So Lord may graciously help me,
I return your prayerful attention to the book of Hosea, the prophet
of Hosea, chapter two and verse 15. Hosea two and verse 15. And I will give 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. That's Hosea 2 and verse 15. We read together the first mention
in the Bible of the Valley of Achor and that was in the book
of Joshua. It was a very sad time in Israel.
They had just come into the promised land. They had gained their first
victory over Jericho, and all seemed as if it was going well.
But then they went to war against AI. They sent 3,000 of their
men because it was not going to be a difficult one to overcome,
they thought. And yet Israel was was smitten
before the men of Ai and 36 of the Israelites were killed and
Joshua was very upset. He couldn't understand. They'd
just gone, they began to conquer the promised land and now they
had been smitten before their enemies. And God showed Joshua
that there was a reason for them being smitten by the people of
Ai. that was because there was sin
in the camp because you see if you look in Joshua chapter 6
this was when Jericho was taken if you look in Joshua chapter
6 in verse 18 we read these were the instructions that God gave
through Joshua to the people Joshua 6 verse 18, And ye, and
any wise, keep yourself from the accursed thing, lest ye make
yourself accursed when ye take of the accursed thing, and make
the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver
and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto
the Lord. they shall come into the treasury
of the Lord." They were specifically given this commandment that all
the silver and the gold and those things in Jericho were for the
Lord. And yet, you see, Achan, he saw
this gold and silver and this Babylonish garment and he coveted
it and he took it for himself and he hid it in his tent. And
whether his family knew about it, I guess perhaps they did,
because he hid it in his tent. They must have perhaps seen him
do it. But apart from that, it seems nobody else knew about
it. But God knew about it. And God dealt with him and dealt
with the whole of Israel. You see, and this is how sin,
it affects, it has a greater effect than just on the person
that sinned. It affects the whole of Israel. Then we have that
we read together that solemn judgment that came upon Achan
and his whole household. Achan, which we read, was the
family of Judah. It was a very solemn event. You
think about it, Achan singled out from all the people of Israel,
perhaps two million people or something, of that sort of amount
of people, and then to be singled out with your family and everything
you have, your tent, your children, your cattle, and the whole of
them perished. The whole of them were stoned
with stones and burned with fire because of what Achan had done. And you might think that's a
very harsh judgment. Well you see this shows us something
of the nature of sin, that there has to be a judgment, a right
judgment for sin. And We see there then in this valley
of Acre it was a valley of trouble we read and it was a valley of
judgment. And so when we think of Acre
in our minds there's only three places in the Bible that the
valley of Acre is mentioned. Here and then in the prophecy
of Hosea that we read together and also then in the prophecy
of Isaiah. But you see in here there's very
much the sense of the Valley of Acre was a time of judgment.
And it's really important to understand the nature of judgment. and how that God must punish
sin and how that we read it's interesting the way it's phrased
at the end of chapter 7 verse 26 we read this and they raised
over him a great heap of stone unto this day so the lord turned
from the fierceness of his anger wherefore the name of the place
was called the Valley of Acre unto this day. So when judgment
was meted out on Achan and all his family, we read that the
fierceness of his anger was turned away, the fierceness of God's
anger against sin was turned away. And it must have been a
very terrible scene to see all those people stoned to death
and burned with fire because of sin. And in Romans, we pick
that up in Romans 7, where Paul is speaking about that. Verse
13 of Romans 7, we read, but sin, that it might appear sin,
work in death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful. And I believe as you think of
when Achan would stood there with his family and saw there
must have been such a such a shame and such a sadness of what the
awful effects of sin are. But when sin was dealt with,
you see, then Israel could move on. Then Israel could go on to
greater victories. And as we see in this very sad
scene of judgment in the Valley of Acre, surely we see we look
forward to another, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who was bearing the sin, not his own sin, but the sin of the
whole of his church. And because he was bearing the
sin of his church, then Israel, the whole Israel of God, could
go on to victory. because he had stood in that
place. You see, it's interesting to
note that Achan was from the tribe of Judah. And our Lord
and Jesus, the Savior Jesus Christ, sprung from the tribe of Judah.
