The Captain of the army

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    I was driving by the library a little earlier today in town.  This is where the voting booths usually are and I was wondering if they were doing early voting.  It appeared that many people were in the room that is usually reserved for voting or the ongoing and never ending book sale they have the rest of the time.  It got me to thinking if Jesus were on earth would he vote?  Who would he vote for?  That led me to think about a passage where many think Jesus make a preincarnate visitation to earth to speak with Joshua.  It is found in Joshua 5:13-15

"Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or our adversaries?"
"And he said, "No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord."  It response to this Joshua bows down to him.  The captain of the Lord's hosts responds,
"Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." and Joshua did so."

   I say that this is a preincarnate Jesus because of the response of the captain is to tell Joshua to take off his shoes.  Much like God commanded Moses when he went to look at the burning bush.  The ground is holy due to the presence of the Lord.  One thing that struck me about this passage is that when asked if he was for or against them, the Lord did not respond, "Of course, I am with you."  But, rather Jesus responds here by saying, "No.  I am a captain of the Lord's hosts."  He had an opportunity to say that he was a part of Israel and that was the flag that he was for, but he doesn't say that.  Rather, Jesus is not as concerned about Joshua's kingdom or Israel's or anyone else's rather than God's kingdom.

   That just seems like a very important distinction to make to me.

Another preincarnate vision of Jesus is at Daniel 3:24-25

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