In Europe, there’s something called “Lock Bridges”. They are bridges where young lovers will take padlocks, engrave their initials or messages on them, and then lock them onto a bridge in the city, throwing the keys in the river. There are 20 “Lock Bridges” all across the world, and in 2015 there was a pedestrian bridge in Paris that had so many of these locks attached to it that they weighed nearly 45 TONS. The city was forced to have the locks removed because they feared the bridge would collapse. Legend has it that the practice started in Hungary when a woman – who’d lost her boyfriend during World War I - started to attach padlocks on bridges where they used to meet in the city. It was her way of expressing that her love was unbreakable. (https://citywonders.com/blog/France/Paris/paris-love-lock-bridge-story#:~:text=The%20'lock%20bridge'%20is%20a,ritual%20symbolizes%20love%20locked%20forever.)
The book of Hosea describes God’s love for His people as being unbreakable. God was a relentless lover of Israel
(PAUSE) But Israel’s love FOR GOD wasn’t nearly as secure. They had broken and torn away from God because they wanted to be like other nations and worship their gods.
In the midst of the book of Hosea God makes this declaration: “Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.” Hosea 2:14-15
Now this was an interesting statement by God because He started out telling Israel that He would “allure” her and speak tenderly to her - but then he talks about… the valley of Achor. What’s that all about?
Well, the Valley of Achor was a place… of sadness. In fact, “ACHOR” means “trouble.” And in the minds of the Israelites, it was a place where trouble had happened. The story is found in the book of Joshua chapters 6-7. It tells of the time when God delivered the city of Jericho into the hands of Israel. And all Israel had to do was to march around the city for 7 days as God ordered… and God did the rest.
The walls of the city fell down, the city was conquered, and was completely burned (BTW, that’s just what archaeologists discovered had happened to the city when Jericho was dug up back in the early 1900s, see footnote). God told Israel that everything in Jericho was to be destroyed, except for items of gold, silver, bronze and iron were God’s possession and were presented to the Priests at the Tabernacle. God warned them to “keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them.” Joshua 6:18
They could plunder other cities, but not Jericho… that was God’s
But one of the Israelites, Achan, got greedy and picked up a few things for himself. I’m personally convinced that other Israelites knew Achan had done this but looked the other way… and the results were disastrous. Israel went up against a small insignificant city named Ai and got roundly defeated. God’s anger had been kindled against His people and the hearts of the people melted with fear. Joshua and the elders fell on their faces in despair, and confession, and repentance before God.
God revealed to them that Achan was the culprit. Achan and his family were to be taken to this valley (the valley of Achor) and put to death. It is from this event that the valley got its name. The name “ACHAN” (the guy who stole the stuff) means, “trouble.” And the valley’s name, “the Valley of Achor,” means “the valley trouble,” or “The valley of the one who troubled us”. Afterwards Israel piled up a heap of stones as a memorial to remember and never to forget the lesson of Achan’s disobedience. (adapted from a sermon by Dennis Lee)
The valley of Achor was a place of judgment, punishment… and trouble; and by the time Hosea became a prophet, Israel had spiritually come to that place… a place of judgment and punishment - and a place where they were in serious trouble.
And God was declaring to Israel that He loved them too much to let them stay there. He wanted to rescue the nation from their dark valley of trouble and give them a doorway out of the place they were in. He wanted to give them … a door of hope.
Now, the key question is this: WHERE were they going to get that hope? Where would they find the hope that would lead them out of their dismal and dark valley. Well, the thing about hope is that it has to have a source, and the source of hope for Israel had become practically anything but God! They hadn’t looked to God for encouragement or protection for years! They were depending upon things of this world to supply their answers, but they’d put their hope in the wrong things… and life began falling apart.
And things haven’t changed over the centuries. Folks nowadays look to POLITICS to solve their problems - if only the right party and politicians were in power; Or they look to SCIENCE to save us from dangers; Or having enough money/ possessions to protect against future; One person even said they believed hope could come from within: “Listen to the voice that comes from your heart. That voice knows you and will guide you toward what you need to do for yourself.”