Well, if we just had this account in Joshua 7 of the Valley of
Achor, and there was no other mention in the Bible of the Valley
of Achor, we would certainly just associate Achor with a time
of sadness and trouble and great judgment. But in the manifestation
of God's providence and of his gospel, the revelation of Christ
to the church, God has chosen to use the valley of Achor in
two other occasions. And I think it's very, very significant
as we read that in, as we read together in the prophecy of Hosea. Just to give the background to
the prophecy of Hosea, Here the prophet Hosea was, we believe,
was living in the northern part of Israel. It was preaching particularly,
this prophecy was particularly to Israel rather than Judah.
The kingdoms had split at this time. And Hosea was particularly focusing
on Israel. And Israel was very soon, in
fact, at the end of Hosea's prophecy, the time that he prophesied,
Israel went into captivity, the northern tribes. So this was
right on the edge of their time going into captivity. And if
you remember last time I was with you on a Sunday, we were
we were talking about Zachariah, that prophet of the Lord was
raised up to encourage the building again of the of the temple. Well, this was some Hosea's prophecy
is some 200 years before that time. 200 years before that. Hosea, you see the northern tribes
went into captivity not for 70 years but for much longer. But
the Judah went in for just 70 years into captivity. But the
northern tribes, you see it was more like 200 years. So we have
Hosea's prophecy. And he was prophesying and he
was told to do something very strange really by God. He was
told in Hosea 1 verse 2 to take a wife of a lady called Goma, but this
lady had been a prostitute, really. She had been off with many other
lovers. And indeed, later on, after she
had become his wife, she then went off again with other lovers.
But he was commanded, you see, to marry her and to love her. And then there was these three
children that were raised up from their marriage together. And it's interesting that the
names of those children all meant something. It was a judgment.
The Jezreel, the first one that was born was Jezreel, a boy.
And that was to show that there was going to be a judgment and
a cutting off of the kings of Israel, Jehu, that there was
going to be an end of the kingdom of the northern tribes, which
of course came very soon in that time. But then there was a girl
born and she was called, if you look in verse 6 of chapter 1,
Lo Rahoma. And that means not having obtained
mercy. And then a son was born later on, the
third son, and he was called Lo Amai in verse 9 of chapter
1 of Hosea. And that it means this is not
my people. So God is really saying to Israel, you're not going to obtain mercy
and you're not my people. A very, very difficult message.
And yet, of course, later on in this same prophecy, the beginnings
of those words, you see, in verse 6 it's lo, Ruhama, and in verse
9 it's lo, am I. And that lo means not, I understand. But later on in chapter 2, verse
1, it says, Say unto your brethren, Am I? And to your sisters, Ruhamah. The law is taken off. And in
other words, the people were not my people and now become
the people of God. These people that were not going
to obtain mercy were going to obtain mercy. And you see, God
is bringing Israel to to judgment and realizing that they need
God's mercy. And he's saying, you're not my
people, and then bringing them back to know that they are his
people. And I would say that when we
think about this, the judgment of God, it's a vital place to
come in our Christian experience, particularly for those of us
who have been favored to be brought up in Christian families. And
the natural thought is, well, a father and a mother may be
godly people, and therefore we perhaps are godly people as well.
