Valleys: April 2020
Table of Contents
Valleys
We often talk of mountaintop experiences—times when we enjoy the Lord and others in a most happy way. Moses had such an experience with the Lord, as did the disciples on the mount of transfiguration. But then we speak about having to return down the mountain to continue on with everyday life. We associate going down into the valley as a low time in our life where we experience suffering or trials or failures. But as we will see in this issue, the valley can also be a place and time when we learn that the Lord is always with us, to comfort, to protect and to deliver us from harm and evil. We have an example of this in the life of Isaac. When there is a famine, the Lord appears to him and tells him to stay in the land and not go to Egypt, promising, “I will be with thee.” He settles in Gerar. Like his father, he is afraid of the Philistine Abimelech and lies about his wife. Yet, like his father, the Lord is with him and protects him. He departs and goes to the valley of Gerar and dwells there. His servants dig in the valley and find a well of springing (living) water. Others want to take the well from him. He digs another, and then another. Finally, he has peace and reports, “The Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” His valley time was for his profit and blessing. God wants ours to be so as well.
The Valley Gate
In Nehemiah 3 we find the people who had come back to the land of Israel after the captivity seeking to rebuild both the wall and the gates of Jerusalem. There are twelve gates mentioned, and of particular interest is the valley gate. We come to verse 13: “The valley gate repaired Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.” It does not say a great deal about this valley gate, but there is a little passage that I would like to notice in 1 Kings 20:28: “There came a man of God, and spoke unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Is not that a very lovely verse? They had been used of the Lord and they had won a victory over the Syrians in the hills, and now the next time they are going to have to meet them in the valleys.
The God of the Valleys
If I might put it in a practical way, sometimes things might seem to go very well and go along quite smoothly; we see the Lord undertaking for us in a wonderful way and we prove that God is the God of the hills. But then the enemy meets us when we are down; some trouble, some trial enters into our lives and we say, “Oh, it’s so hard to bear this. It just gets me down.” I think it is wonderful how the Lord met the servant of the Lord here to encourage him and said, I’m going to show that your God is the God of the valleys. When we have difficult experiences in our lives, we can prove that the Lord is sufficient. He can give us the victory even in trials. Sometimes that is a great testimony to the world. I am sure we know of cases where the world looked on and when things went well in our lives, they did not think so much of our Christianity. Then they see us have real difficulties, perhaps bereavements, or perhaps some sickness coming upon us. They see that we have a joy, a peace that they do not have. They see that God is the God of the valleys. Brethren, our God is not only the God of the hills; He is also the God of the valleys. If we do have those valley experiences, sometimes there is a greater testimony in how we meet the trials and difficulties of life than in our preaching. He is the God of the hills and He is the God of the valleys. So, “the valley gate repaired Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah.” They not only repaired, but they also put up the locks thereof, the walls thereof, and the bars thereof. Perhaps the reason it tells us this is because the enemy is always trying to get in. He is trying to get in in every situation. He comes into our service. He comes into our circumstances. He comes into all these situations, so that we need to have the gate barred. We sing in a hymn sometimes, “Take Thou our hearts and let them be, forever closed to all but Thee” (Little Flock Hymnbook #294). We need to watch. The enemy is out to get us in times when things go well, as also in times when we get down in the valley and are depressed.
The Length of the Wall
There is something else connected with this valley gate, for it is the only gate with which a specific length of the wall is mentioned. We read that “the valley gate repaired Hanun ... and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate” (Neh. 3:13). We read in 1 Peter 1:6-7 that in connection with “the trial of our faith” there may also be an “if need be” in our lives. As well as faithfulness, the Lord may see in our lives something that needs correction and purification, and He may, in His wisdom and love, pass us through a valley. The valley may seem long — in figurative terms, perhaps 1000 cubits—but it is all to bring us to the dung gate, where we finally profit from the Lord’s dealing with us and judge what is not pleasing to Him. Then we are ready to take it out at the dung gate; the blessed result is the next gate, the gate of the fountain, which speaks of refreshment for our souls.
