THE DOOR OF HOPE
THE DOOR OF HOPE
One of the great features of the present work of God is the restoration of His people to what characterised the beginning. He never forgets what existed at the beginning. He says, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown” (Jeremiah 2: 2). God says “I remember”. He remembers us in order to restore us. This is what emerged during the last century. The Lord has never forgotten what happened at Pentecost, at the beginning of the book of the Acts, in the first days of the assembly’s history. He remembers the holy love which marked the assembly at that time. He remembers it over thousands of years and He is working to restore us to it in character. It has to be accepted that there is only a little power, as the Lord says to Philadelphia; there is outward weakness, as I am sure we all admit, but the Lord says, “thou... hast not denied my name” (Revelation 3: 8). It is clearly not His name as Redeemer, nor as Saviour, nor even as Lord but as Husband — “My Husband”. The marriage bond is in the Lord’s thoughts at the end of the present dispensation. The Lord can say, ‘There are some who do not deny my name.’ The Lord remembers better days in Beauvoisin. They are not known to me but the Lord has known them, days when the saints bore a greater testimony to Him out of affection and He is working to bring us back to this if we have moved away. He remembers our best days and He desires that each heart should remember them. Is my best day in the past? If we examine our lives, do we have to recognise that our best day belongs to the more or less distant past? If it is thus, the Lord remembers it in order to bring us back.
“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2: 14) and this is why we are here this afternoon. The Lord wishes to speak to our heart and in order to accomplish this, it is sometimes necessary to address our conscience, as he spoke to the conscience of the Samaritan woman — “Go, call thy husband,” (John 4: 16). This word was addressed to her conscience but the Lord wanted to have her heart. Later, she says to the men of the city,
“Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done” (verse 29). This One is great enough to fill her heart, to be her husband, to be the husband of every heart.
My desire is that the Lord might show to everyone where the door of hope is. It may be that some brother or sister thinks that the position is hopeless. The Lord says, ‘Here is a door of hope. If you wish to pass through this door, you will again have days of happiness — “And I will give her her vineyards from thence” (verse 15). What is for the pleasure of the heart of God will grow again, for the joy of the Lord’s heart and for men’s. The vine says, “Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave over the trees?” (Judges 9: 13). It is as if God were saying, ‘If you wish to pass through this door of hope, there will be vineyards and I shall make a covenant with the beasts of the fields and with the fowl of the heavens and with the creeping things of the ground.’ It is the Lord himself who will make a covenant with the beasts, with the lions, the wolves, the bears and the leopards so that they do not come near you. He will make a covenant with the fowl of the heavens, with the eagles, the ravens, the unclean birds, with all the spiritual influences which destroy men in this world, so that they do not touch you. He will make a covenant with the creeping things, with the blight and mildew, with the locusts, the caterpillars, the worms and with the insects that destroy everything, in spite of their smallness. When the locusts pass through, they do not leave a single green leaf, not a blade of grass. All these things are very serious. God says, ‘I shall make a covenant with them for you, so that they will not come near you.’ “And I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land” (verse 18). There will be no more warfare, no enemies, no blight, no drought but plenty of rain. How valuable to have rain! What would the earth be without rain? What would a meeting be without rain? Do we have rain in Beauvoisin? When we read the Scriptures, dear brethren, do we have rain? What would the earth be without rain? We could have the best of land but, if it is not watered by the rain, it is a desert.
What then is this door of hope? It is the valley of Achor. Achor means trouble. We know that no one likes trouble in a place. We would rather be at ease — Laodicea says, “I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3: 17) and the Lord is outside the door. If there is no exercise, He will not enter, He will enter only if there is willingness to be awakened and stirred from ease. In the Song of Songs, the beloved has gone to rest; she did not wish to be disturbed and distance has come in. May it not be so in this meeting! He cannot enter if there is no exercise. That is the door of hope, the only door. It is important to go down into the valley of Achor; one goes there with great exercise of soul, but that is ultimately where there is the door of hope, to know the love of Christ and to say to Him, ‘My husband’.
“For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name” (Hosea 2: 17). There are Christians who have many Baals, many masters but the Lord is not one of these. He is ‘The Lord’, ‘My husband‘ . He will never be one of the Lords. The church should say to Him, ‘My husband’. Local assemblies should say to Him, ‘My husband’. Each individual heart should say to Him, ‘My husband’. The Lord brings us to this blessed position by making us pass through the door of hope which is the valley of Achor. Are we ready to go into this valley and face up to deep trouble or do we prefer to continue without the Lord’s support? Laodicea is disposed to continue without Him but she does not have the Lord and the Lord does not have her. If we do not have the Lord, what do we have? Nothing. “...and knowest not that thou art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3: 17). If we do not have Christ, we have nothing. Unless He is our husband, possesses our hearts and is supreme in them, all that occupies us means nothing to Him. If he does not have this place, He has nothing and we also have nothing. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,” far from the area of the thoughts of man, “and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2: 14). He is going to do for her what He did at the beginning, when she left Egypt. He wants to produce in her the features which marked her at that time. That is why He presents the valley of Achor to her as a door of hope.
