A Door of Hope
Hosea 2:14–23
Therefore, behold, I will allure her. Hosea 2:14
Chapter two of Hosea presents a series of “therefores” in which the hand of God’s judgment has been pressed down ever more firmly on Hosea’s rebellious and errant wife. But just as we are expecting further trouble, God opens the hand of his grace and sends forth hope. He says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (vv. 14–15).
“Achor” means “troubling,” and the phrase that contains it (“the Valley of Achor”) means “the valley of troubling.” How can such a place be hopeful? How can the destructive troubling be changed? We cannot change it certainly. But there is one who can and who does. God sets hope before us when all seems most lost. He does it by taking our trouble on himself. Do you remember those words of our Lord in the final hours prior to his death as he thought ahead to all that would take place on Calvary? He said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27). Again we are told that “Jesus was troubled in his spirit” (13:21). Why was Jesus troubled? He was troubled in our place. God troubled him with our sin that we might be saved from it and be brought back to God. It is on the basis of his death for that sin that he can now say to us, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (14:27; cf. v. 1).
He not only removes our trouble; he restores us to God: “‘And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ . . . And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. . . . I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:16, 19–20, 23).
There is no greater promise than that. No wider door of hope could possibly be set before us. If you think all is hopeless, hear God as he speaks these words to your heart: “I will betroth you to me forever. . . . I will answer. . . . I will sow. . . . I will have mercy on No Mercy.” Come to him and allow him to restore the years of your life that have been lost.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.