Multitudes in the valley of Decision...the Wayfarer 3/19/16

Multitudes in the valley of Decision
3/19/16

¹² Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

¹³ Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

(Joel 3:12-14)

Decision is something that faces each human being moment by moment, day by day throughout conscious life.

Decisions may only be made during that brief period of consciousness, and once it is passed, any decisions made must be made by others still in possession of that consciousness.

Most of these decisions are seemingly of little consequence, chocolate or vanilla, sweet or spicy, what color shoes to wear with whatever the wardrobe of the day may be… small, unimportant, meaningful only for the moment…yet pondered upon, carefully considered before decision is reached.

Other decisions are rushed into, influenced by pressures from others whose agenda has nothing to do with the consequence of that decision on the one making it, but rather the desired consequence of the one providing that pressure.

Car salesmen routinely apply that pressure to effect a sale that grants them the largest commission without regard to the buyer’s ability to fill their own desired outcome for the purchase being made.

This interaction affects the buyer, the one making the decision, far longer than the one applying the pressure who has no need to deal with the consequences of having made that purchase.

Pressures are applied constantly to many decisions in the attempt to rush them for the benefit of someone other than the one making them.

Peer pressure dictates behavior of the youth, attempting to decide just who he is and what he wants from life, equally without regard to the eventual importance in far larger decisions that must be faced.

Despite any pressure applied, despite any influence exerted by anyone else, the decisions made, must be, and are made only by the individual making the decision.

Once made, these decisions are more often binding and irreversible than not.

Decision leads to action, which in turn leads to the necessity for further decision.

Each step along the way, decision leads to consequence.

Joel’s words, (given him by God), in the opening scripture, was also an attempt to place pressure on decisions being made, to guide those decisions to a better consequence than the one that had to be faced for having made wrong decisions without taking the time to consider that consequence.

Those words were half of the equation that exited then and now for all decisions, no matter how paltry or meaningless they may seem while being made; two halves of a whole…warning of bad consequence for bad decision, and promise of good consequence for good decision.

All of the prophets, lesser and greater were given words that delivered constant reminder of the consequence of decisions being made, either consequence that provided punishment when warnings were ignored, or reward when the promise was accepted and the terms to receive that promise were met.

Thus has it been since the creation of mankind.

Adam was given both promise and warning, he chose to ignore the warning and refuse the gift offered in the promise.

He allowed the pressures applied to make a decision that led to the certain consequence of death rather than life.

Life or death should be an easy decision right?

Agreed, it should be, and would be, were no pressures being applied that hide the consequences of the actual decision being made.

The more complex the pressures, the muddier the black and white decision and its black or white consequence becomes, yet the final analysis remains a simple decision of life or death.

Jesus clarified that decision process, bringing the purity of the promise and the explicitness of the warning that he preached throughout His ministry.

He too made a decision, one that allowed an easier path to the consequence of life for all willing to follow that path.

His sacrifice in order to overcome the death brought by Adam was the only means of granting the clarity and finality of the decision that must be made by each for himself.

He willingly and consciously decided to make that decision, to allow man to choose God’s gift of life eternal, God’s love, God’s grace over the consequence of refusal which still remains the choice of death.

¹² Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

¹³ Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

¹⁶ The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

¹⁷ So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

¹⁸ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹ Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.

(Joel 3:12-21)

Warning and promise, decision and consequence are being made now by each one choosing his own.

I leave you with just one more piece of information with which to make your decision, not given by me, but taken again from the words given Joel by our Creator:

³¹ The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

³² And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

(Joel 2: 31 & 32)

Life, or death, conscious decision to be made carefully, weigh the information if you will, but weigh them on the scale provided by the one who weighs your decision once it has been made.

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer