Truths From Israel's History, Part 3 - Captain of the Lord's Host — Ed Miller

I'll ask you to open your Bibles, brothers, to Joshua, please, chapter 6, well, chapter 5. As we come again to the study of God's Word, I remind you of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, a principle that we often take for granted but which we must not take for granted.

If we take it for granted and view it as helpful rather than indispensable, then we're going to miss out on everything. Total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. It is not a mistake that the Lord Jesus was called the Word, and the Bible is called the Word.

Jesus is like the Bible. There are two sides, a human side and a divine side. We need to study the human side, but if that's all you get is the human side, you'll miss the Lord. In the great message that Jesus gave on the bread of life in John chapter 6, He gave the proof that you would know for sure if you were taught of God.

How do I really know I'm taught of God? John 6, verse 45 says, It is written in the prophets, They shall all be taught of God. Everyone who's heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. That's how you know.

If it leads to Jesus, then you're taught of God if it comes to Him. Everyone taught of the Father, everyone who learns from the Father comes to Me. You know it's possible to come to this book and miss the Lord.

It is not possible to come to the Lord and miss this book. And so I'm going to ask you to join with me, please, as we pray together and ask the Lord to reign Himself upon us. Let's bow. Our Father, we thank You again for Your precious promises in the Word, that You would hide these things from the wise, from the prudent, reveal them unto babes.

And we know we cannot work up an attitude of childlikeness, but You must draw us, make us as little children that we might receive from You. We thank Thee that You've hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ and then invited us to come to Him.

We thank You that He is a treasure chest filled and filled for us. We pray that You would give us eyes to see, take the veil away this evening, that we might behold in reality the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing Him that we might be changed.

We thank You in advance for meeting with us. We trust You now, Lord, to over-answer this prayer, not because in any way we deserve the answer, but because our Lord Jesus deserves the answer. And we pray it in His matchless name.

Israel's Redemptive History from Jordan to Ai

Well, welcome again, brothers, to our little look at this wonderful portion of God's Word. We're looking at Israel's redemptive history from the crossing of the Jordan in chapter 3 of Joshua to the victory at Ai in chapter 8 of Joshua.

By way of a quick review, we're just looking at those four wonderful events, the crossing of the Jordan River in chapter 3, the establishment of the base at Gilgal in chapters 4 and 5, the taking of Jericho in chapter 6, and the defeat and then the subsequent victory at Ai in chapters 7 and 8.

We've been trying to focus in a special way, in terms of those stories, on the instruments that God used to get His redeemed people to the place where they could enter in and abide in and live in and off that land which pictured our Lord Jesus Christ.

The land of milk and honey, picturing the life of milk and honey in Him. To take His people across the Jordan, He used the priests, those who had gone first in faith, who had taken a firm stand on ground that He had dried up, who just stood there holding up the ark, that symbolic representation of His throne and His kingship.

And so they went across the Jordan. And then this morning we looked at that second illustration at Gilgal, and God used the elders to carry them to His wonderful truths, His wonderful realities which He taught at Gilgal.

Identification with Christ, illustrated by the two monuments of twelve stones. I'm in the land. You're in the land. Every child of God is represented, and we're all in Christ Jesus. And then illustrated by the flint knives, the truth that we're separated unto Him by covenant.

We belong unto Him. The truth illustrated by the Passover lamb, that we are brought in the same way we get out, because of His work, His wonderful blood, His finished work, and we feed upon the lamb. And we ended up in chapter 5 with the final illustration, the man with the sword drawn in his hand, the angel, the captain of the Lord's host, the angel of the Lord Christ Jesus Himself.

And so at Gilgal we learn, and we need to teach others, that we are in Christ, that we're separated unto Christ, that we are to feed on Christ, and to depend upon Christ to win the battle. That's where we've been so far.

Joshua's Preparation to Take Jericho

Now I'd like to continue our study this evening, how may we help others from Gilgal to Jericho to take the wonderful land. After we have crossed the Jordan, and after we have learned the lessons of Gilgal, God takes us to Jericho.

Now as you can imagine, since this is the first battle for the land of Canaan, and that seven-year war to possess the land, you know how God has written the Bible. And when you come to any first thing, pay close attention to that first thing, because you'll find in that first thing many principles on how that thing will be developed.

And so you'll want to study the first miracle and those kinds of things. This is the first victory. And you would expect it then to be a strategic victory, laying out the keys for all victory. And indeed, that's exactly what you find here.

As we looked at the priests for heaven's wisdom on how to cross the Jordan, and as we looked at the elders for heaven's wisdom on how to get to Gilgal, I'm suggesting now that Joshua, the successor of Moses, the God-appointed leader, is the one we look at so that we might learn how to take Jericho.

Chapter 6 describes the conquest of Jericho, but I want to begin as I suggested this morning, where we left off. So if you'll look at chapter 5, the end of chapter 5, Joshua encounters the captain of the Lord's host.

I'm going to ask you to follow along as we read again this wonderful text, beginning at verse 13. 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 for our adversary? And he said, No, rather, I indeed now am come as the captain of the host of the Lord. Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, What has my Lord to say to His servant?

The captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. The appearance of the prince of the Lord's host, or the captain of the Lord's host.

In my view, I think this little section, verses 13 to 15, is the single most important passage in the entire book of Joshua. It not only contains the key to the victory at Jericho, but it contains all the keys to all the victories in every battle that they're ever going to face.

It's the key to the first battle and every battle. I'd like to meditate with you on these wonderful verses. I don't think I need to spend a lot of time, if I do need to, I'm not going to, spend a lot of time on the fact that this is the appearance of the second person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The man with the sword in his hand is the Lord Jesus in His pre-incarnate form. One illustration of that is in verse 15, when He said, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place you stand is holy ground.

Certainly that identifies this person with the same person who appeared in the flaming bush to Moses. Take off your shoes. This is holy ground. Now, we appreciate the Cardinal who gave us chapter and verse divisions, but sometimes we quarrel with them because they break them off in places that are not good.

There's one chapter in the New Testament that ends with a comma. And you wonder why in the world they would end it that way. And I think this is one of the unfortunate breaks. I don't think chapter 5 should have ended where it did.

It should go on into chapter 6 because the one who's speaking at the end of 5 is the same one who's speaking at the beginning of chapter 6. And who is it? Chapter 6, 1. Joshua, Jericho was tightly shut up because of the sons of Israel.

No one went out. But no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That's the word Jehovah. Jehovah said to Joshua, see, I've given Jericho under your hand with its king and its valiant warriors.

And we know then that the captain of the Lord's host is the same as Jehovah. It's our Lord Jesus. A captain of the Lord's host appears to Joshua. And remember, he's still at Gilgal. And so this man appears at Gilgal with a sword drawn in his hand.

The next time God picks that up, this picture, is after the seven-year war in Judges 2. Listen to Judges 2 and verse 1. Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokom. And he said, I brought you up out of Egypt.

I led you into the land which I've sworn to your fathers. I said I'll never break my covenant with you. He's called the angel of the Lord. It's Jehovah. It's the Son of God. And when he comes from Gilgal to Bokom, I don't want to get into the Judges, but you understand Bokom and weeping and why they wept there.

I'll tell you why. Because at the beginning of Joshua, the angel of the Lord stood there like this with the sword drawn in His hand. And all of that symbolizes I'll fight for you. I'll fight for God. When He appears in Judges, He doesn't appear like this.

He puts the sword back in its sheath and He appears like this. And that's why they wept. Because He says you're on your own. Fight your own battles. And they named that place Weeping because He put His sword back in His sheath.

But who is this? It's the Lord Jesus, the angel of the Lord. I told you that this is the single most important passage in the book of Joshua. Not only for its relationship to Jericho, but for its relationship to the possession of the whole land of Canaan.

Who's the captain of the Lord's host? It's Jesus. What's the land a picture of? It's Jesus. And that's why this is a key passage. It's a key passage because it's teaching us this, that Jesus must take me to Jesus.

Nobody else can take me in. Only Christ can lead me to Christ. Only Jesus can take me to the land and to the abundance and the fullness of the land. We learned about the finished work when we were at the Jordan.

And we learned about the power of God to separate us and to minister to us at Gilgal. But now we come to Him, Himself, not His work, not His principles, not His truths. But now here stands Jesus. He said, You've learned a lot.

You've come a long way. You've seen the finished work. You've understood identification. You've understood what it means to be separated unto Me. You've understood what it means to feed on the Lamb. You've understood I must fight for you.

Now, let me, Jesus, take you to Jesus. And let me take you to the abundance. And so this chapter begins, climactically, with the Lord taking us to the Lord. We need to understand that that's how it is.

That's the final preparation. Now, let's look at Joshua as he meets this wonderful visitor. And I want you to notice that this is an unsought-for visitation. In other words, Joshua wasn't praying to see the Lord.

He wasn't seeking. As we say, someone seeks the Lord. He was not only not seeking this, he didn't expect it. It came as a great surprise to him. Which, if you've studied the Bible long enough, you know that the Lord gets a kick out of that.

Surprising you, like He ambushed Jacob when he was all alone and just jumped out of the bush. And it must have been a frightening thing for Joshua. Now, so that we may clearly grasp the heart of God and knowing that God has given us analytical minds and that we think logically, I hate to break up a story like this and say there are three things, there are four principles, because you can lose life.

This really happened to this man. It's not an outline in his life. This is what happened. But so that we can understand this, let me show you two things at least that he learned from this marvelous visitation of the Lord.

Joshua's Frightening Encounter with the Captain

First, try to picture it in your mind's eye. Chapter 5, verse 13. 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.

The climactic illustration, I think, of Jesus surprising someone, just showing off. I have to laugh when I read it. Is it Revelation? Can I just picture this? This old man. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day when suddenly behind me, the sound of a trumpet.

Picture that. This guy is meditating. Ta-da! Ta-da! This trumpet blast. And then he turns around and you saw what he saw. And of course he fell at his feet as a dead man. Joshua was by Jericho. Read it in terms of the context.

He's on a reconnaissance mission. That's what he's doing. He's the military leader. He's planning a strategy. In chapter 1 and verse 9, God had told him to be strong and very courageous and not to tremble or be dismayed.

For God said, the Lord is with you wherever you go. And he's trying to do that. He's trying to be brave. He's got these people over there and he's got to take them into the land and God hasn't dribbled out any information.

Up to this point, he doesn't have a clue except he sees these tremendous walls. Now, if we can believe the archaeologists who've dug up the walls and who've written the records, Jericho had double walls, not just single walls.

We're not dead sure how high they were, but commonly accepted scholarship tells us they were about 30 feet high. 30 feet high. And they were double walls. And the walls themselves were about 12 feet thick.

And there was about 15 feet in between the double walls. And what's Joshua doing? He's out there going, whoa. And he's walking around. He's on a reconnaissance mission and he's trying to discern some strategy as he examines the defenses of the enemy.

I know from the record that Rahab's house was built on top of the wall. And now the walls are shut up tight and Joshua's out there. How are we ever, he must be thinking, going to penetrate these fortresses?

Are we going to have to scale them? Are we going to have to knock them down? Are we going to tunnel underneath them? We'll probably have to starve these people out. How in the world are we going to do that?

I know when the spies returned 40 years earlier with the report, they said the people are strong. The cities are fortified and very large. They're too strong for us. And even on the east of the Jordan when God gave victory over Og, Deuteronomy describes that.

And it says their cities are fortified. Their walls are high. They have gates and bars over the gates. And that was just on the east. And so he's out there as a commander-in-chief would have to be. And he's looking around and looking at the walls and seeing how big they are and how high they are.

And all of a sudden, he appears. You've got to get that. Just all of a sudden there he is. And he's got a sword drawn. The cart would sink. Because I'm being real sneaky. I'm in the bushes. I'm looking at the wall.

What am I going to do? And all of a sudden, there he is! And he's got this sword. Joshua learned some of the greatest lessons that he ever learned in his life. To be honest with you, as I read this story at the beginning, it doesn't appear that this man was anything other than a soldier to Joshua.

I mean, he just looked like another man. I don't think. I don't know. But it doesn't look like his face was shining and his sword was flaming. And he was some deity. I don't think he saw that. He just saw a man with a sword in his hand.

And he asks in verse 13, Are you for us or for our enemies? It depends on your tone of voice when you read that. John Calvin thinks that he was challenging him to a duel. Whose side are you on? Are you on our side?

Are you on their side? Speak up! Identify yourself! Who goes there? That's what Calvin thinks it was. I don't know. There's another way to say it. My son Daniel and I were studying this and I said, How do you think he said that?

And my son answered like this with his fingers crossed. That's how he said it. And he thinks that this was an impressive sight. And he goes, Whoa! Whose side are you on? I hope you're on our side. That's how he looks at it.

Either way, Joshua's question became the occasion for this tremendous revelation of the Lord. Chapter 5, verse 13, Whose side are you on? Are you for us or for our adversary? My same son Daniel, as we studied this, he wasn't convinced that this was truly Jesus.

He said, You've got to show me that. So I went back to the 22 angel of the Lord appearances and I'm trying to show him that the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is Jesus. I'm not convinced. Until he read this.

And then he said, I'm convinced. And I said, What convinces you? He said, He didn't give a straight answer. It's got to be Jesus. Are you on our side? Are you on anybody's side? Verse 14, No, rather indeed, I've now come as a captain of the host of the Lord.

I'm not on your side. And I'm not on their side. I'm on God's side. That's what he said. I fight for God. And if you're on God's side, you're going to see a wonderful thing. I'll be on your side. And if you're never on God's side, you're going to find me a formidable foe.

Because I'll fight against you tooth and nail. I'm on the Lord's side. I fight for the Lord and for all who line up with Him. See, the Lord's not on Israel's side or against Israel. Not on Canaan's side or against Canaan.

God has a purpose. God has a will. And God has a design. And God has a plan. And God has a name. And God has a reputation. And God has a cause. And God fights for God. And He fights for His name and for His cause.

That's the first thing that he learned. What's the second thing he learned? Not only that God fights for God. Verse 14, No, rather indeed, I now come as captain of the host of the Lord. Major Ian Thomas, in his wonderful book, Saving Life, are you familiar with that?

It's just a marvelous little book. He has one chapter on this story. And he paraphrases it this way, I didn't come to take sides. I came to take over. Oh, exactly right. Exactly right. And Joshua had to learn that.

Remember, the angel of the Lord is talking to Joshua, the military leader. Joshua, little c, the commander-in-chief. This is General Joshua. This is top brass. This is the successor of Moses. This is the God-appointed leader of all the tribes of Israel.

And when Jesus said, I am now come as captain, what He's saying is, you are no longer in charge. They are no longer under your command. I want you to surrender your command to Me. Lay down your troops.

Lay down your arms. Relinquish your command. We sort of read this, la, la, la. The angel of the Lord stood there with the sword drawn in His hand, and He said, I want you to know two things. I am fighting for God, and I've come to take over.

That's awesome. That is so awesome. Brothers, we've got to watch Joshua. If we're going to help our brothers and sisters take Jericho, watch him respond as the angel of the Lord says, I'm here fighting for God, and I'm here to take over.

Let's watch Joshua because it's wonderful. We stand, I think, where Joshua stood. Verse 14, No, rather indeed, I have now come as the captain of the host of the Lord. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth.

He bowed down and said, What has my Lord to say to His servants? Oh, brothers, this is wonderful. He fell on his face, and he worshiped the Lord. And it was at that moment, I believe, that he knew with great relief who it was that was standing before him.

I don't know what was going through his mind when he looked at those 30 foot walls. And then he looked back at what was his army. And then someone shows up and says, I want to be captain. Alright! Thank you, Lord.

I am so glad you came. And I'm so glad that you want the job. You got it. And I think that's how it went. I think it was with great relief when he said, I'm the captain of the Lord's host. He fell down in gratitude.

He said, Thank you, Lord. I didn't know what to do. And brothers, aren't we there as leaders? And God has brought before us so many people and we feel such a burden. We've been carrying them on our shoulders.

If you're ever going to possess Christ, you'd better lay that burden down. And you'd better just surrender all the troops to Him. And you'd better do what Joshua did. Oh, it's a glorious picture. As he falls on his face, and he worships the Lord, and he praises God because he was dreading it.

He was dreading trying to penetrate the walls. He was dreading trying to get volunteers from that group. Because if you know Israel, and you've studied the record of that, I can hear Joshua arguing with the Lord, not arguing against Him, just saying, Lord, You don't know how good this is that You want to be captain.

When I was considering the geography of the land, the spies came back. They told me it's hills and valleys. And I know hills and valleys. I'm a military man. They're easy to defend, and they're hard to capture.

And I didn't know what I was going to do. And I heard about them. They're vicious. They're wicked people. They're violent. They know how to fight. They're trained in war. They're giants in there. And we've been an agricultural people in the main and wandering around.

And you want to be captain. I gladly hand in my stripes. You have the command. Here's the key to my office. It's yours. Glorious liberty Joshua had that day. It wasn't a hard thing. It was a glorious thing.

It was a relief for him. I can picture Joshua looking over the hosts of his flock, his people, the nation, the 40 ,000 troops that he had from the east side, which was only about 60 of their armed forces.

Evidently, some stayed over there to defend the women and children. And then as he looked at the 100 ,000 or so other troops, and he says, Lord, You want to be captain of the host? There's a host. Take them.

You can be captain of the host. You see, Joshua had such a low view at that point. But even a low view brought him great relief. He was in for a wonderful surprise. A wonderful surprise because he thought that was the Lord's host.

That wasn't the Lord's host. It's not only the armies of men. It's the armies of heaven and earth. And He's the Lord of hosts. The armies of heaven and earth. The unnumbered hosts that are mentioned in Hebrews which always worshiped the Lord Jesus.

His winds, His ministers, His flames of fire, His ministering spirits. Psalm 68 talks about Mount Sinai. And it says that there were 100 million angels when God gave the law. 10 ,000 times 10 ,000. Do the math.

100 million angels just on Mount Sinai. This is the Lord of hosts. Remember, Elijah prayed, or Elisha prayed for his servant in 2 Kings 6. O Lord, open his eyes. Let him see. And He opened his eyes and the mountain was filled with chariots of fire and horses.

This is the host of the Lord. In one night, one angel killed 185 ,000 of the Assyrian hosts. Probably this angel, the angel of the Lord. The Lord of hosts. Revelation 5. Before the throne of God, myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 and thousands of thousands.

I'm the captain of the Lord of hosts. I'll tell you, when Joshua surrendered to this captain, he joined the winning team. When he fell down before this captain, he said, I want to be the captain. And he said, well, there's my host.

And he said, no, that's not your host. There's my host. And there's my host. I'm the Lord, the captain of the armies of heaven and earth. And I've come to take over. Lord, open our eyes. Brothers, if we're going to help others to get into the land, it will only be because, like Joshua, God graces us to meet face to face with the One who has the sword drawn in His hand.

And by His grace, we fall at His feet. And we say, what has my Lord to say to His servant? I've given up guessing on how to take the walls. I've given up guessing on how to overthrow the enemy. Wouldn't you expect that that would have been enough?

I mean, here's the angel of the Lord standing there. I'm fighting for God. I've come to take over. Joshua falls down and he worships. He's worshiping. He's on his face. He says, whatever you say, I'm going to do it.

God humbles him more. That's not enough. God humbles him more. Brothers, we can't miss this. Verse 15, And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place that you're standing is holy.

He had to take his shoes off. On the low level of earth, that's a rather undignified thing for a general to do. He's on a reconnaissance mission. He's trying to figure out the strategy and all this. And all of a sudden, he's saying, take off your shoes.

Not only relinquish your hold and your authority over all of the forces and all of the people, but take off your shoes until we're on our faces and barefoot before the Lord. They're not going in. That's how God allows us to help them come in.

