The Valley No.2 The Valley of Hope

Now sometimes at our prayer meetings we join together in the reading of the Psalms, that is, the folks who gather help me out by reading the even-numbered verses, and I'm going to ask if we can follow that practice this morning and thus all enjoy the reading of this psalm together. So if you have an authorized edition of the Bible, then will you please come in on the even-numbered verses. I remind you again that we're reading Psalm 42.

As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My tears have been my meat, day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

I will say unto God my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Amen. I want to bring your attention this morning to a verse in the third chapter of the prophecy of Hosea, and it's in the 15th verse.

Let me just read to you two phrases from the 15th verse of the, I said the third chapter of Hosea, I mean the second chapter of Hosea. And I will give the valley of Achor for a door of hope. I will give the valley of Achor for a door of hope.

We have been discovering a good deal of teaching within the Old Testament in recent weeks concerning valleys, and I want to continue the theme this Sunday morning. Last week I referred to a number of valleys that are mentioned in the Old Testament. The valley of Rephaim, the valley of Elath, the valley of Salt, the northern valleys by the Golan Heights, and indeed the valley to which David makes reference, the valley of the shadow of death.

And you'll find that in the Old Testament not only are valleys referred to in their geographical sense, but also spiritual value is found in relating certain incidents in valleys to the overall purposes of God, and finding their spiritual principles that are of help to believers as they try to live out their lives for the glory of God. In other words, I am saying this, that sometimes valleys are referred to in their literal sense, and at other times in their spiritual sense. Some while ago I preached a sermon from this pulpit on the valley of Barker, the valley of weeping, and in that address I showed you something of the geographical significance of that valley and also the spiritual.

Well, I employ the same practice today. I want to talk to you about the valley of Achor. But let me just continue explaining for the benefit of those who are visiting us just today the significance that there is in looking at valleys on a spiritual sense.

You see, a valley is generally a low-lying tract of land, and on either side there are steep hills. And when you're going through a valley your vision is restricted, is it not? Sometimes valleys have mists. In fact, there are certain valleys in the world that are notorious for mists, and that would impair your vision even further.

So there is a great difference between going through a valley and climbing up a mountain and having the advantage, the advantage of a view, seeing the whole panorama of the scenery round about you. And that is exactly the same on the spiritual front. When you pass through a valley your view is restricted.

You can't get an overall picture. And it is when we go through what I call valley experiences that our faith is tested in particular. This is what the psalmist was saying in the 23rd Psalm, when I pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.

Oh yes, there's difficulty, there's conflict, there are doubts, but I fear no evil because thou art with me. In other words, the psalmist there is underlining what we discovered in, as a teaching in the Book of Kings last week. And that is that the God whom we serve is not only the God of the mountains, but the God of the valleys.

And I find great profit in thinking upon that. The God that I know, the God and Father of Jesus Christ my Savior, is the God who is with me through the valley experiences of life. And what I want to do is, is not to try to encourage you to think that a valley experience should be preferred to that of the mountain top.

I would not be so inhuman as to suggest that we could cultivate that sort of attitude, expecting and eagerly awaiting to be taken through a valley. What I am asking is this, that when God takes you through the valleys, and let us remind ourselves that the route that we take in life is not plotted by us, it is plotted by God, when he directs us through this low-lying tract of land, spiritually speaking, there are many benefits and many advantages that accrue to us. And this is what I want you to be able to do, when passing through the valley, to realize that God is taking you there for a purpose which he may not disclose.

But even though that purpose is undisclosed, there are many advantages that come your way, because your hand is in the hand of God as you pass through the valley. All right, with that in mind, I draw your attention particularly to my text. The prophet Hosea, in the name of God, says to the Israelites, and by extension to the Church of Jesus Christ, I will give thee the valley of Acre for a door of hope.

Now it could well be the case that on mentioning the valley of Acre, you have no idea to what the prophet is referring. And let me give you not only a geography lesson this morning, but also a historical one, because it's necessary that you should understand, at least in part, what happened centuries ago in the history of the Israelites in the valley of Acre. We read about this in the seventh chapter of the book of Joshua, and there we are acquainted with the fact that Jericho has fallen.

