The Cross in the Valley of the Shadow of Death

A Lesson from Psalm 23
"YHVeH is my Shepherd, I shall not be destitute and in want.
He makes me to lie down in pastures of tender green grass
[that has the feeling of being home]:
To the waters of quiet and comforting rest, He leads me.
He restores and turns my soul about (towards Him).
For His NAME’s sake,
He leads me in the entrenched cattle trails of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
When I am walking in and through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
for THOU art with me with Thy Rod and thy Staff,
disquieting and comforting me.
Thou hast set in a row, and arranged a table before me,
in the presence of and before my enemies.
Thou makest my head fatly anointed with oil,
my cup continuously runs over, (welling up like saliva to a mouth).
Surely, goodness and mercy, all the days of my life, shall follow me.
And, I will dwell, in the house of YHVeH, for as long as (there are) days."
(Psalm 23 - translation mine)

We all have our valleys in life. Valleys of depression. Valleys of oppression. Valleys of woe. It is most often when people are in these kinds of valleys, that only then do they allow YHVeH to truly draw close, and to minister to them. This comforting occurs when they are finally able to stop shutting their eyes and cease stopping their ears to YHVeH, (and in passivity, to be able to patiently look and listen). This kind of place, well, let us just say it is not a place that any of us REALLY want to be.
But there are times when we must see going through the VALLEY as an opportunity to access our lives, without the impediments of ego. For the believer going through the valley, sometimes there are forks in which we can go right or left. During these times of woe and depression, we anxiously desire for YHVeH to guide us in the way we should go (Isaiah 30:20-21). YHVeH will hear our cry and answer us, and we will -- of our own free will --- cast away the vain things in our lives (Isaiah 30:19,22); so that we may go forth out of these depressions of our lives, in victory.

In Psalm 23 above, David sings of "the valley of the Shadow of Death." That expression is uttered in Hebrew as "Gay Tsalmawet." In Gematria, we see Tsalma as the “clothes of grief, which are worn when mourning for the dead”. Gay (usually transliterated as "Ge") is an elongated depression or valley that is primarily flat and level. It is sometimes likened to a sandy, flat-bottom depression.{1}
In Ezekiel 39:11, “Ge” is used as a burial place, while verse 15 supplements this notion with “Ge” as a place of destruction for the enemies of GOD and His People. When Christ was cast out into the Kidron, and led down to the “Ge” Hinom juncture, He was sent forth there not only to die, but with the accusation of being an enemy. Messiah was considered an "enemy" of the ruling Sanhedrin; therefore he was outcast as an "enemy" of Israel (according to evil and oppressive rulers), and cast out into the “Ge”. And yet, from the Gospels, we learn Christ’s accusers are the ones who are calling out from this sandy, flat bottom depression, who cried, “If thou be the Son of GOD, come down from the Cross” (Matthew 27:40).{2}


When Jesus entered into the Valley of the Kidron, following behind Simon the Cyrenian, He was staggering with as much strength as He could humanly muster to follow the Cross. He indeed, entered into the Valley of the Shadow of His Death that was to come. And He feared NOT! Jesus experienced our pain, and our sorrow. He experienced oppression from without, and depression (great sorrow)from within (as demonstrated by His prayer at Gethsemane the night before). After Jesus was crucified, from about noon on that day of His Passion, until His death about 3 pm; that was a phenomenol day in History when the sun turned black and a moon turned to blood before the entire nation of Israel(Acts 2:22,20). In the case of this supernatural phenomenon, as 3,000,000, plus of the nation of Israel looked on, with such a dread and a sadness that was so thick, you could have heard the most acute of sounds.

Job compared Ge Salmawet to a deep dark place (Job 28:3) that seemed to promote a panicing or claustrophobic fear, and desire to escape. To Job, the Valley of the Shadow of Death was like being in the land of Grief: a land of ghosts, of moaning apparitions, and jarring sounds (cf. Job 10:21-22, 38:17).{3}

The closest analogy for us, might be that of living in a valley between haunted houses on all sides, and implies a grief that is spurred on by fears: be they superstitious or justifiable. This land or valley of grief is the same sort of darkness that appears before the eyes of the severely crying and grieving, so that all light disappears, and it is as if only darkness remains (Job 16:16).