G. H. Hayhoe (adapted)
The Valley of Achor
The valley of Achor is mentioned five times in the Word of God, and it is associated with very negative but also positive connotations. The first two references to this valley are in Joshua 7, in connection with a very solemn event in the history of Israel. After spending 40 years wandering in the wilderness, Israel was finally ready to enter the land of Canaan, and accordingly they crossed the Jordan river. In Joshua 6, they conquered the city of Jericho, and Jehovah’s specific instructions were to “keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves 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” (Josh. 6:18-19). In spite of this serious and very clear command, one man was overcome by covetousness, and he took “a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight” (Josh. 7:21). More than this, he hid them in the earth in his tent, thinking that no one would know. As a result of this sin, Israel subsequently suffered defeat at the hands of those from a small place called Ai, and 36 men were killed. The Lord’s words to Joshua showed him the reason for this: “Thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you” (Josh. 7:13).
The Sin of Achan
The casting of lots was ordered by the Lord and put the finger clearly on a man named Achan, who confessed to the crime and even admitted, “I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel” (Josh. 7:20). But it was a forced confession, after he had failed to confess his sin properly in the face of the dishonor done to the Lord and the dreadful consequences to the nation. Human wisdom might think that Achan could be forgiven and allowed another chance, but his sin, like that of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day, was direct and willful disobedience to the Lord. More than this, Achan hid his sin and did not confess it until he was exposed by the Lord Himself. It is a principle with God that if sins are confessed immediately, the judgment is much less severe than if the individual persists in it and conceals it. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13).
The awful judgment on Achan and his family took place in the valley of Achor, where we read that “all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day” (Josh. 7:25-26). The valley was so named, because Achor means “trouble.” But the sin was removed, and then Israel was able to overcome Ai and destroy it completely.
Judah’s Inheritance
Later on, in Joshua, we read once again of this valley, for in Joshua 15:7, we find that part of the border of the tribe of Judah’s inheritance went beside the valley of Achor. How sad to think of a man from this very tribe, who might have had an inheritance there, but who merited nothing more than a heap of stones! So, it is today; men who might share an inheritance with Christ, if they would repent and come to Him, will fall under His judgment and go into a lost eternity.
However, we find two later references to the valley of Achor. In Isaiah 65:10 we read, “Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for My people that have sought Me.” In the beginning of this chapter, we find a prophecy concerning the rebellious people of Israel and the judgment that the Lord will bring upon them in a future day. Yet there will be those in Israel who seek the Lord, and especially from the royal tribe of Judah. The Lord says, “That I may not destroy them all” (Isa. 65:8), for the godly ones will honor the Lord, and the result of the judgment on the apostate ones will be blessing and peace for “My people that have sought Me” (Isa. 65:10).
The Door of Hope
Likewise, we find a reference to this valley in Hosea 2. As in Isaiah, we find in this chapter a judgment pronounced upon Israel for her unfaithfulness. But then, after the judgment, the Lord will bring her back in a coming day, saying, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her” (Hos. 2:14). Then a promise is made: “I will give her 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” (Hos. 2:15). It may be hard for us to think of this valley as a “door of hope,” for the appalling events associated with it cause us to recoil. Yet it is God’s way. Sin cannot abide in His sight, and it must be removed, before there can be blessing. We see this, not only with Israel, but with this world at large. Man has persisted in his sin and in direct opposition to God Himself. God has sought to deal with this world in grace, but man has refused God’s love and grace. There remains nothing but judgment, for “when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). Terrible judgments will be needed to cleanse this earth in a coming day, but the result will be blessing such as man has not seen since the Garden of Eden.
The Way of Blessing
So it is with us in our lives. How thankful we can be that for us who are believers, the judgment for our sins took place at the cross, and thus, in the words of a hymn, “Death and judgment are behind us; grace and glory are before.” But sin can come into our lives too, for we still have our sinful nature, the flesh, and if allowed to act, it can spoil our communion with the Lord. Sad to say, even as believers we can hide our sin from others, and even think that we can hide it from the Lord. Sometimes it may be a gross sin, but perhaps it is simply the world coming in and taking over in our lives. It is a good exercise to ask ourselves how much covetousness and worldliness is hidden “in the earth” in our tents!
The way to blessing for us is to confess the sin and to allow the Lord to bring it to the valley of Achor. True believers will never suffer judicially for their sins, although we may suffer governmentally under the chastening hand of the Lord. But if we allow the Lord to bring us to the valley of Achor, the sin can be confessed and forsaken, and communion can be restored. Then indeed we will find that this valley of trouble is really a “door of hope.”
