo 3:5, (which Mosheh undoubtedly must have related to him), and the personal experience Yehoshua himself had when a messenger was leading Israel out of Egypt.
We should also recall the appearance of a messenger of YHVH in Num 22:31, who was standing against the prophet for profit Bil’am, with his sword drawn in his hand.
These thoughts must have come to Yehoshua’s mind that the person who now appeared to him on the plain of Yericho was the very person who had revealed to his master Mosheh himself.
For indeed, the object of the messenger’s mission must have been indicated by the drawn sword in all these instances, by which he manifested himself as the captain of the army of YHVH. The drawn sword spoke of itself: “I am the captain of the heavenly army to help you and your people take the land YHVH had given you.
Now, when Yehoshua took his shoes off, the captain of the heavenly army made known to him the object of his coming. Yericho was tightly surrounded by the Israelites, so that no one could go out or come in, when YHVH said to Yehoshua,
See! I have given in your hand Yericho and its kings, and the mighty brave men. And you shall go around the city, all the men of battle going around the city once. Do this for six days. (Jos 6:2-3)
Scripture goes on to say that seven priests bearing seven horns before the ark, on the seventh day, were go around the city seven times while blowing the horns. And when the long blast would be made, all the people were to shout with a great sound, and the wall of the city would fall down (Jos 6:4-5). According to the plain meaning of the text, This is a battle plan of YHVH which Yehoshua was given to implement. But who gave it to Yehoshua?
If there is any place in which the division of the Scripture in chapters is unsuitable and even detrimental, it is here: in the division of the battle plan for Yericho from the appearance of the captain of heavenly forces.
Note: It is always important to remember that the division of the Scriptural text into chapter numbers and verses was introduced first into the English translation by Stephen Langton (12-13 century), Archbishop of Canterbury. The TORM reader knows that the Hebrew Scripture, the Tanach, is a free-flowing text written on scrolls without divisions, as it is today. We now return to the text.
The appearance of the messenger of YHVH does not terminate with the last verse of Chapter 5 but follows fluently into Jos 6:1-5, where we read the detailed instructions of YHVH how to win the first battle of the conquest of the Land, for the city was strongly fortified. Thus read, it is most evident that it was the messenger of YHVH who gave the battle plan for Yericho, who was speaking on behalf of YHVH (Jos 6:2-5). Because if we regard the account of the appearance of the messenger of YHVH as terminating with Jos 5:15, then this encounter was indeed for nothing standing alone seemingly out of place between the Pesach of Israel and the battle of Yericho. If Yehoshua had only written Jos 6:1-5, we would not have known who had come to Israel’s help in the first battle of Israel, and the meaning of the Bible code would have remained unclear. The reason that Yehoshua saw fit to append Jos 6:1-5 to Jos 5:15 is obvious. It would be therefore advantageous for the reader to study the entire continuation of the encounter of Yehoshua with the captain of the heaven.
The Bible code in the encounter with the captain of heaven
The Hebrew text of Jos 6:4-6 reads thus,
Verse 4
וְשִׁבְעָה כֹהֲנִים יִשְׂאוּ שִׁבְעָה שׁוֹפְרוֹת הַיּוֹבְלִים לִפְנֵי הָאָרוֹן וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי תָּסֹבּוּ אֶת־הָעִיר שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים וְהַכֹּהֲנִים יִתְקְעוּ בַּשּׁוֹפָרוֹת׃
Verse 5
וְהָיָה בִּמְשֹׁךְ בְּקֶרֶן הַיּוֹבֵל כְּשׇׁמְעֲכֶם אֶת־קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר יָרִיעוּ כׇל־הָעָם תְּרוּעָה גְדוֹלָה וְנָפְלָה חוֹמַת הָעִיר תַּחְתֶּיהָ וְעָלוּ הָעָם אִישׁ נֶגְדּוֹ׃
Verse 6
וַיִּקְרָא יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן אֶל־הַכֹּהֲנִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שְׂאוּ אֶת־אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית וְשִׁבְעָה כֹהֲנִים יִשְׂאוּ שִׁבְעָה שׁוֹפְרוֹת יוֹבְלִים לִפְנֵי אֲרוֹן יְהֹוָה׃
In verse 4, starting from the word וְהַכֹּהֲנִים vehakohanim, “and the priests”, with the letter yud (in red) and counting every 20th letter from right to left spells out יְשׁוּעָתִי Yeshuati יָהּ Yah. This will be explained in the interpretation of the Bible code.
