Victory Cry

Picture yourself at your niece's final soccer game of the season. If they win, they will be in the playoffs. The team has been behind the entire game, and they look exhausted. But just in the last few minutes they've tried the score. Now the seconds are ticking away. The game is almost over. The parents are white-knuckled. The fans are holding their breath. Your niece makes a great move and take the ball down the field. You're shouting at the top of your lungs, "Go, go!" She makes an incredible pass across the field. You know this is it....just one goal away from victory.
   The Israelites had waited 40 years to shout the victory cry. Now they're at the goal. For six days they had followed God's commands and had marched silently around Jericho. Now it was the seventh day. Imagine the suspense...the eerie quiet building up for six long days. Would God himself appear to tear down the walls? Would the inhabitants of Jericho surrender without a fight? Would the Isaelites makes the right play? Then God gave the go-ahead: Sound the trumpets;shout for victory, and the wall of the city will collapse. Just as God promised, "the trumpets sounded, the people shouted," and victory was theirs. The Israelites conquered the city of Jericho, finally claiming their rightful place in the promised land.
   The Israelites must have felt so relieved to claim a victory after so many years of waiting and preparing. Can you relate? Have you been feeling that you are in a holding pattern, that your circumstances are not changing? Do you long to have resolution, to have even a small victory? God is working even while you are waiting. Think of this time of waiting as a process that will eventually culminate in a victory. In the meantime, remain faithful and know that God is there with you, preparing you for the battles, goals and victories to come.
-Women's Devotional Bible

[Numbers 14:6-9]
6 Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothing.  
7 They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land!  
8 And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey.  
9 Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!”

[Joshua 2:1-24]
1 Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them, “Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night.

2 But someone told the king of Jericho, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab: “Bring out the men who have come into your house, for they have come here to spy out the whole land.”

4 Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, “Yes, the men were here earlier, but I didn’t know where they were from.  

5 They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close. I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.”  

6 (Actually, she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath bundles of flax she had laid out.)  

7 So the king’s men went looking for the spies along the road leading to the shallow crossings of the Jordan River. And as soon as the king’s men had left, the gate of Jericho was shut.

8 Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them.  

9 “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror.  

10 For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. 

11 No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.

12 “Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that  

13 when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”

14 "We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety,” the men agreed. “If you don’t betray us, we will keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land.”

15 Then, since Rahab’s house was built into the town wall, she let them down by a rope through the window.  

16 “Escape to the hill country,” she told them. “Hide there for three days from the men searching for you. Then, when they have returned, you can go on your way.”

17 Before they left, the men told her, “We will be bound by the oath we have taken only if you follow these instructions.  

18 When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down. And all your family members—your father, mother, brothers, and all your relatives—must be here inside the house.  

19 If they go out into the street and are killed, it will not be our fault. But if anyone lays a hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death. 

20 If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.”

21 “I accept your terms,” she replied. And she sent them on their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

22 The spies went up into the hill country and stayed there three days. The men who were chasing them searched everywhere along the road, but they finally returned without success.

23 Then the two spies came down from the hill country, crossed the Jordan River, and reported to Joshua all that had happened to them.  

24 “The Lord has given us the whole land,” they said, “for all the people in the land are terrified of us.”

 

[Joshua 6:20]

 When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

 

[2 Corinthians 4:16-18]

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  

17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  

18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will la