We might think we are the people of God. But you see, in a sense,
we each need to come to realize that by nature we are not the
people of God. We have not obtained mercy. And
we, by nature, are far off from God, and we need to obtain mercy. And it's a wonderful thing you
see when God is able to, it's picked up in Romans chapter 9,
these people that were not my people are now become the people
of God. These ones had not obtained mercy that they may obtain mercy. And so we see this prophecy of
Hosea was to warn Israel. And as Hosea was marrying this
unfaithful woman, and this was a picture, you see, of how Christ
was marrying Israel that was an unfaithful wife. She'd gone
off with other lovers. That meant she'd gone off with
other idol worshippers. And you see, it was the idol
worship that was the downfall of Israel. And sadly, those seeds
were sown by Solomon. Solomon when he had his 700 wives
and 300 concubines his heart turned him away from God and
he went after and built altars and temples to the false gods
of his wives and that sowed the seeds you see which eventually
ended up in the downfall of Israel and the leading into captivity
and But Hosea here is is seeking you see to to remind the people
and to turn them back and to remonstrate with them that this
is the wrong way. And there's so many judgments
and chastenings presented in the prophecy of Hosea, to tell
Israel that they're on the wrong way, that they're going in the
wrong way, and of course they didn't listen to Hosea, and they
went into captivity. But you see then the promises
that God would still have mercy upon them. and bring them back
were then for so precious. And really verse 14 of chapter
2 is a turning point of the chapter of telling Israel how wrong they
were. But then in verse 14, therefore,
behold, I will allure her. We often think of somebody being
allured is a negative thing. But here it's God is saying that
he's going to draw Israel back to himself. He's not going to
leave her far off. He's going to draw her back.
I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably unto her. We might think bringing somebody
in the wilderness, we can only perhaps think of a negative connotation
of that, that a wilderness is a place where there isn't much
else. But you see Israel had been wedded and involved with
all this idol worship and God was going to bring them away
from their idols and make them satisfied with himself. He was
going to be the provider for Israel. And you think of that
naturally when a husband and wife marry often immediately
after their marriage they often go on a honeymoon together. And
they have a holiday together just with each other, not with
loads of other people. And in a sense, they are then
to enjoy one another's presence. And in a sense, God brings them
into the wilderness. And you see, he did Israel. Israel
had been in slavery in Egypt. They had so much work to do.
They were brought into the wilderness and there wasn't a lot of work
to do there. They didn't have to farm. They didn't have to make their
shoes. They didn't have to do all the industry that they would
have had to do before. They really had to rely only
on God. They had to have a time of real
union with God. Therefore will I allure her and
bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And then in verse 15 that we've
named as a text, and I will give her vineyards from thence and
the valley of Acre for a door of hope. Well, you might think
our last reference to the valley of Acre in Joshua chapter 7,
it was a very sad situation, didn't see much hope, you might
think. But it's interesting here that
God has left on record the valley of Acre for a door of hope. There's something precious in
a gospel sense here. You see, this is saying that
when sin is dealt with, then we can move forward. all the
time we don't deal with sin, all the time sin is left undealt
with and judgment not satisfied on our sin, then we cannot move
forward. But the Valley of Acre, for a
door of hope, it opened a door you see, to Israel to go forward
to inherit the promised land. They couldn't. They were overcome
just by Ai, this small city or town that they didn't even think
it was worth sending many people over because they thought it
was so easy to overcome. And yet they couldn't overcome
it. They couldn't go forward because
there was this sin in the camp. And yet, you see, when sin was
dealt with, And so we realize something of the precious nature
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who stood in his people's
place. He took the punishment instead.
And as we try to picture what it must have been for Achan and
his family, in all the ugliness of that situation, the judgment,
the sadness, the death, It was a very sad scene, but so was
Calvary. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
hanging on a cross. It was a very time of great judgment. And you see here how God, you
might think, well, he was very strict on Achan and his family.
when it came to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When He
was made sin for us who knew no sin, see God was not partial. God the Father was not partial.