Miraculously, it has come within the power, within the authority of the Hebrews, and they were told that when Jericho fell, they were not in any way to appropriate any of the spoil for themselves. It was to be for God, and yet there was one man and one family in particular who flagrantly disobeyed God, and the net result was that the disfavor of God rested upon the nation. And Joshua and the leaders determined that they would isolate the culprits.

They would find out who had disobeyed the Lord, and eventually these wretched people were brought before the rulers, and they discovered that the crime was that of a man called Achan and his household. And in what to us seems to be rather harsh measures and can only be understood when they're placed in the historical setting, this family was executed brutally in the valley of Acre. And Joshua said to Achan at this time, thou hast troubled Israel.

Thou hast caused Israel to be troubled by God. Why hast thou done this? And he goes on to tell Achan that God will trouble him. Verse 25, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.

And we read at the end of verse 26, Wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Acre unto this day. In other words, the Valley of Troubles. You've come across that rather quaint English word, haven't you, doldrums.

You know, someone's going through it and difficulty, worry in their life, and some person looking on the scene may say, well, you know, so-and-so, they're in the doldrums. And we all appreciate what is meant by that word. Well, I suggest to you that the phrase, the Valley of Acre, more or less is the Hebrew equivalent for the word doldrums.

And someone passing through the Valley of Acre was knowing great difficulty. They were in trouble. And Hosea, in the name of God, says to the Hebrews at a time of national disaster, the God who I serve is able to give the Valley of Acre, the Valley of Troubles, for a door of hope.

The God I serve is able to come into our national situation and transform it, and out of our troubles, indeed within our troubles, hope shall emerge, hope shall arise. And I suggest that, that is the Word of God to you from this pulpit today. In the Valley of Troubles there is a door of hope.

Unless I should be accused of over-spiritualizing the Old Testament, let me refer you to a parallel reference in the New Testament, which I would argue teaches exactly the same thing as the book of Hosea. I refer to the epistle of Paul to the Romans, and in the twelfth chapter of this epistle, the mighty apostle there is putting forward certain injunctions for the Christian community at Rome. And this is what he has to say in the twelfth verse.

You are to rejoice in hope and be patient in tribulation. And that word tribulation is obviously aligned to the word trial or trouble. Now isn't this interesting? Paul hinges the idea of hope to that of trouble.

So in New Testament language, in New Testament parlance, you find exactly the same teaching as that discovered within the dusty pages of the Minor Prophets. The God of the Christians is who is able to cause believers going through tribulation, going through trouble, to rejoice. In a word, he is able to turn the Valley of Acre into a door of hope.

And that is a principle I find constantly enunciated in the Old Testament and indeed in the New. So with all this spade work having been done, let me bring to your attention certain deductions and certain principles that I would make from and put up to my text. And the first is this, that hope is an essential virtue for a believer.

Hope is an essential virtue for a believer. I suppose in one sense, hope is a psychological necessity for everybody. The man who has no hope at all, even if his hope may have been an irrational one, is a man to be pitied.

Indeed, I would suggest that again in psychological language, in the terms of psychiatrists and psychologists, that it is hopelessness that produces the condition of being melancholy. The man who has no hope is a depressed, inward-looking, introverted person. And one of the offshoots of such a condition is when a man determines that he must take his own life, because all is absolutely hopeless.

I say to you, therefore, that on a general, in a general sense, hope is a prerequisite for any man who is going to live in this world. But there are hopes that are rational, that are well-founded, and there are hopes that are completely irrational, they're phony, they have no basis at all. It's very interesting that the contemporaries of the Apostle Paul, and I'm referring to secular philosophers, had very little to say about hope, and yet the Apostle had much to say.

You can read Greek philosophy for a long time and you'll rarely come across the virtue of hope. And that is because, basically, the philosophers had very little hope. They thought of hope in terms of an illusion, in terms of a phantom, some imaginary virtue which was conjured up in the minds of people, so that they could live out their lives, or else everything would be absolutely hopeless.

