The Valley of Trouble: A Door of Hope
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What will you do when trouble comes? How will you confront health calamities and career calamities? The 2020 pandemic is putting pressure on all of us. How are we to have merry hearts, which are like a good medicine, in these dark days?
These things can bring us to the point of despair. Circumstances beyond our control can leave us depressed. What will you do when this kind of trouble surrounds you? And how will you counsel others who dwell in despair as they wrestle with depression, disease, or even the disintegration of life as they know it? You can help people who are in the valley of trouble find a door of hope.
In Hosea 2:15, we have a life-changing answer to the questions above. It was given to the people of Israel as a timeless reminder: “And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
Hosea’s task was to illustrate the idolatry of Israel as spiritual adultery. The Lord had commanded him to marry a woman who would prove to be adulterous (chapters 1-3). Hosea 1:2 makes the connection: Hosea was illustrating the dealings of the loving Lord with wicked people. The people had become so estranged that the Lord commanded Hosea to name his children names such as “Loammi” – meaning “you are not my people” (1:9). But in the very next verse, the Lord gave them hope for restoration. This story in the first 3 chapters of Hosea is amplified and unpacked in the prophecies found in chapters 4-14. Hosea 2:15 reflects the theme of Hosea found in chapter 3:1-5. The loving Lord will restore His adulterous people, and they shall return to their God and fear Him.
The Lord said, “I will give . . .the valley of Achor for a door of hope.” “Hope” from the Hebrew word [tiqwâ] comes from a root word that means “to wait or to look for with eager expectation.” Waiting with steadfast endurance is an expression of faith. It means enduring patiently in confident hope that God will decisively act for the salvation of his people.”[i]
“A door” refers to an opening or a doorway. This is wonderful news, yet it is puzzling. It’s puzzling because God gives “the valley of Achor” for a door of hope. What is meant by the “valley of Achor?”
The expression occurs for the first time in Joshua 7:26. Why is it called, “the valley of Achor?” Joshua 7:1 explains, “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.” God’s anger was kindled against His people, and thirty-six men died in the battle of Ai. The hearts of the people melted with fright. Joshua and the elders fell on their faces in abject despair, confession and repentance before the Lord (Joshua 7:4-6).
When confronted with his sin, Achan confessed that he had greedily taken forbidden items during the conquest of Jericho. This was why God’s anger burned against Israel. God also threatened to remove His presence from His people until the matter was dealt with (Joshua 7:13). Because of Achan’s sin, men died at Ai. The name “Achan” means “trouble.” His crime and his family’s complicit crime were judged to be worthy of death. Achan was stoned to death and burned with all of his family. Verse 28 records that they piled up a heap of stones as a memorial, and they named that area “the Valley of Achor,” (“the valley of the one who troubled us”). This is the valley that leads from the plain of the river Jordan into the foothills of Canaan. Joshua 15:7 identifies this valley as part of the border of the tribe of Judah.
Illustrations of the Door of Hope
Giving the valley of trouble for a door of hope illustrates the way God tenderly reconciles people to Himself. We can see these illustrations throughout the Scripture. Consider the grandeur of this door of hope, for Israel “shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” In other words, this prophecy of hope is connected to the greatest, most joyous events in the history of Israel. Where else do we find this principle of “A valley of trouble: a door of hope” in the Scriptures?
In Genesis 3, we read of the deepest, darkest gorge in the valley of trouble. All the other valleys of trouble lead to this treacherous ravine where mankind rebelled against his Creator. And all the hope expressed anywhere in Scripture is connected to the door of hope (the promise of the Messiah) found in Genesis 3:15. In the ultimate “valley of trouble” near the end of the Bible, we find the words of Revelation 20:14-15: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” But there is a door of hope in this tragic passage. It is the reference to “the Book of Life.” And Revelation 21 begins with a reference to the new heaven and the new earth.Your only hope to escape the valley of trouble is to have your name written in God’s Book of Life.
In Exodus 14, the children of Israel stood on the shore of the Red Sea as the Egyptians pursued them. Now there was “a valley of trouble” if ever there was one. But Moses commanded, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”[ii] And the Lord opened a door that extended all the way across the Red Sea! In Leviticus, the God-ordained sacrifices were given with the promise that sinners would be forgiven. When the spies rebelled in the Book of Numbers, God promised that the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord.[iii] Joshua 7 explains the name of the Valley of Achor and how the people turned from their troubles to triumph over their enemies, and enter the Promised Land.
