Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the prophet Hosea, and chapter
2. If you have one of our free Bibles,
that's on page 840. Hosea, chapter 2, and reading
for our text, verse 15. And I will give her her vineyards
from fence, and the valley of Acre 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. Hosea chapter 2 and
verse 15. We're told in the beginning of
this prophecy when the prophecy was, which was in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, king of Israel, Jeroboam II. So it is in the
days when Assyria came and they took the ten tribes into captivity. It's in the days when those tribes
were being warned of their wickedness and of their sin, and of God's
impending judgments upon them. And yet even while they were
being warned, there was in these prophecies those rays of hope,
and there was those blessings that were held out to them. But they were a nation that at
that time was prospering. What need did they have of the
things of God? And they would have reasoned,
well, if God is really against us, well, why have we got all
this prosperity? And in fact, the children of
Israel, when they at times did seek a true and living God, they
then complained and said that while we were serving the Queen
of Heaven and our idols, we did well, and now that we're serving
the true and living God, We are not. And they were judging things
by outward appearances, and they were not realizing of the sin
that they had committed, and the Lord's just displeasure against
those. We need to be very careful. The
children of Israel often transgressed when the Lord gave them temporal
prosperity, and also it was a way where the gospel was stopped
up. They didn't want to hear it.
because things were going well with them. But very soon things
would not be going well with them, and they were to be brought
into captivity, and the Lord was going to really judge them
and deal with them. Well, in our text and in the
context here, there's held down these promises of reconciliation. God angry with them, but a way
of being reconciled. And so, put in context, reading
from verse 14, Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And
I will give her her vineyards from thence, from 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. And so Israel has been to be
looking back to when they were formed into a nation, God brought
them out of Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, and here
God says through Hosea that he'll bring them back into the wilderness
as it were. And then when they began to,
as we read in Joshua 7, make the conquest in Canaan, then
they sinned then, And then they had the displeasure of the Lord
then, and his wrath was upon them then. But there was a way
that that wrath was appeased, and God was reconciled again
and went with them. And they had then their vineyards
in the promised land, and then they had the blessings that all
flowed out from that reconciliation. So the prophet has been used
to make them remember their history as a nation and remember what
God did even in the Valley of Acre and what flowed out from
that. Before, what was done in the
chapter that we read, God was angry with them. He would not
go with them anymore. When the Lord had caused them
to deal with that matter, then afterwards the Lord was with
them and His blessing was upon them. And so this is what is
being said before these same people, generations later, when
they have departed from the true and living God, they're brought
back to consider how he dealt with them before, and how he
blessed them, and the means used. And if this was true in their
day, and to look back as they are bid to look back, then it
is true. of us in a gospel day as well. These parts of the scriptures
are written for our learning that we, through comfort of the
scriptures, might have hope. And in our text there is hope.
