In this compelling episode, Sharon Knotts explores the deep and transformative message of God’s unwavering love and commitment to His people, even when they have strayed. Through the allegory of marriage presented in Exodus and the dramatic narrative of Hosea, we witness the profound symbolism of God’s covenant with Israel and His relentless pursuit to bring them back into His fold. As we journey through the scriptural narratives, Sharon unravels how these ancient texts resonate with our personal journeys, offering hope and redemption even in our darkest times.
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to our program today. I’m Sharon Knotts, and I’m so happy you’re tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m excited to bring you today’s message, A Door of Hope in the Valley of Trouble, because I know something about the Valley of Trouble and how I thought I’d never come out until God opened the door of hope to me. There are also those who are far away from God and sin has taken its toll on them. They feel trapped and hopeless, but God wants to open to them a door of hope in the valley of trouble.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’ve never been loved. Until the Lord loves you. Amen. You don’t know what love is until you let the Lord become the lover of your soul. Amen. And you know, this morning we’re going to go to a wedding. How many like weddings? All right, turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus, the 19th chapter. And looking at verse 4. God is speaking in the first person, and he’s speaking to the children of Israel. He has brought out of Egypt, but they’re in the wilderness. And in verse 4, he says, you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle’s wings and brought you unto myself. What was all this about? Just not only to bring them out of bondage and affliction, but God said, I brought you out to bring you to myself. Amen. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now these are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and he laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. What we have just read here is a marriage ceremony. Amen? They’re out in the wilderness. God has given the word Moses to deliver unto the people. And he told them, I brought you out of Egypt because I wanted you to become mine. I wanted to make you my own people above all the people on the earth. I’m going to make you a special nation wholly unto me. In fact, you are going to be my peculiar treasure. You know, when a man marries a woman, she becomes his treasure. And she is peculiar to him. Now I know we think that means you’re an oddball or some kind of nut or something. But that’s not what it meant in the Bible at all. It actually meant that the word actually means to possess something as your highly prized possession. Property or possession. Amen. That’s really what the word means. So what God was saying is, I am going to make you a peculiar treasure. In other words, you belong to me and nobody else. And you know, when two people get married, in a sense, a wife belongs to her husband and the husband belongs to his wife. Amen. Amen. How many know that’s true? You know, I’m not going to get into that because it’s a different subject. But really, if you go into the New Testament, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, he even talked about sexually that the wife’s body belongs to the husband and the husband’s body belongs to the wife. Amen? So here what God is saying is, I want to marry you. He told the children of Israel, I want to marry you. I am claiming you as mine. Above all others. And how many know when two people get married, that’s part of the marriage ceremony, that they say, forsaking all others, I will cleave only to you, and here too I do pledge my fidelity unto you. Amen? And so what God was doing is he was writing a marriage ceremony for Israel. And I like what happens. You know, Moses goes and tells the leaders of the nation because they represented the people. Amen. So he went and told them everything that God said. And when he told them all of this, I’m claiming you for myself. You’re a peculiar treasure unto me. I’m going to take you into myself above all other people on the face of the earth. And I want you to serve me and only me. And what did they say? They said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Just like a bride and bridegroom, when they stand up here to get married before the altar, and the minister speaks the words of that ceremony and speaks those words of that pledge, what do they say? I do. I believe it might have come from right here. Amen? And he says, do you? And you say, I do. And do you promise to do this? And do you promise to do that? And do you pledge this? And I do, I do. Amen? You know, I think maybe it would be better if we rewrote those vows. And so instead of you having to answer, I do, that it’s presented to you like this. Will you be faithful? Will you cleave to your husband or wife so that you have to answer, I will? Amen. Because how many know I will is stronger than I do? Do you agree? In fact, I will is the strongest declaration you can make in the English language, is to say I will. And so they said, all that you said, that God told you, we’re in agreement 100%, and all that he has said, we will do. Amen? So now they’re married. God has married them, and he gave them what they call a ketubah. When Jewish people got married, they had this written paper of their covenant, and they signed it, and it’s called a ketubah, and it is the seal of their marriage. And that’s what God gave them on Mount Sinai. He gave them his law. He gave them his Ten Commandments. Amen? And there he married the nation of Israel. But now we’re going to fast forward. We’re going to fast forward several thousands of years, and let’s go to the book of Hosea, and we’re going to find out this marriage is falling apart, and it’s not on God’s side of the covenant. Amen? They didn’t keep their promise like they said they would do. Amen? So now we’re in Hosea, and let’s look at chapter 1, and let’s look at verse 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said to Hosea, Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. Now, by the time that Hosea was prophesying, the nation of Israel had already been split up. We already had the split in the time of Solomon’s son, and we have ten northern tribes and two southern tribes. So whenever you’re in the Old Testament and you read Israel, it’s talking about the northern ten tribes. Whenever you read and it talks about Judah, it’s talking about the two southern tribes. And this happens after the reign of Solomon’s son. And so we have simultaneously two kings ruling at all times in the land of Israel. Always two kings. That’s why when you read sometimes you’re thinking, well, I just read about that king. And now this other king, well, I thought he was the king. Well, now how did he get to be the king? Because it’s talking about two different kings. The ten tribes had their king. And the two tribes had their king. How many understand that? So now we’re in the time of Hosea. And Hosea is sent to prophesy to the ten tribes that’s called Israel. Because they were more wicked than the two tribes. And they went into captivity first. And then the two tribes went into captivity 150 years later. But he was sent… to prophesy to the kings of the tribes of Israel. And so God says, I want you to do something. I want you to go and marry a prostitute. He’s a man of God. He’s a prophet. But let me tell you, you will see in the Old Testament that God often seemingly told his prophets to do bizarre things. Amen. Amen. Things that we might think sound crazy. Why would God tell you to do that? You read Isaiah, read Jeremiah, the things that God told them to do. Why? Because the fact that it seems so bizarre and so crazy would make people say, why did you do that? Why would you go marry a prostitute? Don’t you think somebody would have asked Jose that question? The point is, is they would be able to answer, God told me to, because this is a living illustration for you to see what your condition is and how God sees what you have done to his marriage ceremony that he married you and you’ve turned into a prostitute and a whore. Yes, I’m telling you, you read Jose, it’s quite bizarre. And so God told him to marry a prostitute so he could illustrate the pitiful spiritual condition of his people. He not only told him to marry this prostitute, he specifically said, have children with her. Amen. And so he obeyed. He did exactly what God said. Let’s look at verse three. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived and bear him a son. And the Lord said unto him that the Lord’s even going to name these kids. The Lord said, call his name Jezreel for yet a little while. And I will avenge the house of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. The ten tribes. And it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. Verse 6. And she conceived again and bear a daughter. And God said unto him, now you call her name Leruhamah. For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, that’s the two tribes, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned Larumah, she conceived and bare a son. She’s having these kids one right after the other. And then God said, call his name Loami, for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Uh-oh, we got a divorce. We’ve got a divorce going on here. Amen? So God said, marry this prostitute. God said, have kids with her. And God told them what to name them. Jezreel, you know what that means? God scatters. And God said, I’m going to scatter you. I’m going to scatter the people. Amen? And then they had a little girl, and he said, I want you to name her Leruhamah. And that means not pitied or not compassioned. In other words, it meant… that God was saying, I’m no longer going to have pity on you or compassion on you or mercy on you. You see, the cup was full here. God said, I’ve sent prophets to you, I’ve warned you, I have done everything I can to bring you back to me, but your time is up. They had another child, a boy, and he said… His name is going to be Loami. And boy, this is the one that’s the divorce. It means not my people. God was saying, you have departed from me and you are not my people. How many are on a track with me in the spirit? So after he obeyed the Lord and married this prostitute, had three children with them, guess what Gomer did? She went back to prostitution. She left home and left him with these three kids and went back out there in the world. And here she left a loving home, a godly man. Amen. Beautiful children to go back into the pigsty. The pigsty of prostitution. Amen. Now, if you think that’s amazing, what God told him to do to go marry this woman in the first place and have a family with her, it’s going to get even more amazing. Because God told him, now I want you to go back out there and find her. and bring her home go get her and bring her home now by this time Gomer had gone so far down into sin that she had actually become a slave now before it was bad enough that she was a prostitute but she was her own person I mean, she made money prostituting, but she was a free woman and she did it by choice. But now she’s become a slave. She doesn’t have a choice. Amen. Now she is a slave and her sin is taking her so far down that she ends up on the slave block. You know how they take slaves and they take them to the public square and they would put them up on a block and people wanted to buy slaves would check them out. And then buy the slave that pleased them. Amen? This is where she was. Imagine the embarrassment and the reproach for her to be there. Jose’s got to go down there and buy her. I mean, God asked Jose to do a lot. And we shake our heads and say, I don’t think I could do it. I mean, don’t raise your hand, guys. But how many of you would be willing? if you were Jose, to go and buy her off the slave block. But see, God was showing the unsearchable love and mercy he has. For the sinner and the backslider. No matter how far down in the mire you have fallen, God loves you. Amen. And he was making an illustration by sending him to go purchase her. So everybody would say, what is wrong with you, Jose? I thought you lost your mind in the beginning when you married her to start with. And then you gave her a nice home and children and everything. And now you’re going to go and take her back. What’s wrong with you? You know, sometimes, you know, you marry someone and you marry before the Lord and you know they have a terrible past. And when they were a sinner in the world, I mean, they got a bad past. But when they become born again and washed in the blood of Jesus, all of that is forgiven, forgotten, and under the blood. So you marry them. But then if later they backslide… Amen. After being full of the Holy Spirit and they backslide and they go out there and they get so bound by the devil. Amen. And then they, you know, they want to mistreat you and abuse you and beat you up and everything else. It’s hard. It’s hard to trust them again. It’s hard to forgive and trust again. Amen? But God said, don’t worry, Jose. I want you to do this. Go by your back. Why would God tell him that? Because God knew that in this interim, in this period of time that she was out there, God was dealing with her heart. God was dealing with Gomer’s heart. And God knew when she was ready to come home. Amen. He had stripped her down. When she left home, you know, she packed her best duds and took them with her because she was going to need them out there. And I mean, she took all of her jewelry and all her nice earrings and necklaces and bracelets and rings and all the fine things that she had. Amen. That she was a married woman and had a nice home and she just took it all with her. But God had stripped Gomer down. He began to take away everything she had. Amen. Amen. She didn’t have any of her finery anymore. She didn’t have any of her special trinkets. She didn’t have her nice clothes anymore. All the things that made her feel pretty and beautiful and desirable, God had stripped her down. So that she would wake up one day and come to her senses and say, look at me. Just like the prodigal that Jesus told about in Luke 15. The prodigal son… who had a rich father. He had everything that he could ever want and ever need. Amen. And plus he was going to inherit a lot of money when his father passed. But he demanded, give it to me now. I want it now. And he went out in the world and he lived sumptuously. And he was, boy, was he popular because he picked up the tab every time he went out with his friends. He paid the bill and they loved him. And they were right there. He was a jolly good fella. Amen. till he ran out of money and then he ran out of friends and there was nobody and he ended up being a pig herder and if you’re a Jewish person the last thing you want to get near is the pig Even Gentiles didn’t want to be a pig herder, you know, feed them their stuff and go get them down there in the mud and in the sty. Even Gentiles didn’t want to do that. A Jew wouldn’t have anything to do with it. But there he was. He woke up one day and he was in the pig sty. And Jesus said he came to his senses and he said, look at me in my father’s house. The servants are better off than I am. Look at me. I’ve lost everything. I’ve blown it all. And I’m sitting here with the pigs and I would eat the husk. But I better not because I’ll get in trouble if I do. He couldn’t even eat the pig slop. He would have gotten in trouble for taking the pig’s food. But he said, you know what? I’ll return to my father. I’m going home. And when I get there, I’m going to say, Dad… Don’t even call me son. I’m not worthy to be called son after what I did to you. I’m not worthy to be your son. Just make me a servant and I’ll be happy all the days of my life. But the father said, oh no, bring out the robe. Bring out the good shoes. Bring out the good ring. This is my son. He was lost, but now he’s home and we’re going to celebrate. We’re going to have a party. So just in the same way God was moving in Gomer’s life to strip her down of everything so that she would be ready to go home. Let’s look at chapter 2, verse 7. God said, and she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but she shall not find them. No, they’re long gone. Then, shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband. For then was it better with me than now. She realized everything she had