A God of the Valleys
Read 1 Kings 20:22-30
The Syrians, of course, were superstitious people who could not believe in an almighty God, Ruler of heaven and earth. Their gods were limited to hills or valleys, and they thought the God of Israel was as their gods. How wrong they were!
The Christian life is like Canaan of old: it has its hills and its valleys (Deu 11:10-11). Egypt was a flat land, a monotonous land, because Egypt pictures this sinful world, with its boredom and monotony. The Christian life knows its mountain peaks of blessing, to be sure; but where there are mountains, there must also be valleys. And our God is just as much God in the valleys as He is on the mountaintops!
He is certainly God when we go through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Ps 23:4). Have you ever noticed in that Twenty-third Psalm how the pronoun changed from “he” to “thou” in verse 4? In verse 1-3, David is talking about the Lord; but in verse 4 (in the valley), he is talking to the Lord–for He is right there with him!
Psalm 84:6 tells us about the “valley of Baca (weeping).” How many times God’s people are called to go through the valley of tears and heartache, but the Lord is there! In fact, instead of leaving behind a pool of tears, the trusting saint leaves a well of blessing to refresh some other pilgrim. Only the Lord can turn a valley into a mountaintop of blessing!
If God is leading you into a valley, fear not; He knows the way out.
(Copyright, Warren W. Wiersbe. First appeared in Thoughts for Men on the Move. May not be copied or reproduced without express written permission of the author.)
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