There is a door of hope or an entrance into hope. You know,
where a people doesn't view any hope at all, then they just give
up. They just go on in their own
way. In Jeremiah's day, very contemporary,
we have this is what they actually said in Jeremiah 18. We have them making this saying
when the way of escape was set before them and a hope set before
them. Then they said that there was
no hope and that we will go on in our own ways. that we would
just continue in that way. They said, in verse 12, there
is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we
will, everyone, do the imagination of his evil heart. Where there
is no hope, then people just give up. It is amazing. In these
Gospel days, how many, when you bring before them the Word of
God, when you bring before them that God is a holy God, a just
God, and He will deal with sin, and that He is angry with the
wicked every day, and yet you point out that in the Word of
God is good news, there is a Gospel, there is a way of escape, the
first reaction is there is no hope. They view their lives, their
sins, and all that they're doing, and the very thought that they
should have to part from that, or those ways are abhorrent to
God, if that's the cost, then there is no hope. But here is set before us that
the Valley of Acre is to be a door of hope, the beginning of hope,
where hope first begins and springs forth. So this word really is
for backsliding people, but it's also for those that are first
seeking the Lord, those that first begin to realise what sin
is and the trouble it causes, and to point them where the very
first beginnings of hope are. Hope is an expectation. We are told we are saved by hope,
but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why
doth he yet hope for? Faith looks to that which is
not seen. And it hopes upon the Word of
God, it hopes upon God's promises, it hopes upon the provision of
God. I want to, with the Lord's help
then, set before us this evening, hope, a door of hope. Firstly,
the hope of the Gospel. And then secondly, the valley
of Acre for a door of hope. And thirdly, what shall flow
from this door of hope? We have in our text, I will give
her her vineyards from hence. And there in the valley of Acre,
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 firstly I want to speak of
the hope of the Gospel. It is vital that this is set
before us in this Gospel day. The wrath of God is poured out
upon all that walk in sin, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And we know that all of us expect
that one day we will die. And the reason why we will die
is because we have sinned. The generations before us and
the generation now that we see laid in the grave, it bears witness
to that. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Well, after death there is judgment. And after the judgment for all
that have sinned, there is eternal wrath and the second death and
damnation in hell. Unless there is a substitute
found, that instead of the one that has sinned being punished,
there is a punishment upon another. And that provision is in the
Gospel. It is the provision of God's
only begotten Son to bear the wrath of God in the place of
his people. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
in coming to this world, he came as a man, born of a woman and
made under the law, with the one aim and purpose in view of
redeeming and saving his people. The people that were given him
by his father, the people that he loved with an everlasting
love, the people that were chosen in him from the foundation of
the world, a people that he had been given to save. and the way,
the only way, that he could save them, consistent with the holiness
of God, the justice of God, the righteousness of God, was to
die in their place. His perfect life of obedience,
his temptations by Satan forty days in the wilderness, proved
him to be sinless. Unlike our first parent, Adam,
that disobeyed God and rebelled against Him when Satan came and
tempted them, with our Lord Jesus Christ, He was tempted and tempted
above every man. And yet He proved that He did
not, He could not, fall under Satan's temptations. There was no sin in Him. He is
truly God and truly man. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, slain in the purposes of God from the foundation of
the world. And the Gospel sets forth this
fact, this provision for mankind, the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ to this world. What he said at Calvary, when
he is brought before Pilate, brought before the judgment.
For this cause came I into this world, to bear witness of the
truth. He says, I lay down my life. No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. We must die because we have sinned. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
have to die because he had not sinned, but he could voluntarily
lay down his life, lay it down for another. And that is what
he did. And to prove that he did not
have to sin himself, God raised him from the dead the third day,
proving that that sacrifice was accepted. proving that indeed
He was the very Christ and the Scriptures were fulfilled in
that He was to be raised from the dead and to live forevermore. The Eternal God, risen, ascended
up into heaven with the Father, our Advocate with the Father,
One that speaks for us, to appear in the presence of God for us,
And the gospel, the good news of salvation, was even proclaimed
before the Lord suffered. In the purposes of God, it was
to be that the Lord Jesus Christ would come and that he would
accomplish what he came to do. And so when he is born, while
he was yet as a babe, the message that was given by the angels
to the shepherds was the gospel, the good tidings. Fear not, for
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be
to all people, Jew and Gentile alike, to every nation, kindred
and tongue. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord. That
was the tidings and then the sign was given to them the babe
in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and then the heavenly
host coming and joining that angel praising god glory to god
in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men and our lord
as he began his ministry in john 3 echoes that goodwill he says
The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
He testifies that the gospel, the good news, is indeed a message
from heaven that has types or that were from the Old Testament,
where we are going back to now. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, that was because the children of Israel
had sinned, sinned against God. And God commanded him to raise
up a serpent, that they should look upon that, and those that
looked, they lived, instead of dying with the venom. Even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish. but have eternal life. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And he clarifies the giving of
himself in this way. God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world. The Gospel does not condemn.
