The Valley Of Trouble

Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you brought trouble on us? The LORD will now bring trouble on you.” And all the Israelites stoned Achan and his family and burned their bodies. They piled a great heap of stones over Achan, which remains to this day. That is why the place has been called the Valley of Trouble ever since. So the LORD was no longer angry. Joshua 7:25-26

JUST BEFORE GOD brought the walls of Jericho tumbling down, Joshua commanded the people not to loot the city. But evidently Achan just couldn’t resist. He coveted and gave in to temptation. He brought home a beautiful cloak, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold that he had lifted from the city. Achan mixed these spoils in with his own things and hid it all under his tent. His sin was his secret —or so he thought.

Then came the next battle. And this time, instead of fighting for his people, the Lord seemed to abandon them to their enemies. When Joshua fell before God asking why they faced such a bitter defeat, the Lord told him it was because Israel had taken things from Jericho. Joshua got up early the next morning and brought all the people before him tribe by tribe, then clan by clan, then family by family, and finally man by man. Eventually Achan was the only one left. He confessed, so “Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, tent, and everything he had” (Joshua 7:24) to the valley of Achor, where they stoned Achan and his family. They piled a great heap of stones and called it the Valley of Trouble —a monument to sin, defeat, and death.

But then one day God spoke through his prophet Hosea promising that he would “transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope” (Hosea 2:15). How would he do this? Through Christ. A heap of stones as a monument to sin becomes, in Christ’s power, an empty tomb from which the stone has been rolled away. Families once covered with sin and shame become displays of his grace.

Lord, sometimes as I look at the landscape of our family, I see piles of stones that seem to serve as monuments to hidden habits, ongoing deceptions, and forbidden lusts. Without you, that is all there would ever be. Our family would forever be lost in the Valley of Trouble. Will you, through the power of Christ’s sinless obedience, come down to this valley and transform it into a gateway of hope? Will you infuse us with resurrection life so that each of us can look toward the future with the confidence that our past failures will not define us forever?