W. J. Prost
The Valley of Baca
In Psalm 84:5, we read these words: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee: in whose heart are the ways of them.” The great secret of strength in the ways of God is the full assurance of His love. This is the strength of God in the soul, for what else could make the weary pilgrim sing on his lonely way? True, it is the way in which the cross is found, but it is God’s way, and the heart is in it.
In the next verse, we read of those “who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well” (Psa. 84:6). The word “Baca” means “weeping,” and our natural hearts would scarcely think of such a situation as being a well of refreshment. But God alone is the strength of His people’s heart from first to last. This is the Christian’s shield—unwavering confidence, in spite of everything, in the unchangeable love of God his Father. To question God’s love in the trial is to drop that shield and expose his heart to the fiery darts of the devil. Nevertheless, faith will always vindicate God and His truth, however heavy or sweeping the stroke. It will calmly rest in the truth that the Father’s love is the same—the same as when He gave His well-beloved Son to die on Calvary. Before such faith all enemies and temptations are powerless.
The enemy’s great object always is to weaken the believer’s confidence in the kindness of God. The way to the Father’s house leads out of the world, and so it must always be a path of trial and difficulty. When dwelling in the house, as the psalmist says, we can only praise, but when on the way to it, we may have great conflict. Hence it is that when we now realize, in the power of the Spirit, our oneness with Christ in the presence of God, we can only worship and adore, but when meeting the practical difficulties of life, we may have much to confess and pray for.
Tears That Make a Pool
Now, we may say, the believer enters the valley of Baca; it is the place, not only of trial, but of tears. He is brought into deep exercise of soul before God. Self is judged; this is the young Christian’s valley of Baca. It is the exercise of soul, rather than the trial, that makes it a well — that digs the pools. He has now found out that a desire to live to God’s glory may turn this earth into a vale of tears—a place of humiliation and sorrow. But if there is simple faith in God, the dreariest part of the desert may become a fruitful field. But on the other hand, if he gets under the power of his circumstances, his tears will be yet more bitter and more abundant. But our God will have us to confide in His love alone and to learn what He is to us, however painful the process.
“Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” This is God’s way out of the world, and thus a trial to nature. The great moral system of Satan in the world must be faced, and this is no easy matter. Scarcely has the joy of conversion been tasted, in many cases, when the pain of separation from the world in some of its tenderest associations must be experienced. And how often unfaithfulness in this respect hinders the good work of God in the soul and mars its sweetest joys! But the idol of the heart must be given up, and the heart unreservedly given to Christ. Thus all have a valley of Baca to pass through; it is the way to Zion. Even the most spiritual and devoted of the Lord’s people must have the exercises of the valley.
A Thorn in the Flesh
Paul’s thorn in the flesh was truly humbling to the great Apostle. This is evident from what he says to the Galatians: “My temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not” (Gal. 4:14). It was something that made him despicable as a preacher. Thrice he prayed that the thorn might be removed. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me” (2 Cor. 12:8).
Paul might have boasted that he had been in the third heaven and that no one had ever been there but himself. But the Lord, in great mercy to His dear servant, met the danger in humbling him.
The valley of humiliation and sorrow became the place of blessing to the Apostle: “He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Now he glories in that which had been so painful and humbling to him. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). Now he rests in the love that had ordered everything for him; he found the valley to be a well of rich blessing; rain from heaven filled the pools. Our blessing comes from that which has humbled us and taught us that difficulties and impossibilities are nothing to the Lord.
The House in Bethany
It was much the same with the sisters in Bethany. In their deep affliction they counted on the Lord’s love and sympathy; they send for Him, and say, “He whom Thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3). But in place of answering their prayer with all speed, He seems rather to turn away from them. Such delays are a great trial to faith and patience. But He was teaching them to wait His time, and on Him alone. We cannot hurry Him. “When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was. Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again” (John 11:6-7). The sisters were passing through deep waters; it was indeed a vale of tears, but the Lord cannot change. Blessed truth for the sorrowing heart! But their feelings rose above their faith, and their hearts fell below their circumstances. Hence, they were disposed to blame the Lord for not coming when they sent for Him. Both Martha and Mary said, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (vss. 21,32).