No. but that the world through him might be saved. And he says
this, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. There is only one
way of escape. There is only one name given
among men whereby we must be saved. The only way of salvation
is Christ. But that is the good news. What
Christ has done is finished. Our Lord proclaimed it. Upon
the cross it is finished. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done is the good news that is to be proclaimed. How is it made over to a sinner? By a sinner believing in the
gospel. He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. The Lord's commission was to
go and preach the gospel, the good news of salvation, raise
this up as a hope, a hope to sinners. That is the hope of
the gospel. And it is a hope for sinners.
It is a hope for those that are under condemnation. In Romans 8 we read, There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. They walk
after the Lord Jesus Christ. They are found in Him, trusting
in His righteousness, his merits, his death and desiring to do
what pleases him and to walk before him in this life and to
seek that which is to come. Shunning the world's deceitful
snares and riches and lusts and pleasures and seeking eternal
life and seeking the blessings that come from God. Their rule
is the rule of the Word of God and is ruled by love. The love
of Christ constraineth us. And that hope then is a hope
that is to be proclaimed without, we may say, condition to every
nation, kindred and tongue. And yet when the apostles preached
that, we read, some believed the words spoken and some believed
not. Some saw it as good news, some
they just dismissed it, they had no need of it at all. That then is the hope of the
Gospel, to be saved from wrath and condemnation through the
Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look then secondly
at the Valley of Acre for a door of hope. And this primarily is
looking then in a way of experience. This is the sinner coming into
that hope, embracing that hope, believing that hope, and the
valley here, is the door of hope, it's where the hope is first
raised up, where the Lord first, and it is God's work to save
a sinner, to give him to hope, and this is how it is done. I want to, with the Lord's help,
look at this, look at this valley as a door, a door of hope. You might have felt as we read
that chapter, How severe was the wrath of God. You might think
that man just, he just took some gold and garments and he hid
them, and not only him, but all of his household, his children,
his wives, his flocks, they all died. The wrath of God upon him. Where was the mercy of God? There
wasn't any. The children of Israel were given
a very clear commandment. And Achan went against that.
We have a picture of the wrath of God. You know, some might
say, well, Adam and Eve sinned. Why should I be held accountable
to that? Why should I die? Some would
say, well, Achan sinned. Why should his wife, why should
his family? take part in that. But we know that though Adam
sinned, we also sinned. And he was the federal head and
sin has passed upon all men in that all have sinned. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. In the Old Testament
we have so emphasised the wrath of God against sin. the least
transgression. We have the man that was gathering
sticks on the Sabbath day, he was stoned. There are many instances
where laws were made, God's laws, God chose to make a law, and
the severity against those that broke it. And those in the military
in our land, The commanders, they can make laws and rules. And those are the serving soldiers.
They're not to say, well, that's an unreasonable rule and law. I'm not going to obey that. They're
expected to obey. And if they're not, then they're
dealt with. And shall not God in sovereignty
also make laws, just laws, right laws. But when we put it like this
way, who so offendeth in one point is guilty in all. And we
might say we haven't committed any of these great things, but
if there's just one point, The law says that we are to love
the Lord our God with all our heart and all our mind and all
our soul and our neighbour as ourselves. If we don't do that,
we have broken the law. No man does that. We all need the gospel. We all need hope. but it's only
those that are brought convinced of their sin will ever be convinced
that they themselves need the gospel, and that will ever value
a hope raised up. And so that is why it's spoken
of here, the valley of Acre for a door of home. Now there's several
aspects of that valley of Acre, and one thing I like to say at
the beginning, The children of Israel very often are spoken
of as one. You might say the children of
Israel, they left Egypt and they were brought to the Promised
Land. But if we looked at individual characters, there were many that
came out of Egypt that never went into the Promised Land.
or those over 19 years of age, except for Joshua and Caleb,
they perished in the wilderness during those 40 years. The Lord
took vengeance on their iniquities, on their sins. He dealt with
individuals. Aaron's sons offered Shane's
fire and they were destroyed. And in the case with Achan, Achan was dealt with very severely,
but the rest of Israel then had the blessing of the Lord. And the picture then is God's
people, God's ancient people, they're brought as a nation to
the promised land. And it's important in a way to
make that distinction Because though the apostle does warn,
he warns that even amongst those that profess in Christians, there
are those that appear to be God's people, but are not the same
as those that appear to be the children of Israel, but perished.
