Daily Lesson for October 1, 2018

Todays Daily Lesson comes from Hosea chapter 2 verses 14 and 15:

14 Therefore, I will now persuade her,

   and bring her into the wilderness,

   and speak tenderly to her. 

15 From there I will give her her vineyards,

   and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

The Valley of Achor means the “Valley of Trouble” and comes from a terrible scene in the book of Joshua when a man named Achan stole for himself many of the devoted things — a beautiful robe, silver pieces, and a large amount of gold — set aside for the LORD.  For this Achan was stoned and all his family with him. All this took place in a valley near Jericho which the Israelites then called the Valley of Achor — the Valley of Trouble. 

But here in today’s Lesson the Prophet Hosea calls the Achor a “door of hope”, turning the moment on its head, and suddenly seeing it as a gateway to a new place. 

It is true that in order to reach the next peak, we often must first go through the valley. The valley is the doorway to the next place, the entryway into the place of hope. 

No person wants to go through the Valley of Trouble. No people want to walk through it either. It is humiliating, perhaps even incriminating, and always sets the community against itself. 

And yet, it is often the doorway. It is the moment by which we are able to see where and who we are and where and who we want to be. 

There is pain here in this valley. It is indeed a deeply troubling place. But it is also the door to hope. Because suddenly amidst all the troubles there is admission of what Alcoholics Anonymous calls “our devastating weakness and all its consequences”.

The devastation is the doorway. It is the point of pass, the deeply troubling yet also hopeful path, from the Valley of Trouble to the mount called Redemption.