The Valley of Humiliation

Spurgeon introduces this section to us in the following words:

John Bunyan, with great wisdom, puts the Palace Beautiful first, and then no sooner does Christian get out of the Palace gates than he begins to descend into the Valley of Humiliation. They had given him a sword, and a shield, and a helmet. He had never had those before. Now that he had his sword, he found that he had to use it against Apollyon; now that he had his shield, he had to hold it up to catch the fiery dart; now that he had received the weapon of 'All Prayer', he found that he had need of it as he walked through that desparate place, the Valley of the Shadow of Death. God does not give his people weapons to play with; he does not give them strength to spend on their lusts. Lord, if thou hast given me these goodly weapons, it is sure than I shall need them in hard fighting.

Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress, p131

Bunyan has Christian leave the Palace, and descend almost immediately into the Valley of Humiliation, where Apollyon, 'a foul fiend' meets him. Christian's first thought is to turn back, until he remembers that he has no armour for his back; retreat would therefore be to the enemy's advantage, not to Christian's.

The place of humiliation is a place of spiritual conflict. Or, to put it otherwise, if we are engaged in the spiritual warfare that is the lot and portion of those who follow Jesus Christ, there is no place for pride. Ephesians 6 provides us with a description of the armour that we need for the journey, "for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12).

As Spurgeon puts it,

John Bunyan has not pictured Christian as carried to heaven while asleep in an easy chair. He makes him lose his burden at the cross-foot, but he represents him as climbing Hill Difficulty on his hands and knees. Christian has to descend into the Valley of Humiliation, and to tread the dangerous pathway through the gloomy horrors of the Shadow of Death ... nowhere is he delivered from the necessities incident to the way, for even at the last he fords the black river, and struggles with its terrible billows. Effort is used all the way through, and you that are pilgrims to the skies will find it to be no allegory, but a matter of fact.

Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress, p134

The battle between Christian and Apollyon is set in the context of a much larger conflict between Apollyon and Christ; the enemy cries out disdainfully to Christian at one point: "I am an enemy to this Prince; I hate his person, his laws, and people; I am come out on purpose to withstand thee" (p57). We cannot underestimate that the forces engaged in battle are the forces of light and darkness, Heaven and Hell, God and Satan. We who are the Lord's people are the objects of the attack of him who is the Prince of Darkness, and the avowed enemy of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In appearance, Apollyon was clothed with scales like a fish, had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, the mouth of a lion, and out of his mouth there came fire and smoke. The imagery is drawn from several sources, not least the Book of Revelation, where the devil is identified in chapter 12 as a dragon, and running all the way through Scripture, back to the appearance of a serpent in Genesis 3. But the main reference is to Revelation 9:7-11, where the armies of the bottomless pit were prepared for battle, and we are told that 'They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon" (Rev 9:11). It is possible that the reference in Revelation is an allusion to the Emperors Nero or Domition, both of whom saw themselves as like the Greek god Apollo (see Poythress, The Returning King, p124) and there is some evidence that he may have been represented by a locust, since the locusts are the main imagery here.

But the context of Revelation, where Apollyon is named has clear allusions to the plagues in Exodus; the blowing of the trumpets cause hail, fire and blood to be cast on the earth 8:7), cause the waters to become bitter 8:10-11), cause darkness to cover the earth (8:12), and cause locusts to swarm over the earth out of the bottomless pit (chap 9). And it is interesting that with the final plague in Egypt, the angel who slays the firstborn is called the destroying angel, or the destroyer (Exodus 12:23, corresponding to Rev 9:11). So the climactic point of both the Exodus plague narratives and Revelation 8 is the same: death and destruction are in the hand of the 'redeemer'. What Bunyan is doing is personalising the conflict of the ages, to which the only answer is the redemptive work of Christ, the substitutionary and sacrificial Lamb of God. The Lamb who is King in Revelation, is the only one able to deliver from the angel of death, from the Destroyer, from Apollyon.

Apollyon attacks Christian in the valley with several strategies. His first strategy is to question Christian about his identity and past. When Christian says that he has come from the city of Destruction, Apollyon claims him as one of his own: "I perceive," he says, "thou art one of my subjects, for all that country is mine". Christian is able to say that although he was born in that city, he was no longer under the dominion of the false god. The devil knows what we once were, and is ready both to remind us that we were never converted at all, and that we are still his subjects. He will even plant the thought in our minds that the far country was a more desirable place than the father's house.

His second strategy is to highlight the unfaithful acts of Christian along the way. So he reminds Christian:

Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the Gulf of Despond; thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas thou shouldest have stayed till thy Prince had taken it off; thou didst sinfully sleep, and lose thy choice thing; thou wast, also, almost persuaded to go back, at the sight of the lions; and when thou talkest of thy journey, and of what thou has heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirous of vain-glory in all that thou sayest and doest (56).

The devil is thus a cunning and a master strategist. He will not only question the validity of our conversion, but will highlight every failing in our life, and every blemish and stain on our character. He is ready to bring before our minds both what we did and what we failed to do.