They needed hope as a vital cog in the machine to make things tick over. And although we may not say it in the same words of the Greek philosophers, I reckon that there are many people today who, if they're honest, agree with those Greeks. Because when we refer to hope, we so often, in the general sense, qualify it.

We talk about vague hopes, trembling hopes, fond hopes. As though we too think that hope is something that is a phantom, it's necessary for us to fool ourselves into believing that there is a purpose in life. But the hope that I am referring to, that is found within the context of the Christian gospel, is not an illusion.

It's not a figment of the imagination. And the Christian who is going through the valley of troubles can indeed find there a gateway of hope. Because, and here I put to you my second proposition, my second principle, because the hope of a Christian has an external basis.

It has an external basis. Listen again to my text. I, that is God, will give you the valley of Acre for a door of hope.

In other words, the hope is embodied in the person who gives the promise. The hope is external inasmuch as it doesn't come from me, it comes from God. And the Christian believes, the believer accepts that what God says is true.

Hope is linked to faith. It is centered in God. Hope is not a kite.

You know what a kite is? That instrument, that toy that a child might make, might construct. And when the wind comes, the kite is carried into the air. And the kite is dependent upon the wind as to which way it blows.

Hope is not like that. Hope is not a kite. Hope is an anchor, an anchor of the soul, an anchor that finds its ground, that finds its reason for being in God alone.

This is what I mean when I say, therefore, that hope has an, has an external basis. And this is what the New Testament, the Old Testament prophets taught. Joel 3.16, the Lord will be the hope of his people.

The Psalmist says, in the Lord do I trust. And again, let me take you to the words of the Apostle Paul, who has so much to say along this line. Writing still to the Romans in the 15th chapter, we discover these words, the 13th verse, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

The God of hope dispenses hope to men and women. When I was spending my boyhood back in, in Sheffield, on occasions, and they would be tremendous days, my folks would suggest to my brother and me that they would take us out hiking. And as we didn't possess a car, it would mean that we'd catch a tram, that's dating me a little, and go to the central station there, catch a train, which would take us to the North Derbyshire villages.

And there is in Derbyshire a village by the name of Hope. And sometimes our rambling would start off from that village. But on the train journey, we knew when we were nearing Hope, because there's a tunnel known as the Doran-Totley Tunnel.

It was, 15 years ago, quite a long tunnel in the world. I don't mean by that that it's shortened, but they've produced some much longer ones since. And we knew that when we were in the Doran-Totley Tunnel, that it wouldn't be long before we'd be at Hope, before we would be at the village.

And so my brother and me, we would scramble for our lunch packs, and we would strap them on our backs, and we would be ready. We were going to Hope, and we were anticipating Hope. And this, I suggest to you spiritually, is what Paul is saying in that last verse that I quoted.

Here is the God of Hope, and here I am going through the valley. And passing through the very valley, hope is excited within my soul, because God is with me, and he's giving me a foretaste of a hope that will one day be consummated, when I am in his immediate presence. So I put it to you that the Christian is to hope in God.

Hope has an external basis. It is not something that is illusionary. It is not something that is a phantom.

It is something that is concrete. But let me put something else up for your attention. Hope needs an atmosphere of troublesome doubt, in which to exist.

Now that's rather a startling statement, and I'll repeat it, and then defend it. Hope needs an atmosphere of troublesome doubt to exist. It wasn't very easy for the Hebrews to believe Hosea that God could turn their nightmare into something where they might find hope.

There was political danger staring them in their face. They were reaping the deserts of the folly that they had sown over the decades, over the centuries. But Hosea, in the name of God, says that in all your troubles, if you will turn to the Lord, he will transform the valley of Achor.

And in the midst of your difficulty, you'll discover hope. And thus I put the assertion that hope needs an atmosphere of troublesome doubt in which to exist. You see, Hosea couldn't prove what he was saying, and neither can the Christian prove to the satisfaction of everyone else that the hope that he has is one that is logically defensible on the human intellectual plane.

In other words, the hope of the Christian is not exercised in the straitjacket of human logic, because where there is hope, there is also doubt. And this is what I'm trying to say, if you could prove your hope, then hope wouldn't exist anymore. Hope that is proved is not hope.

