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267 tale of Gideon (Judges chapter 6). To convince Gideon that his selection to lead the Israelites against their enemies was ordained by Yahweh, the "Angel of Yahweh" instructed Gideon to take the meat and bread that he had prepared as an offering to the Lord, and place them on a rock; and when Gideon had done so, The angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the wand that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the breadrolls. And there flamed up a fire out of the rock and consumed the meat and the breadrolls. Then the angel of Yahweh disappeared from sight; and Gideon realized that he was [indeed] an angel of Yahweh. In such instances the magical wand might have looked like the rod held by the more important group of twelve in the Yazilikaya procession. The curved instrument held by the last-to-march group could very well have been the "sword" that was seen held by the Mal'akhim when they were sent on destructive missions. One such sighting is reported in Joshua chapter 5. As the Israelite leader of the conquest of Canaan faced his most challenging target—the exceedingly fortified city of Jericho—a Divine Emissary appeared to him to give him instructions: As Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and lo, he beheld a man standing opposite him, a drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went toward him, and said to him: "Art thou one of us or one of our adversaries?" And he answered: "Neither; the captain of the host of Yahweh I am." Angels and Other Emissaries Another occurrence in which a warlike Mal'akh appeared