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