THE KIDRON VALLEY “The journey is too great for you.” I felt my heart grab. What do you mean, Lord? Why are we embarking on a journey I cannot survive? I read it again. “’Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.’ So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.” Two days earlier on February 19, 1996, the Lord had floored me. He had advised me I had not been ministering life. Have you ever noticed how people can weep in an altar, yet go home unchanged? That is exactly what I had been seeing whenever I preached. It caused me to seek answers from the Lord about this for well over a year. Now, on this particular day, God caused me to see that I was the one who needed to change. The Word of God was not coming forth from me with enough power to birth life in those I taught. No wonder they went home undelivered. In that moment of revelation, Father told me He was taking me on a long journey after which I would minister in power and life. Now, I sat reading I King 19:7; and heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me, “the journey is too great for you.” Yet, as I continued to re-read this passage of Scripture, I came to realize how much the Lord wanted me to become totally dependent on Him – not on myself. No, I would not survive this long journey on which we were about to embark, unless He sustained me with His Word and Himself. I now realize, these 29 years later, the Holy Spirit and I were simply gassing up the car that evening. You see, life only comes via death. What a strange thought, but it is God’s Truth. The Lord was about to take me through the Valley of Kidron. Have you ever noticed this location in the Bible? I had not until the Lord impressed it upon me for study that evening. Please allow me to share what I learned. In Jeremiah 26:23, King Jehoiakim slays Uriah “with a sword, and cast his dead body into the burial place of the common people.” Again, in Jeremiah 31:38-40 the prophet is foretelling of the days “when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord.” He says of Kidron, “And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, or overthrown anymore forever.” In these two passages of Scripture, we see the use for the valley of Kidron is for dead bodies and ashes. It is very probable this was where the scapegoat, used during the Jewish atonement, was led to fall and die. Wycliffe Bible Dictionary states the brook “today only rarely carries water. One of the reasons for this dry situation is that the modern bed is some 37 to 98 feet higher than the riverbed of biblical times, having been filled in with occupational debris and the rubble of various destructive battles. This has also shifted the ravine some 30 yards to the east.” That is a lot of debris, dead bodies and rubble. It has actually altered the landscape while turning a once plush valley to a dry barren land. Not only is Kidron a place of death and ashes, it is also a place idols and unclean things were cast out. In II Chronicles 29, King Hezekiah calls for the priests to purge the temple so it may be restored for worship. In verse 16, the Levites carried the unclean things to the Kidron valley. In II Kings 23, King Josiah does this and more. He has the temple cleansed of unclean things and idols. Any vessels removed were carried to the Kidron valley, burned, and then crushed. The ashes then removed and carried elsewhere. He tore down alters to Baal, crushed the stones, and cast the dust into the valley. He burned the Asherah there, ground it to dust, then threw the ashes on the graves in the valley. So, we have learned this valley was used for burial, ashes, and dumping idols. Yet, God said in Jeremiah 31:40 this valley “shall be holy to the Lord.” What is so special about Kidron? These are strong Words from our God. Why does our Lord protect a place of death? On this evening in February of 1996, I came to realize my long journey would entail a type of the valley of Kidron. It would be a difficult place for me. Kidron is a place where God would have me – as a Levite – carry away my idols. It is a place where His fire consumes that which is useless to Him. He consumes things that are detrimental to His purpose in me. He destroys those things that do not bring Him glory. Yes, this journey would burn the things which bound me and more. I would also have to dump some idols from my life...you know, anything that comes before God. I had no idea the concept of idolatry I would come to discover in my journey. I remember the Lord speaking to me once about the rich man who sought out Jesus to learn how he might obtain eternal life. Jesus’ ultimate response was to live by the Commandments and sell his possessions, bless the poor and follow Him. Matthew 19:22 tells us, “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.” Notice, this passage does not tell us he did not do as he was told. No, I believe the essence of what we can learn here is if we are saddened when asked by our Lord to give something up in our lives, it must be too important to us. It may even be an idol. I vividly recall the day over 20 years ago, I sat in a deer stand while a good friend was hunting. I was in a bit of emotional turmoil due to pain caused by a friend. I was enjoying the quiet sounds of wildlife and used this time to seek the Lord. Suddenly, He impressed upon me that my attempt at protecting myself from emotional pain was idolatry. That was a Kidron moment which I carried for weeks. However, I found the hardest thing to accept about my journey through Kidron would be making it my burial ground. I was going to have to learn to die to myself. I knew this would be a long process. I suspected there was a death coming that I was unable to comprehend. Notice in the verses above, the graves in Kidron were for “common people.” If you were buried in Kidron, you were a person of no esteem. Uriah’s body was thrown there to strip him of his dignity. Oh yeah, there was a stripping of my dignity coming. No wonder the Holy Spirit told me the journey was too great for me. No wonder I must trust God beyond any weak faith I may have experienced in the past. I knew this was going to be incredibly difficult beyond my imagination. Kidron in the Hebrew means, “dark, turbid.” Yes, turbulent, dark days were coming my way. Yet, my spirits were lifted when I discovered that even Jesus had to cross the valley of Kidron on the night of His arrest (John 18:1). This was truly a turbulent night for my Lord. He too had to face all these things. He had to choose that night that Father’s Will would come before His. He was eliminating any possibility of putting Himself before Father. He would face death, and would go through a fire of persecution that is unspeakable. Yes, my Lord walked through that valley in the natural and the spiritual that dark, turbid night. He walked through the shadow of the valley of death that horrible night. It was just ... See Kidron Valley- Page 16 GLAD TIDINGS 7 JUNE 2025 Signs of Life from The King's Highway Evangelistic Ministries SARA GOLDSTEIN Salvation Prayer If you have not made Jesus Christ Savior and Lord ... pray the following prayer in faith, and Jesus will be your Lord! Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus. Your Word says, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” and “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:9). You said my salvation would be the result of Your Holy Spirit giving me new birth by coming to live in me (John 3:5-6, 15-16; Romans 8:9-11) and that if I would ask, You would fill me with Your Spirit and give me the ability to speak with other tongues (Luke 11:13; Acts 2:4). I take You at Your Word, I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart that You raised Him from the dead. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins, for coming into my heart, for giving me Your Holy Spirit as You have promised, and for being Lord over my life. Amen.
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