The Excitment and Anticipation

"And the Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. ³ You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. ⁴ And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. ⁵ It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”  Joshua 6:2-5


This is always one of those stories in the Bible that gets my blood pumping, because I love seeing God give direction, and the people obeying.  I love seeing the faith acted out before me as I read the tale over and over. Yesterday as I was driving around running errands, God dropped Jericho into my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.  And it was because of something that I'd never thought of before.  


The Israelites had received their directions from God.  They knew what they had to do- and it was a lot of work on their part.  It couldn't have been easy to march around that city six days in a row.  And yet they continued to do it day after day.  But then do you know what happened?  Suddenly that sixth day was at it's end.  Suddenly they were at the day before the most awesome thing was going to happen.


Think about that.  The anticipation and excitement had to have been overwhelming.  They had completed the march of the sixth day, and were waiting for it to be seventh day.  They knew God was going to do something awesome on the seventh day.  That time of waiting for it to actually BE the seventh day had to have been excruciating. 


Can you imagine?  I really can't.  Yet, yesterday when I was driving in the blazing heat, I couldn't help but feel like we're on the verge of something... we're on the verge of God doing something so spectacular and so wonderful, and I can hardly stand the anticipation that is building inside of me.  


Also yesterday, a friend shared a screen capture of a map of the United States.  It actually was a very pretty map that showed the heat across the country- and the entire country looked like it was on fire in the picture.  I couldn't help but think that maybe this was a sign in the natural of what's going on in the supernatural.  A sign that our country is preparing to get back to its roots and burn for God.  Wouldn't that be awesome!


Anyway, the anticipation is great.  It's exciting, and it's building with every moment.  I don't know what it would have been like to be one of those Israelites.  Did they stay awake all night because they were too excited to sleep?  Were they so exhausted from marching for six days straight that they actually slept deeply in preparation for the last grueling day?  We do know that they rose early, and I suspect it was because they simply couldn't sleep anymore- the anticipation was so overwhelming.


 ^"But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. ¹⁶ And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!"  Joshua 6:15-16 

And there we see again, how it wasn't just a silent act of marching around the city.  After they'd completed their march, Joshua instructed the people to open up their mouths and shout.  They had to release a sound into the atmosphere.  It wasn't until after the people shouted that the walls came crashing down.  Had they all stayed silent, those walls would still be standing today.  But they used their voices to change the atmosphere- they acted, they had to DO something physically.  And then, God rewarded them for their faith and their diligence.

 " So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."  Joshua 6:20

The walls fell down flat. 

What walls are you facing today? Can you feel the anticipation stirring in your spirit?  God is up to something, and perhaps He is just waiting for His children to open up their mouths and give a great shout.  Perhaps the time is upon us to face our walls (our situations) and have faith that God will remove them from us completely.

The anticipation is completely overwhelming me.