Christian's only response to this is to acknowledge the truth of it all: "all this is true, and much more which thou hast left out..." (56). We cannot base our hope or confidence on what we have done or been. Our only confidence, as Christian made clear, is to remind the enemy that "the Prince, whom I serve and honour is merciful and ready to forgive; but, besides, these infirmities possessed me in thy country, for there I sucked them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince" (57).

This is Puritan pastoral theology at its best. Spurgeon draws out the implication of all this: "Christ did not love you for your good works -- they were not the cause of his beginning to love you; so he does not love you for your good works even now; they are not the cause of his continuing to love you. He loves you because he will love you" (Pictures, p137). Here is the great emphasis on an objective love, that will not let go. We must look in faith to Christ alone as the ground of our peace with God and our pardon before him.

So Apollyon turns to a third strategy -- the strategy of the fiery dart. Having a dart in his hand, he threw it at Christian, who used his shield to good effect. But he then began to throw darts at him "as thick as hail", which wounded him in the head, hand and foot. This made Christian, for all his courage in battle, retreat a little, sapping all his strength in a contest that lasted half a day.

In Ephesians 6:16, Paul tells us that only the shield of faith can protect us from the fiery darts of the devil. The picture seems to be of arrows or javelins which were covered in pitch or tar, then set alight so that they posed a two-fold threat of penetration and ignition. In his commentary on this verse in Ephesians, Charles Hodge describes the situation in this way:

As burning arrows not only pierced but set on fire what they pierced, they were doubly dangerous. They serve here, therefore, as the symbol of the fierce onsets of Satan. He showers arrows of fire on the soul of the believer, who, if unprotected by the shield of faith, would soon perish. It is a common experience of the people of God, that at times horrible thoughts, unholy, blasphemous, sceptical, malignant, crowd upon the mind, which cannot be accounted for on any ordinary law of mental action, and which cannot be dislodged. They stick like burning arrows, and fill the soul with agony. They can be quenched only by faith, by calling on Christ for help. These, however, are not the only kind of fiery darts, nor are they the most dangerous. There are others which enkindle passion, inflame ambition, excite cupidity, pride, discontent or vanity -- producing a flame which our deceitful heart is not so prompt to extinguish, and which is often allowed to burn until it produces great injury and even destruction... (285-6).

Hodge's commentaries are also remarkable for their pastoral and personal insights and are well worth having. You may also be familiar with Lloyd-Jones' sermons on Ephesians, published by the Banner of Truth; he deals with this verse in the volume entitled The Christian Soldier. Lloyd-Jones says that an understanding of these fiery darts "is of vital importance to us in our spiritual warfare. Many masters of the spiritual life have described these attacks in detail. The best known examples are Martin Luther and John Bunyan" (300).

Lloyd-Jones has some penetrating insights into this whole area of spiritual warfare and the devil's attacks on the Christian. He begins by saying that it is an important part of the devil's strategy "to prevent our understanding that he is the cause of this" (301). Thoughts assail us at the most inopportune moments because we are being attacked. They do not originate with us, nor are they generated by us. He then goes on to highlight that these attacks can be intermittent or periodic; he uses the analogy of the First World War where he says that often in trench warfare there was a lull, but no-one could afford to take risks, because a barrage of assaults could occur at any moment.

But I particularly value what Lloyd-Jones says about the way in which we counter these fiery darts -- with the shield of faith. This is what he says:

But how does faith act as our shield? The answer is that faith never points to itself, it always points to its object. (305)

That is the crucial point, is it not? Just as the shield faces away from us, so faith faces away from us. It looks to Jesus, and by doing so, is able to meet the devil's onslaughts and attacks. "The holding up of the shield of faith reminds you that you are looking to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It means that you are depending upon God and His grace in Christ" (308).

Apollyon's fourth strategy was to engage in personal combat with Christian, wrestling with him until he fell to the ground. Christian's sword fell out of his hand, and Apollyon rose up, with a triumphant look, ready to slay him, saying, "I am sure of thee now!". Christian never came as near death as he came here; and just as the enemy was preparing to wield the fatal blow, Christian reached out his hand, took his sword, and said, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall rise" (quoting from Micah 7:8). He thrust at Apollyon, who sped away, to the strains of Christian quoting from Romans 8:38, "nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us".

Let me conclude this section by quoting from Bunyan:

In this combat, no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight -- he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived that he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he did smile, and look upward; but it was the dreadfulest sight that ever I saw.

So when the battle was over, Christian said, I will here give thanks to him that delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, to him that did help me against Apollyon. And so he did, saying

Greet Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend,
Designed my ruin; therefore to this end
He sent him harnessed out; and he with rage,
That hellish was, did fiercely me engage.
But blessed Michael helped me, and I
By dint of sword, did quickly make him fly.
Therefore to him let me give lasting praise,
And thank and bless his holy name always. (58).

ŠIain D. Campbell 2004