The History Of The Valley Of Achor
(Hosea 2:15; Joshua 7)
Introduction: Have you ever had trouble in your life? I would be shocked if anyone said, “No,” because as Job said, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). The English word “trouble” and its derivatives is used over 200 times in the King James version of the Bible.
I read a little story that said…
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The pilot swung the plane into the wind, and they were soon in the air. “Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.” “Why?” asked the pilot. “Because I’m going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!” After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you’re not the instructor?”
I imagine at that moment, they both realized that they were in trouble.
This morning, it’s on my heart to preach the first in a series of sermons about a place in the Bible that many of you may have never heard of. The name of this place is literally, “The Valley of Trouble.”
In Hosea 2, after highlighting a message of judgment for wayward Israel, Almighty God gave this prophet a message of hope. And God’s message through Hosea included these words…
(Hosea 2:15) And 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.
In his commentary on the Minor Prophets, James Montgomery Boice wrote…
“Achor” means “troubling,” and the phrase that contains it (“the Valley of Achor”) means “the valley of troubling.” It occurs three times in the Bible. The first is in Joshua in connection with the story of Achan and his sin. When the people of Israel had conquered Jericho in the first wave of their invasion of the Promised Land, Achan had taken spoil of Jericho that the people had been told by God they were not to do. For this they lost the next battle at Ai. What was wrong? they asked. At last an investigation was made and the sin of Achan was discovered and judged. Achan and his family were stoned in the Valley of Achor, which took its name from this incident (Joshua 7:26). The second time this valley is mentioned is in Isaiah, when he speaks of a day when it will become a resting place for herds (Isaiah 65:10). The third time is in Hosea, and here the place of “troubling” is to become a place of hope for God’s people. How can a place of such swift judgment 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.
In his study of the book of Hosea, Fred Wood wrote…
The Valley of Achor is on the northern boundary of Judah. It runs from ancient Jericho into the hills and forms a passage from the Jordan valley to the upper region. This valley is the normal entrance into Canaan.
Charles Simeon wrote that…
Achor was a very rich valley, so called from the circumstance of Achan being stoned there. It was the first portion of the promised land that came into the possession of the Israelites: and this was to them a door of hope. It was a ground of assurance, that they should in due time possess the whole land. It was, as it were, an earnest, whereby they were taught to expect the fulfillment of all the promises.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary says…
The expression “valley of Achor” probably became proverbial for that which caused trouble, and when Isaiah (Isaiah 65:10) refers to it he uses it in this sense: “The valley of Achor, a place for herds to lie down in;” i.e., that which had been a source of calamity would become a source of blessing. Hosea also (Hosea 2:15) uses the expression in the same sense: “The valley of Achor for a door of hope”; i.e., trouble would be turned into joy, despair into hope.
Later in the series, we’re going to look at the Hope of this Valley. But today, I want us to go back to the book of Joshua and discover the History of this Valley.
I. The History Of This Valley Involved A Situation Of Disobedience
(Joshua 6:16–19; 7:1)
A. Notice The Warning Of The Accursed Thing
(Joshua 6:18) And ye, in any wise 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.
accursed – Hebrew 2764. cherem, khay'-rem; or (Zech. 14 : 11) cherem, kheh'-rem; from H2763; phys. (as shutting in) a net (either lit. or fig.); usually a doomed object; abstr. extermination:--(ac-)curse (-d, -d thing), dedicated thing, things which should have been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction, devoted (thing), net.
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament states…
Because the Lord had given Jericho into the hands of the Israelites, they were to consecrate it to Him as a ban (cherem), i.e., as a holy thing belonging to Jehovah, which was not to be touched by man, as being the first-fruits of the land of Canaan. (Cherem – that which had been dedicated to the Lord in an unredeemable manner, see Leviticus 27:28-29). Rahab alone was excepted from this ban, along with all that belonged to her, because she had hidden the spies. The inhabitants of an idolatrous town laid under the ban were to be put to death, together with their cattle, and all the property in the town to be burned, as Moses himself had enjoined on the basis of the law in Leviticus 27:29. The only exceptions were metals, gold, silver, and the vessels of brass and iron; these were to be brought into the treasury of the Lord, i.e., the treasury of the tabernacle, as being holy to the Lord (v. 19; vid., Numbers 31:54). Whoever took to himself anything that had been laid under the ban, exposed himself to the ban (curse), not only because he had brought an abomination into his house, as Moses observes in Deuteronomy 7:25, in relation to the gold and silver of idols, but because he had wickedly invaded the rights of the Lord, by appropriating that which had been laid under the ban, and had wantonly violated the ban itself.
B. Notice The Wickedness Of Achan
(Joshua 7:1) But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
committed – Hebrew 4603. ma'al, maw-al'; a prim. root; prop. to cover up; used only fig. to act covertly, i.e. treacherously:--transgress, (commit, do a) tresspass (-ing).
trespass – Hebrew 4604. ma'al, mah'-al; from H4603; treachery, i.e. sin:--falsehood, grievously, sore, transgression, trespass, X very.