Now, none of that stuff is necessarily bad in and of itself, but what happens when the other political party is in power? (Do you suddenly lose hope?) What happens when science doesn’t have answers? (Are you overcome with despair?) What happens when you don’t have money, possessions and there’s no 401K to depend upon? (Do you just give up?) And what happens when that little voice inside you doesn’t say nice things to you anymore?
When health, wealth and wisdom disappear… hope’s not far behind. It disappears too.
The source of our hope is important. Otherwise you find yourself trapped in a valley of trouble - a valley of Achor - and it will seem like there’s no way out!
But you don’t have to stay there. You don’t have to stay in that valley. David wrote: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” Why not? Why shouldn’t I fear evil in that valley? Well… “For Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
Over and over again in Scripture we’re told “Put your hope in God” Psalm 42:5; “Put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” Psalm 130:7; “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” Psalm 62:5; “No-one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame” Psalm 25:3
God is the source of our hope. The difference between the lost man and the saved man is simply this. The lost man is without God and has no hope. While the saved man has God and has a blessed hope. (adapted from a comment by James Merritt). We are a people of hope, because we belong to a God of love.
But just because we’re Christians, that doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble. Jesus said: “In this world you WILL have trouble…” but because Jesus has overcome the world our trouble it won’t last forever. David observed “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Psalm 23:4a
Notice that word “through.” Valleys are what we go through. They are not places we have to permanently camp out. Valleys are not dead ends. Even the darkest of valleys are like tunnels with light on the other side, and at the end of the valley… is a door of hope.
ILLUS: And we who are Christians have that HOPE because we have attached ourselves to God who loves us. It’s just like those padlocks on the bridges. Our hope is padlocked to God. But unlike bridges that can eventually collapse under the weight of those locks our hope can never collapse because we’ve locked ourselves on to a God who will never fail us. As God has promised - " I will never leave you; and I will never forsake you." Hebrews 13:5
God loved us too much to leave us without HOPE.
I’ve always liked this graphic about God’s love (it is a graphic that has the letters of “VALENTINE” being woven throughout the verse of John 3:16).
Notice, in that promise we read: “For God so loved the WORLD…” He loves every single person on the face of the earth, no matter what they’ve done or where they’ve been. God’s promise was made to the WHOLE world. And because He loved the WHOLE world He gave His only begotten Son. Why? So that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
There’s an interesting statement in Hosea 1:10 “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” That’s a promise that was quoted in 1 Peter 2:10 and Romans 9:26. That’s a promise that applies to you! At one time we were not God’s people, and we had no Mercy. We had no hope of everlasting life!
Ephesians 2:12-13 says it this way: “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, HAVING NO HOPE and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
How do we have hope in this world? We have it through the blood of Jesus.
CLOSE: With that thought I want to close with the words of Hosea 2:14 “Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.”
Our promise is that there is a DOOR that leads out of this valley of trouble, out of the valley of the shadow of death. But what is that door? Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9) Jesus is the door that can lead us out of defeat and despair. He is THE DOOR that leads to a new life.
Someone once said: “When we look at the world around us we’ll be distressed. When we look within ourselves, we’ll be depressed. But when we look at Jesus we’ll be at rest.”
There’s a beautiful worship song that always seems to help when folks find themselves in the dark valleys of life. It’s called, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” And the chorus states, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus – Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth shall grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” (From a sermon by Dennis Lee)
Sing it with me: “O soul are you weary and troubled, no light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
INVITATION
Footnote: The destruction of Jericho occurred just as Scripture says it did: The city was strongly fortified (Joshua 2:5, 2:7, 2:15, 6:5, 6:20); The attack occurred just after harvest time in the spring (Joshua 2:6, 3:15, 5:10); The inhabitants had no opportunity to flee with their foodstuffs (Joshua 6:1); The siege was short (Joshua 6:15); The walls were leveled, possibly by an earthquake (Joshua 6:20); The city was not plundered (Joshua 6:17–18); The city was burned (Joshua 6:24). Instead of being an indictment on the Bible, the archaeology from Jericho is a powerful extra-biblical witness to the accuracy of the Conquest narratives. (https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/archaeologys-lost-conquest/?utm_source=aigsocial07142014conquestchat&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebooktwittergooglelinkedin)
