Hosea 2:15

The wilderness is certainly a strange place to find vineyards! Can it be true that the riches of life that we need can be found in the wilderness—a place that symbolizes loneliness, and through which we can seldom find our way?

Not only is this true but verse 15 goes on to say, “I . . . will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth.” “Achor” means “troubled,” yet the Valley of Achor is called “a door of hope.”

It is a profound statement that “through the waters,” the very place where we might have expected nothing but trembling, terror, anguish, and dismay, the children of Israel stopped to “rejoice in him”!

How many of us can relate to this experience? Who of us, right in the midst of our time of distress and sadness, have been able to triumph and rejoice, as the Israelites did?