But greater things than healing the sick were now filling His mind and the scene before Him. He could have said the word, as on other occasions, and Lazarus would have been healed, but, no, He acts “for the glory of God, that the Son of Man might be glorified thereby” (vs. 4). And when the right time was come, He takes His place in the scene of death, in resurrection power and glory. Lazarus is dead; Israel is dead; man is dead; the sisters are bereaved and desolate. But the Lord is equal to all the need. The whole scene is filled with His glory. The bursting tomb, the rising Lazarus, radiate His glory as the Son of God. By that voice, “Lazarus, come forth,” the deep caverns of the grave are pierced, and the sleeping dust awakes. What a testimony to the unbelieving Jews! What a rebuke to the unbelief of Martha and Mary — to the unbelief of us all in the time of affliction! He bestows life, raises the dead, glorifies God, and mingles His tears with the sorrowing ones. The mighty power of God and the tenderest human affections are perfectly displayed in this wondrous scene. Oh! what a meeting of the whole need of the heart; what a filling up of the pools; what showers of blessing from above are provided for all pilgrims, in all ages, when traveling through all parts of this vale of tears.
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
The Valley of Jehoshaphat
The word “Jehoshaphat” in Hebrew means “God has judged,” and the expression “valley of Jehoshaphat” occurs twice in the Word of God in connection with judgment. We read of it only in the Book of Joel, as follows:
“I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land” (Joel 3:2).
“Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about” (Joel 3:12).
This is evidently a prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled, and it will take place when the Lord comes back in judgment, to take His rightful place, to judge the nations, and to set Israel up in their land once again, in peace and rest. The name Jehoshaphat is applied to a valley in which the Lord will bring all nations for judgment, and it is also called the “valley of decision” in Joel 3:14. The word “decision” is one meaning of the Hebrew word used; it can also mean “what is determined,” or “a threshing instrument with sharp teeth.” The thought of judgment is definitely connected with the meaning.
The Kidron Valley
The valley mentioned is almost surely the Kidron valley, which runs north and south between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and it has always been associated with judgment and rejection. It was over the brook Kidron that David passed when he fled from Absalom, and it is this valley that Shimei, who cursed David on that occasion, was forbidden by King Solomon to cross, on pain of death. It was into the brook Kidron that King Asa threw the remains of the idol of his grandmother Maachah, after he had destroyed it, and many years later, King Josiah disposed of all the filth and idolatry connected with the temple of the Lord in the same way. Finally, our blessed Lord passed over this valley to the Garden of Gethsemane, prior to going to the cross. The valley of Jehoshaphat is almost surely this same valley, in which judgment will be carried out in a coming day.
A Place of Judgment
It will be the time when the Lord will “bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,” and bring down righteous judgment on all nations, “for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land” (Joel 3:1-2). It is fitting that the judgment should take place here, in the land of Israel, where the Lord will have already appeared on behalf of His beloved earthly people. It is indeed true that they had been scattered among the nations under the government of God, because of their rejection of God’s claims and their crucifixion of their Messiah, but now, having put them through the awfulness of the tribulation, the Lord will show favor to them and will punish those who delighted in scattering them. Various judgments will take place here, but perhaps not all at the same time. Joel 3:12 tells us that the Lord will “sit to judge all the heathen round about,” bringing before us the sessional judgment referred to in Matthew 25:31-46 — the judgment of the sheep and the goats. In Joel 3:16, however, we read of a warrior judgment, when “the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” This judgment is called the vintage or winepress judgment, and it will occur when the last enemy, Gog (Russia), comes down against Israel and when Russia and all her allies are destroyed by the Lord.
As in the case of the valley of Achor, the judgment will be most awful, not only in its character, but in this case also in the numbers involved. Indeed, in speaking of this in the Book of Revelation, the Spirit of God says that “blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs” (Rev. 14:20). The distance of 1600 furlongs is 200 miles, the approximate north-south length of the land of Israel, and this gives us some idea of the carnage that will take place.
Rest and Peace
Again, the judgment is severe, for man’s arrogance and rebellion will have reached a zenith, where he dares even to fight against God. But then the way will be open for the millennium to be a time of rest and peace, where righteousness reigns. In that day, after the judgments are over, the blessing will flow. “Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying” (Isa. 65:18-19). The judgment may be harsh, but it will be done quickly, for “a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (Rom. 9:28). Then the blessing will flow for 1000 years, but even more important, our Lord Jesus Christ will have His rightful place and be honored where He was once cast out.
W. J. Prost
Quickening - the Valley of Dry Bones
Our natural state is set forth in Ephesians 2:1 as “dead in trespasses and sins.” The next verse, however, goes on to speak of walking in those trespasses and sins, but that is because the death there spoken of is death towards God. Those who are dead Godward are very much alive to “the course of this world” and “the prince of the power of the air,” who operates in the “children of disobedience.” To be dead towards God is entirely consistent with being alive towards the world and the devil: indeed, the one springs out of the other. This is the fact that underlies the solemn statement made in Romans 3:11, that “there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.” To the natural man there is nothing that is desirable in God. In one word, he is dead towards God.
Once these solemn facts lay hold of us, we realize that our only hope is in God taking the initiative with us in His sovereign mercy. God then must act. But how must He act? Will reformation, education or instruction meet our case? By no means: There can be nothing until He quickens, for quickening simply means the giving of life. The very word translated “quicken” in the New Testament is one compounded from the noun “life” and the verb “to make” — “to make to live.”
The Spirit Gives Life
Now it is a striking fact that Ezekiel 36, which shows the corruption and moral filth in which Israel lay and prophesies as to the new birth which consequently must be theirs, is followed by the vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. This sets forth the death towards God, in which Israel lies as a nation, and it prophesies concerning God’s work of quickening, which must touch them before they enter into millennial blessedness. They will be brought up by Him out of the graves among the nations where they lie. There will be a national resurrection, and, says the Lord, “Ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it” (Ezek. 37:14). Once they are quickened, they will understand and they will at once seek the Lord.
The “wind” (or “breath”) of verse 9 seems to be identified with “My Spirit” of verse 14; indeed, the same Hebrew word is translated “wind,” “breath” or “spirit,” according to the context. It is interesting to compare these verses with John 3:8. There the blowing of the wind is connected with the Spirit’s action in new birth. Here it is connected with His action in quickening. This should show us how closely new birth and quickening are connected one with the other and that they must not be divided from each other, though they should be distinguished and separately considered, as they are in Ezekiel 36 and 37.
Quickening and Power
Now if John 3 answers to Ezekiel 36, John 5 answers to Ezekiel 37. This latter chapter opens with the cure of the impotent man. It was as though a fresh stream of life entered his powerless limbs, and he took up his bed and walked. When challenged as to this miracle, the Lord Jesus proceeded to speak of far greater works than this which were His to do — the quickening of whom He will and the raising of all men. The former is a limited work. Those among the spiritually dead who hear the voice of the Son of God — and only those — shall spiritually live. The latter is universal. All in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth in two classes, to life and to judgment, respectively. This will take place at different times, as we learn from other scriptures.
In verse 21 of this marvelous chapter in John, quickening is attributed to both the Father and the Son, whereas in the next verse the work of judgment is said to lie wholly in the hands of the Son. The Son, and the Son alone, came forth into this world to suffer and be set at naught. To Him alone, then, shall the majesty and honor of executing judgment belong. In the giving of life, however, the Son acts according to His own will equally with the Father and in fullest accord with the Father. Equally with the Father is He the Source of life, for verse 26 is evidently parallel with verse 21 in its sense. As 1 Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam ... a quickening Spirit.”
Verses 24-25 give us the way in which the Son acts in life-giving power at the present moment. He quickens by means of His Word. There are those who really hear His Word; that is, they hear in it “the voice of the Son of God,” and consequently they believe on the Father who sent Him, and they live. Quickening is not presented here as a work of the Son altogether apart from the use of means. Were it so presented, we should read, “They that live shall hear.” But what we read is, “They that hear shall live.” Life is indeed His gift, but it reaches us in the hearing of His voice in His Word.
The Father and the Son
In the light of this chapter, we believe we may speak of quickening as the most deep-seated and fundamental aspect of God’s work in us. Such is its importance that the Father and the Son act together as to it in a special way. A wrong use is sometimes made of our Lord’s statements in verses 19 and 30: “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do,” and, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” These words do not mean that He disclaimed all power, just as a mere prophet might have done. They expressed, in the first place, the fact that, in becoming Man, the Son had taken the place of dependent service, acting wholly by the Spirit in subjection to the Father. This thought seems especially prominent in verse 30. But in the second place, they also emphasized the fact that His essential place in the unity of the Godhead was such that it was impossible that He should act apart from the Father. This thought seems more prominent in verse 19.
