Valley Of Achor Will Become A Door Of Hope

‘Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.’ There she will respond[b] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. - Hosea 2:14,15

These are the words of God through the prophet Hosea to the people of Israel.

Background

God raised up Hosea during the darkest days in the history of Israel. Hosea began his prophetic work in 750 BC, during the last years of Jeroboam’s reign. During the reign of King Jeroboam, Israel had expanded its borders and was enormously prosperous. Despite its outward prosperity, the nation was spiritually dead.

Jeroboam did evil in the sight of God. (2 Kings 14:16 – “And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”). He was succeeded by his son, Zechariah, who reigned for only six months and was then assassinated. Zechariah was succeeded by Shallum, who reigned only a month before he was assassinated.

Hosea served as a prophet for almost thirty years and during his prophetic ministry, he saw a total of seven kings. Unfortunately, all these kings did evil in the sight of God.

Hosea as a prophet was very different from the other prophets. The other prophets spoke the message of God, but for Hosea, he was to show in action the message of God. In other words, God used Hosea’s life to declare his message to his people.

Even though judgement is a main theme of Hosea’s message, the book is full of God’s love and grace. Someone said like this ‘There is nothing of divine grace that is not found in the book of Hosea.’

Hosea 1:2,3

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Notice the problems in Hosea’s marriage.

No prophet preached a more painful action sermon than Hosea. He was instructed to marry a prostitute named Gomer. Three children were born to him. All of them were given prophetic names.

Jezreel – meaning God will sow or God will scatter.

The daughter Lo-ruhamah meant - not loved

The second son Lo-ammi meant - not my people

And then Gomer leaves Hosea for another man.

But again, God tells Hosea, go and love your wife although she is unfaithful to you. (Hosea 3:1 -The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”)

The next verse says, Hosea goes and buys his own wife. (So I bought her for fifteen shekels[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.)

What a humiliation for Hosea to purchase his own wife?

But through his life, God was giving a very powerful message to the people of Israel. Israel was acting like that woman Gomer. The people of Israel were unfaithful to God, again and again. Israel was a miserable slave in Egypt. God sought after Israel. He was faithful to a promise he had made hundreds of years before to the forefathers.

God did supernatural things to recuse the people of Israel. God destroyed the powers of Egypt with His outstretched arm and mighty power. He drove out the nations in the land of Canaan and gave Israel a land flowing with milk and honey.

God was like Israel’s husband, who remained absolutely faithful, unchanging in his promises to her. He over and over again proved that he was a merciful and good God. Yet Israel proved herself again and again unfaithful. She showed herself unfaithful before she even entered the land. She danced about a golden calf, they worshipped other gods.

And for hundreds of years, during Hosea’s time, the same thing was happening. The people of Israel went after other idols. While her Maker, her Creator and her Husband remained good and faithful.

Many times, we too are unfaithful to God. We forget how God so miraculously redeemed us from our sinful life and from the powers of darkness. We go after other things in life. May not be other gods, but we begin to love other things in life more than God and we quickly forget this God who called us and loved us eternally.

But the good news is that God doesn’t give up on us. His love towards us knows no bounds. He keeps reaching out to us. He constantly keeps looking out for us.