Hosea 2:15

“And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope, and she will make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”

And it would be out of that wilderness into which He had enticed her that He would give to her her vineyards. The point is that they would be a gift of the God of Sinai and would have their source in YHWH and not in Baal. The idea of vineyards out of the wilderness would also be a reminder of the manna and quails that He had once provided in the wilderness. Such an idea may indicate that no other than God could produce vineyards in the wilderness, or that it was only when the wilderness experience had purified them that they would again have fruitful vineyards provided by YHWH in the land. And the fruitfulness of such vineyards would be totally dependent on YHWH. In our case too it is regularly when we have been ‘in the wilderness' that God gives us His choicest fruits, and it was equally true in the early church.

Furthermore He would give her the Valley of Achor (Joshua 7:26) as a door of hope. The Valley of Achor was the place where Achan was punished for keeping for himself that which had been devoted to YHWH when Israel had first entered the land (Joshua 7). The last thing that Israel would have seen it as was a door of hope. There is a suggestion in this that the Israel to whom Hosea was speaking was seen as equally as reprehensible as Achan. But it was in the Valley of Achor that the curse was removed by the death of the victim, and that hope was therefore renewed. YHWH's words here thus indicate that the reversal of YHWH's curse on Israel must follow the pattern followed in that valley. There would need to be deaths and a release from cursing, deaths which did occur in large numbers in Assyria's treatment of Israel. But what had been Israel's shame would eventually, through expiation, become a door of hope. They could thus be sure that one day God's curse on their present behaviour would be removed. It would be as though they had never sinned. That was something which in part did happen through the Exile (consider Isaiah 40:1) but as we learn by comparison between Isaiah 40:3 and Luke 3:3, that was only a precursor to what would happen more fully when the Lamb of God came and would be slain for the sins of the world.

The last thing that Israel would ever have expected was that that dark valley of Achor, which spoke of unforgivable sin and gross disobedience, would become a source of hope. It was an indication to them of how God could transform the darkest situation. And that is what He promised that He would do for them once He had restored them to the land, the land which had become theirs after the incident of the Valley of Achor. For in the very place which was a memorial of gross disobedience (the land of their inheritance) He would restore their obedience, granting a certain hope for the future. And there they would respond to Him, as they had in the days of their youth as a nation when they were in the wilderness, and as they had in that time when they came up out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 14:31; Exodus 24:1). The picture is one of future glorious deliverance by YHWH and great response from Israel as they ‘made answer' to Him.

But that Valley of Achor has a deeper meaning for us. For we too were also under a curse (Galatians 3:10). And it was as a result of our Lord Jesus Christ bearing our curse on the cross (Galatians 3:13) that a door of hope has been opened for us.

And the result of all this is to be that His people ‘will make answer there'. They will respond to Him from their hearts, as they had done at the deliverance from Egypt. Notice the sequence: delivery from the land of Egypt, experience in the wilderness, the door of hope into Canaan. The deliverance from Egypt is thus being looked on as an example and picture of YHWH's future deliverance, and especially therefore of the deliverance wrought through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Himself came out of Egypt to die (Matthew 2:15). Egypt is the picture of oppression, both by men and by Satan, the wilderness is the picture of the place of refinement by YHWH, Achor is the place where the curse was dealt with, Canaan is the picture of both rest on this earth for the Christian (Hebrews 4:9), and of the future glorious rest in Heaven. There is an interesting parallel here with the life of Jesus. He too was oppressed. He too entered into the wilderness, first to face testing as to His vocation, and then in order to win the people to His Father, He too then went to the place where our curse was dealt with, and He too will lead us safely into Heaven (Hebrews 2:10).

Again this all found a kind of fulfilment in inter-Testamental days, when the people were restored to the land as a ‘forgiven' people (e.g. Isaiah 40:1) and demonstrated their renewed faith in YHWH time and again, especially in the days of the Maccabees when they resisted unto death, even though they failed again in the end. It was also true for the New Testament church, who were rejected by the oppressing authorities in Palestine, but found in that a door of hope, enabling them to leave accursed, unbelieving Israel behind and find a new Hope in God's Messiah. They too had found Him in the land. Thus it was doubly fulfilled. But it was more than fulfilled, for from that land would go out the Gospel to the Gentiles to open a door of hope for them (compare Isaiah 2:2), a door which no man could shut (Revelation 3:8), and we benefit from it to this day. We may note again the significance of the fact that it was as a result of being cursed on the cross that our Lord Jesus Christ became the door of hope to salvation (John 10:9) and the way back to the Father (John 14:6).