Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Heartthoughts: Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

We were at the George Bush Presidential Museum in College Station, Texas one day last week. It was quite fascinating looking back on the administration of the 41st president of the United States, and especially interesting to see mementos, pictures, and snippets of information about his family.

But perhaps the most intriguing exhibit was a large slab of concrete, unimpressive at first glance, that turned out to be a piece of the Berlin Wall! It was probably 10 feet high with a curved base and covered with graffiti that had been added over the years, cryptic slogans and messages of hope to a divided city. The placard noted that when the grafitti got painted over, people would simply re-do it, tracing the words through the still slightly visible image beneath.

One apparently recent message that dominated all the others and stood in mute testimony of the power of the shout, read, "Shout and the wall will come down," Joshua 6:5. The story is of the the walls of Jericho falling. "...the people will shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him," Joshua 6:5b.

My husband had recently preached a message he called, "The Power of the Shout". I was thinking about this as I turned on the car radio this morning while waiting for Howard to come out of a store. Just then a preacher's voice came from the radio, "Shout and your wall will fall down!" The host had also been referencing the Fall of Jericho. Then he told the listeners, "On the count of three, I want all of you, as far as this station reaches, to shout 'Hallelujah' with me! Believe your walls of doubt, fear, loneliness and discouragement will fall!"

I had just read a thoughtful article concerning Lent. The writer advocated fasting "allelujahs"for Lent. His point was that we say "Hallelujah" (Praise the Lord) so often and inappropriately that it becomes meaningless, when sometimes we should be saying, "Have mercy."

I don't believe we can "Praise the Lord" too much. And sometimes, we can even shout it!

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