Dear brethren, there is no way other than to go down into this valley. It is dreadful because it raises serious questions for each one of us. God says, ‘Israel has sinned; I can no longer be with him.’ “Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them, and they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it among their stuff.” (Joshua 7: 11). In such conditions, they will not be able to face the enemies. They were on their way to take Ai, a small town, smaller than Jericho, but they had to flee before the men of Ai. There is no longer the ability to face a small matter. They thought that Ai could be taken by around three thousand men but they were beaten. The three thousand fled and thirty-six of them were struck down. Joshua rends his clothes and falls on his face. “Alas Lord Jehovah, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh that we had been content and had remained beyond the Jordan! Ah Lord! what shall I say after Israel have turned their backs before their enemies?” (Joshua 7: 7, 8). Jehovah said to Him, “Rise up... Israel hath sinned” (verse 10). ‘He has stolen, he has lied! I can no longer be with Israel’. Who is responsible? Who? It is a question which must be answered by each heart. The Lord spoke in the same way at the meal before introducing the supper — “Verily I say to you, One of you shall deliver me up; he who is eating with me.” (Mark 14: 18). John asks, “Is it I?” He does not say, ‘It is impossible for me to deliver you up.’ He says, ‘Lord look into my heart and see if it is I.’ What an exercise this was for John. Peter also says, ‘Is it I?’ The most prominent brother in the meeting, the one who gives a lead, asks, ‘Is it I?’ He examines what is in his own heart. He probes himself — ‘Am I unbelieving? Am I about to betray the Master? Is there a lie in my heart?’ Each one of the twelve asks himself questions of this kind.
In this seventh chapter of Joshua, each tribe has to come forward. Think of the fear and trembling which must have filled the heart of the tribe of Reuben. Think of the testing of the tribe of Levi. Think of the anguish of the tribe of Joseph, of the tribe of Benjamin. “And the tribe of Judah was taken” (verse 16). It was the greatest and most responsible tribe. Everyone is gripped with fear, every one who is a member of the tribe of Judah. All the families are called, one after the other. Every family looks into its own heart. Every family is aware of the Lord’s gaze; the seven eyes penetrate their heart. Then every household which was taken is asked to examine itself. Then each man comes forward, one by one. The test is no longer for one tribe, nor for one family, nor even for one house, but for each individual man. It is a very serious matter.
Every man, every brother, every sister is called to appear before the Lord so that He may examine what is in his heart. Have I transgressed His commandments? Have I stolen? Have I lied? Is there sin on my hands?
Finally, Achan is taken. The lot falls on Achan. God has seen right to the source of all the evil. The Lord always works in this way. We often concern ourselves with much detail, but the Lord’s desire is that we should go directly to the source. It is the way in which God acted in the garden of Eden — He found the source of all the trouble in the serpent, which is the origin of lies. Adam and Eve had stolen what belonged to God. Behind the sin there is a lie and Satan is its father (John 8: 44). It was also in this way that God acted in the wilderness, when the brazen serpent was lifted up — God wished to show to the people where the source of all the evil was to be found. The same applies to local difficulties. There will be no adjustment locally if we do not go to the source and lying is the source. Achan had stolen, under the eye of God. Joshua exposes it.
What had he stolen? A garment of Shinar. He had seen a splendid garment from Babylon and he had stolen it. He acknowledges it. He was going to be stoned but he told the truth. Even if one has to be stoned, the truth must be told. There must be no lying. He says, ‘I coveted it and I hid it in my tent, in the ground’. He thought that it was so well hidden that no one could see it. What is this splendid garment? It is clerical clothing. It may be said, ‘But that is not what I coveted’. Ah! God sees what is in your hearts, dear brethren. Would you wear a Babylonish garment? Aren’t there difficulties when a brother seeks the first place, when he wishes to run the meeting himself? He does not declare it, but it is in his heart, although no one knows it.
That garment was not worn by Paul; he had no garment of Shinar. He said, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4: 5). We are not masters, we are not lords, but your bondmen. Is this how it is with the brothers and sisters here? “Your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”, ready to wash the saints’ feet, ready to serve the interests of the assembly.
Phoebe did not wear a garment of Shinar. Paul says, “But I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is minister of the assembly which is in Cenchrea” (Romans 16: 1). Phoebe is so needed in local assemblies, “...for she also has been a helper of many, and of myself.” (verse 2) You will not find a garment of Shinar in Phoebe’s tent. You can search; nothing of this kind is hidden in the ground. Do we possess a thing of this kind, dear brethren? The seven eyes of the Lord scrutinise our circumstances to see if there is one.
