THE DOOR OF HOPE
"The valley of Achor for a door of hope."‑Hosea 2:15
In this article we have a very remarkable merging of the prophet's experience, with its influence on his understanding of the sin of his people. We began reading at the second verse; "Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband." That is not the language of Hosea to his children about Gomer. That is the language of God concerning the nation. Here the prophet was delivering a message to the nation of Israel from God, but his language was the result of the bitterness of his own heart, and the sorrows through which he had passed. In his disowning of Gomer, and casting her out, there had been perfect agreement with the severity of God towards His people.
But now a new note emerges. Suddenly, from the language of severity, we pass to the language of a strange tenderness. Listen to some sentences: "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart" . . . "I will give her, her vineyards from thence, and the valley of troubling for a door of hope; and she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth" . . . "Thou shalt call Me Ishi (that is, my husband—correlative of wife) . . . no longer Baali (that is, my master—the correlative of mistress)" . . . "I will betroth thee unto Me forever." That is the new note. So far Hosea had learned the suffering of God through his own suffering. So far Hosea had learned the necessity and the inevitableness of the severity of God through his own relationship with Gomer. But now there is a new note, the note of restoration. Now he will be commanded to action which will interpret this in his own experience.
We have then two matters to consider: First, the revelation of God; and, second, its interpretation to Hosea.
The revelation of God is found in the words, "The valley of Achor for a door of hope." There, two ideas are placed in close connection, and declared to be inter-related, which we would hardly have thought of putting together. What are they? Troubling and hope.
We do not often talk about those two things together, except that sometimes we say that, in spite of the trouble, we are hoping for the best. That "in spite of the trouble" recognizes a conflict between trouble and hope. Hope means expectation that we shall escape from trouble. Seldom does one expect hope while in the midst of marriage difficulty. The declaration here relates them to each other. The troubling is the reason of hope, "The valley of troubling for a door of hope."
It is this connection between troubling and hope which reveals God. It is the relation between Law and Grace. Law creates troubling as the result of sin. Grace creates hope through the troubling. Let us consider the ideas in parting. Grace and law are two partners in a marriage difficulty although not considered as such.
First, the valley of Achor, that is of troubling. Three times we find that phrase, "the valley of Achor," in the Bible. First, in the Book of Joshua, in connection with the story of Achan. And, by the Way, observe the relationship between the words Achan and Achor. That relationship is not a mere coincidence. Achan means trouble, and Achor means troubling. It was how the valley gained its name (Josh. 7:26). It was there that judgment swift and terrible fell upon a man who had troubled the whole nation by compromising with evil things, and disobeying God.
The second occasion of its occurrence is in Isaiah, who was contemporary with Hosea. He linked the valley of Achor with Sharon as a place of rest for those who seek Jehovah. Then finally we find it here in Hosea. The valley of swift judgment, the place of troubling. So it gained its name. The valley of Achor in conjunction with Sharon, a place of rest and of pasturage and of flocks, and of blessedness to those who have sought Jehovah. The valley of Achor, the Door of Hope. Troubling swinging open a door of hope; troubling leading shortly to the place of peace and the place of rest.
The great truth that we thus face is that of God's severity with sin. Troubling as the result of sin is inevitable. It is inevitable by the law of God. This whole universe is constituted so. Stanley Jones in his great book, The Christ of Every Road, says: "We do not break the laws of the universe, we break ourselves upon them." Stanley Jones is right. We never break the laws of the universe. We break ourselves on them, and that is troubling. The whole universe is built so that no man can escape from that sequence. Put your hand in the fire, and the pain is the troubling, and you cannot escape from it. You have not broken the law; but you have broken your hand. Law conditions heaven. Violated law creates hell. Troubling is the inherent necessity of sin. The way is hedged and hindered, the false lovers are lost, and there is nothing ultimately but desolation. Remember those words of our Lord, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction." (Matt. 7:13) The root sense of that word "destruction" is narrowness. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life," and life is breadth. The way of sin is easy, the gate is wide open, and the highway is broad. Yes, but watch it, watch it; it is narrowing, until life becomes crushed and cursed. That is always the way of sin. The whole universe is built on that pattern. The way of life is narrow; yes, strait is the gate. Shedding is needed to enter upon the way of life. Narrow the way in the beginning, but mark it, it broadens out into the spaciousness of life.
Thus we come to the note of Grace. The troubling that comes in the wake of sin is the result of the Divine government, and the Divine law, and the Divine beneficence. If sin brought no penalty in its track what would happen? Utter destruction. The troubling opens the door of hope. Because of it shortly Gomer will say, "I will return to my husband." When he had spent all, and there arose a mighty famine in the land, and the troubling came, then the son said, "I will arise and go to my father": the door of hope for him (The Prodigal Son-Luke 15:18). Desolation is the opportunity of remembering, and so the very disciplines of God create for man the door of hope. "The valley of Achor for a door of hope."
But it is the door of hope, and the figure suggests responsibility. An open door is of no value unless I pass through it. In the gloom and the darkness and the misery that come to the soul through sin, the soul is brought to the nakedness of personality, and the sense of impoverishment. In my father's house there are many hired servants, and I perish with hunger (Luke 15:17). Yes, and the door of hope swings into the light of the Father's home and the Father's heart, but it is no use, unless we go through the door, no use unless we reinforce the consciousness of the wrong that has robbed and ruined us by return, "I will return to my husband," "I will arise and go to my father." Both the father and the husband had to know that God brings this about in time. Patience is the virtue in these situations. God looks on these situations and brings it about. In both of these situations God’s heart was wounded and He sits not idly by.
Thus we reach the final stage in Hosea's training. So far, he had learned the nature of sin as it wounds the heart of God. He had agreed with the necessity for severity with sin. Moreover, he had heard, in his communion with God, the amazing statement that the valley of Achor, the valley of troubling, is a door of hope. At that point surely he was left wondering. There was the tragedy in his own life, the infidelity of Gomer, interpreting sin as infidelity to the God of infinite love. Gomer had cut herself off from him, and he judicially had been compelled to agree and abandon her to her own choices, just as God had done.
The severity he understood, and agreed with as inevitable, because of sin. But here was something new. He heard the amazing word, that the valley of troubling was a door of hope. So far as the nature of sin wounding the heart of God was concerned, that was an experience through which he had passed, and he understood it. So far as the severity that follows sin was concerned, that was an experience, and he understood it; but when he heard this word, that somehow through the troubling hope was created, he was in the presence of something of which he knew nothing in experience. Gomer was still away, Gomer was degraded, Gomer was suffering. (This is for those who think hope is gone; it is at the outset; hold on.)
Now God broke in on his life with a command, a strange command, "Go again, love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress." He was at once obedient; "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley." That action must have run counter to all his natural feeling, but by obedience he learned another lesson about God, and was brought into a new experience of life.
What then was the interpretation of God that came to Hosea? What have we seen of God in this book of the Old Testament? I submit four things about God revealed in this prophecy. First, I find that God suffers when His people are unfaithful. I find, second, that God cannot tolerate or condone sin. I find, third, that though that is so, God still loves the sinner, in spite of the sinner's sin. And I find, fourth and at last, that that being so, God seeks the sinner in order to restore him. These are the commonplaces of our Christian faith, and it is wonderful to see them gleaming and flashing on this Old Testament page. These four things need to be the hope of all such as Hosea.
First, God suffers when His people are unfaithful. When here I speak of "His people," I mean all people, for all are His. That truth finds explicit declaration in the prophecy of Ezekiel. "All souls are Mine."
When men are unfaithful to Him—God suffers. Faber uttered a profound truth when he sang, "There is no place where earth's sorrows are felt more than up in heaven."