This is what the Bible has to say when it tells us that we must anticipate hope, because hope that is seen is not hope. Do you dispute this? Do you think that this is a difficult thing for you to understand? Let me suggest to you that it shouldn't be. I'll put it to you in the form of an illustration.

Here is Abraham, and he's got the young lad Isaac with him. And in a spiritual sense, Abraham is passing through the valley of troubles. He believes that the young lad Isaac is about to lose his life.

And what is more, Abraham is going to be responsible for the death of his son. The patriarch can't really understand how God could command him to take the life of his boy. Now you try to think of Abraham's emotions at that moment.

Here he is in a veritable valley of troubles. He believes in God, he believes in a loving God, and yet his ears have told him, and he knows that it is true, that the command of God, the injunction of God directed towards him, is that he is to take the life of his young lad. And what do we read in Scripture? That at that moment, Abraham, against hope, believed in hope.

You see the point? Hope only exists in a climate of doubt, in a climate where doubt is possible. Here is Abraham with this doubt and this faith, all within his spiritual makeup. He's certainly going through the valley of Achor.

He's hoping against hope. He can't see the realization of any solution to his problem. On the logical plane, it is absolutely impossible that he believes in God.

And this is what I mean when I say that hope needs an atmosphere of troublesome doubt to exist. It's there in our lives also, this hope. When trouble comes, when doubt and despair and difficulty set in, all right, logically on the human plane, we can't understand why we should have hope, but spiritually on the divine plane, our hope, our trust, our confidence is in God.

Let me put up to you another point that I think is interesting. And that is that hope needs to be worked at. Hope needs to be worked at.

You say, what do I mean by this? Well, let me direct your attention to a verse of scripture, this time in Hebrews, the sixth chapter and the 18th verse. And the author of this epistle has this to say, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. Now listen to the verbs that are used and to the language that is purposely employed.

We have fled for refuge, to God that is, to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. Here is the hope that God extends. You take it? Yes, you say, I do.

You fumble it? Yes, you say, I do that. You handle it? Yes, I appreciate that God is extending hope to me. But the command here, the advice that is given in the epistle to the Hebrews goes further than what I have just been saying.

It says that we are to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. In other words, this is not something that is purely passive, this is something that is active. God dispenses hope, He extends His hand of hope, but we are not just to fumble it, we're not just to embrace it, we're to grip it, we're to tightly lay hold upon it.

In other words, we are to work at hope. You say, how do you do that? Well, let me again give you another illustration from Scripture of a person who is struggling, as you and I struggle, when we pass through the valley of Acre to maintain our grip on hope. And I refer to the psalm that we read together, the 42nd psalm.

And here, surely, and no one would argue against this, we find a man who is in a very, very grave condition indeed. He tells us that he is in absolute despair. He says in the third verse, my tears have been my meat day and night.

And he goes on to inform us that there are those who accuse him now about his faith. They say, where is your God? Look at the pitiful condition in which you find yourself, now where is God? And to answer his problems, he further informs us in the fourth verse that when he goes to church, if you like, when he goes to the temple, there is little benefit that he gets from it. He feels that he is out of touch with God.

Do you ever feel like that yourself? And what does he do? At the time when he's passing through the valley of troubles, at the time when there are tremendous conflicts, when there is much doubt in his mind, what does he do? He talks to himself. And I've said to you from the pulpit before now that talking to oneself is not the beginning of insanity, it can be the beginning of wisdom. He says, why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? He examines his situation.

All right, he recognizes the difficulties, the problems that have been caused in his faith. There are things that have happened that he positively does not understand, and he doesn't try to fool himself. He doesn't try to brainwash himself and say that those problems do not exist.

He accepts them. And yet, in talking to himself, he encourages his own soul. He says, hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.

I don't understand his purposes now. I have said to him, choose thou the path for me, although I cannot see the reason thou dost use to lead me, choose to lead me so. I can't understand God's promises, God's purposes in my life, but I believe, I believe that God has got his hand upon me.

