March 4

"The name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day."—Joshua 7:26.

THE Valley of Achor is the Valley of Trouble. But the Valley of Achor, when God is in it, becomes, an Old Testament prophet says, the Door of Hope. So it was to Achan, the transgressor, on that long-past day; confessing and forsaking his sin, he found mercy, even in the hour of death. So it was, also, to the thousands of Israel; purging away from their midst the accursed thing, dedicating themselves anew to God, they were delivered from feebleness and defeat.

I pray that the sorrowful Valley may bring me the same experience.

It is the place where I see my sin in its true colours; all those plausible excuses I have been framing for myself, all those gay hues in which my imagination has painted the wicked thing, fade away. It is the place where I humble and hate myself for my defilement. It is the place where God's chastisement falls upon me. Surely it is fitly named the Valley of Trouble.

Yet it may be the Door of Hope. For there God will say, Thy sin is taken away, and thine iniquity is pardoned. There He will restore to me the years which the locust has eaten. There He will recover me from my failures and falls. There He will make me strong in His strength, to do valiant battle for Him. Forgiven sin breaks a man's proud heart. It opens a man's closed lips. It quickens a man's sluggard and dormant energies. Nothing will constrain me, nothing will equip me, so effectually for the service of my Lord.

It is His great promise: I will give thee thy vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope.