Thousands and Thousands Are Waiting In The Valley of Decision. There They Will Die.

The Minor Prophets Speak to Today

The Valley of Decision is not the Valley of  Personal Decision, but the Valley of God's Decision

“These things happened to them as examples                                   

 for us. They were written down to warn us who                             Joel 3:14-17a

 live at the end of the age.”  1 Corinthians 10:11                               New Living Translation (NLT)

                                                              

Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!
 

For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.
 

The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.

The Lord will roar from Zion
and thunder from Jerusalem;
the earth and the heavens will tremble.
 

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel. 

“Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,

dwell in Zion, my holy hill.^"

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Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the Valley of Decision today just as they were when Joel declared it in his day. But this is a classic case of a verse pulled out of context and preached as standing for a different truth - God is waiting for the lost to make a personal decision. Truth is that millions upon millions are waiting in the valley of personal decision. And at the rate of world population growth  it may soon be billions upon billions of people who are waiting in the valley of personal decision. Untold billions who do not even know they are there.

But this is not an accurate picture. They are not in the valley waiting. Some in fact have already rejected God. It is God who is waiting in the valley of decision for them to make a personal decision to accept and live under his Lordship. And it is the result of failing to accept his Lordship, it is the wickedness of these people and the wickedness of nations that places them in the Valley of Decision to which Joel refers.

These thousands upon thousands are awaiting God's decision. They like the pharisees many are waiting for a sign, but ignoring the two signs already given. The first the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. The second the sign created when God gathered them into this valley - the Valley of His Judgment. Among these people are the Muslims, the Bahia, and the yet unrepentant Isreaelites.

But also in the valley are the people who are defying God, people trying to prove what he has said, the nature of creation, the means of his acceptance into heaven, the validity of his moral expectations regarding sex, money, power, and personal righteousness, his actions as the controller of the rise and fall of nations and national leaders, even his very existence are not true. Some are trying to prove that there is no truth.

Thousand upon thousands, says Joel, are in the Valley of Decision unaware that they are there to receive judgment while yet on the earth. God help them, for their physical bodies will fall, and then comes The Judgement - the eternal judgment of their souls.

Then all the world will know that the Lord God is The Lord God.

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WORD FOR TODAY!

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the repentant people of Israel. 

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Questions/Discussions For This Week:

1.   What do you think about the people in the Valley of Decision?
2.   Do you care that thousand upon thousand will find judgment and death, including eternal death there?
3.   When does the Great Commission cease?
4.   Who will stand there because you have failed to act?

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Photo:

Hundreds of Thousands in Tahrir Square by RamyRaoof@Flickr.com Some rights reserved