Achan says, “I saw among the spoils a beautiful garment of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a golden bar of fifty shekels weight, and I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it” (verse 21). Silver represents the Lordship of Jesus; He is Lord and He must be the only Lord. Elders must not be lords in the assembly. They have to carry concern for the sheep and care for them. “The elders which are among you I exhort,” Peter says, “who am their fellow elder... shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising oversight, not by necessity, but willingly; not for base gain, but readily — not as lording it over your possessions, but being models for the flock” (1 Peter 5:1-3). We must not take the place which belongs to the Lord. Achan says, ‘I saw gold and I coveted it’. It is subtle. To have a little glory...! But Beauvoisin’s glory is for God, for Christ. It is He who will have the glory and not we. It is not for the most important brother nor for the least; it is not for the most advanced sister, nor for the youngest.
God says, ‘Someone has usurped the glory that belongs to me; I can no longer be with Israel. The enemy will enter the land; the beasts of the field will enter it, lions, wolves, bears, leopards. The birds of the heavens, eagles and ravens, will invade and so will serpents. There will be famine, pestilence, blight, mildew, caterpillars and locusts. I can no longer be with the people unless they judge themselves. That is the door of hope for the people. If you need me, you must face up to the situation. If you wish to have me with you, this matter must be settled. Along with Achan, you must go down to the bottom of this valley with all the people, with every man, woman and child. This man must be stoned; the guilty one has to be stoned’. It is not sufficient to have half of Israel, or a part, or two or three brothers. “All Israel” must stone Achan. “And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones, which is there to this day” (Joshua 7: 25, 26). There must be a heap of stones to bear witness to what has been done. The heap of stones is the testimony to the judgment which has been executed.
When taking Achan for execution, Joshua took everything which belonged to him, the silver, the mantle and the bar of gold. He also took “his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had” (Joshua 7: 24). Someone may say, ‘But that was unrighteous.’ It was righteous, because they had taken part in it. His sons and his daughters were in the tent; they took part in it, just as Sapphira was linked to Ananias. Peter does not wait for Sapphira to speak, he says, “Tell me if ye gave the estate for so much? And she said, Yes, for so much. And Peter said to her, Why is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5: 8, 9). His wife had colluded with him in the lie, as is the case with many wives in relation to their husbands. Sisters are not exempt from trouble. If there is trouble,
sisters have their part. Peter has no pity on Sapphira. God operated Himself as to Ananias but Peter intervenes in respect of Sapphira and says to her, “Lo the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out” (Acts 5: 9). She fell dead at Peter’s feet. So everything that belonged to Achan was stoned with him and was burned with him, first of all “the silver, and the mantle, and the bar of gold”, then “his sons, and his daughters”, then “his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep” (verse 24). All his resources had been falsely used but note that, before the execution of the judgment, Achan acknowledges everything — “I coveted them and took them; and behold they are hid...” (verse 21).
In Hosea, we learn that this valley of Achor is a door of hope. It is the door divinely placed before the people. When the Baals have come in, when hearts no longer belong to the Lord, when no one any longer says, ‘My husband’, then the vines disappear, the lions enter the country, along with the wolves, the grasshoppers and the worms. This is the door of hope — judge the causes of the trouble at the root and condemn mercilessly those who are responsible. But how? Each one must say, ‘Is it I?’ It is not by saying, “God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men” (Luke 18: 11) that matters are resolved, but in self-judgment, in the state of mind of the sinner who said, “Oh God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18: 13). The only way to deal with evil, wherever it may be found, is for each, in the first place, to say for himself, ‘Lord, is it I? Does the lot fall on my tribe, on my family, on my house, finally on me?’ This is how the matter is dealt with in this deep valley of self-judgment, where the door of hope is. There is no other door. We may try to sort things out or to mend them but that will collapse at one point or another.
Dear brethren, be assured that we cannot make a covenant with the lions, the wolves or the leopards. Do you think that they would want to listen to us? No. When the wolf comes, it is to devour the sheep. When the eagle comes, it is to fall on its prey. When millions of grasshoppers strike a country, it is to eat every green thing. But the Lord says, ‘I will make a covenant with them, if you pass through this door of hope.’ If not, he leaves us to the lions, the wolves, the leopards, the eagles, the grasshoppers and the worms. The vines are ravaged and there is no more rain. May it not be so in this gathering. On the contrary, may there be many vines, producing wine which rejoices the heart of God and men, uplifting the heart and bringing joy in such a way that, on hearing reference to Beauvoisin, the brethren are all filled with joy!
So if we accept this door of hope, we shall see better days again as the assembly returns to better days, the days of its beginnings in exclusive love for Christ. We need to be exercised about this. It is evident that the Lord desires to bring the assembly back to its condition at the beginning. It is well worth it, dear brethren, to go down into the valley of Achor with all these exercises, in order to have this expression of the heart on our lips, in the last days of the assembly — “My husband”.
May it be so! Amen.