That's one of the things that we can be as, particularly as
adults, we can be partial and it's totally wrong. We can have
somebody that we prefer and when they do something wrong, we look
the other way. and somebody else who we don't
like very much and if they do something wrong we come down
on them very hard. It's partiality. It's wrong. But you see God the Father in
heaven is not partial. He does not punish sin very severely
if he doesn't like the person and very unseverely if he likes
the person. Now you see when sin was found
laid upon his only begotten son. He didn't say, well, this is
my only begotten son. I'll look the other way. I won't
punish sin in him. No, when Christ was bearing the
sin of his people, he received the full weight of
what that sin deserved. He entered, you see, into that
darkness for three hours. His son cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? He endured the sufferings due,
that sin was due to be punished with. And you see, it was dealt with
at Calvary. And so when we think of that
in a spiritual sense, the valley of Achor, the valley of judgment,
the valley of trouble, But that gave the door of hope. And this
is so in our individual spiritual experiences. If you've never
come into a valley of trouble, if you've never come to that
place where sin is exceeding sinful, that sin must be dealt
with. You see, Israel would have been
happy to carry on, but they couldn't. They had to deal with this. They
were going to be smitten before their enemies. They had to deal
with it. Joshua had to deal with this problem. And it's a wonderful
thing, you see, when sin... God shows us how sin has to be
dealt with. And we can't push it under the
carpet anymore. It might be hidden sin. The general
public of Israel didn't know about this sin, but God knew
about it. And in our own hearts, God knows
about us. And perhaps we're busy trying
to get on with our lives. We're trying to get on and do
the next thing. But you see, they couldn't. They had to deal first with the
judgment of sin. And they had to have this Valley
of Acre, that place where judgment was meted out, where the extent
of the justice of God spent itself upon Achan and his family. But you see, and we're told,
so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. And that is so
with the Lord's people. As that anger of God fell upon
his only begotten son, Then the fierceness of God's anger is
turned away from his people. And as Paul says in Romans 8,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And you
see here that great need that we each have to be made right. And so we see here, and the valley
of Acre for a door of hope. See, Jesus himself said, didn't
he? That was one of the I am sayings.
I am the door. I am the door. And here we have
in the valley of Acre, that valley of trouble, that valley of judgment. We have the very door of hope. And that's exactly true in the
gospel. You see, no value, no judgment,
you have no hope. You see, if there's no judgment
for sin, we've got to pay for the sin ourselves. We're heading
for a never-ending eternity of receiving the due reward of our
sins. But if we have known something of the valley of Achor, something
of the enormity of our sin, and then fled for refuge to lay our
hope upon Christ and put all our hope for time and eternity
on Him, and to realise that He has borne the punishment instead,
then there's hope. There's hope, you see, our opening
hymn was based on hope, the Christian's hope. you see this is the hope
of God's people, the door of hope, a valley of acorn for a
door of hope. This is such an important message
for us each. You see we can think of ye who
see but sin but lightly, nor consider its evil great, come
to Calvary. in our example, come to the Valley
of Acorn, see what happened to Achan. And this was ordered by
God. This wasn't Joshua being over
strict. God told him to do this. And
you see, God must punish sin. And when we realize that, then
we need to start to realize that we need one understanding our
place. and I will give her vineyards
from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." So there is hope, you see, when
we come to realize the judgment of God. And then the other place
in the Bible that it talks about the valley of Achor is in Isaiah
chapter 65. Isaiah was a contemporary with
Hosea. They preached their prophecies
were over a similar period. But Isaiah was much more to the
Judah, to the kingdom of Judah rather than the kingdom of Israel. But if you look in Isaiah 65
and verse 10, here we have another, the only other mention of the
Valley of Acre. So Isaiah 65 verse 10, and Sharon
shall be a fold of flocks and the Valley of Acre, a place for
herds to lie down in for my people that have sought me. You see,
The judgment is gone, this valley of Acre now. It is, first of
all, in Hosea calls it a door of hope. And then Isaiah, by
prophecy, calls it a place for the herds to lie down in. You
know, we think of that beautiful psalm, the Lord is my shepherd.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He feedeth me. There's rest here, you see. So
we have this great gospel message in the Valley of Acre. Valley
of Acre spoke in Joshua of judgment against sin. God must punish
sin. And all the time we think that
this isn't true or try and avoid it or try and say it won't happen
to me or I'm not as bad as other people. All the time we deal
with it like that. There is no hope. You see the
Valley of Acre four door of hope this is the way this is the gospel
hope is when when sin has been dealt with not when sin has been
pushed under the carpet and it tried to be uh pretended that
it hasn't happened and so in our lives each of us we stand
before god that knows everything about us And you see, we need
to come and confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. The Valley of Acre, for a door
of hope. And then in Isaiah. a valley
of Acre, a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people
that have sought me. So we have these two other references
to the valley of Acre with such different meanings. But you see it comes down to
the same things in the Gospel. Unless sin has been dealt with,
there is no hope, there is no rest. And then you see as we
go on in this chapter of Hosea, it talks about the Lord talking
about being betrothed again, married again to Israel, this
one that had been unfaithful to God, this one who had gone
after idols and yet God was going to bring her back mercifully. You see this turning point in
the chapter in verse 14, it has the word therefore. Behold, I
will allure her. But if you look at what comes
before therefore, it's all her sin, it's all her rebellion,
it's all her far-offness from God. Israel wasn't deserving of being
returned to God. And yet here we see the loving
kindness of God, the goodness of God that bringeth us, leadeth
us to repentance, the goodness of God. And you see, he is going
to bring his people back. They're going to come to realise
the serious nature of sin, that they cannot think of sin lightly,
they cannot say it doesn't matter. No, they're going to realize
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. That's what Romans 7 said. Paul
came to realize that, you see, before he didn't think he was
a sinner. He thought his touch in the law, he was blameless.
But you see, when God opened Paul's Saul of Tarsus heart and
showed him, particularly in that 10th commandment, thou shalt
not covet, You see, we read of Achan, that was the beginning,
he saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid, and how that progression
of sin in the life of Achan, and all that meant to him and
his family, and how that ended up in such disastrous consequences. And yet, this same valley is
spoken of later in prophecy. of how the Lord was going to
use this same valley with all its associated meaning of judgment
and trouble and difficulty. It's a wonderful thing, you see,
if the Lord deals with us. If the Lord deals with his people,
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. You see, he could have left Israel
to go on with their sin. But you see, they wouldn't come
to realize, they wouldn't be sanctified. This is the great
end, you see, that God has in view. Jesus, in his high priestly
prayer, in John 17, says this in verse
16. John 17, verse 16. They are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. You see, God
wants us to know the truth. And if we think that sin isn't
serious, then we don't know the truth. And you see, it's God's
purpose to show us the truth, the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
and then to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only
one that could perfectly keep that sin, keep us, and to fulfill
all the perfect requirements of God's law. You see, he was
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate than sinners. He kept
that law perfectly. And yet he stood in his people's
place. And he stood in his people's
place, not to show them up, but to make a way for them to come
back to God. You see the love in the Saviour.
He was the only one that could keep the law. He was the only
one that never broke his father's commandments. And yet he was
the one that was able to bring in an everlasting righteousness
for his people. I ask you, do you know these
things? Or are you able to continue to hide sin under the carpet? Not really deal with it, just
go on, get on with your life. Well, you see, if you're truly
the Lord's child of God, you will not be able to go on. There'll
come a point where God will stop and you'll have to come back
and realise that Sin must be judged. And if you've got sin
at the door, you've got to go and find a way of getting that
fixed. You've got to go back to Calvary. You've got to go back to that
only one that can deal with our sins. Our own works, our own
works of righteousness cannot satisfy. We need the righteousness
of another. And you see as you come to the
end of this chapter that we read in Hosea 2, and I will sow her
unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had
not obtained mercy. So you see here there's a contrast
going on in this removing of the first part of the word in
the names of these children of Hosea. have not obtained mercy, and
then take the front end of that off, that means they have obtained
mercy. And they are not the people of God. Take the front end of
it, it's then they are the people of God. And so here we have this
wonderful encouragement and assurance for God's people. I will sow
her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that
had not obtained mercy. You see, Israel was... Israel took a long time to receive
this. You see, they were yet to go
off into exile. They didn't turn to the Lord
before this, but eventually they did. Eventually they did come
back. And this was the wonderful thing
of the prophecy that this would happen. There would be a door
of hope in the Valley of Achor. You see, as it was a day of judgment
in the time of Achan, so it was going to come
to a time of judgment for Israel. They were not going to be able
to carry on in the land of Israel saying we're the people of God,
we're the Jews, we have the commandments, we are God's people. God was
going to say no, you're walking in rebellion, you're going to
be carried into captivity. They didn't believe it. The prophets
told them but they didn't believe it. They thought we'll be alright,
we'll be alright, we're the people of God. But you see they then
came to a point where they realised They weren't the people of God.
That they weren't going to obtain mercy. And that suddenly they
needed to go back. They needed to go back. They
needed to deal with their sin. They needed one to stand in their
place. They needed to look back to the
Valley of Acre for the door of hope. I will sow her unto me in the
earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained
mercy. See, as they went into captivity,
in a sense they were going into judgment. They were going to
be carried captive by the king of Assyria. You see, they went
into the king of Assyria. It was the southern tribes. Judah
went into the captivity of Babylon. But these went by the king of
Assyria. and I will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy. And I will say to them that were
not my people, thou art my people." Just imagine reading this after
the exile, after you've gone into captivity, after your land
has been taken, your sovereignty is gone. But to realize that
God is able to have mercy upon his people. And that is true
today. As we, by nature, walk in pride
and go after the things of the world and keep on trying to keep
going, just doing those things and ignoring the great fundamental
thing is, am I right with God? Has sin been dealt with in my
life? Have I gone to the Lord Jesus Christ and said that, Lord,
have mercy upon me, a sinner? Have I truly come and obtained
mercy? Or am I just going on, trying
to just go along and be amongst the people of God and hope that
I sort of am one of the people of God? It's a wonderful thing
if you come to realize that you are not the person of God by
that method. Why do I say that? Because if
you go all your life thinking that you're the people of God
and find out at your dying day that you're not the people of
God, that's the most terrible thing. But if we come in our
experience to realize that the people of God We are not one
of them. We're far off. You see, then
there's hope. If a tree is cut down, that it
will grow again. If it's cut down and showed that
they are not the people of God, and then they run to God for
mercy, that they may become the people of God. And this is the
great message in Hosea. And I will give her vineyards
from thence in the valley of Achor for a door of hope, and
she shall sing there. As in the days of her youth,
as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
You see, the first time we read of singing in the Bible is the
song of Moses as they came out of Egyptian slavery. Their enemies
were dead on the seashore, they'd just come through the Red Sea,
and then we have the song of Moses. They were singing. They realised they'd been delivered
from their enemies, they realised that God had won this for them,
and they sang. And she shall sing there, as
in the days of her youth, so many years before. You see, there's
something like 650 years between Hosea writing this prophecy and
Achan sinning in the Valley of Acre. 650 years. And that Valley of Acre that
meant for those 650 years just only but judgment. And yet in the revelation of
God's word, you see, there's a progressive revelation of the
gospel through the word of God as he gives more and more. And
eventually, when in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus comes himself,
there's the fullness of the revelation. here we have a further revelation
that this valley of acorn, the valley of judgement, the valley
of trouble, the valley of difficulties in our lives if they're used
to bring us closer to God, to make us realise our sin and flee
from our sin to a saviour, then it's a door of hope. And it's
not only a door of hope It's a door of rest, a rest that remains
to the people of God. You see, there's a feeding. There's
a feeding in these pastures in the valley of Acre. You say it's
the day of judgment. It's judgment. No, but you see,
the judgment is passed away. And God has turned from the fierceness
of the anger. Why? Because it's been spent.
It's been spent on the Savior. And therefore, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And so these
beautiful words in the end of Hosea 2, and I will have mercy
upon her that had not obtained mercy. And I will say to them
which were not my people, thou art my people. And they shall
say, thou art my God. You see there's this ownership
both ways between his people. And yet, you see, the beginning
of it was a realisation that they were not God's people, a
realisation by nature we're far off from God, a realisation that
sin is going to ruin us. But then the mercy of God in
Christ, that the Lord Jesus could stand in his people's place,
willingly, and bear the punishment instead, and therefore bring
in an everlasting salvation for these wayward, wayward people. bring them back to God through
the Red Sea of His own blood. May the Lord add His blessing.
Amen.