Valleys are places of late morning sunshine and early shadow. What a number of meta­phorical expressions the valley gives us – a vale of tears, a valley of depression, a val­ley of failure, a valley of difficulty. In recent reading I came across the phrase ‘valley of despair.’ The valley is a low place in our life. The valley speaks of sorrow. The valley is the place of mourning. In Psalm 23, the deepest depth of our lives is the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Dan Hayden, (in Name Above All Names), contrasts the Lord with the ‘spirit guides’ of the so-called New Age movement, rightly seeing the latter as de­monic manifestations. He says of the Lord, “He is the only Spirit Guide through the val­ley of death into the wonderful eternal world where those who know Him will live with God forever.” This could make a wonderful study for the Valley Gate. However it is not the one I shall draw upon here, although it is so closely allied.

A Different Approach⤒🔗

Harry Ironside in his commentary on Nehemiah writes of yet another valley. He uses the Valley Gate as an application of humil­ity. This fits well into the theme and train of thought being pursued in these articles. For in the Christian life it is not possible to enter the Sheep Gate, nor to join the service of the Fish Gate, nor to be made new creatures in Christ Jesus, until we have been willing to enter the Valley Gate of Humility.

The Valleys of Jerusalem←⤒🔗

Around and across Jerusalem are three val­leys: the Tyropoeon Valley which bisects the city from its centre to the south-east corner; the Kidron Valley separating the eastern side from hills of the Mount of Olives region; and the Hinnom Valley, now thought by most scholars to be the valley curling round the south-west side of Jerusalem. Each of the three terminates near Siloam. The Valley Gate, it is fairly certain, led to the Valley of Hinnom. The walls, joined on one side to the Old Gate, were connected on the other to the Dung Gate.

In Jeremiah’s time the Hinnom Valley was associated with the worship of Molech and other gods, with a shrine that was destroyed by King Josiah. Later the valley was the place for burning refuse and corpses of criminals and animals, until its name became used as a symbol of hell (ge = valley, Hinnom, as e.g. Josh. 15:8, Neh. 11:3, hence ‘Gehenna’.) With the use to which this valley was put, it is quite appropriate to think of this gate as ‘humility.’

The Workers←⤒🔗

Only one verse (Neh. 3:13) is given to this gate. We know little of the workers – Hanun and the residents of Zanoah. Nothing more is told. Theirs was not the most pleasant part of the building task. Yet how important this section was. (It brings to my mind grati­tude for all the nurses and caregivers who undertake unpleasant tasks for our benefit.) The workers rebuilt the gate, doors bolts and bars, and 500 yards (c. 450 metres) of the wall as far as the Dung Gate.

A Gate to Avoid←⤒🔗

The Valley Gate would, I imagine, be one that inhabitants would like to steer clear of. It was placed in the wall at the top of a slope leading downwards, and the activities below were humiliating. But what does it mean? The Valley Gate that man’s pride tries to avoid is the humility of the confession of sin. It takes humility for us to acknowledge our sin and our need of a Saviour. But we all must pass this way, to find the Lord.

Visualise the low-lying valley, a place of morning and evening shadow. The lower the depth, the longer the shadow. Looking up at the peak of the day, we see the brilliant sunlight and long to bask in the warmth. Pride stops us. Satan tries to persuade us not to go through this gate. “Me? I’m no worse than the man next door. I may even be better. Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as this other...”

In the Lord’s parable, the prodigal son was in one of the lowest valleys of all. There he was content to stay until circumstances brought him to his senses. When that hap­pened he said, “I will arise and ago to my father and say to him, ‘Father I have sinned against you and am no more worthy to be called your son...’” It must have taken some years for him to reach this position. Perhaps he had realised for a long time what a fool he was, but pride made him struggle on as long as he possibly could.

In Hans Voschezang’s moving account of Andrew, in the March Faith in Focus, one word struck me forcibly. Did you notice the word ‘low?’ Most of us in our actions do not sink that low; but in God’s sight, are we any better? James 2:10 says that he who offends in one point is guilty of the whole. For our hearts, as natural men, are in rebel­lion against God. “There but for the grace of God” is a cliché with a great deal of truth in it. Pride must not blind our eyes to that. Pride holds many back from climbing the hill to reach the Valley Gate; the gate, we may say, of confession.

Yet this Valley Gate that leads to a down­ ward slope, the path of humility, also leads upward from the valley into a city of joy. Sorrow and the prayer of confession, are “overwhelmed in one eternity of joy.” Amy Carmichael wrote, “Sometimes we forget (when a dark wood blocks our path) to look up to the light that pours into the wood from on high far above the trees, making it far more radiant than it is dark.” Using and slightly changing her words, we could say, “Sometimes we forget, when in the dark valley (of sin) to look up to the light from on high, far more radiant than it is dark.”

This is the real blessing of the Valley Gate. For the gate of humility brings light and peace: as the burden of sin is taken from us, as the forgiveness of God overwhelms us, as we are led by the Spirit to find, in our Saviour, peace and inexpressible joy. A blessed gate indeed.

The Valley Gate of the Lord←⤒🔗

The Lord went through the gate of humility. Sinless Himself, the gate He entered had no need for confession of sin. Yet He willingly submitted, in a far deeper way than we will ever comprehend, to the humble experience of becoming man. This was, for Him, lowering Himself into a valley of tears and shame and death. Tricia McCary Rhodes, in a delightful book of meditations, At the Name of Jesus, elaborates on another author’s picture of His descending into the valley, down an imagi­nary winding staircase from his throne. She traces His descent through event after event in the Bible, from His birth to the lowest possible point – the humiliating, excruciating death on a criminal cross – and the worst of all, His separation from the Father as He took upon Himself the sins of the world.

He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.Philippians 2:7, 8

As the ancient Te Deum puts it, “When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb. When Thou didst overcame the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.”

Indeed, the Lord was in the Valley of the Shadow of Death for 33 years, beginning even before His birth. A South African carol, using the Southern Cross as a symbol, and picturing the stars metaphorically as candles, says:

For lo, in the heavens up there I can see,
A Cross – it is shining, it’s shining on Thee,
Go sleep little Jesus, the wind’s rid­ing by,
To set all the candles alight in the sky.

For Him, the Valley Gate was etched with a cross. His whole life was spent in the Val­ley – from manger to tomb. He submitted to human parents. He was, I believe, aware of the Valley all His earthly life. “Don’t you know that I must be about my Father’s busi­ness?” he asked at the age of twelve. This was at the time of His earthly introduction to the Temple system of sacrifice. He had surely, long before this, pondered the stories of the Old Testament, especially the symbolic teaching of the Temple worship, preparing for this day. His developing consciousness from early childhood was a “divine progressive” understanding, a phrase borrowed from Graham Scroggie’s writings. Now He sat at the feet of the highest intellects of the race, learning and asking questions, amazing them with his wisdom and understanding. We read it, accepting it glibly without really appreciating the depth of humility that took Him into this Valley; nor understanding how even then, he saw quite clearly what lay ahead. He knew that he must be about His Father’s business, not His own glorification or pleasure.

“Therefore God Highly exalted Him...”←⤒🔗

May we too, as we ponder this incredible fact, willingly bow before Him now, and confess with our tongues Jesus Christ, for:

therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.