Month: February 2019

Valley of Achor – the Door of Hope

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Achor

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her.  Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.  And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.  And it will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that you will call Me ‘my husband’ and will no longer call me ‘my master’.”  Hosea 2:14-16

This is a gem of last days prophecy tucked in the Book of Hosea.  It is a prophecy of hope to the nation of Israel and the sons and daughters of Abraham.  It goes hand in hand with Matthew 24:15-18 and Revelation 12.  It is a promise to the remnant that will survive the Tribulation or 70th Week of Daniel.

Hosea was a contemporary of Isaiah and prophet to Israel.  While Hosea is primarily a book of prophecy to Israel (as opposed to Judah when the kingdom was divided),  I believe that the passage in question is really meant for all of the descendants of Abraham.  I will get to that explanation.

When the antichrist takes his seat in the holy place, as described in Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4, the Jews who believe in Jesus as Messiah at that time are warned to flee Jerusalem into the Judean wilderness. 

The Valley of Achor is that doorway or passage of escape.  If you follow this link, you can see the valley heading east out of Jerusalam.   You can zoom in and get a very good picture of the valley.  It lies in the center of the wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho, just north of the Dead Sea.  

Revelation 12:6 and 12:14 describe the scenario of Matthew 24:15-18.  The ‘woman’ Israel will flee into the wilderness and be ‘nourished’, or taken care of for the last half of the 7 year tribulation.  The woman in Revelation 12 and ‘her’ in Hosea 2 are both Israel. 

The righteous Jews, who are in Israel and Jerusalem at the time of the abomination of desolation, will know about this way of escape (see my post Is Travel and Technology a Last-days Prophecy?), and will be prepared.  When the time comes, dozens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of Jews will pour out of Jerusalem into the Valley of Achor and to a place of hiding in the wilderness where God will supernaturally care for Israel just as He did when Israel came out of Egypt. 

Zechariah 14:5 also describes this exact same scenario.  “And you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.  Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!” 

This passage is saying the same thing as Hosea and Revelation 12.  The Jews will escape through the valley into the wilderness and after 3 1/2 years, the Lord will come with all of the saints and He will set foot on the Mount of Olives to save the elect (Zech 14:4).  See my previous post “Every Eye Will See Him“.  

Not only is the text consistent with the texts in Hosea, Matthew and Revelation, but the strongest evidence suggests that Azel was very near to the Mount of Olives – only 1/2 mile southeast – which is on the east side of Jerusalem.  This would put it directly on the path of the escape route into the Valley of Achor.

It’s obvious that this is a last days prophecy because God says that when it is fulfilled the Jews will call Him ‘my husband’.  Currently, the Father and Israel are divorced.  That is the primary message of the book of Jeremiah.  It is a declaration of divorce (Jeremiah 3:8). 

Israel will remain divorced from God until Jesus returns to earth and establishes the Millennial Kingdom.   The remnant that will be saved will recognize Jesus as the Son of God and the heir to the throne of David forever.  All of the believing Jews who are alive at the time of Christ’s return will be brought to the promised land (Matthew 24:31) and dwell there for the 1000 years and on into the new earth state. 

The passage in Hosea 2 describes the Millennial Kingdom:  1) there will be peace between man and all of nature and it’s creatures and everyone will lie down in safety (2:18); 2) God will be betrothed to Israel forever in righteousness and faithfulness (2:19-20); 3) there will be no lack of anything good (2:21-22). 

At the time of the Book of Hosea, Israel and Judah were divided kingdoms.  But Jerusalem was the capital of Judah, while Samaria was the capital of Israel – the northern kingdom. 

The Valley of Achor is the escape route from Jerusalem not Samaria.  So, this prophecy is directed to a time where there will be one nation of Israel.  That time is now.  It is for this reason I said that the passage was a prophecy to all the sons and daughters of Abraham.

A Curse Turned into a Blessing

The Valley of Achor is the location where Joshua had Achan and his family stoned for taking forbidden booty from Jericho (Joshua 7).  Achan’s sin caused a curse on Israel and a defeat at the hands of the city of Ai after the victory at Jericho and Joshua named the valley Achor that day. 