But very often it's set forth in a way, God deals with the
sins of his people. The way our Lord pictured it,
He says, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. If thine eye offend
thee, pluck it out. Not literally, but saying in
effect this, if your soul is to be saved, then the Lord must
deal with your sin. Or when you know your sin, and
God shows you what is right and what is evil, then you deal with
those sins. You seek grace to forsake them,
to repent of them, and to be free of them and deal with them. And this is what is happening
in this, the Valley of Achor. At first, the children of Israel
had got on well. The Lord had wonderfully worked
with them. They'd been given Jericho in a wonderful miracle,
how the walls fell down. And they did not know, Joshua
did not know what had happened. He did not know of the sin, but
what he did know was the trouble that came on them. The trouble
that the Lord was not with them at Ai, they were defeated, when
it should have been an easy battle. How often the Lord uses trouble,
uses trouble to make a people realise their sinnership. He
brings down hearts with hard labour. That is why our Lord
says, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, ye shall find rest
unto your souls. With Hosea it was with the people
that it were at ease and in prosperity. They hadn't got trouble. The
blessing would be when the Lord did bring trouble upon them and
that they were humbled under that trouble and in that distress. God used this method with Manasseh,
Hezekiah's son, the most wicked king. And yet when he was taken
and taken captive, The Lord remembered him, he has brought repentance
and godly sorrow and brought back again to his own land and
brought again to his own kingdom. God gave him repentance but it
was in a path of affliction and trouble. Those troubles don't
automatically work for spiritual good, for some it just hardens
them. But very often it is. that where
troubles come, and if troubles are in your life, and afflictions,
and illnesses, and the Lord seems to be completely against you,
may we be like Israel, you know, Joshua, he fell before the Lord,
they prayed before the Lord, and then the Lord told him to
get up, to stop praying, and told him that there was sin,
and where the sin was, that their sin had to be found out and sought
out and dealt with. It's a great comfort, isn't it,
to know that even if we're ignorant of our
sin or what it is that is grieving the Lord or why His hand is against
us, that if we're brought to pray to the Lord, that the Lord
does make us to know What is the problem? What is wrong? Even
the Apostle Paul, praying to the Lord that the thorn in the
flesh might be taken away, three times he prays. He might so as never the Lord's
will that he take away that thorn in the flesh. But the Lord tells
him, my grace is sufficient for thee. Great comfort is it to
know if we pray wrong, pray not, according to the will of God.
He is pleased to direct us, to pray rightly, to show us where
we are wrong and instruct us in a right way. By this way,
you might say, well how right it was for Joshua to humble himself
before the Lord, but really though blaming the Lord, They were saying, what will happen
now? And what about thy great name? And what are the nations going
to say round about? What a lesson that we have is
that God would have his people to be a holy people and upright
people and will not suffer sin upon them. And so sin must be
dealt with. So then when we think of Achan
himself. His sin was to be found out. So in the Valley of Acre, firstly,
we have trouble. That's part of this door of hope. May that be a ray of hope to
all that have trouble this evening. That was part of the Valley of
Acre. The second part of it was that
the sin was found out. Instead of it being heard, it
is brought to the surface. Every one of God's dear children
will have their sin brought to the surface. It may not be before
all the congregation like it was here, but it will certainly
be brought before them. He shall convince of sin. His
people shall be brought as sinners. The hymn writer says, sinners
shall say, and none but they, how precious is the Saviour.