It is into this Valley of Darkness that Christ came, which date I reckoned from Lactantius as being March 23, 30 A.D.; and to which He still comes to you and me. In 30 A.D., the Galileans were being sorely taxed upon their lands, taxed in their necessities of life, taxed in their religious sacrifices to GOD, taxed in their travels city to city; oppressed by soldiers, oppressed by robber bands, oppressed by priests who made the even the simplest instructions of the Torah too heavy and grievous to obey. It was into this Valley of Grief, experienced by even the whole nation of Israel, that Christ came.



Isaiah 9:1-2 and the Messianic Ministry

“Yet not (this) be covered and made obscure with darkness
for her who suffers the emotional crushing of narrowness and affliction,
as when at the First -- [at Mt. Sinai] -- He spoke by a sounding voice
(of) the Land of Zebulon and the Land of Naphtali.
So, to the Western (lands) He will glorify, and make heavy,
the Way (or Plain) of the Sea beyond the Jordan, [i.e., Megiddo]
(in) Galilee of the nations.
The people who are traveling in darkness,
have seen an ever growing luminary;
they who sit down and remain in the Land of the Shadow of Death,
the luminary has (powerfully and wonderfully) glittered upon them.”(Isaiah 9:1-2, translation mine)

The prophetic use of Isaiah 9:1-2 in respect to the tribes about the Temple, tells us the positioning that Messiah must suffer in respect to the Temple. We have already seen that through Psalm 23, the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” is applicable to Jerusalem, as well as Megiddo. The East-Southeast vicinity of Jerusalem in which Jesus was crucified, is in the area of Zebulon’s position, in relation to the encampment of the tribes of Israel around Jerusalem (Numbers 2:2-7). Messiah, according to Isaiah, suffers in both Zebulon and Naphtali. Naphtali tells us of the area of the North-northeast, west of Judah, (cf. Numbers 2:25-29) which ends with the Garden of Gethsemane. Therefore, Jesus suffered as according to prophecy, in these two locations in Jerusalem, while the second half of Isaiah 9:1-2 points to His return at Megiddo of Galilee and His Second Coming (Revelation 19:11-16; Zechariah 14:3-4).

He suffers in the agony of anticipation of the Cross, while in Jerusalem’s gathering place for Naphtali, (which means, “a hanging wreath that either drips or shakes to pieces”), dripping great drops of blood at the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-44).

He is crucified, and dies (that is, He is “devoured”) in the gathering place of the tribe of Zebulon - which means, “the yellow wolf’s rest area” (Zephaniah 3:3), at the Kidron and Hinom Valley juncture. Zebulon is that out of which the scribes come from (Judges 5:14), and these who contended with Messiah, are the yellow wolves that conspired against and devoured Messiah in A.D. 30. From these we learn the Scripture, “the (pen and) letter (of the Law) killeth” (2 Corinthians 3:6). We also see, from the prophecy of Judges 5, that in the end of days, that the descendents of these two tribes “Zebulon and Naphtali”, will have to rectify the past of their ancestors. They will valiantly do so by exposing and betrothing their lives to Messiah, even unto death. And they, specifically the descendents of Zebulon and Naphtali, will engage the enemy on the field of battle (be it a plain, or a small garden), in the coming battle for Israel’s very posterity -- especially at Jerusalem (Judges 5:18; Zechariah 13:9, 12:8).