In Judges, we read about humbled Samson that “the hair of his head began to grow again” (Judges 16:22).
In the Book of Ruth Naomi and Ruth in Moab were in the valley of trouble. But the Lord brought them back to the door of hope in Bethlehem – where the ultimate Door of Hope would be born!
The Poetic Books of Scripture are replete with valleys of trouble and doors of hope. Repeatedly, when wickedness seemed seemed to be winning, wisdom triumphed through hope in God. In the shadow of the valley of death, the psalmist feared no evil, for there is a door of hope – “Thou art with me!”[iv] These books help you to identify your own vales of trouble and the God-given doors that lead to ultimate hope.
The major and minor prophets portray treacherous gorges of dark distress; but they give us glorious prophecies of an entrance by faith into confident expectation. For instance, the Messianic “Servant Song” of Isaiah 50 portrays the coming torture of the Messiah. But consider how this prediction was applied for us: “Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”.[v] Why? It is because God gives us a door of hope in the valley of trouble. Isaiah 65:10 prophesies that someday the Valley of Achor will be a place of blessing.
Can you just imagine what went through the minds of the apostles when they heard Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 16:21? “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” At first, these words seemed to dash all hope. After all, Jesus had portrayed the imminent treachery of the three greatest classes in society against Himself. But He explained that He would go into the valley of trouble and emerge victorious – the ultimate Door of hope. And there is the gateway of the Gospel: Jesus died for our sins and rose again in order to declare repentant sinners to be righteous. (Romans 4:25).
Romans 5 lays out the clear progression of hope that proceeds from this saving work of Jesus Christ. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:1-6). Here is our great door of hope in the valley of trouble. Our great Shepherd, the door of the sheep, is the door of hope in our valley of trouble.
The noted fiction writer, Dorothy Sayers, described the great conflict in Scripture as “the drama in the dogma.” She used that phrase to emphasize the need for clear Biblical, doctrinal teaching. Without it, we would never see the great drama in the Scriptures. Rightly understood, the stories in the Bible keep us on the edge of our seats. They reveal how grace triumphs in conflict after conflict. We find doors of hope in valleys of trouble. All these stories lead us to a change of heart to embrace the God of hope.
These few illustrations prove the point. You can comfort people who are in the valley of trouble with this transforming principle: there is a door of hope.
Years ago, I entered the hospital room of a dear saint of God, named Betty, who was near death. Two days earlier, at her request, the doctors had removed her ventilator so that she could breathe on her own. But after forty-five minutes, they had to put her back on the breathing machine. Now Betty was requesting that the ventilator be removed, even if it meant that she would go to be with the Lord. When I entered her room, she seemed discouraged, and depressed. The nurse who was tinkering with the ventilator quickly excused herself. Betty was unable to talk, but I could see the discouragement in her eyes. As she faced death, the only thing I could offer her were the promises and principles of Scripture: Believers are transformed at death to be among “the spirits of just men made perfect.”[vi] If our earthly tent (our body) were to be destroyed, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.[vii] To be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord.[viii] So that in all this, we “reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.”[ix] Each time I quoted one of these Scriptures, Betty sat up a little straighter. Now sitting totally erect, she looked me in the eye with a new boldness. In her demeanor, I saw the visible evidence that she was mixing her faith with the promises of God.[x] When I asked her if she had understood those Scriptures, she gave me a firm, courageous nod to assure me that she had. Like a bright beacon, those verses had illuminated the door of hope in her valley of trouble. Nine minutes later, after the ventilator had been removed, she confidently passed into the presence of her Lord.
May God be pleased that every one of us, as His children, will find the door of hope in our valleys of trouble.
Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio
[i] John E. Hartley, “1994 ?????,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 791.
[ii] Exodus 14:13-14
[iii] Numbers 14:1-21
[iv] Psalm 23
[v] Isaiah 50:10
[vi] Hebrews 12:23
[vii] 2 Corinthians 5:1
[viii] 2 Corinthians 5:8
[ix] Romans 8:18
[x] Hebrews 4:2
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