You imagine what that must have felt like for Achan. There was
no gospel for him. There was no mercy for him. There
was no hope for him, as it were. His sin had to be dealt with. This is a picture of one outside
of Christ, but each one that is brought to be truly convinced
of sin, and does not have yet the hope of the gospel, the blessing
of the assurance of the forgiveness of sins, and their interest in
Christ, if they see their sin rightly, they see it as meriting
eternal death, eternal damnation, and wrath, and separation from
God. You picture how it must have
been as the lot was cast and it got closer and closer to Achan
until he had to own up to it, he had to say this is my sin,
I have sinned. Now this is what David, King
David, when he sinned in the matter of adultery and then murder
with Uriah, adultery with Bathsheba, and Nathan was sent to tell him
a parable And David was able to see the sin of another person,
what they had done wrong. And when David had condemned
that person, then Nathan said, thou art the man. That was like
Achan, the Lord had found him out. You're the man, you're the
sinner. And David's response was, I have sinned. But what
a difference between Achan and David. Instead of David, the
Lord hath also put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. The only
way that sin is put away is through the precious blood of Christ.
Now in a time, David's son that was to be born, he died. Now that son dying never put
away David's sin. But the promise was to David's
greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he died, then He
put away David's sin by the sacrifice of himself. So the hope here
in the Valley of Acre, and this hope is for every poor sinner
in this Gospel day, everyone that is brought before the Word
of God, brought before the holiness and righteousness of God, everyone
that their troubles make them look to their lives and examine
them in the light of the Scriptures and are brought to be guilty
before God, the hope is that in the conviction of sin, in
the finding out of sin, in the brought in guilty, in realising
what our sins deserve, there is hope in that. Our Lord spoke of the Pharisee
and the publican in the temple going up to pray. And the Pharisee
had no sense of his sinnership whatsoever. He was speaking of
all his good works and all that he did. Whereas the publican
beat upon his breast, God be merciful to me a sinner. It is
vital that we be convinced of our sin, convinced we cannot
remedy ourselves, convinced that we are under the wrath of God.
The Lord has said to Israel at that time, unless that sin was
dealt with, he would not be with them anymore. What a reminder
that is to those of us where we backslide, where the Lord
hides his face, where he takes from us his blessings. Sin must
be dealt with. We need to be reminded of this.
I need to be reminded of it constantly. It's very easy to get hardened
in sin, to learn the ways of the heathen or to covet the things
of this life and to do those things that are grieving to the
Lord. But it's a blessing to be convinced
as a sinner. So that then is part of this
door of hope, the first opening as to hope and reconciliation
between God and our souls. The next part of it was sin was
dealt with. And what a different way it is
under the Gospel. Instead of it being us that is
slain, we are brought to view Christ as slain. It is He instead
of me is seen when I approach to God. The children of Israel,
when they brought in their sacrifices, they had to lay their hand upon
the head of the sacrifice as it was slain. They identified
with it. They are made to feel, this is
my sin, this is what I have done, but this lamb, this lamb that
has done nothing, is going to die because of what I have done. Well, in this valley, sin was
dealt with. And the great antitype, the way
it is in the gospel, is in this valley. The poor sinner is brought
to view the Lord Jesus Christ in their place. The prophecy
is, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they
shall mourn for him and be in bitterness for him. The dying
thief was like that. He said to his fellow, we indeed
justly For we received the due reward of our deeds, but this
man hath done nothing amiss. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. The Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What a blessing! Convinced of
sin, and yet brought to see that substitutionary offering. the
Lord Jesus Christ dying for his sins. The sin was dealt with
in this valley of Acre. I'll give her vineyards from
Thames and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. A door of
hope is open wide in Jesus' bleeding hands and side. When that is seen by faith, seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ, viewed as the eunuch did when Philip
began at the same scripture, Isaiah 53, and preached unto
him, Jesus, there is hope where Christ is seen. The hope of the
gospel realized by a sinner. And we know from that door of
hope in this valley, When that was dealt with, then the Lord
was, His wrath was pacified, His wrath taken away from the
children of Israel. And that is what a sinner will
feel. That's one of the great blessings
and way that we know that we have passed from death unto life
and that the blessing of the Lord upon us is that that wrath,
that condemnation that we felt is taken away. Instead is given
peace, instead of giving love, weight lifted off the shoulders,
when it is seen that the debt does not have to be paid by us. In Psalm 80, the psalmist is
very bold. He said, let thy hand be upon
the man at thy right hand, the son of man, whom thou hast made
strong for thyself. I said, well, I am the sinner.