From this inner and more hidden aspect of things it was as though He said, “I am so essentially one with the Father that it is in the nature of things impossible that I should act apart from Him.” It was really the strongest possible affirmation of His essential Deity. The Father and the Son must ever act together, as the end of verse 19 says. Thus did the Lord accept the charge of “making Himself equal with God,” and not only accept it but amplify the thought of it. So both the Father and the Son act together in life-giving power.
The Spirit of God
In John 6:63, we discover that the Spirit of God also quickens. The first occurrence of the word “Spirit” in that verse should evidently be printed with a capital; the second occurrence of the word is rightly printed without a capital. Comparison may be made with verse 6 of chapter 3, where the distinction is rightly made. The very words of the Lord are spirit and life, but it is the Spirit Himself who quickens. We may say, therefore, that the whole fullness of the Godhead — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is involved in the work of giving life to such as ourselves.
One further thing has to be noted. We meet with it both in Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13 — we have been quickened “together with Christ.” Being “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and “dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh” (Col. 2:13), nothing short of quickening would meet our case. Quickening was thus a necessity, but there was no necessity that we should be quickened together with Christ: That is the fruit of the counsels of God in grace.
F. B. Hole (adapted)
The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
I wish to draw attention to the expression “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). It is generally taken as some vague, general way of expressing the preciousness and value of His work and Person, and while it is surely so to everyone who loves the Lord, I suggest that this is not the real thought of the passage.
There were a great many things spoken of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament, as we are aware, and if I might give them a name, it would be “the searchable riches of Christ.” There we may find the promises which had Him for their object and fulfillment. We find His miraculous birth, as born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14); His life of suffering and rejection by His people (Isa. 1); His atoning death (Isa. 53; Psa. 22); His burial with the rich (Isa. 53); His resurrection (Psa. 16); His ascension to the right hand of God (Psa. 110); His receiving gifts for men, or “in the man” (Psa. 68:18); His coming in the clouds of heaven (Dan. 7:13-14); the judgments that He executes (Isa. 59:16-20; 63:1-6). There we also find His glorious reign (Psa. 72; Isa. 32) and the principles of His kingdom (Psa. 101). All these and many more might be searched out and traced through the Old Testament Scriptures.
Unsearchable Riches “Hid in God”
But there were the “unsearchable riches” as well — those which were “hid in God” — His eternal purposes which were before the foundation of the world. The Lord had come in among His people, but those to whom these promises were made rejected these promises in the Person of the Son in whom they were fulfilled. Rejected by them, He accomplishes the work of redemption on the cross, dies, rises again, and ascends on high to the Father’s throne. From the glory of God He sends down the Holy Spirit, charged with pardon for His people Israel, but the only response to this fresh offer of His gracious heart was a more determined refusal than ever. Stephen, stoned as a blasphemer, bears on high to his rejected Master (as it were) the message from His citizens, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” and all is over.
Saul of Tarsus was then called, and to him were the “unsearchable riches of Christ” committed; to him who was “less than the least of all saints” was the grace given.
Those “unsearchable riches” embrace in their thought the mystery of Christ and the church and her rapture (as of all saints) to glory. They unfold themselves in the unnamed interval during which the Lord Jesus is sitting on the throne of God as man, rejected by His people and the world — an interval of which no account is taken in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The prophets then looked from hilltop to hilltop, as it were, and they pass over unnoticed the great valley lying between the mountaintops which caught their prophetic eye. They connected the coming of Messiah in His humiliation with its glorious results for His people Israel in His kingdom and glory, by and by. They spoke of the “sufferings of Christ” and “the glories that should follow,” and stepped (in prophetic language) from one hilltop where His blessed feet stood in the day of humiliation to the other hilltop where He would stand in the day of His power. The valley which lay between, with its untold mines of wealth, was still “unsearchable” to man.
The Valley on Earth
A man sits on the throne of heaven — the Son of the Father. From that scene He receives of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and sends Him from heaven. Only then was that made known which lay in the secret of His heart from before the world. The valley is explored, its mines of wealth discovered, and we are led along its paths as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, but fellow-citizens with the saints in heaven.
During this interval, while He is hidden on high, another thing comes in. United to this glorified Head in heaven is His body, the church. He loved it; He gave Himself for it. He followed her into the depth of degradation into which she had fallen. Unlike the first Adam, He is not deceived, as was Eve. No; He follows her in the mighty strength of His love into the place of her shame and takes her sins upon Himself; charges Himself with them before God; holds them up in the light of God’s holiness; bears the wrath and clears her from every stain.
