A Door of Hope in Trouble

”Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness 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 as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.“ (Hosea 2:14-15)

Here in Hosea, the prophet speaks of tremendous challenges for God’s people and their relationship with God. Hosea’s relationship with Gomer and the children they have together become lived parables of the distorted ways of Israel with YHWH God, “for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord“ (Hosea 1:2). In the midst of the waywardness of His people, God will again and again frustrate their wrong pursuits so that He might redirect them to Himself.

But it is there that God will do something new. The valley of Achor God will make “a door of hope” (2:15). “Achor” means trouble in Hebrew, and so God will make the lowest point, the place preeminently defined as trouble, the deep valley where the people have slid down with all their accumulated woes— this place God will transform into an entryway to fresh hope. It will be marked by a transformed relationship with YHWH God, not only as a sort of “lord” but as “my husband” (2:16). And God will make a new covenant in His goodness that touches everything from their relationship with creation to their relationship with others (2:18). They will be betrothed to God in righteousness, justice, steadfast, love, and mercy, becoming like fresh seed sewn into the land by God, bringing new mercy and new identity. Each blessing here is a redemption of the dark names given to Hosea and Gomer’s children (2:22-23; cf. 1:4-9). 

The searching God will frustrate our waywardness so that He can lovingly allure us back to Himself where true life and blessing are found. Think of Jesus, who came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Think of His death on the Cross and burial in the stillness of the tomb, a great stone rolled across the entrance. On that day it appeared all the joy of heaven was overcome by the evils and darkness of the world, His body enclosed in a valley of trouble. But then the stone was rolled away, revealing He was not dead but alive. The valley of trouble was transformed and He Himself has become a door of hope for all of us.

In fact, no matter what sort of valley we find ourselves in—the valley of trouble, the valley of grief, the valley of failure, the valley of confusion, the valley of addiction, and so much more—He will meet us there. He will draw near to us by faith even there, bringing in Himself the true door of hope amidst any dark place.