turned her back on. She realized what a good husband and father he had been. Amen? And she said, boy, what a fool I’ve been. Look at me here on the slave block. What I wouldn’t do to go back home. What I wouldn’t give just to go back home again. Amen. God said that she’s going to realize what she’s done and where she is. And she’s going to say to herself, I will get up and I will go back to my husband. But she had a problem. She was a slave. She couldn’t just get up and go back home to her husband. Amen. But you see, God always works on both ends. He had Gomer ready. Amen. Like the song that Shirley used to sing, I’m ready to serve the Lord. I have felt the sting of sin, but now I’m ready to serve the Lord. So God was working on her. You know, people, they backslide. They turn their backs on the Lord and they go back into the world. And when they do, there’s only two things that can happen when a person backslides. First, for a season, they will sow all their wild seeds. And boy, will they have a good time. It’s just wonderful. Everything is just a good time. And the Bible says there is pleasure in sin for a season. And when they first go back, everything’s wonderful. They don’t have the devil trying to stop them from serving God anymore. They don’t have that pressure anymore. Amen. But you know what? You sow your seeds of sin, you’re going to get a harvest. And the seeds of sin will bring a harvest of hell. Amen? And the second thing is, the devil knows now he’s got you on his territory. And after he’s got you good and hooked and bound, then he turns into your tormentor. Amen? So Gomer didn’t realize how blessed she was or how quickly she was going to lose those blessings. Amen? Now remember, this whole thing is because God is giving an illustrated sermon of Israel’s condition spiritually. Let’s look at verse 8. For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. She forgot. Israel forgot that God is the one that blessed Israel. That God is the one that caused that nation to prosper. Because God had married her in the wilderness and he loved her. Amen. And he cherished her. And he blessed her. He said, I will give you houses you didn’t build. And I’ll give you vineyards that you didn’t plant. And I will give you silver and gold. And I’ll bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey. But they forgot where their blessings came from. And that’s what God was saying about Gomer. She didn’t realize that all of the blessings that her husband, Jose, had given to her. And what did she do? She went out there in the world and she gave them to Baal. To the false god of sin and sexual pleasure and drugs and alcohol and all of that. Amen? So God says, well, there’s really only one thing left for me to do now. Because I love her. I want her back. I want Israel back. I want my peculiar treasure back. So the only thing I can do is to take away the blessings. Strip away the blessings. And this is what it goes on to say. I’m going to paraphrase here. Amen. Because God had to bring Gomer and God brought his people to the place like the prodigal where the party was over. Let’s just look at verse 11. I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts. Now God is obviously speaking about Israel. I’m going to destroy her vines and her fig trees. Whereof she said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest and beasts of the field shall eat them. You know, right now the Lord just dropped into my spirit. I’m on a track with Israel. I’m on a track with Gomer. But God just put me on a third track. It sounds like America. Amen? It sounds like America. God is saying, I’m going to take away these blessings because you have left me. And you said, America is great and prosperous. We’re a smart people. We’ve got lots of intelligent people in America. We’ve got inventors and we’ve got people that are now in the technological age and the digital age. And America is a smart nation and we’re prosperous. Look at us. And they don’t give God any credit at all. None. God doesn’t get any credit for America’s prosperity. Amen. God says, well, there’s only one thing I can do then. And that’s begin to strip it away. And that’s what happened to Gomer. Amen. And so she began to have all of her blessings stripped away. Let’s look at verse 14. Therefore, behold. Do you see therefore, behold? Doesn’t that sound a little redundant? Therefore, behold. It’s saying, hey, heads up. What you’re about to read is extremely important. Not that what we’ve read already isn’t important, but this is a headline. So pay attention. I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. 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, as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt. This is so revelatory. So God has got this wayward, backslidden Gomer who has now sunk so deep into sin that she’s on a slave block. God’s got Israel who has now become an idolatrous nation, a wicked and perverse nation. Amen? And God says, I’m going to allure her into the wilderness. And when I get there, I’m going to take the rod and I’m going to beat her good. No. I’m going to really lay her out. I’m going to let her know how angry I am. Doesn’t say that, does it? You know, a lure is a strong word. Amen. God says, I’m going to lure her out into the wilderness. And when I get her there, I’m not going to spank her. I’m not going to whip her. I’m not going to berate her. I’m not going to tell her what a wretch she is. You know, she already knows that. You see, when the backslider has been