In Hosea 2,
the heading in my Bible reads, “Israel Punished and Restored.” There’s a
lengthy exposition of Israel’s disobedience followed by some of the most compassionate
verses in the Bible: “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to
her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of
Achor a door of hope.”
The first time I ever read these verses, I checked the
footnote, which gave the definition of Achor as meaning trouble. I loved that God was
saying of the depths of trouble, He would make a door of hope.
But, I had only begun to understand these verses.
In Joshua, we read the story of the fall of Jericho. Joshua
instructed Israel, “The city and all
that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord" (Joshua 6:17). This meant all plunder from
Jericho after its fall was to be put into the Lord’s treasury.
However, Achan disobeyed this command with tragic consequences and took
for himself gold, a Babylonian robe, as well as silver shekels, and hid them
under his tent. When it was discovered he had done this, he and all that
belonged to him were destroyed. Afterward the place where this destruction
occurred was called the Valley of Achor.
It's of that place, God says, He will make a door of hope.
After the death of Jesus on the
cross, when His friends had gone, His disciples had scattered, and all seemed lost, God raised Jesus from the dead to become our
door of hope for all eternity.
When the horror of world events shakes, or tragedy
strikes close and hard, or failure and sin overwhelm, what God says about the Valley of Achor helps us cling to the hope God offers in Jesus.
No matter how
terrible the situation, He can bring hope, redemption, and mercy
if we turn to Him.
If you are standing in your own Valley of Achor, He is your
refuge and strength.
There are no hopeless situations, for with God, tragedy becomes the building material for a door of hope.