but let thy hand be upon him. Let my hand be upon that great
andy type, not the sacrificial lamb, but the real lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. And that relief, that joy, what
it must have been with Isaac. Isaac bound upon the altar, seeing
his father with a knife ready to slay him. And then the voice
from heaven, stay thy hand and see the ram caught by his horns
in the thicket. And Isaac taken off the altar
and the ram put in his place. And then Isaac looking at the
ram as it was slain and as it was consumed by the fire. And that's where a sinner looks and
sees the Lord Jesus Christ, which is Jesus in the sinner's place. And that really, when that is
seen, that door of hope, that's the first raising up of that
hope and the joy of the gospel. And every blessing flows through
that. The beginning really of a profession,
a hope, a witness in the church, a life of faith in the Lamb of
God that is constantly seen as One walks in the path of baptism,
buried with Him by baptism into death, raised again in newness
of life, and then in the Lord's Supper to show forth His death
till He do come. It is identifying all the time
with the death of Christ as being our hope. And every time we approach to
God, as he instead of me is seen when I approach to God. Well
this then is the valley of Acre given for a door of hope, an
opening of a hope of the gospel. Well then in the third place,
what shall flow from this door of hope? The beginning of our
text in Hosea 2 and 15, I will give her her vineyards from thence. Now, in one sense, the vineyards
are the churches. They are where the fruit is.
Of course, with the children of Israel, the spies, they had
brought back clusters of grapes in the promised land was these
vineyards. At the moment, and their sin
had been dealt with, No going into those vineyards. They wouldn't
have all the plenty, the blessings of the promised land. But now
with this hope that was set before them, and really is set before
a sinner too, is all the blessings of the church and blessings of
the people of God, not the literal land of Canaan, but that good
hope through grace, a hope of heaven. The church here numbered
amongst the people here and numbered amongst them in heaven. in that
heavenly Canaan. He's from this valley of Achor
that these binyas, these blessings shall be given. 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. Going back to that valley
of Achor, the blessing of the wrath taken away and the Lord's
presence with them again. His especially points to backsliding
sinners, to be brought again to those blessed days of their
youth when they're delighted in the Lord, in spiritual youth,
when the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the
Holy Ghost, restored again to the tender fear of God and the
blessings of the Lord. And it all springs from such
a valley as this. Hymn writer says, the flesh dislikes
the way, but faith approves it well. The flesh doesn't like
to be told that they're a sinner. It doesn't like that way of these
dark valleys and the Lord dealing with sin. But faith proves it
to be the right way. I must decrease, says John the
Baptist. He must increase. And that is
the way for every poor sinner. And the way of repentance in
John 1, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Where we have the gospel set
before us, let us not be frightened of facing our sins and confessing
them and seeking grace to forsake them. But may we see it as a
valley, but a valley of hope, a valley that will spring forth
the blessings of the Lord. But what would Israel have done
if they said, no, no, we don't need to deal with this. We'll
just press on anyway. We'll put more men this time. We'll just go on anyway. They
wouldn't have prospered. They couldn't have prospered.
Had God had a favour towards them, he'd make sure they didn't
prosper because his intention was to bring them back to himself
and bring them a holy people, sanctified, made for the Master's
use and the blessing of the Lord upon them. May we see this as
that ray of hope, a door of hope for us. I will give her her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. 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. May the Lord bless
the Word. Amen.