stripped down, they know that they’re a wretch. When all the fun is over with and all the mirth and the dances and the parties and the good times are not rolling anymore, they know they’re a wretch. They don’t need anybody to come and tell them, you’re a wretch. God didn’t do that to her. He said, I’m going to speak comfortably to her. What? After all she’s done to you, God? After all she’s done to you, Jose, you’re going to speak comfortably to her? And the word comfortable here in Hebrew is lev, L-E-V. And you know what lev means? The heart. The heart. It’s the Hebrew word for heart. In other words, God says when I get her in the wilderness, I’m going to have a heart-to-heart talk with her. I’m going to speak to her from my heart. Amen. Oh, she’s been disobedient. She’s been unfaithful to me and disloyal to me. But when I get her in the wilderness, I’m going to open up my heart and I’m going to talk to her heart-to-heart because I know she’ll listen to me in the wilderness. Amen? In the wilderness she’s going to listen to me. Because she’s not going to have any of her lovers to distract her. She’s not going to have any of her good times and parties to distract her. When I get her in the wilderness there’s not going to be anyone or anything there. She’s going to be all alone. She’s going to realize what a wretch she is. She’s going to realize how far down in sin she is going. And when I get her there and she expects me to jump all over her case, I I’m going to say, I love you and I want you back. Amen. He said in the wilderness, I’m going to speak comfortably to her. Now the Hebrew word for wilderness is mid bar. M I D B A R mid bar. But the root of Midbar is Dabar, D-A-B-A-R. And that’s a very common Hebrew word, and it simply means to speak. Dabar means to speak, to talk. So you see, Midbar is rooted in Dabar, which tells me that God is saying, in the wilderness, I’m going to speak to you. Oftentimes it’s in our wilderness journeys, amen, that we can hear the voice of the Lord. When you’re in the wilderness that God even draws nearer to you, amen? Think about it for a moment. Where did he meet up with Moses to give him his mission to go liberate the children of Israel out of Egypt? Where was Moses when God showed up in the burning bush? He was in the wilderness. Amen. He had been going around those same old trails for 40 years. But one day, he got a visitation from the IM. Amen? In the wilderness, God showed up and spoke to Moses and told him, go and… Tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Think about it as we already alluded. Where was it that God spoke to the children of Israel and said, I want to marry you, I love you, and I’m going to make you mine in the wilderness. Amen? So if you’re in a wilderness experience, child of God, don’t despair. Don’t lament. Listen for the voice of God. Listen to the voice of your lover. Amen? I tell you what, saints, Moses found out that the wilderness can become holy ground. Hallelujah. God said, boy, take off your shoes because the ground you’re standing on is holy ground. And when you get in the wilderness and you feel like you’re in despair, oh, I want you to know you’re on holy ground because the Lord will come and speak to you. And he will speak to you out of his heart. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. I trust you are being blessed by this insightful and uplifting word of the Lord, a door of hope in the valley of trouble. When people turn away from God and leave the safety of his house, they will end up in the valley of trouble, just like Gomer did. She was a prostitute God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry and to have children with, which he obeyed. But after having experienced a brand new life of love and security and blessing gomer went back to the streets of whoredom and this time she ended up on the slave block incredulously god told jose to go and buy her back are you kidding me after all she did to him and their children But God was drawing an unforgettable picture of how much he loves his people, even when they leave him for other lovers. The thing is, while God was working on Jose’s heart to go and find her, he was also working on Gomer’s heart to draw her back. And she said, I will return to my husband for it was better with me then than it is now. Like the prodigal who found himself in the pigsty, Gomer found herself on the slave block. God said that when Gomer returned, he would bless her and give her the Valley of Acre for a door of hope. Now, when we know the significance of the Valley of Acre, which was a place of trouble and cursing in becoming a door of hope, we we will understand how much God loves backsliders and wants to bring them out of their bondage of sin and how much he loves us, his faithful people, and will not forsake us and our valleys of trouble and testing. So if you find yourself in the valley of trouble, look for him to create a door of hope that is his promise to you to bring you out. A Door of Hope in the Valley of Trouble is available on CD for a love gift for at least $10 for our radio ministry. Request offer SK-135. That’s SK-135. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, PO Box 1744. Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or if you prefer, order online at rghardy.org. You can also order on MP3 at rghardy.org. But to order by mail, A Door of Hope in the Valley of Trouble, send your minimum love gift of $10, request SK-135 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Otsey, Maranatha.