The Valley of Rejection
Jesus, then, is on high as Man, the mighty work accomplished which sets us before God in the light, without a stain. The Holy Spirit is here and, dwelling in His members on earth, constitutes them His body—His bride. From the hilltop of Olives, where He passed into the heavens (Acts 2), to the same hilltop where His feet will stand again in the last days (Zech. 14) lies the long valley of His rejection by His people the Jews and by the world, but in which His “unsearchable riches,” never scanned by the prophetic eye, are found. That period began on the day of Pentecost and will end with the moment when Jesus will take to Himself His bride, to conduct her to His home on high.
Meantime, while God prepares this Eve, “of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,” He has left His “father and mother” — His relations with Israel after the flesh; He is joined to His wife (Eph. 5:31), or, as Genesis 2:24 still more beautifully expresses it, “shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.” How different from this are our poor human thoughts! How well we can understand the weaker cleaving to the stronger, unable to stand alone. But here it is the divine thought from Him of whom are all things; it is the strong one, Jesus, cleaving to His weaker bride, and thus perfecting His thoughts of grace.
I would now draw your hearts and affections to the closing stage of the long valley — even to the moment when Jesus will come forth and translate His saints to the place He has prepared for them — to that house made fit to receive His bride. How short the time may be till that blessed moment when she will come up out of the wilderness “leaning upon her beloved!”
Words of Truth, Vol. 7 (adapted)
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
An inquiry is often raised whether “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psa. 23:4) is death or the world lying in the shadow of it. We believe it is the latter. If it meant death itself, “the valley of death” would have been, it seems to us, the expression used, but “the shadow” of death presents to the mind the idea of danger of death, or of what leads into it, and brings the anticipation or dread of it upon the soul. A comparison of other places where the term is used in the Psalms makes this plain. In Psalm 44:19, the remnant of Israel speaks of themselves, under the government of God, as “sore broken ... in the place of dragons, and covered ... with the shadow of death.” So again in Psalm 107:10,14, when “redeemed from the hand of the enemy,” they recall the mercy that reached those that sat “in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,” and that when they had cried to Jehovah, “He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death.”
From these scriptures it would appear that “the valley of the shadow of death” was, to the psalmist, the path where the gloom and danger of death was especially in question, but where the protection and support of Jehovah were his comfort, so that he feared no evil, as one who would be preserved from death itself. What follows in the psalm supports this thought.
For the believer now, the world, or rather his pathway through it, is “the valley of the shadow of death.” How truly was this so to the blessed Lord! Death’s dark shadow ever rested on the path He trod, especially in Gethsemane, where He says, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.” But He tasted death itself in all its bitterness, unprotected and unsupported, on the cross. The shadow of death, where His rod and staff comfort us, is all we can know; for the eternal rest we await His coming, and not death itself.
Christian Truth, Vol. 8 (adapted)
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
I would suggest that the words, “Valley of the shadow of death” (Psa. 23:4) mean simply this earth, the place where death reigns, and he who has the power of death, that is, the devil, “the prince of this world” and “the god of this world.” The whole scene around us bears the stamp of death, and is under the shadow, i.e., the power of death. We meet with almost the same expression in Matthew 4:16, where it is said there about Galilee of the Gentiles, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
The prophet does not speak there of the dying or dead, but of the inhabitants of that portion of Canaan which was called “Galilee of the Gentiles,” partly on account of the ignorance of its inhabitants, and partly because that portion of Canaan was, more than any other, frequented by Gentiles. They are, therefore, represented as “sitting in darkness,” and in the “region and shadow of death,” i.e., this world. As to the believer, in the Old as well as in the New Testament, he is supposed only to be walking or passing through this world — “the valley of the shadow of death” — while the children of this world are sitting in this shadow of death, in all the false security that has characterized them from the days of Cain.
The Prince and god of this World
And has this world, with its fair appearances, lost anything of its solemn character as the “valley of the shadow of death,” since the Lord of glory has been murdered here? It was when our Lord was on His way to Gethsemane, that, for the first time in the Word of God, we find Satan called “the prince of this world.” The great enemy of God and man had never before been so clearly manifested as “the prince of this world” as when he combined the Gentiles and Israel around the cross, to slay God’s well-beloved Son.
