We are hopefully about to FINALLY do our first deal!!!

We had to walk away from another one this week because of not enough meat on the bone. I have a question for folks, isn't our earnest money check supposed to sit in an escrow account UNTIL closing, not until final acceptance of our offer? The seller of the property we had to walk away from actually deposited our check the day before we were even supposed to inspect. From everything we've learned and listening to Matt Larson at various events has stated that they can't go and cash our check and it sits in an escrow account until closing. Any ideas????