You see, human wisdom would think the opposite of this. Going into Jericho now, this is the day of battle. You've got to come up with some military strategy. You're going to have to figure it all out.

It's time to put on your military sandals. It's time to lace up your boots with the thickly studded hobnobs and nails. It's time to get ready. Sharpen your swords and gird yourselves and prepare your shields.

Lace up those sandals. No, Jesus stands there and says, you really want to win a battle? You're going against Satan, you know. You're going against hell. You're going against the forces of wickedness.

You're going against the Canaanites. On your face. Take off your shoes. This is so un-military. It is so divine. It is so wise, so prudent. This is spiritual warfare, and it's won when we are barefoot and on our face before the Captain of the Lord's Host.

What does it mean to be barefoot before the Lord? I know most of the commentators talk about the words, this is holy ground. And the idea is that God is holy and the idea is reverence. And when you're in the presence of God, you should not walk the same way you walk when you're in the world.

It's not common ground. God is there. But if you applied that literally, we'd never wear shoes. If you have to take off your shoes when you're in the presence of God, when would you wear shoes? His presence is everywhere.

I traced through the Bible every time it mentions take off your shoes. Every time it mentions barefoot. Every time they took off their sandals, I traced out every reference that I could find. And I came up with something that I think is interesting.

It includes reverence. But I think it's a little more than that. It's true that God is holy and we can't contaminate His presence. But I think it's including a little more than that. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.

When God sent Isaiah to preach against Egypt and Cush, the record of this is in Isaiah 20. You can check it out later. When God sent Isaiah to preach against Egypt and Cush, He wanted to warn them that the Assyrians were going to come and take them captive.

And one of the things they were going to do is lead them into captivity buck naked. They wouldn't have a strip of clothing on. God wanted to deliver that message. And He said, you go out and tell them that they're going to end up as captives, as slaves, buck naked.

Now I want you to illustrate it so you take off your outer garment and take off your shoe. For three years, Isaiah the prophet walked around barefoot preaching to these people that Assyria was going to come and lead them away naked.

I can hear them saying, why are you preaching to us barefoot, prophet of God? And I can hear him saying, my feet are naked. As an illustration that someday you're going to be naked. My God is a modest God.

I'm not going to walk around naked. But I'm going to illustrate the principle of being naked with my feet. When Absalom chased David after that insurrection, 2 Samuel 15, David was ashamed. He had been exposed and he felt so bad because his son had done that.

The Bible says he took off his shoes and he fled with no shoes on. Naked feet. A principle. A picture. Job with his tongue in his cheek. Remember his miserable counselors? And how much they helped him.

Well, when God turned their wisdom, He said this, Job 12, 17, He makes the counselors walk barefoot. He makes fools of judges. He makes the priests walk barefoot. He overthrows the secure ones. He pours contempt on the nobles.

When God exposed these counselors and these priests and these nobles, He said, they're barefoot. They're barefoot. When a person lost a loved one in the Old Testament, part of the grieving process was to take off your shoes.

I can't prove this, but to be honest with you, I'm not convinced. In Luke chapter 10, when God sent out the 70, I'm inclined to think He sent them out barefoot. It says, take no money bag. No belt. No shoes.

Now, I know some say that means no extra pair of shoes. I don't know about that. Then it would be no extra money belt too. No extra bag. I don't know. But I know God's a modest God. He could have said to Moses at the bush, Moses, take off your clothes.

This is holy ground. He could have said to Joshua as he stood there with the sword drawn, Joshua, take off your clothes. This is holy ground. That's how the whole Bible begins with man naked before God.

And I think this principle of taking off your shoes because God is modest, He's illustrating not only reverence, but nakedness before God. Openness before God. Transparency before God. Coming before God open.

Naked. Listen to Hebrews 4, verses 12 and 13. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts, the intentions of the heart.

There's no creature hidden from His sight. All things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And I think that was all part of this humility. The angel of the Lord stands there before Joshua and he said, I am fighting for God.

I've come to take over. Joshua falls down on his face and he worships Him. Anything you say, speak, and your servant will do it. And he says, take off your shoes. This is holy ground. Stand before me.