November 10, 2010

Valley of Decision

Joel 3

By:  Pastor Bill Randles

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.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.

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.Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:9-14)

Remember that Joel 3 is the vision of the lawsuit God brings against the nations. The charges are clearly announced, the Lord will deal with the nations over how they treated Israel His people.

We have demonstrated that only since the inception of the U.N., has a literal fulfillment of this prophecy ever been possible. This is the only time in human history where there has been a truly universal deliberative body composed of representatives of all nations.

Furthermore, this body literally “casts lots” that determine policies towards God’s people, and presumes to determine the borders and disposal of the Holy Land, which God calls “My Land”! About a third of the time in the U.N. is spent doing this.

God calls the Nations to assemble in the “valley of Jehoshaphat”, (the Hebrew meaning of ‘Jehoshaphat’- “Jahweh shall Judge”) to prepare for open war.

Whatever the geo-political situation this involves is only incidental to the events described here. There will be factions in the end, “the Kings of the East”, the Revived Roman Empire, the Kings of the North, and of course the Muslim war, but ultimately it will be revealed that Man is at war with God himself and that for a long time.

The U.N. was given a sculpture by the Soviet Government, which was placed in a garden across from its headquarters, with a wall that has a scripture inscribed on it,  a citation from Isaiah 2, which points to the millenium,

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)

But in the day of the Valley of Decision, God reverses the scripture, He quotes it in an inverted fashion as He calls the nations to the valley of God’s Judgment,

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. (Joel 3:10)

At the culmination of human history a wonderful clarity occurs, for suddenly all is revealed for what it truly is and perhaps always has been!

The “Kings of the Earth” often have pretended to piety, and given lip service to religious sentiment,(when it suited them to do so), but really and truly , as the Psalmist said, They have taken counsel against the Lord and against his Christ, and they have done their best to “Cast off the cords and bondages” of the Lord and His Christ’s religion!

We speak especially of the modern “kings”, presidents, democratically elected politicians and leaders in every field. Tirelessly they have worked to dismantle every last trace of Christian morality, culture, ethics, law, thought form, in short anything of God and Christ.

Are these not the very ones who in the West have championed the “brave new godless world” in which Homosexuality, Abortion, Atheism have been the prevailing mores? In their resistance to God, they have ruined a once great civilization!

In the name of tolerance they have attacked any public display of Christianity, even going so far as to promote Islam to counter it? How did they expect it to end?

On that great day, Revelation 19 tells us ,the so-called Kings of the Earth are revealed for what they really have been all along, for they come out of the shadows directly to confront the Lord and his Christ openly,

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war…And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. (Revelation 19:11,19)

The Valley of Decision, is not a place where men are making decisions for or against the Lord, the Valley of Decision is the place where the decision is already made, by the Lord, it is the valley of God’s judgment on the nations, the place of execution of judgment.

The time to make our decision is now, now is the time to take God’s side, to repent, to rethink the course of your whole life, to realize that the glory and vindication of God is all that really matters, and most importantly to learn by experience the meaning of the blessed promise, “Whosoever will call upon the Lord shall be saved”. (Joel 2:32)

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.  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:9-14)