Has it ever occurred to you that there is no aggregate of human suffering except in God? I am in trouble, and you are in trouble, and another is in trouble—three people in trouble. But we cannot put the trouble of the three together, and say the result is three times the trouble of one. There is no aggregate of sorrow except in the heart of God. He feels my pain, your pain, and his pain. All earth's sorrows are in the heart of God. Is there any sentence more inspiring in your entire Bible than the little sentence in our language, only three words, and all words of one syllable, "God is love." (1 John 4:8) It takes the whole Bible to properly understand that phrase. I always quarrel with the theologians when they tell me love is an attribute of God. It is not an attribute. It is the sum totality of all the attributes. As are the characteristics of a man to his character: so are the attributes to the love of God. He is love.
Creation was an act of love, and all law is an expression of love. The whole law can be summed up in one word. (Gal. 5:14) Love forever suffers when the loved one suffers. I sometimes think that the difference between God's love and my love at its highest lies just there. I love, and if the one I love is untrue to me, I suffer. Why? Because I have lost that love and why I lose hope in that suffering. God does not suffer in that way. He suffers because the one who ceases to love Him is suffering. There is an element of self in our love. There is none in God's. Jesus was on His way to the Cross. Weeping women were bewailing Him, and He said, "Women, daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but for yourselves and your children," (Luke 23:28) showing the point and poignancy of His own agony. It was not that they were wronging Him, but that in wronging Him they were harming themselves. God suffers when His people are unfaithful. All the sin of humanity is causing suffering to God; the very suffering that man brings upon himself is most keenly felt in heaven.
But, second, I learn that God cannot tolerate or condone sin. Why not? Always for the reason already given; because sin is defeating the purpose of love, and entailing suffering. If you could persuade me that God could deal with sin lightly, you could by that argument prove to me that He is no lover of the human soul. It is because sin reacts to blight and blast and dwarf and damn a man that God can make no terms with it. The reason for God's judgment of sin is that sin blasts and spoils those whom God loves.
And that leads to the third phase of interpretation. I learn from this prophecy that God still loves, in spite of sin. A young boy asks: "Does God love naughty boys?" and the answer usually is, "No, certainly not." Oh, the unintentional blasphemy of telling a boy that! If God did not love naughty boys, He never would have loved me! Shakespeare says,
"Love is not love,
That alters when it alteration finds."
Where did Shakespeare learn that lesson? He learned it nowhere except from the literature that reveals this God. God still loves, in spite of sin.
And so we come to the final revelation which is the heart and core of the Gospel. He sent Hosea after Gomer, and said, do what I do. He seeks the sinner, in order to restore.
"Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety-and-nine, Are they not enough for Thee?
But the Shepherd made answer, This of Mine Has wandered away from Me,
And although the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find My sheep." (Matt. 18:12-13)
He seeks the sinner He loves. He will make no terms with sin. He loves in spite of sin. Then begins Heaven's great movement, God's great enterprise, the quest for the sinner that has cut himself off from God. Oh, the music of it as it comes down the centuries, and sings its song in your heart, "God so loved the world."
Let us look at the method and value of this final stage in the training of this prophet. God said, "Go again, love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress." He did not say, "Go again, and restore her." That was a sequence. He said, "Go again, and love her." That brings us face to face with difficulty. We of ourselves cannot do it; and it is no use pretending we can. Mark Twain in his book, A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, makes his Yankee determined that the king should understand his people, and so causes him to disguise himself and travel among the downtrodden folk. The king does not know how to behave on that level, and so addresses one of his people as "Varlet." The Yankee at once tells him he must not so address them, as he is brother to them all. Then the king exclaims, "Brother, to dirt like that?" That is the human heart. Go; love a woman who has ruined you, and an adulteress. Dirt like that-I cannot do it in my own strength. If I ever do that it will be because something happens in me that makes me a different man altogether. Human nature is not equal to it. Trust in God is the high need of the moment.