But there is a still more solemn aspect under which we find Satan mentioned in 2 Corinthians. A still more solemn title is given him there; He is called there (2 Cor. 4) “the god of this world.” It is because Satan, who is behind the Antichrist, will soon set himself up in the temple at Jerusalem, “showing himself that he is God.” He is now blinding men’s hearts against the glorious light of the gospel. He is now preparing everything for the time when the world will worship the beast, his first agent, for the final rebellion against God. It is for this reason, I think, that we find Satan called, “the god of this world.”
An Enemies Land
Fellow Christians, do we sufficiently bear in mind, that it is a terrible enemy’s land through which you and I are passing? A land, where the stream of events is driving fast towards the closing awful catastrophe! Would you like to stay in a land that is on the eve of war with your own country? Where massacre is preparing all around you, and feet swift to shed the blood of all whom you love? Would you sleep, even for one night, in such a place if you could help it? Certainly not. On the contrary, your only and constant care would be to find a narrow and safe footpath to pass through it as quickly as possible. You would not forget for a moment, that you were in an enemy’s land. Or would you like to live in a house, the walls of which were stained with the blood of your nearest and dearest relations? Shall I remind you of an Old Testament saint, to whom the land which God had promised to him and to his seed, was like a foreign country, after he had entered it. And why? Because the Amorites then dwelt in that land; God’s time, when Abraham and his seed were to possess the land, had not yet arrived, “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:16).
Is this earth, where the blood of the Son of God has been shed, something else to you besides the valley of the shadow of death? Or is it to you something more than an empty tomb where your Lord was buried? “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-3).
J. A. Von Poseck (adapted)
The Valley of Baca
“Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools” (Psa. 84:6).
The vale of Baca dreary is and wild,
And yet the path of every heaven-born child;
There will not stand before the throne of God
One who this vale of sorrow has not trod:
Not one who there in vestments white appears,
Whose sleepless couch has not been wet with tears;
No; all have Baca’s vale of weeping known:
Through tribulation each has reached the throne;
Ask those who now their palm of victory wave,
Conquerors through Him, who died the lost to save,
If now they murmur at their former lot,
Or wish they had escaped one mournful spot?
No, you would hear each grateful pilgrim tell,
That vale of grief was blessing’s richest well;
The pools of trouble, filled with heavenly rain,
Turned into myrtles every thorn of pain.
Think it not strange then, pilgrim, neither faint,
Much less indulge in murmuring and complaint,
If what you meet with in your heavenly road
Is hard to bear; since all is planned by God,
His child to train in wisdom’s holy ways,
And form a chosen vessel for His praise;
Now we are slow those ways to understand,
But let us bow beneath His mighty hand,
Sure that His wisdom over all presides,
His power controls, and love unerring guides;
He that adorns the lilies with their bloom,
Gives the frail grass its beauty and perfume,
Watches and feeds the songsters of the air,
Shall He not much more for His children care?
Has not His Word and promise faithful stood,
That “all things work together for their good”?
The hands, that now the pilgrim’s staff must hold
Shall then exchange it for a harp of gold;
The armor doffed, the wedding robe to wear—
No sword or shield or helmet wanted there;
The darkness changed to everlasting light,
No aching heart, no wearied limbs are there;
Our souls shall bask beneath those cloudless skies,
And God’s own hand shall wipe our tear-dimmed eyes;
But for one day such bliss divine to taste
Would make a thousand other days a waste!
Oh, sooner far the lowest place I’d hold
In His fair courts, than palaces of gold;
There would I choose a doorkeeper to be,
Opening for others only; if, for me,
I might look in, and His bright glories see.
Be patient then; with such a rest in view,
Blessed are they who Zion’s ways pursue;
Each faithful pilgrim, through His mighty grace,
Shall there appear and see Him face to face;
He is their Sun, to chase the shades of night,
And cheer their souls with heavenly warmth and light:
“God of all grace,” each day’s march He’ll bestow
The suited grace for all they meet below;
The “God of glory,” when their journey’s done,
Will crown with glory what His grace begun;
Rich in the treasures of eternal love,
His watchful goodness all His people prove;
Through time’s short day and through eternity,
“Blest is the man, O Lord, who trusts in Thee.”
J. G. Deck