Doors & Gates 20

This post is Day 20 in a series of studies about “Doors & Gates”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).


Doors & Gates – Day 20

Hosea 2:15

There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

The Thought

Can you imagine a door of hope! Think what that door might looks like. It must be solid, and maybe the handle makes you really want to open the door. The handle feels comfortable and moves easily. The door, though heavy because it is strong and trustworthy, swings gently on its hinges. A nice image.

But the book of Hosea is full of not nice pictures! The prophet was told by God to marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to Him! Not something that we expect of our loving Heavenly Father! This marriage was to be a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord who had loved them and brought them through many troubles.

The “Valley of Achor” means the valley of trouble. In this verse God is promising Israel that the troubles they have survived are the doorway to a future hope.

Many of us can look back and see from today’s perspective that past troubles really were a door to good things. But sadly it is hard to think like that when we are struggling with some major problem in our personal lives or the lives of our family.

Hosea suffered much with his wife’s disloyalty. But through it all he received encouraging messages from the Lord. For example the last three verses in this chapter tell us of encouraging promises of restoration for Israel. They finish with ‘I will say “You are my people” and they will say “You are my God”‘. What better promise could they hope for?

Action

Pray today for the Jewish people that they will receive the revelation of the truth of Jesus as the real Son of their God.

Pray for anyone you know who is going through a difficult time at the moment to see those troubles as a door of hope.

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