"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men..." Titus 2:11
Jesus… stayed outside in lonely places. Matthew 1:45 NIV
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16 NIV
Instead of “lonely” the preferred word is “wilderness” in most translations. What a difference a descriptive word can make. One word in our language describes a location, another word describes an emotion.
Both of those words describe a place that most Christians do not want to be. In fact, the wilderness is often talked about as a place that people wind up as the result of sin, disobedience or supposed abandonment by God. In Jesus’ life, it was just the opposite. The wilderness, those lonely places where no one was allowed to follow, was the place to meet His Father.
The Jewish nation knew more than they cared to about the wilderness. In the history of the Jews, the wilderness was where God tried to forge out of them the dross of idolatry. An entire generation died there because of their irrational inability to submit, but little changed. Several prophets later they were again taken to “a lonely place” called Babylon to consider their ways but one wilderness stands out in their history among all of the others.
Achan was his name. A warrior of the tribe of Judah, he was one of the “next generation” that crossed the Jordan and fought the battle of Jericho. After the battle, he stole a piece of clothing along with some gold and silver from the spoils that were dedicated to God. In other words, he wanted to look like the world and have what the world possessed. He then hid his spoils in a hole under his tent. (see Joshua 7)
People died as the result of his dishonoring God and he was soon exposed. The people then took Achan to a valley outside of the camp and buried him and all that he possessed under an enormous pile of stones. From that day on, the valley was named Achor, the Hebrew word for “Trouble.”
But God does not waste anything.
In the book of Hosea, a gem of wisdom is tucked away in the tragedy of a man’s lonely wilderness. His wife had “played the harlot” and he was instructed to buy her back from the pimp who owned her and restore her to her position of wife and mother.
Prophetically, God was speaking of His “buying back” from sin of His own people, the Jews, along with the redemption to come in Jesus. Hosea 2:14-15 records these remarkable words.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her vineyards from there,
and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.”
One of the major transformations of our thinking occurs when we see trouble as God’s door of hope. Everyone has hopes, dreams, wishes… the desires for a life that others envy and desire for themselves. The world is in a panic over obtaining these things with as little pain and suffering as possible. In fact, when you consider the propensity to sue for any pain and suffering that comes into life, painless living is seen as a right instead of a blessing.
But God says that the Valley of Trouble is the door to your lifelong dreams. Often under those piles of stones are buried our own attempts to produce happiness. No doubt that all have those places of shameful reminders. Yet, it is in those “lonely places”, the wildernesses of our lives, where we meet with the Father. It is at those times, alone with only a pile of rocks and no hope, that the miracle of the Valley is wrought.
A mentor once said to me that he was either in a trial, just through a trial or entering into a trial at any moment of his life. Romans 5 says,
We know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us,
and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue,
keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. (The Message)
In other words, the valleys produce perseverance, which in turn produces proven character, which then produces hope. The Valley of Achor is our Door of Hope.
An unknown saint in the late 1800’s wrote,
Oh, that we might always catch the vision of an abundant harvest, when the great Master Plowman comes, as He often does, and furrows through our very souls, uprooting and turning under that which we thought most fair, and leaving for our tortured gaze only the bare and the unbeautiful.
Don’t lose sight, friend. The field might be a pile of rocks and the wilderness lonely. But your Father is speaking through the wilderness wind of a new day when a door will open. Keep your eye on the promise… your Valley of Trouble will be the Door of Hope.
And remember… Maranatha!
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