Have you ever felt like you were passing through the dark valley
of the uncertainty or fear or despair and even hopelessness? If you have never
felt those times then I really would love to know what your secret is.
However God is impressing on me more and more that when I
enter those times in my life I am faced with a choice. I can shut my eyes tight
and hope the end is near or I can take a breath, look with intent ahead and not
just make it to the other side but see this valley changed into a green field.
You may be wondering what I am on about, well I believe that as a Christian I
am not only meant to survive those dark valleys but I have an opportunity to
see them transformed into light and spacious places in my life.
In Ezekiel 37 (a very well-known
portion of scripture) Ezekiel is taken by God in a vision and placed in a
valley, Ezekiel could see that the valley was full of dry bones – does not
sound like a nice place to “hang out”. God asks Ezekiel if those dry bones can
live and Ezekiel gives an answer that is so often our response – “Only God
knows”. That is not a wrong answer but it can often be an apathetic one.
God is not satisfied with
that answer and tells Ezekiel to Prophesy to or Speak to those dry bones. God
never wants us to become static in these valleys but to press through and even
be active in seeing it transformed. In Psalm 23 David refers to such a valley,
he says in verse 4 “Even though I walk through the darkest valley” – note that
in those valleys we are meant to be moving forward and not staying still. David
would have seen such a valley when he arrived at the Israelite Army’s camp to
deliver some supplies to his brothers and the commander of their unit. There he
found the soldiers “dismayed and terrified”
because of that giant that was taunting them, what was of interest to me when
working through this was that the Israel Army was camping at a valley - “Valley
of Elah”. To that army it must have felt like a Valley of Death as they
would see and hear the enemy giant mock them, how on earth were they going to
overcome that!!!
I did a bit of research on the Valley of
Elah and found another very interesting fact – according to Wikipedia the
valley so called after the large and shady terebinth trees (Pistacia atlantica)
which are indigenous to its parts.
And also that
In the late 19th century, Conder and Kitchener described
the Elah valley as being "one of the most fertile districts in Palestine.
It is an open flat vale about half a mile across, and covered with corn; a
narrow trench runs down the centre full of white pebbles worn by the water in
winter. Here and there large terebinths grow along its course (Butmet Wâdy es
Sûr), and solitary oak trees (Ballûtet Kŭssis). On either side rise the stony
hills covered with brushwood and wild growth.
So that sounds like a “not too bad a place” – a fertile
place with large shady trees.
To conclude, what God has been impressing on me more and
more is that we are not only meant to keep going forward through those dark
valleys but that He is inviting us to see the darkness, fear and hopelessness
transformed into a fertile place. That He is encouraging us to Prophesy or
Speak to those places and see life take over, that those Valleys in our lives
would be transformed to the green pastures and still waters that David refers
to in that same Psalm 23.
Maybe, just maybe we can take God at His word. That those
great biblical hero’s like Ezekiel and David could actually be you and me in
this day.
