From the excitement of the battle where Christian learns to rely on the Word of God and walks out of the Valley of Humiliation with his sword drawn, he enters the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He has no choice; it is on the way to the Celestial City – It is a place of depression and solitude.
When he got to the borders of the valley, he met two men coming toward him – children of those men who brought an evil report concerning the good land of Canaan. They were quickly retreating when Christian asked them where they were going.
Men: Back! Back! And we would advise you to do so too, if you have any concern for your life or your peace of mind.
Christian: Why? What is the matter?
Men: Matter! We were going the same way that you are now going, and we went as far as we dared to go and almost went past the point of no return. Had we continued; we would not be here to warn you.
Christian: But what did you encounter that made you so fearful?
Men: Why, we were almost in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but as our good fortune would have it, we looked ahead and saw the danger before we came to it.
Christian: But what have you seen?
Men: Seen! Why, the valley itself, which is black as pitch; yet we also saw hobgoblins, satyrs, and dragons of the pit. We also heard in the valley a continual howling and yelling that sounded like people in unutterable misery who are bound in affliction and irons. Over the valley hangs the discouraging clouds of confusion. Death also spreads his wings over it. In a word, it is dreadful and completely unruly.
Christian: All these terrors aside, nothing that you have said so far convinces me that this is anything but the way to the Celestial City.
Men: Have you own way, but we will not choose it as ours.
They parted ways and Christian proceeded with his sword in his hand, fearing he might yet be assaulted. For the entire length of the valley, there was a very deep ditch on the right side. It is into this ditch that the blind have been leading the blind since the beginning of time, to the destruction of both blind leaders and their followers. On the left side of the valley a most dangerous quagmire, in which not even a good man can find solid footing or bottom if he falls in. This is the bog King David fell into, and no doubt would have been smothered, had not He, who is able, pulled him out.
The pathway was exceedingly narrow and good Christian was tested to his limits. For in the dark, when he tried to avoid the ditch, he was ready to tip over into the mire on the other side. Also, when he sought to escape the mire, unless he was careful, he would almost fall into the ditch. And so, he went on sighing bitterly for besides these dangers he never was sure where his foot would land or what he would step on, or the narrow path was dark.
In the middle of this valley was the mouth of Hell and it stood right next to the path. Abundant flame and smoke spewed from the place, with sparks and hideous noises – things that could not be fought with a sword.
Christian put his sword back in its sheath and took out another weapon, the one called All-prayer, and cried out, “O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul!” He continued in this way for a long time, but still the flames were reaching toward him. Also, he heard tortured, sad voices and the sound of things rushing and scurrying back and forth, and sometimes Christian thought he was going to be torn to pieces or trampled down like mud in the streets.
Christian saw these frightful sights and heard the dreadful noises for several miles of his journey, and, adding to his troubles, he came to a place where he thought he heard a company of fiends coming forward to meet him. He stopped to thing about how best to meet this new enemy. For a brief moment he thought about turning back but then thought that perhaps he was halfway through the valley. He also remembered how he had already vanquished many dangers and that the danger of going back might prove worse than the dangers ahead of him. So, he made up his mind to continue going forward.
The fiends seemed to be coming nearer and nearer, but when they were almost upon him, Christian cried out with a most vehement voice, “I will walk in the strength of the Lord God!” The fiends turned around and went back from where they came.
By this time Christian was so confounded that he did not recognize his own voice. Just when he came near the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones stepped up softly behind him and whispered many grievous blasphemies to him, which Christian truly thought had come from his own mind. It grieved him more than anything that he had met with before to think that he should now blaspheme Him whom he loved, though in truth Christian had not done that. He wished to stop the wicked though but did not have the discretion to simply plug his ears to silence the lies that a wicked one spoke to him or to recognize their source.
After Christian had traveled in this disturbing condition for some time, he thought he heard the voice of a man going before him, saying, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me.”
Then Christian was glad and for good reasons. For one, Christian believed that someone who feared God was in the valley with him. Secondly, he perceived that God was with this person up ahead, even though it was dark and dismal. He reasoned that if God was with this fellow traveler, then He was also with him, even though the evil in this place prevented his perceptions of it. And Thirdly, Christian hoped that he could catch up with the person ahead and have a companion on his journey.
When the sun came up on a new day, Christian rejoiced and said, “He has turned the shadow of death into the morning.” He looked back, not out of any desire to return, but so that he could see by the light of day what hazards he had gone through in the dark. He saw more clearly the ditch on the one side and the quagmire on the other. He also saw how narrow the way was that went between them both. He saw the hobgoblins, satyrs, and dragons of the pit, but all far-off, for after the sun came up, they would not come near. Yet they were revealed to him just as it is written, “He discovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.” Christian was deeply moved by his deliverance from all the dangers of the solitary way that went through the valley, dangers that he feared more before but could only now clearly see.