In other words, he acted deceitfully as he covertly disobeyed the command of God.
Albert Barnes wrote…
[Committed a trespass] (Perpetrates a wrong), “acted treacherously and committed a breach of faith.” This suitably describes the sin of Achan, who had purloined (stolen) and hidden away that which had been dedicated to God by the ban (Joshua 6:19). The “trespass” was the act of one man, yet is imputed to all Israel, who also share in the penalty of it (Joshua 7:5). This is not to be explained as though all the people participated in the covetousness which led to Achan’s sin (Joshua 7:21). The nation as a nation was in covenant with God, and is treated by Him not merely as a number of individuals living together for their own purposes under common institutions, but as a divinely-constituted organic whole. Hence, the sin of Achan defiled the other members of the community as well as himself; and (this) robbed the people collectively of holiness before God and acceptableness with Him. Israel had in the person of Achan broken the covenant (Joshua 7:11); God therefore would no more drive out the Canaanites before them.
[The accursed thing] Rather “in that which had been devoted or dedicated.” Achan in diverting any of these devoted things to his own purposes, committed the sin of sacrilege (the theft of something set apart to God), that of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:2-3).
C. Notice The Wrath Of Almighty God
(Joshua 7:1) But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
anger – Hebrew 639. 'aph, af; from H599; prop. the nose or nostril; hence the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire (wrath, fury, indignation):--anger (-gry), + before, countenance, face, + forbearing, forehead, + [long-] suffering, nose, nostril, snout, X worthy, wrath.
kindled – Hebrew 2734. charah, khaw-raw'; a prim. root [comp. H2787]; to glow or grow warm; fig. (usually) to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy:--be angry, burn, be displeased, X earnestly, fret self, grieve, be (wax) hot, be incensed, kindle, X very, be wroth.
The Pulpit Commentary says…
In order to understand Achan’s sin, we must bear in mind the absolute nature of the decree that everything belonging to Jericho should be devoted to the Lord - all living beings slain, and destructible materials consumed as a sacrifice to His offended Majesty; all indestructible materials - silver and gold, vessels of iron and brass - consecrated to the service of the sanctuary. The sin was, therefore, something more than an act of disobedience. It was a violation of the Divine covenant. It was sacrilege, a robbery of God, an impious seizure, for base, selfish purposes, of that which belonged to Him. And the secrecy with which the sin was committed was a defiance of the Divine Omniscience. Trifling as the offence may seem on a mere superficial view of it, it thus contained the essential elements of all transgression. The penalty was terrible; but the moral exigencies of the time demanded it. The sovereignty God was asserting so solemnly over the Canaanites could suffer no dishonour among His own people. “Judgment must begin at the house of God.”
II. The History Of This Valley Involved A Situation Of Defeat
(Joshua 7:2–9)
A. There Was A Viewing Of Ai
(Joshua 7:2-3) And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. {3} And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.
Ai – comes from a word that means “a ruin; as if overturned.”
Bethaven – means “house of vanity.”
Bethel – means “house of God.”
They were not initially able to overturn Ai because they were too close to the house of vanity and too far from the house of God.
Warren Wiersbe said…
Like every good commander, Joshua surveyed the situation before he planned his strategy. His mistake wasn’t in sending out the spies but in assuming that the Lord was pleased with His people and would give them victory over Ai. He and his officers were walking by sight and not by faith. Spiritual leaders must constantly seek the Lord’s face and determine what His will is for each new challenge. Had Joshua called a prayer meeting, the Lord would have informed him that there was sin in the camp; and Joshua could have dealt with it. This would have saved the lives of thirty-six soldiers and spared Israel a humiliating defeat.
It’s impossible for us to enter into Joshua’s mind and fully understand his thinking. No doubt the impressive victory at Jericho had given Joshua and his army a great deal of self-confidence; and self-confidence can lead to presumption. Since Ai was a smaller city than Jericho, victory seemed inevitable from the human point of view. But instead of seeking the mind of the Lord, Joshua accepted the counsel of his spies; and this led to defeat. … The spies said nothing about the Lord; their whole report focused on the army and their confidence that Israel would have victory. You don’t hear these men saying, “If the Lord will.” They were sure that the whole army wasn’t needed for the assault, but that wasn’t God’s strategy when He gave the orders for the second attack on Ai (Joshua 8:1). Since God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9), we’d better take time to seek His direction. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, NKJV). What Israel needed was God-confidence, not self-confidence.
B. There Was A Victory By Ai
(Joshua 7:4-5) So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. {5} And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
smote – Hebrew 5221. nakah, naw-kaw'; a prim. root; to strike (lightly or severely, lit. or fig.):-- beat, cast forth, clap, give [wounds], X go forward, X indeed, kill, make [slaughter], murderer, punish, slaughter, slay (-er, -ing), smite (-r, -ing), strike, be stricken, (give) stripes, X surely, wound.