Welcome to the 37th week of the year! This is the second week in the sixth 49 days of the year. This is the week of September 10-16 in a clear year and September 9-25 in a leap year. The Bible patterns for understanding the 37th week are the second day of creation narrative, the 37th book of the Bible, the 37th chapters of the Bible, and the second four chapters of Joshua, the sixth book of the Bible.
Week 37 is a second day of creation week in the sixth 49 days of the year. On the second day of creation, God created the firmament to destroy the barrier created by the bloc of waters. The second season is for thwarting monopolies and breaking controlling powers to make way where there is no way for people. God makes a way where there is no way in the second season. It is a season to refuse to be stopped by barriers. It is a season to open doors by exerting spiritual force. It is a season to triumph through prayer and prophetic decrees.
Week 37 is a Joshua 5-8 week. The second four chapters of the sixth book of the Bible are applicable to the second week in the sixth 49 days of the year. In Jodhua 5, the circumcised among the men of Israel were circumcised. The preproach of Egypt was rolled away from Israel on that day. Manna also ceased and Israel began to eat the fruit of the land. In the sixth chapter, Israel penetrated conquered Jericho by the wisdom of God; and saved Rahab and her family. Israel suffered a humiliating defeat in Joshua 7. Joshua fell on his face and cried to the Lord. He had deep communion with God. This led to the identification of Achan as the sinner in the camp. He and his family were destroyed. That was how the barrier between Israel and Victory was removed. In the eighth chapter, Israel defeated Ai through a heavenly idea he received. The 37th week is for breaking through barriers; and finding a way where there is no way. This is a week of intense and decisive battle in the sixth 49 days.
Week 37 is a book of Haggai week. Haggai is the 37th book of the Bible. In that book, God challenged the returnees from captivity to return to the work of rebuilding the temple although it was halted by a royal decree. See Ezra 4. The house of God is important in the 37th season because prayer and prophetic decrees should go forth from the house of God to break barriers in the season. The house of God is a house of prayer. The people suffered in the 37th book of the Bible because they neglected the power house of the season. In the 37th week, the House of God is a war-house. The importance of the House in this 37th week is in the prayers rising from it. We are the house of God and prayer-fire should be burning on the altar of our lives. The enemy uses fear and pressure to drive people away from majoring in the major program of the week. This week, you should not allow fear or anxiety to move you away from the House of God. Let the pressures of the week drive you to the place of prayer. Take the troubles of the week to the Lord in prayer. Position yourself to stand in the gap for the world in need of answers from God. The 37th book of the Bible reveals that prayer is top of the agenda in the 37th week.
Week 37 is a 37th-chapters-of-the-Bible week. The 37th chapters of the Bible draw attention to the different sides of the season.
In Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers thought they had found opportunity to kill their younger brother. God made way for Joseph to escape death at the hands of his brothers. At the counsel of Judah, they sold him to slave merchants who took him to Egypt. That was how he became a slave in Egypt. He was more than a slave though. He was the house of God in Egypt. That was an unfolding of the divine plan to reposition the house of Jacob for dominion and global significance. There is a place called ‘Dothan’ in the spirit. It is a Fountain out of which the Law and the Decree go forth. Evil plans do not prosper there. The physical Dothan is first mentioned in Genesis 37; where Joseph escaped being killed by his brothers. The second and last mention is in the 6th chapter of Second Kings; where Elisha blinded and arrested the Syrian troops sent to capture him. This 37th week, your dwelling is in ‘Dothan’. You are in the Fountain of Life. There, the Law and the decree will go forth from your mouth; and no harm will come on you. Amen!
In Exodus 37, Bezalel made the Ark of Testimony, the Lamp-stand, the Table of Shewbread, the Altar of Incense, the anointing oil and the incense. He and his men worked on the tabernacle. The house of God (the tabernacle) is the powerhouse of the season. Prayers go from the house of God, to make a way in the 37th season. That is the reason God was not pleased that His people gave up rebuilding His house of in the 37th book of the Bible (Haggai).
Job 37 is the end of Elihu’s speech. He spoke of the wondrous works of God and the awesome thunderous voice of God by which He makes things happen. In the 37th season, voice is one of the ways to make the things you desire happen. When men raise their voices to God in prayer, in the 37th season, God raises His voice against circumstances. Job 37:2-6 says, “Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that comes from His mouth. [3] He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. [4] After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. [5] God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. [6] For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength”.
Psalm 37 is an exhortation to trust God and never be afraid of the wicked. Psalm 37 is about the triumph of the just and the failure and fall of the wicked. “The wicked” is mentioned 14 times in this psalm. If we trust the Lord, rest in Him, wait on Him, delight ourselves in Him, and commit our ways to Him, in the 37th season, He will handle the wicked and take care of every detail.
In Isaiah 37, Hezekiah responded to the words of the king of Assyria first by reporting the matter to Isaiah the prophet; and secondly, by praying to God himself with the letter spread on the altar before God. Isaiah told him that the plans of the king of Assyria would not prosper. He assured him that God would defend the city and that the king of Assyria would hear a rumour, withdraw from Judah and would be killed in his own land. Prayer and the prophetic word are tools for collapsing the plans of the wicked in the 37th season.
In Jeremiah 37, God overthrew the plan of man to enthrone the son of Jehoiakim whom God said would not have a son to sit on the throne of David. The king of Babylon made Zedekiah the son of Josiah king instead. Jeremiah also warned Judah of the futility of seeking help from Egypt against the Babylonians. Trusting in man in the 37th season is a waste of time and a hopeless venture. Jeremiah was imprisoned in this chapter but the word of God was not. He was falsely accused of defecting to the Chaldeans. The king rescued him and put him in a better place and with better conditions. Those who trust in God in the 37th season will triumph.
In Ezekiel 37, the prophet, in a vision, was sent to prophesy to dry bones in the valley. He obeyed the voice of God and dry bones of dead people came back alive, rose and became a mighty army. It was a revelation of God’s plan to restore the house of Israel. The 37th season is a time to undo the works of the enemy against God’s people. In the 37th season, the word of God in your mouth is key to undoing the work of the enemy.
Disasters are common in the 37th season. 1937 was a year of notable disasters. Ohio River flood of 1937 that happened between January-February left a million people homeless and 385 people dead. On March 18, 1937, in New London School, Texas, a natural gas explosion killed over of 295 students and teachers. This is the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg disaster occurred. A German airship burst into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. 36 people died. On May 30, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed 10 unarmed demonstrators in the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre. On July 28, George VI escaped assassination by Irish Republican Army. On September 2, the Great Hon Kong Typhoon killed about 11, 000 persons. On October 2-8, President of Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, ordered Dominican troops to kill thousands of Haitians living in Dominican Republic in what is now called the Parsley Massacre. On November 11, the Kogushi Sulphur Mine collapsed in western Gunma, Japan, and killed at least 245 people. The 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon, was caught up in a coverup scandal that led to his unprecedented resignation. Charles Colson, founder of the Prison Fellowship International emerged from that saga to become a major house of a God. In the 37th year of the United States, on January 23 1813, the River Basin Massacre took place, in which 30-60 captured American soldiers were executed by Native in Michigan. In the 37th year of Nigeria (October 2, 1996 – October 1, 1997), there were at least 8 bomb explosions targeting citizens in different parts of the country.
There are four kinds of disasters that come in the 37th season: 1. Disasters that come to facilitate people’s journey to destiny. In Genesis 37, there was disaster in the House of Jacob. Joseph went out to see to the welfare of his brothers – in obedience to his father, Jacob. He never returned. He was to be killed by his brothers but God intervened and scattered their plans. They rather stripped him of his clothes, sold him to strangers as slave; dipped his clothes in animal blood ,and lied to their father that a wild beast had destroyed him. That was a heaven-sent transport to his royal destiny; and they couldn’t cover the scandal. The Watergate scandal happened in the season of the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon. The president resigned. Chuck Colson was among those indicted in Watergate-related crime. He spent seven months in jail, encountered God there, and became founder of Prison Fellowship International operating in over 150 countries today. God used that 37th season mess to give him a message and a ministry. God uses disasters, in the 37th season, to advance his purpose.
2. Disasters that come to test your knowledge of God and your confidence in Him; and to reveal God’s sovereignty and power. In Isaiah 37, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, threatened to overrun Judah and to sack her king, Hezekiah. The king of Judah cried out to Isaiah, the prophet, and to the Lord. The Lord of heaven and earth and sea assured him that the cause of Sennacherib would not prosper. True to His Word, the Lord defended the city and stoped the king of Assyria from invading or entering Judah. He heard rumors of an invasion of his country, returned home, and was murdered by his own children.
3. Disasters that come to wake God’s people from slumber. Haggai is the 37th book of the Bible. In that book, God’s people suffered terrible disasters. When they sought God concerning it, the Lord said He made it happen to awaken the people to their responsibility of rebuilding the temple. Haggai 1:9-11 says, “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” Haggai 2:17 says, “I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the LORD”. On Tuesday, September 11, the second day of the 37th week of 2001 (a core second-season day), terrorist hijackers plane-crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and destroyed it. Many lives were lost. That was the work of evil men; but I also believe it was a wake-up call to the United States.
4. Disasters that glorify God by showing His power, not to stop what could happen but, to undo what had been done. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet was transported, in a vision, to a valley of dry bones scattered all over the place.. God told him to speak life into the dry bones. He did. The bones came together, received flesh and breath, and became a mighty army. It was in the 37th year of Joash king of Judah that a dead man’s body thrown into Elisha’s tomb revived. It was in the 37th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, that Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon and released him from prison. The 37th season is for undoing what the enemy had done.
The 37th chapters of the Bible reveal that the enemy wants to see people dead in the 37th season; but God intervenes to save life in the same season. He gives the wicked for a ransom for the wicked. Genesis 37:18 says, “…even before he came near them, they conspired against him to KILL him”. Psalm 37:32 says, “The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to SLAY him”. Isaiah 37:36 says, “Then the angel of the LORD went out, and KILLED in the camp of the Assyrians…and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses-all dead. Isaiah 37:38 says, “…it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons… STRUCK HIM DOWN WITH SWORD…” Ezekiel 37:9 says, “…breathe on these SLAIN that they may live.”
This 37th week, put your confidence in God. Pray and speak the word. Wickedness and the wicked will not triumph over you. Whatever slays men in the 37th season will not succeed in your life! There were three attempts to assassinate the 37th President of the United States (April 1972, May 1972, and February 1974) but all failed. This week I decree in the name of Jesus, that wherever sunlight touches and moonlight reaches, evil and wickedness shall not triumph. Heaven has overruled the conspiracy of ‘the darkness’ and ‘the waters’ against the plans and purposes of God. The situation may seem hopeless but God will turn it around for His glory and for the good of His people. Psalm 37 guarantees that God will not leave His own to the desire of the evil one. This gives us hope that evil and wickedness will not triumph in the 37th season and especially this 37th week of the year. Happy 37th week!