Grammar note: The sacred Name of the Creator יָהּ Yah is a contraction from יהוה with the same meaning (as explained in the article The Hebrew Yehovah vs. The Roman Yahweh.). The final hey is pronounceable in יָהּ. It first appears in the early poem of Exodus 15 (Exo 15:2): “My strength and song is Yah”, with total of 52 occurrences in the Hebrew Scripture.
The interpretation of the Bible code
“If you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough!” Albert Einstein
The plain text of Jos 5:13-15—Jos 6:1-5 on the surface allows an interpretation, which may make more sense to the critical reader, when the Bible code is considered.
The first word that the Bible code reveals is יְשׁוּעָתִי yeshuati, which means “my salvation” or “my deliverance”. We find this word in the promise the Lord has made to those from the nations, who have decided to join His people. For thus said YHVH,
Guard justice and do righteousness, for near is My deliverance to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man who becomes strong in it, guarding the Sabbath lest he profane it, and guarding his hand from doing any evil. (Isa 56:1-2)
(Refer to the article Who is “the Eunuch” in Isaiah 56? – Time of Reckoning Ministry for more insight)
The word יְשׁוּעָתִי yeshuati, comes from the word יְשׁוּעָה yeshuah, which means salvation, deliverance. The noun יְשׁוּעָה yeshuah, however, is not to be confused with the personal name Yeshua (notice how both words are spelled), whose full form is Yehoshua.
Grammar note: There is a great deal of misunderstanding as to the meaning of the name Yeshua. The misunderstanding comes from the close pronunciations and spellings of the Hebrew word for deliverance, that is, יְשׁוּעָה yeshuah and the name יְשׁוּעָ Yeshua. As seen from the spelling, the only difference is the final hey in יְשׁוּעָה yeshuah which in this case is silent and puts the emphasis on the last syllable, while in the name יְשׁוּעָ Yeshua, the emphasis is on the second to the last. This misunderstanding of Hebrew grammar and phonetic rules has led many people to believe that the Hebrew name Yeshua means “salvation”. While both words are related, they are not the same. The true meaning of the Messiah’s name can only be seen in his full name Yehoshua which we will explain below.
Yehoshua is the name of Mosheh’s disciple Hoshea, whose name Mosheh changed. The name Yehoshua is written as יְהוֹשֻׁעַ and is a compound name of the tri-grammaton יהו and יָשַׁע yasha, to cry (for deliverance). The name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua thus means, “Yehovah saves”. The short form of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ is יְשׁוּעָ Yeshua (commonly known as “Joshua” in English but in postexilic period known by its short form, as seen in Neh 8:17). According to Sotah 34b, the name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ is a compound form of יָהּ יוֹשִׁיעֲךָ and means “May Yah save you”.
With that said, our interpretation of the Bible code is “My deliverance (or salvation) is [from] YHVH”. Notice the beautiful Hebrew wordplay of יְשׁוּעָתִי yeshuati and יְשׁוּעָה Yeshua or Yehoshua. An unprejudiced reader must admit that to this wordplay the Bible code surely prompts, for there is an allusion to this in the word yeshuati, “My deliverance”. We must therefore view this Bible code as telling us that captain of heaven came in Israel’s help, for indeed “deliverance is from YHVH”. But concerning the identity of the messenger, we leave the question open for the reader’s consideration, as we have no more to say presently.
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May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
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