In the new light of day, Christian realized how treacherous the first part of his journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death had been. But it would not compare to the dangers that lay before him, which he had yet to travel. As he viewed the path ahead, he saw that it was full of pits, pitfalls, deep holes, snares, traps, and false paths that led down to the pit. Christian realized what a mercy it was to have the light of day. “His candle shines upon my head, and by His light I walk through darkness.” It was in this light that he came to the end of this valley.
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:6 Numbers 13 Psalm 44:19 Psalm: 107:10 Job 3:5 Job 10:22 Matthew 15:14 Psalm 69:14-15 Psalm 51 Ephesians 6:18 Psalm 116:4 Psalm 23:4 Job 9:11 Amos 5:8 Job 12:22 Job 29:3 Isaiah 42:16
Thoughts to Consider: In Numbers 13, we know there were twelve spies sent by Moses to explore the promised land. Only Caleb and Joshua gave a good report of the land and urged the Israelites to trust God and He would give them this land. The other ten did not. I never remember their names and the author didn’t give us the names of the two men who met Christian here, either.
As the valley is described, we think, ‘Great!’… ditch on the right, representing error in doctrine and a bog on the left representing the danger of moral failings. (Descriptive words like bog, quagmire, slough… these are not even in my vocabulary! Too much comfortable living or desert living, I guess. I have a tough time bringing to mind an accurate picture, but I can imagine muddy, swampy, quicksand. I can definitely identify with a feeling of getting helplessly stuck.)
The description of this part of the valley coming right after meeting the two men may be the most significant point in a Christian’s journey. We must always be alert and who are we listening to? We must always step carefully, as Christian did, with intentionality, avoiding both the errors and danger that can so easily entangle. Thank God for He is able to deliver and thank God for His loving kindness, His faithfulness, and His forgiveness.
And why must we go through this dismal valley anyway? It is always hard to see the purpose of such a place until it is over, but this place is meant for a Christian’s growth. As God took the Israelites from Egypt through the wilderness to show them who He was, and that they could trust Him. He was shaping them to become a people, a nation of priests, to lead others. He remained faithful to them but he continued to test them – not all passed. 😯 The overarching story of the Bible is getting God’s people into God’s Kingdom – where King Jesus reigns.
What we learn from the Biblical historical narratives is that not everyone wants a king ruling over their life! 😊 Even if this is a good king with a promise of eternal life. If all they can see is the here and now, why would they sacrifice anything in the present for some unseen future? This is still a great argument for people who have heard the Gospel message but have never started this journey as Christian did – burdened, unwilling to die, unprepared for judgment, convinced of the wrath to come and convinced that there is only one Way to escape that wrath.
There are really no words to describe the moment you ‘see’ that you have been in that valley many times – sometimes falling to the right, sometimes to the left, never even noticing the dangers nor caring about the falls. Then, the day your journey really begins with the realization that you are truly a wretched sinner, and you struggle to walk that narrow path and get to peer into the mouth of hell and agonize over the realization of all that it means, you persevere through the darkness and He grants you some blessed light, God’s revelation, where you can look back and not only see what you’ve just come through, but you recall all the times you’ve fallen, and by His grace alone, you were redeemed. All those times, He just picked you back up and restarted you – He’s continuing to shape you for His Kingdom. 💖
This valley can be that place where it feels like Spiritual Schizophrenia or Spiritual Paralysis. It is that time where we struggle with spiritual blindness; where we must decide in whom we trust, when we can’t see. Our ‘natural’ inclinations battles our ‘spiritual’; we are to rely on what we KNOW about God to get us through these times and circumstances when we DON’T KNOW the outcome – these times test and strengthen our faith.
Blindness is such a loaded term in the bible. Without Jesus, the Bible depicts mankind as spiritually blind – those with eyes that do not see. Isaiah 42:16 prophesies how Jesus, our King, will lead us, if we let him. And then there’s John 9 to describe the miracle of Jesus healing the man born blind and the Pharisees who refuse to acknowledge what is clearly in plain view because that would acknowledge who Jesus is and His authority; they just don’t want to do that. That is an act of will – their choice. And if they could, they would try to convince the formerly blind man to deny Jesus as well!
At the end of this chapter is that lovely account of the narrator seeing the blood, bones, ashes, and the mangled bodies of men at the end of the valley. Seeing a cave where two giants, Pope and Pagan, lived in the olden days. It was their power and tyranny that had cruelly put to death the men whose blood, bones ashes, mangled bodies he beheld. There was no danger to Christian as Pagan had been dead for a long while. The other, while still alive, is in his advanced age and can do little more than sit at the mouth of his cave throwing powerless threats at pilgrims as they passed by. “More like you must be burned,” he snarled at Christian. Christian held his peace and passed by the wretched old man without any difficulty.
I think the author intended to tie Pope and Pagan to the ditch on the right and the quagmire on the left. False doctrine or error in doctrine – tied to Pope and the moral failings, often associated with pagan rituals – tied to Pagan.
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.” – C.S. Lewis
(One of my favorites 💖)