Achor means trouble in Hebrew.  What was once a valley of trouble for Israel will become a door of hope during ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ or the Great Tribulation. 

God has prepared all of the instructions ahead of time for the believing Jews in the Tribulation.  Amazingly, Satan is also aware of these instructions but he will not be able to do anything about it.

The Great Falling Away of the Church

departure

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” 2 Thessalonians. 2:3

There is no world-wide ‘falling away from the faith’ by the church in the Bible.

The ‘it’ in the verse above is the Day of the Lord.  That is what Paul says in the preceding verse.  The Day of the Lord will not come unless the ‘apostasy’ comes first.  The Thessalonians thought they were in the ‘Day of the Lord’, or the judgment of the world, i.e. tribulation. 

Most Christians understand this passage to say that the apostasy is the Body of Christ, or the ‘Church universal’  in general, falling away from the faith.  It is understood to mean that there will be a mass rejection of Jesus before the tribulation period begins, otherwise known as the 70th Week of Daniel. 

The Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, as Paul said in 1 Thess. 5:2, which indicates the rapture will take place before the tribulation.  Therefore, in this scenario, the ‘falling away’ of the Church will take place before the rapture.

If you hold to this view, then the ‘falling away’ would be a sign that would precede the rapture.  It must be if you read it that way. 

If the apostasy is the Church ‘falling away’ from the faith, then Paul is saying essentially that they will know when the Tribulation is about to start because of the worldwide rejection of Christ by the Body of Christ.  This is problematic because the rapture, by definition, has no signs precede it.  It is a hidden, secret event, which only the Father knows the timing. 

In this scenario, not only will the Thessalonians (and therefore all believers) be witness to the Church falling away, but they will also witness the ‘man of lawlessness’ being revealed. 

Paul links these 2 things together in the verse in question. 

To put it another way, Paul is saying that they would know that they were in the tribulation if the ‘apostasia’ had happened AND the antichrist was revealed. 

The latter obviously had not happened. 

They knew that the tribulation begins with the antichrist making the covenant with Israel (Dan 9:27).  This confirms that the ‘Day of the Lord’ is analogous with the 70th Week of Daniel.

Also problematic is that the definition of the word ‘apostasy’ (Greek – apostasia) does not mean falling away from the faith.  It simply means to depart from, separate from, move away from or leave.  It is a verb with no object noun.  In other words, faith, or belief in Jesus, is inappropriately inserted into the passage as an object to quantify or explain the ‘falling away’. 

Apostasia is a derivative of the word ‘aphestemi’, which means to flee from, desert or go away.   Faith was nowhere to be found in the passage.  It is assumed.  Without the word ‘faith’ the passage is simply saying that the departure must come first.

It’s significant to note also that many of the early bibles used ‘departing’ in the passage for the translation of apostasia.

Vulgate (405) – discessio (Latin): withdrawal, dispersion

Tyndale Bible (1525) – departing

Coverdale Bible (1535) – departing

Geneva Bible (1587) – departing

Finally, notwithstanding the definition of the word apostasia, ‘departing’ or rapture makes perfect sense in the context.  ‘Falling away from the faith’ is in-congruent.  It does not make sense.  Contextually it is a piece of coal in a basket of apples. 

The ‘falling away from the faith’ translation comes out of nowhere and there is no other passage in Scripture that indicates there will be a mass rejection of the faith by the Church.  Some point to Matt. 24:12, but you must really strain reason to get that out of the verse.  Also, Matthew 24 is prophesying about conditions that will exist DURING the tribulation for the Jews.

Paul was attempting to calm the believers in Thessalonica.  They were panicked that they were in the midst of the Day of the Lord, or tribulation.  This is the context. 

Paul starts the segment in vs. 2:1 by setting the context – “with regard to the coming of our lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him,”.  This is the concern of the Church.  They thought they had missed the DEPARTURE!  Paul is saying in vs. 3 that the Day of the Lord (tribulation) will not come unless the DEPARTURE comes first!

There is no great falling away by the Body of Christ that is prophesied in the Bible.