The Valley of Trouble

Different countries have meaningful locations. To those who live elsewhere, those place names hold no significance. For instance, Gettysburg means (or, should mean) quite a bit to someone in the United States. I would not expect someone in China to care so much. Likewise, most places in China, I can’t even pronounce, let alone know what meaningful things happened there.For Israel, Achor is one of those places. To the Bible reader who spends most of his or her time in the New Testament, that reference may be obscure. But it’s not.

Do you remember the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, when “the walls came a-tumblin’ down?” The aftermath of that story has to do with a man named Achan who violated the solemn restriction placed on all the plunder from the destruction of that city. All the plunder was to be devoted to God. Take nothing for yourselves. Israel’s army soon after suffered defeat, and in the search for the cause, Achan was caught with the goods. He and his family, his tent, and the stolen goods were stoned with stones in the Valley of Achor, and then burned with fire. Under God’s direction, Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day.” The Hebrew word “Achor” means “Trouble.” 

Nearly everyone has experienced trouble. Perhaps it was trouble of your own making. We all make mistakes. Many travel sideways paths. But there is also trouble that comes through no fault of our own. We lived in a troubled world, and in this troubled world, we will experience trouble. But the story of Achor does not end here.

Way over in the prophet Hosea, serving under the last kings of the northern kingdom (Israel) and the latter days of the southern kingdom (Judah), we find that Hosea’s message is heavy with trouble. And yet, in the midst of that trouble, there is hope. I’ve underlined this phrase in my Bible: “And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.”  The text indicates that God would restore His people to a time and a place of sweet fellowship and blessing once again. Trouble need not be the last word. God can make the Valley Achor a door of hope.

I would like to suggest to you that this door of hope has a name: Jesus. It’s in a distant text, but I would draw a straight line in my Bible from Hosea to John, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep."