The God of the Valleys

 •  9 min. read  •  grade level: 8
OUR lives are made up of hills and valleys. We are not always standing upon the lofty summits of spiritual delight, nor always in the cloudless enjoyment of the presence of God. There are depths as well as heights, valleys as well as hill-tops in the Christian's life.
I do not refer to the changing experiences which seem to be the lot of many of God's children. Some days they feel happy, and their hearts are full of song and praise. But these bright seasons give place to dreary hours of depression when everything seems wrong. They have made fresh discoveries of the badness of their hearts; they have again suffered defeat in the conflict with the foe, and they are at a loss to know what the matter with them is. Will things ever be different? Are their steps to be always dogged by failure aid sin? And questions like these perhaps beget doubts as to God's love and goodness, or at all events, as to their relationship with Him.
But experiences of this kind are not really Christian experiences at all, though they are the experiences of many who are undoubtedly Christians. Under the Israelitish economy there was a special order of priests whose privilege it was to draw near to God, and minister to Him in connection with holy things. These, and the Levites, were set apart for Jehovah's service. The rest of the tribes consisted of just ordinary people who had their everyday avocations to attend to: "common people," as they were called (Lev. 4:2727And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; (Leviticus 4:27)), in contrast to the priests.
The Christian combines in himself the functions of both these classes, for every believer now is a priest (Rev. 1:66And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:6)), and as such may with boldness enter the place of God's presence (Heb. 10:1919Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19)). But he is also one of the "common people" in that he has to do with secular things as well as with what is more distinctly the service of God.
My readers will, I think, understand what I mean. There are seasons when we are able to leave earthly things behind, and be entirely occupied with the things of God. We dwell in thought upon the love of Christ, and all that His love has wrought in order to make us His very own, and we turn to God as the Source and Spring of all our blessing, the One whose deep love moved Him to give His Son for us, and we worship Him. By the Spirit of His Son sent forth into our hearts, we cry, "Abba, Father." We know He has made us His sons, and that He loves us with a love that can only be measured by His love to Jesus (John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)). In the joy of that blessed relationship we draw near to Him. Our hearts range through the length and breadth of all that He has purposed for us, and we delight to think that we are destined to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be co-heirs with Christ, to dwell with Him forever.
These are sunny hill-tops indeed. These are the "high places" where our souls delight to walk. But we cannot always be there. There are the daily tasks to be performed, the daily bread to be won in shop or office, factory or field. Then there are the duties of the home, family responsibilities to be attended to, a thousand things that claim our care.
As God's "priests" we have to do with the holy things of the mountaintops; as "common people" we have to do with the ordinary affairs of life. These latter are what I refer to as the valleys of the Christian's pathway.
Now arises a question of supreme importance. Is our God the God of the valleys as well as of the hills? The Syrians of 901 B. C. said He was not. The enemy of A. D. 1919 says He is not. We are told that "business is business, and Christianity is Christianity," by which is meant that the two things must be kept entirely separate, as if our lives were built up in two water-tight compartments, and as if the God whom we know as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in whose purposes of eternal love we rejoice, has nothing to do with our business, nor with the way we conduct it.
But is this so? Let us turn to the scripture cited at the beginning of this paper. The Israelites had just won a great victory over the Syrians. The latter could not understand why their vastly superior force should have met with such a defeat. The only explanation they could think of was that Israel's God was God of the hills. "Let us fight against them in the plain," said they, "and surely we shall be stronger than they" (ver. 23).
Now, of course, it is true that our God is the God of the hills, and maybe He has given us many a wonderful victory, as such. One of Satan's great objects is to deprive God's people of the enjoyment of their spiritual and heavenly blessings. He would occupy our minds exclusively with the earthly things. Many Christians, it is to be feared, know little of God as the God of the hills. They know something of His goodness and providential care in connection with the things of this life, but to speak to them of His holy love, His eternal counsels, all that He has purposed for Christ's glory, and for us, in and through Him, is a strange, unfamiliar language. The enemy has succeeded in blinding them to the highest and best of what is theirs to enjoy. They have never really won the victory over the Syrians on the hills.
But is there not for such a very real danger in an opposite direction? What says the enemy, the Syrian of the twentieth century? If he has failed to gain the victory in connection with the high and holy things of God, he will attack us on the plains, in connection with ordinary affairs. "The Lord is God of the hills," he says, "but He is not God of the valleys." And the awful fact is that some Christians are ready to believe this saying of the Syrian foe!
He would persuade us to shut God out of our business life! "Business is business," he declares. Of course. But is business for the Christian the same thing as business for the worldling? Are his aims the same? Are his principles identical? Will not his methods be affected by his Christianity? Because a thing is "generally done," is the Christian to do it? Because certain questionable transactions are "usual," is the Christian to sanction them? What must be the condition of soul of him who would hesitate for a moment to give a wholehearted reply in the negative to these questions?
Yet there are Christian men who seem to be quite at home on the hill-tops amid the wonderful things of God, and can talk quite intelligently as to His purposes and counsels, yet excuse themselves for lack of strict integrity in commercial life with the plea that "business is business!" It is the Syrian lie: the Lord is "not God of the valleys.”
But He is, and He expects that we should acknowledge Him as such, and transact our affairs in His fear, and glorify Him in connection with our everyday lives, by shunning every method, every practice that His holy eye cannot approve.
What an unspeakable comfort it is to know that God is the God of the valleys as well as of the hills, and that we may speak freely to Him not only about His great and wonderful things, but about our own little, ordinary matters. What a relief to be able to consult Him in difficulty, to be supported by the assurance of His gracious care in times of stress, to put everything into His wise and loving hands when the burden seems greater than we can bear. Oh, how great a blessing is missed by those who do not walk with Him in their everyday business life!
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But there are deeper and darker valleys than those of our everyday life. Is God the God of these valleys too?
There is the valley of failing health. Things which we used to do with ease become a heavy burden. The hours of the day pass wearily by, only to be followed by nights of wakefulness and pain. Can God give us the victory in a valley like that? He can. He can make us feel the tenderness of the everlasting arms underneath us. He can turn days of weariness into seasons of unspeakable joy. Like a mother hushing her child to sleep with fond, loving words, He can soothe our chafed and murmuring spirits, and whisper words of wonderful comfort in our ears. With all the suffering He can give grace, not only to bear, but to glorify Him in it.
Then there is the still deeper, darker valley of bereavement. Is God the `God of that valley? Can He illumine that dark place with the light of His love?
Aye, that He can. He can draw near to us in such a way that we know the reality of His presence as never before. He can fill our sorrowing hearts with sweetest comfort.
How terrible the grief, in time of bereavement, of those who do not know God as the God of the valleys. The enemy takes occasion by their loss to sow seeds of distrust and rebellion in their hearts. And their sorrow remains without comfort. Some object of their love is torn from their embrace by the hand of death, and they stand in the presence of their loss—alone! No knowledge of divine love to lift their hearts above their sorrow; no sustaining grace to help them bear it. They know not the God of the valleys.
Be it ours, then, Christian reader, not only to walk with God upon our high places, as did Habakkuk of old (chap. 3:19), but to walk with Him also in the valleys. Some of the greatest victories recorded in Scripture were valley victories. The valley of Ajalon was the scene of Joshua's conquest of the five kings of the Amorites. The valley of Elah was the scene of David's triumph over the Philistine champion. And what valley can compare with that in which our Lord descended to deliver us from our sins and make us His own!
The greatest victories are to be won in connection with the valleys of our lives. God is there to help us win them, for, praise His name, He is the God of the valleys as well as of the hills!