And therefore I say, hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, for he is the help of my countenance. And in the 11th verse, you get exactly the same teaching. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the help of my countenance and my God.

You see what this man is doing. It's perfectly obvious. He is laying hold on hope.

It's there, it's been extended to him by God, but he's not just going to touch it. He's not just going to fumble it. He's going to grip it tightly.

He's going to clasp it to himself. All right, there's nothing else I can understand in this valley. All my troubles, all the billows of God seem to have poured over me, and I am bereft of any understanding as to why God has led me along this particular pathway.

But I am still going to hope in God, and he speaks to his soul, and reminds his soul to do just that. And again, you get the same teaching in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, I direct you once more to the to the epistle of the Romans, is continuing along this line to give encouragement and and help to Christians who are going through difficulty.

And what does he say in the in the fourth verse? Well listen, referring to the Old Testament, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Did you hear that? That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Do you ever get hope from the scriptures? Let me put it to you like this.

Do you ever, in times when you're not pressed, in times when you're not overstrained, in times when you're not tense, do you ever prepare for moments when you might be so? Can I give you a personal illustration? Not say exactly along this line, but I think it's relevant. I appreciated that the first college that that I went to when I was still in my late late teens, that there might come a time in in ministry and in years to come when I'd suddenly find that I had to preach, and I'd have no opportunity for preparation, no opportunity for prayer preparation. And I made a covenant with the Lord.

I'm not saying that you must do this, I'm just testifying to something that I did. I made a covenant with the Lord that he would continue to bless me even if I were unprepared. And as I spent the hours, the extra hours of my leisure time at at college before the Lord in prayer, that he would take this prayer ministry as being the basis of ministry that I would exercise in the years to come.

In other words, I was trying to prepare myself for situations that might crop up in the future where time would be at a premium. Now let me suggest to you that this is what we are to do when we are not over tense, when we're not passing through the Valley of Acre. We have to prepare ourselves for it.

How? Well, by looking into the scriptures, by engaging in prayer with the Lord, by assuring that our understanding of him and of the doctrines of grace are as clear as they possibly can be. Because when you go through the Valley of Acre, it's not always easy to read your Bible, it's not always easy to pray, but I think that it is work that we have done in our spiritual pilgrimage in days gone by that helps to preserve us in times of great difficulty. So I put this to you from the pulpit this morning, those of you who are not passing through a valley at all, those of you perhaps who've never been in what is for many of us familiar territory, the Valley of Acre, prepare yourself for it.

It will come. God will lead you through the valleys, not because he's a vindictive God, but because he's concerned about your eternal well-being, because there's a lot in the valley that you are to learn about him, and hope will become a much greater thing for you, a much greater virtue that will be cultivated as you pass through these valleys. So I suggest to you that hope needs to be worked at.

And then, and I think I can give this to you virtually in a sentence or so, the final thing, hope will one day have its realization. Hope is always cast in the future tense, obviously, as I've indicated. If it was a present, it wouldn't be hope.

If you could see it, then hope would be erased, there would be no such thing. But one day hope shall be realized. At the moment I'm passing through the valley, I'm going through life, and Christ in me at present is a hope of glory, but the day will come.

The day will come when Jesus Christ shall reappear. Says Paul, says the writer to Titus in the second chapter and the thirteenth verse, we are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. One day, I say, Christian hope shall be consummated.

It will come when our Lord Jesus Christ returns to this world, when He sets up His government. You know, there is a phrase that says, where there's life, there's hope. I suggest to you that the phrase needs to be reversed.

Where there is hope, there is life. And God has given us a lively hope to be cherished and cultivated, even in the valley of Acre. May we know that hope in fullest measure.

Amen. Our Father, we thank Thee for the reminder of Thy Word that Thou art a God of hope, and it is in Thee that our hope is anchored. So we pray, whatever our circumstances are in life, that we shall find benefit and help from Thy Word by claiming its promises and by knowing that even when we pass through the valley of troubles, there is no need for us to fear evil, because Thou art with us.

Help us more and more to appreciate Thy nearness, Thy closeness, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And now may the blessing of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continue as our abiding experience until our Savior returns. Amen.