Decisions Made In The Valley

DECISIONS MADE IN THE VALLEY

Joel 3:10, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision."

If you were to read the entirety of the third chapter of the Book of Joel, you would see very quickly, if you knew anything about end time eschatology, that the “valley of decision” refers to a place where the powers of the heathen Gentile nations, under the direction of the spirit of the antichrist, come for one final blow that they believe will forever eradicate the scourge of the nation of Israel and the Jews from the face of the earth. In fact, it is God who has put a hook into their jaw and brought them to this valley, also called the “Valley of Jehosaphat”, for one final great battle. We often refer to this battle as the “Battle of Armageddon”.

But I don’t want to talk about prophecy or the end time judgments to come even though those are vastly important subjects. I want us to look at what is happening in the valley of decision. The powers of darkness have brought mankind to his lowest point in history.

It wasn’t enough for the devil to kill the Son of God upon a cross.

It wasn’t enough for the Antichrist to persecute those who worshipped anything or anyone but his own image, hunting them down and slaughtering them like animals.

It wasn’t enough that mankind was on the brink of total annihilation of every living human being on the face of the earth.

Satan will never stop, never be satisfied and never stop doing all he can to utterly destroy everything that reminds him that he is not God.

Even though he is already a defeated foe, he never stops.

Even though he has been kicked out of Heaven, stifled and controlled in every effort to destroy God’s creation, and has had judgment pronounced upon him, Satan is still deluded and deceived by the pride in his own heart, and believes that he can still defeat God.

So, as a part of that all-out effort to destroy humanity, Satan’s goal is to bring each of us, individually, and collectively as the human race, into the valley of decision to see if he can trick us into following him and denying God.

Satan knows that if he can hit us at our lowest point, when our strength is gone, when we are totally discouraged and hope is waning – then he just might be able to steal one more soul from the Lord God of Heaven. Never forget that the devil is here to kill, steal and destroy. Don’t drop your guard or give place to the devil because he won’t stop with just a foot in the door. He wants the whole house.

All of humanity is in that valley of decision only because they have chosen to live in rebellion against the Father in Heaven.

From the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, the decision that mankind made, through Adam, to disobey God, has led us all into that same condition of rebellion against God. As a result, every one of us will face our own valleys of decision. Time and time again we are brought to the place where we are reminded that we are still living in a sinful world and that sin has effect on us, therefore we must either repent or know that judgment for our sin is surely coming.

God’s warnings are clearly visible to any who would open their eyes and behold them. No man will be able to stand before God and say, “I didn’t know what I was doing.” God sees the heart that won’t walk in faith before him. God knows your mind and he knows exactly why we do those things that are rebellious against him.

I know that there are those times when God allows us to go through the valley experiences in life to prove our faith and to test our commitment to him. But, I am also convinced that if we didn’t have a heart that was bent on rebellion in the first place, there would be no need for those valley experiences.

Most of the time, the valleys that we walk through in life, are valleys of our own making because we desire to walk in ways that are contrary to God’s will.

The point I want to make with this sermon is simply this:

When we are in the Valley of Decision, that’s not the time to make a decision to walk away from our only hope of coming out. We should never give in to our emotions, or our feelings, our doubts or our fears. In the Valley of Decision is where we should just hold on to God and walk by faith, not by sight. That’s the only way out of the valley.