A Door of Hope

‘Therefore, behold I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her [back] her vineyards and make the valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall sing, as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the Land of Egypt.’ – Hosea 2:14-15

I’m back in the book of Hosea at the moment. It’s not one of the easiest books to read, and it can’t have been the easiest book to write either, because Hosea had to live out God’s prophetic message. The Lord told him to marry a prostitute, one who was active, not an ex-prostitute. Hosea’s heart-breaking relationship with his wife Gomer was intended to illustrate Israel’s recurring unfaithfulness to the Lord, and the trouble it brought down on their heads. But it also revealed the forgiveness and restoration that awaited them when they returned to God.

However, let’s return to the valley of Achor. It’s first mentioned in Joshua 7 and it’s a chilling tale. After a humiliating defeat of Israel’s army at the battle of Ai, God showed Joshua that this was due to the sin of Achan. At the fall of Jericho, he’d stolen treasures that he’d found in the ruins of the city. The consequences of his sin were dire and Achan’s punishment was also dire. Together with his family and all he owned, Achan was taken to the valley of Achor and stoned to death. Then, all their remains were destroyed by fire, just as the stolen treasures should have been destroyed.

It’s no wonder that in Hebrew, Achor spells trouble! Trouble, affliction, trials and tribulation.

I can’t imagine there’s anyone who’s ever lived who has not experienced trouble of some kind, and there’ll be those who’ve experienced a lot of it. We may feel that some of our troubles are undeserved. It’s true, we can get caught up in the consequences of other people’s mess-ups, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

However, we can also bring trouble on ourselves. Often, the origin of our troubles can start quite small, one little mistake, one careless word or thoughtless action, it needn’t take much to precipitate an avalanche of events that will have devastating consequences for ourselves and others. 

The first year I filled out my French Tax return forms without help, I ticked the wrong box on one of the forms. At a stroke, I’d declared more than double our income and six months later I received the whopping tax bill for it! I cried out to God for help, and then I gathered my courage to call the Tax Office, in the hope of sorting out my self-made muddle. 

I went to the interview somewhat fearfully, but to my surprise, the Official sitting behind the desk was someone I knew. Not only that, but she was the wife of a man who’d had a heart attack outside our garden gate a couple of years before. I’d been able to help keep him alive until the paramedics arrived. Now she was able to help me. She wrote a “to whom it may concern” letter that entirely exonerated me of my debt. 

The most helpful (and hopeful) thing we can do when trouble strikes, when we find ourselves in the valley of Achor, is to turn to God or indeed, return to him. He will not reject us. Hosea’s forgiveness of his wife demonstrated time and time again the forgiveness God extended to Israel when they returned to him. 

Trouble can also be a door of hope when it points us in a new direction. Yes, even a job loss, even a supposed friend walking out on us, or the death of a loved one. You might ask how could that possibly be true, but if we turn to God rather than allowing ourselves to get stuck in a bog of self-pity, we will discover a hope that will not disappoint us. 

When one door closes in my face, I’ll pray, believing in faith that God will open another door, and even if I have to wait a while, that it will be the right door, the start of something new. Change isn’t always easy, especially if it involves a loss of status. We may find ourselves back at square one on the job market, or in a new community. But as long as we remain in step with the Lord, we will enter into his blessing. 

So, in the waiting period, in that seeming emptiness before we step through that door of hope, may we discover that God is there, and has been there all the time. We were perhaps too busy to realise it. As the truth sinks in, as we find ourselves held in the father’s loving arms, I pray that we will find ourselves singing (as in the days of our youth), songs of praise, worship and thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

With love in him,

Sarah