We therefore see that it is the will of GOD the Father that we know and acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Savior, and even as the very foundation of our Faith, and heir of all -- in part, because of these prophetic signs and fulfillments. Paul, through Luke, puts it this way:

“What now lies behind (us as) a great while ago: in many regions and
coasts, and in many periods of repentance (in which the mind and will were
turned about) -- GOD spoke with reasoning to the Fathers, in the Prophets,
with respect upon the most extreme ‘End of Days.’ Of these, they spake in
the manner of reasoning to us, in the Son, whom He set to lay as an
appointed Foundation: having the power to distribute, as heir of all.
Through whom, indeed, using ‘the First Cause’,{4} He brought about the
ages. Who, as the Being, (that is, as GOD), splendiferously emits Light{5}
as the true thought-expression-and exact representation of the same
substance and reality of Him, upholding then, and bearing all things.{6}
By the spoken word of His power, through Himself, the sins of us are
made into being ritually cleansed, and ceremonially pure, being
caused to sit down in (Christ, on) the Right of the Great One higher
than the Heavens.”
(Hebrews 1:1-3, translation w/word pictures, mine)


Jesus, by the spoken word, in His pre-incarnate (pre-flesh) state -- created the Heavens and the Earth, by the power of His spoken word as YHVeH. In this time, he does now grant us the power and authority to reside and abide in and through Him, by faith into His finished work at the Cross, and to sit down with Him on the Right Hand of the Majesty of Power on High (Revelation 3:21).{7} He takes our sins, our bent for rebellion and from the doing of good and righteousness, and makes them “into a product that is ritually and ceremonially pure”.{8}

That is, our sins become as ashes of the Red Heifer, mixed in the living waters of Him, and cease to be of the old and former state as we once new it, but of a new state as we know not yet. We are ourselves, freed from the bent of sin -- of acts toward rebellion and unrighteousness toward GOD -- and made straight, into a new Creation of a fabric and substance we have not yet known.{9} While in this body, and in this current mortal life, we can -- through the Cross -- put sin to sleep, and make it dormant within us (Romans 6:2-6). In the coming Resurrection of us, whether physically alive or dead at the Rapture of the Church, we will be given a new body, and a new nature with it, with an inclination towards righteousness.

Now this I suspect, but do not surely yet know - that our coming “glorified bodies” will at first appear and feel as an alien covering to us, having the look of perfection and glory as humans ought to look and have looked. It will be perfect and light emanating glorious bodies, feeling like flesh, but perhaps with the flow of the spirit coursing through its veins instead of the flow of blood; so that all at once, we are both physical and spiritual, like the angels.

After the end of the ages of this current Universe, we will shine forth with unhindered brilliance and eminence in the presence of, and to the glory of GOD the Father (Matthew 13:43). When we see Jesus, we shall be transformed and be just like Him, seeing Him just as He is in His glorified form (I John 2:2). And without the Cross, and His atonement at the Cross, with our faith being placed into His work and remaining into Him at the Cross; then, there is no glory. Therefore, put your faith into Jesus at the Cross, and participate in Christ through all eternity, for He is our source -- our life -- our only hope of glory. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed, being put to death for us: therefore, let us keep observance and participation in the feast” (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8). Amen.


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1 Harris, “The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament”, Chicago:Moody Press, 1980, pp.158-159

2 Christ’s accusers in the Sanhedrin, though a Beth Din (a judicial House), was run by some 23 or more whose end was to go to “hell” as bad and unprofitable Jews. We see this in examining the aspect of gnashing of teeth in the Gospel of Matthew, who wrote his Gospel in the presence of many of those who committed these sins, at Jerusalem. The “gnashers’ did so call out mockings from an area of “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12); in the region of burning fire (Matthew 13:42,50); that is, from Ge Hinom. These “gnashers” -- whose number also comprised of scribes, and most likely family members also -- showed that they have no wedding garment; and not being truly Jewish, as ones circumcised in their heart (Matthew 22:13, 23:15; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6,10). They called out from a tract of land where traitors who act the part of loyalists are destroyed (Matthew 24:51). And finally, Christ tells us that all those who end up in Gehenna / Ge Hinom are viewed as “unprofitable”, as takers and not givers (Matthew 25:30).

3 The gates of death and the doors of the shadow of death, in Job 38:17, regard access to the realm of departed souls. Therefore, I have put it in such a perspective as to show what Job appears to relocate as up here and amongst us as chaotic and disorderly. In times of great depression, during his time of grief, he is able to see this gate or door of an alternate middle dimension. It is broad, like the “euruchoros” (vast open countryside sized) highway that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7:13. This highway appears to those, apparently, at death’s door, and appears to beckon him to a final destination in the nether realms below (cf. Job 10:21-22).

4 The very first word of Genesis 1:1, Bereshith, can be translated from the Hebrew as “Using a First Cause” …GOD created the Heavens and the Earth. The identification is that in the Beginning, the Universe came into being as “that made by and upheld by” YHVeH Messiah. John read Hebrews, and this Greek gloss by Luke resonated within John. After fasting and prayer, He returns to the heaviness of this concept, and its apparent impact, and thereby gives us John 1:1-3, following I John’s opening.

5 1st John (or I John) was originally attached to the Gospel of John as an introduction. The actual writing though, was separated by at least 3 days of fasting between the initial scroll of I John, and the addendum of the Gospel of John to that same scroll. Again, we see the impact that these opening verses of Paul’s Gospel (the Book of Hebrews) had on John in Ephesus in late July 57 A.D., following the June 29 deaths of Peter and Paul in Rome. In honoring Luke, John opens I John (1:1-4) with the foundation of what constitutes a factual testimony. That is immediately followed by a confirmation of Hebrews 1:3, which tells the Hebrews that as GOD, Jesus emits Light as the radiance and glory of GOD the Father, being indistinguishable in thought -appearance -expression-and substance from Him (I John 1:5-7). This is then followed by Paul’s formula, as told by Luke in Hebrews 1:3, of being ritually cleansed from sin (I John 1:8 ff).

The example of John pre-reading Hebrews before writing I John later that summer of 57 A.D., is again repeated in passages such as Hebrews 2:14 being readapted in I John 3:8; Hebrews 7:25 being readapted in I John 3:9; and so on. It is because the deaths of the Apostles Peter and Paul are so recent, that I John is written in this style of honoring Paul and Peter’s teachings, so as to preserve them. However, when John realized that this little scroll was not the fulfillment of the call of GOD’s Spirit upon his heart, he called the remaining close friends of his together, being fellow-witnesses of Christ, and called for a fast of all the Churches of Asia. After which fast, came the Gospel of John, dictated firstly by John, and penned by Andrew (Simon Peter’s brother, who had been schooled as a prodigy in the Greek language).

6 Isaiah 42:8, 43:11, 45:5-7; Psalm 104; John 1:1-3 w/Genesis 1:1 ff.

7 In the time of the Great Tribulation, those that receive the mark of the Beast in the Right Hand or Right Eye must cut the hand off or pluck the eye that has the mark, in order to enter into Eternal Life (Revelation 13:16, Matthew 5:29-30). At no other time is there a requirement for bodily mutilation in Scripture, as circumcision is not much more than a cosmetic cutting, because it heals over without residual harm. The mark of the Beast will be something more than just a chip into the bone that cannot be cut out. The mark of the Beast will be more than just a (probable) gentle laser tattoo engraving upon the cornea of one’s right eye. There will be some sort of spiritual accompaniment with it, that will aid the strong delusion to believe the Lie --that is, to believe into Anti-Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:11; cf. vv. 3-12).

8 In Amos 5:8 we are called to seek YHVeH, who is the one that “turns the Shadow of Death into the light of the morning”. This same YHVeH who, by the power of the spoken word, calls for rain and thereby makes the day dark with night, is He who made the Heavens with the stars in their courses. He is not limited to earthly limitations, as the worshipped deity Ba’al (the mythological and Thor-like storm god who brings wealth and fertility) is in the ancient folklore. This verse then, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is another of many affirmations of Messiah’s true Divinity as YHVeH.

9 This is based on the Hebrew word for righteousness: Tsedaqah. Tzedekah envisions a straight bar used as a proper and even distribution on a balance scale. To have a “bend” in the bar renders it with an inclination to fail in its purpose. Only a perfectly straight bar is accurate or righteous all the time. This fairly popular theological expression more accurately reflects the permanency of what the Hebraic word picture of Tzedekah / Righteousness attempts to convey, so I have utilized it here.