VALLEYS

VALLEYS

1 Samuel 17: 1-3; 1 Chronicles 18: 12; Psalm 23: 1-6

It is evident that in a very good land, of which Scripture speaks, mountains and valleys are essential. In fact the two are required, together with springs and rivers, for fruitfulness. I would like to say a word about these three valleys. The valley of Achor is the door of hope, and if we pass through that door, there is a wonderful hope for the present time. There is the hope that the end of the assembly’s history will correspond with the beginning. At the beginning, Christ was everything. “Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own,” Acts 4: 32. Christ was everything to them, and every one of us will come to that if we go through that door of hope, and that is through the valley of trouble. There are wonderful mountains in God’s land. That great mountain, mount Zion, is there. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” Psalm 48: 2. That is in God’s land, and we love to go to it. Then there is the mountain of Lebanon towering up towards heaven, where the cedars, the firs, and other woods grow for God’s temple. The mount of Olives is there, covered with trees that represent spiritual persons. “The holy mount” is there where Christ’s face shone as the sun, where the cloud was, and the voice out of the cloud. All these mountains are in that very good land which the spies searched, but there are also many valleys there. If we are to be fertile, we must have to do with the valleys as well as the mountains. I think we all like the mountains, not that one would discredit them, of course, but fertility is in the valleys. It is remarkable how many valleys are connected with judgment — scenes of judgment. We must come into these valleys if we are to be fertile. The valley of Elah, in the first passage I read, is one of these valleys. What is seen in this valley is a giant of immense stature without a head, his forehead has been pierced by a stone from the brook and his head taken to Jerusalem. We must visit that valley if we are to be fertile. The oaks grow there, it implies a valley of oaks; Elah means “oaks,” and if we grow there we shall be stable. This giant has been overcome and his head removed. The Philistines represent man with his natural instincts operating in the things of God. If we let our minds operate in divine things, then we are Philistines, but if we go through this valley in our own experience, then we shall be stable and shall be preserved from the natural mind, which is enmity against God. The valley of Elah is where fertility and stability are known, and where there is complete judgment of the Philistine mind.

David slung his stone into the giant’s forehead. That is where the trouble lay, not in his heart but in his forehead, and when he drew the giant’s sword he cut off his head and took it to Jerusalem. Goliath lay there as a witness to the judgment of God against the mind of man operating in divine things. The seeds of that are abroad corrupting every part of christendom, it is like a plague spreading. The gain of going down into this valley is to see Goliath with all his stature, implying human greatness, without any evidence of intelligence left — his head gone.

The next passage is the valley of salt. Salt is referred to many times in the Scriptures. This is a valley of salt, and is another place where judgment is exercised, for the Edomites are slain here. It is generally connected with the valley of the Edomites. Edom is Esau. Edom means “red,” he represents the first man, as Esau, ever seeking to be conspicuous according to the flesh. There is not a man, woman, or child on the earth who does not want to be conspicuous. It is natural to the human heart, but if we go to the valley of salt we shall see that the Edomite is overthrown. Salt represents the great preservative element that is found amongst God’s people by accepting the judgment of God. The Lord says, “Remember Lot’s wife,” Luke 17: 32, that is the pillar of salt, remember God’s holy judgment. The preservative is in that pillar. If our hearts are in Sodom, if we give place to that which is of Edom, God is outside of it all. The valley of salt is the judgment of God on the first man. I think I am right in saying, that in every battle in that valley God’s people were victorious. They went down in the sense of God’s judgment against sin and against the features of the first man. God is always with us if we are in that valley. We conquer in the light of the holy judgment of God. That is the great preservative in one’s soul.

In the last passage I read we get “the valley of the shadow of death.” I believe that tends to fertility in the soul. When we go down into that valley, we go down in our souls in the recognition that the shadow of death is on everything there. No one knows how near death is actually, but the shadow is on everything. Death casts its shadow on everything on the earth. It rests on every relationship — husbands, wives, children, homes, businesses. Everything here on the earth is under the shadow of death. The more we go into that valley and explore it, the more fertile we become. Not that you would discredit relationships and the homes of the saints, but they will not remain. Not that you are to be unfaithful in your occupation, but it will not remain; not that you are to be careless with money that you are entrusted with, but it will not remain. We hold everything here in the light of the fact that it will not endure. No one was more fruitful than the apostle Paul. He said, “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen are eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4: 18. He says in effect, I am going through this valley, I have my eye on things which are not seen and that will abide; and he was more fruitful than anyone. Think of his offspring! He says, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel,” 1 Corinthians 4: 15, and of Onesimus he says, “whom I have begotten in my bonds,” Philemon 10. That man was maintained in every valley. He did not steal a Babylonish garment as Achan, nor did he covet any man’s silver or gold. He was maintained in the refusal of human wisdom, and in accord with God’s judgment as to Corinth. He says in effect, I have judged the matter, I have judged this matter as God judges it. Then his mind was ever on the fact that everything, the good as well as the bad, everything on this earth, is under the shadow of death. His eye was not on things which are seen, but on things unseen, which abide for eternity.

I just wanted to stress this. There are many other valleys. The result of going into the valleys is fertility. Balaam saw that when he said, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters,” Numbers 24: 5, 6. I am sure we all want to have part in the fertility at the present moment, in what is fruitful to God in the closing days of the dispensation. We know the valleys and we know the mountains, and many of the valleys relate to the activity of judgment on evil. May the Lord help us to visit these places more often in our souls.