January 1943
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Remember that He has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psa. 50:15). II. The Valley of Achor. There is another valley of which we read in Hosea 2:14, 15, where the Lord, speaking of Israel, says: “There fore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will g i v e h e r her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt,” But what is the valley of Achor? Do you remember where we first read of that valley in Scripture? You re call how God gave Israel a marvelous victory when they Went up against Jericho. He told them, however, that they were not to take of the riches of Jericho for themselves. .Then a few days later, ivhen they went against Ai, only to suffer a humiliating de feat, Joshua threw himself down be fore God and said, “O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!” (Josh. 7:8). : And God said, “Get, thee up; where fore liest thou, thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they hafve also transgressed ifty covenant w h i c h I commanded them': for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their owri stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their ’enemies” (Josh. 7:10-12). Then you will recall how the tribes passed before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was taken, and then a cer tain family of this tribe, and then God pointed out Achan, and said, in effect, “That is the reason I cannot give you the victory.” Achan soon confessed his coveting and hiding a part of the forbidden spoils (Josh. 7:20, 21). A messenger was sent to Achan’s tent, and found it was exactly as Achan had said; and then because it was the dispensa tion of law, and not of grace, Achan and his family, were taken out into the valley of Achor and were stoned 'With stones until they died. What is the valley of Achor? It is the valley of retribution; it is the val ley of suffering for one’s own failures, for one’s own sins. The greatest grief that Christians can ever be called upon to bear is to be brought into the valley of Achor, where they realize that things might have been very dif ferent if in years gone by they had only walked with God. f Continued on Page 131
¿ J i' of the Valleys
host. The result was a tremendous vic tory for Israel. They did not deserve it, but God, who delighteth in mercy and is rightly jealous of the honor of His own name, took this way of prov ing that He was just as truly the God of the valleys as He was the God of the hills. You know many of us live in the valley of the commonplace the great er »part of the time. Very few of us attain the ideals that were in our minds years ago. Many of us can look back to the time when we were young and had very high ambitions—ambi tions which we have never realized. As the years have gone on, we find that most of us live our lives down in the valleys of the commonplace; we do not get very high up; we do not know very much of fame or honor. But God is the God of the valleys, and He is interested in the people of the lowlands, and not merely in those who climb to the mountain tops. President Lincoln said, “ God certainly must have loved the common people because He made so many of them.” But I am not thinking so much of the valleys in that sense; I have in mind certain valleys of which we read in the Word of God, valleys through which all of us will have to pass some time or another. I. The Yalley of Baca. We read of one of these valleys in Psalm 84:5, 6: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in.whose heart are the ways of them. Who pass ing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” You may consult any Bible atlas; you may look over any map of an cient lands, but you will never find the valley of Baca. The fact of the matter is that this valley is a well- known district indeed through which all our feet pass at some time as We go through this life, for the valley of Baca'is really the valley of weeping, the valley of trouble. You know some thing of that—of the valley of sorrow, the valley of trial, the valley of per plexity, the valley of testing, when the tears will start, try to keep them back as you may. But what a blessed thing to know that God is with us when .we go through the valley of Baca! Those who
are in fellowship with Him find that in this valley He provides springs of refreshment: “The rain also filleth the pools." It is wonderful the way God makes Himself known to the troubled heart in such a manner as He cannot reveal Himself to those with whom all is going well. It is in the hour of trial, and it. is in the valley of weeping, that the blessed Lord can reveal Him self as at no other time, for He, too, has passed through that valley, and thus we speak of Him, as “The Man of Sorrows.” . “ ‘Man of Sorrows,’ what a name For the Son of God who came, Ruined sinners to reclaim! Hallelujah! what a Saviour! “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood; ! Hallelujah! what a Saviour! And up there in the glory, He is "this same Jesus” who once trod the valley of weeping here on earth. “When He conies, our glorious King, All His ransomed, home to bring, f Then anew this song we’ll sing. Hallelujah! what a Saviour!” When we Ibok at His wonderful face, upon that visage that was once marred more than ^any man, we shall know that He is indeed our blessed Jesus, the Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief, who has been our Companion, our F r i e n d , o u r Sustainer, as we walked through the valley of weeping. The Bible does not exhort to stoical indifference to trial, and does not in sist that we dry our tears. The Lord Jesus Himself wept with the sorrow ing sisters of Bethany. Be assured to day if you are going through the val ley of weeping, that His heart beats in tender love and sympathy; for «if “one member [of the Body of Christ] suffer, all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). Yes, the God of the valleys is with His people as they pass through the valley of weeping. Do not hold anything back from Him; avail yourself of the privilege of pray er, of going to Him with your troubles. “Lifted up was He to die, ‘It is finished,’ was His cry; Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah! what a Saviour!”
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