It is a wonderful proof that Hosea was living in communion with God that he obeyed. The Eastern color makes the picture vivid. Observe her condition when he found her. How much did he pay for her? Fifteen pieces of silver. The price of the slave was thirty pieces of silver. He paid half-price! This woman had sunk so low, that he picked her up at half-price! And notice again: "And a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley." What was a homer and half of barley? Exactly the rations allowed to the slave for a day. So he got her for half-price and a day's ration.
And then what? "And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man's wife; so will I be unto thee." This was the discipline of deprivation of the false, and of the true, for a period. This was needed in order to give her the time for revaluation, of thinking things through. But he brought her to himself, and he said to her, "So will I be also unto thee." While you are deprived, I am deprived also; you living in separation, deprived of the false and true, I share the deprivation. Pain is on both sides of the fence. That is the final word in the tender method of love.
And then what? The whole prophecy is the answer. The notes that thrill and throb and tremble like a song of triumph to the end, show that Hosea entered into the highest experience of life and love.
"Rejoice with Me, I have found the sheep that was lost." (Matt. 18:13) He entered into that. You cannot explain that to the man of the world. I do not think Hosea went after Gomer because he loved her, but because God sent him. But I am perfectly sure that when he went, the love came back. Remember this truth when doubts arise.
In conclusion, let us make one or two general observations. First, sin has no door of hope; neither can the sinner open a door of hope. Only love can do it, only love. There is tremendous significance in that phrase of the New Testament, "Without God, and without hope in the world."
(Eph. 2:12) That word troubling needs an interpretation. I find it by turning from Hosea to John. There came an hour in the ministry of Jesus, when I hear Him saying, "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. . . . Father, glorify Thy name." Then, in a moment or two, His voice is speaking again, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself." "Now is My soul troubled." (John 12:27) Through the troubling of Another, to the uttermost bounds, the door of hope is open for me. The troubling that created the door of hope was not the troubling of Gomer, or of Israel, but the troubling of God, and the broken heart of God. The sorrow of God swings open the door of hope. Thus grace in fellowship with law, agrees with the severity that must follow sin; but catches it, bears it, banishes it, and opens the highway for the sinning soul back to the heart and the Home of God.
Finally observe the unveiling of God, and the revealing of consequent responsibility. As to the unveiling of God, there is only one thing to say. It is what you and I sing so often, "Love so amazing." God forgive us if we ever lose our amazement at the love of God.
"I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, Oh, it was wonderful!"
"Amazing love, and can it be."
These are lines of hymns we sing,
"Love so amazing,"—
Well, go on; finish it‑
"so Divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all."
But this unveiling of God is also the revealing of responsibility. Apprehension of what God is, demands correspondence in us. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." (1 John 4:20) If a man say he loves his brother, and simply declares it in academic satisfaction, he is a traitor. This is of vital importance. “Hosea, go after Gomer, and love her as I love this people. Carry out in your own relationship the things you have seen in Me.” And as Hosea did it, he understood more perfectly the heart of God.
It is not enough to know that God is love. If we know it, He calls us to act in correspondence with that love in our dealings with men. That is where Jonah failed. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew God so well. He knew perfectly well if he did go there and preach, and Nineveh repented, God would forgive. He knew God, and he knew God might forgive Nineveh, and he did not want Nineveh forgiven, and he did not want to go. But, thank God, for another word from Jonah, "The word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time." (Jonah 3:1) The word of Jehovah may be coming to some of us the second time. You have seen something of this God. Well, go, and love that derelict man, woman, somebody outside, somebody you can get for half-price and a day's rations; go and love them, go and serve them; go and buy them, go and gather them in. Go and pour your life out for some derelict; and on the wings of your sacrifice you will rise into fellowship with God, as did Hosea. Let God work with you and your beloved as He did with both Hosea and Gomer. Let God have His victory.
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