Peaks and valleys. All of life is Peaks and Valley observed Martin Luther. We say it again. In tonight's text from Joel, we encounter something called the Valley of Decision. However, wonderfully, this Valley will be the highest mountaintop experience in our life! Buckle up! Good News!
What exactly is this coming Valley of Decision Joel speaks about? Ironically, tonight's text has been one of the most abused texts in the Bible. For years, well-meaning revivalist preachers used this text as a pretext how we must make a decision for Jesus. But Jesus tells us flat out "You did not choose me, but I chose you." (Jn 15) Also, this text is not about any human decision at the end of history when Jesus reappears, but rather God's gracious decision that will come our way on Judgment Day. If we are thinking Biblically, Judgment Day will be awesome day, ten thousand times better than any day in our lives!
The Valley of Decision Day will be V-Day--Victory Day ushering into our existence forever the new heaven and new earth. Before we get to this truth, we should say a little bit more about the 3 chapter Book of Joel. Joel is a minor prophet with a major message. He wrote 2,800 years ago. The people of Judah at that time had become full of themselves, complacent, heartless, selfish, and prosperous. They thought all their success was a result of their superiority. It takes two steady hands to hold a full cup and they were spilling out their arrogance all over the place. Rather than be kind in light of the Kindness of God in Jesus, they were the opposite-unkind. They had become addicted to power, addicted to drugs, addicted to porn, addicted to cruelty, addicted to all kinds of false gods that gave them a green light to red light behavior.
A wake up call from God through Joel would come with fire, fury, and force to knock the idolatry riders off their high horses. Joel begins his prophecy by describing a terrible plague of locusts. This obedient army of insects will cover the land and devour the crops. Here is a Biblical truth. If we really wanted better weather, better crops, better environment, the key would be one word: repentance. It is that simple. It is that profound. Turn to the living loving gracious God and watch the storehouse of God's mercy open wide its doors in surprising ways.
A key verse in Joel comes from chapter two verses 12-13. Turn to me now while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning over your sins and selfishness. Don't tear your clothing in grief, but tear your hearts instead. Return to the LORD your God instead, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and change the course of action.
In short, the sin of the people was cheap grace. They thought they were bullet proof as God's chosen people. They forgot they were chosen not because of any inherent greatness but because they were the least of all people on the face of the earth--a nation of slaves (Deut 7). Throughout history people have used the grace of God as an excuse to live lawlessly. Rasputin the mad monk of Russia who counseled the last Czar before the communist revolution, taught people to sin recklessly so that the grace of God would abound. His hideous thinking was part of the reason the Czar and Russia collapsed giving way to communism and the horrors of that warped ideology which has no room for Jesus, love, humanity, the Holy Spirit, and sanity.
From the call of repentance to the prediction of Good Friday and Easter and Pentecost, Joel tells Judah of these great coming cosmic events. He writes how God will pour out His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. He predicts the wonders of cosmic events that took place on Good Friday such as darkness at noon. All of this is and was to precede the coming of Valley of Decision, the terrible Day of the LORD, when history would suddenly grind to a halt.
Shortly before Jesus marched to the cross to die for our sins, Jesus gave a discourse on Judgment Day. It is known also in Joel as the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Valley of Decision, discourse. Matthew 25:31-46 tells us the future. O what a day it will be. We should look forward to it, without fear. Why?
Here are the facts from Jesus. Jesus will reappear one day to end history abruptly. The world will not end by climate change, human war, some alien meteor. It will end the exact moment Jesus brings in the last believer into the ark of the church. Not a second earlier.
Suddenly, Jesus will come with all his holy angels, billions of them. He will come in glory, not in humility the way He came born in Bethlehem in a manger. Instantly, Jesus will divide all the nations into one of two categories: sheep or goats, believers in Him or worshippers of false gods. This will take place in the Valley of Decision. Jesus will be calling all the shots.
In the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Valley of Judgment, Jesus as our Judge and Defense lawyer will invite us to be lifted up into the new heaven and new earth. He will declare at Judgment Day how it was His decision to save us before the world was created. He will underscore how salvation is His gift and the gift of His heavenly Father.
Then Jesus will do something of amazing grace. He will not only grant us the gift of Salvation, but He will not bring up a single solitary sin that we committed in life. Read the account in Matthew 25 carefully. You will notice two things. Not a single sin of the sheep is brought up, mentioned, spoken of. Why? Because our sins have been downed in the depths of the ocean. So we are lifted up from the Valley of Decision by Jesus and raptured into the new heaven and new earth.
More grace. Jesus tells us that in grace He will reward us for all the good works that His loved has moved us to do. Whenever we fed someone, were kind to someone, helped someone in His name, He will reward us for the good work that His loved us to do. This is grace upon grace. Are you thankful for this good news? Do you tell others about this good news? This world desperately needs good news and we have the best news to tell our neighbors about the glorious reappearing of Jesus fast coming our way.
How about the goats? The Valley of Decision for them will be their worst nightmare. Jesus reveals the goats are those who rejected the gift of repentance; they rejected the gift of Jesus' love; they rejected the gift of heaven; they lived life on their own self-centered terms and will now face the music. On Judgment Day they will have all their sins laid before them and it will not be pretty. Having rejected Jesus as their defense lawyer, advocate, Savior, they are on their own. Jesus declares the goats will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. One simply cannot think little or nothing of God's death on the cross and expect Judgment Day to be a happy day. This is the gross sin of most of humanity and the reason for the world's self centered insanity.
Again, for believers in Christ, the Valley of Decision and Judgment Day will be a glorious day. On that stunning day we will understand the full weight of this holy, loving, gracious decision by Jesus and His heavenly Father. We will sing "There is therefore now no condemnation to those are in Christ Jesus." We will be lifted up from the Valley of Jehoshaphat and be taken to live and reign and rule with Jesus forever and ever and ever on the Mountain of love, the New Heaven and New Earth.
All of life is peaks and valleys. However, the last day in history will be the beginning of an eternal extended perfect paradise peak where there will no more be subject to sin, sickness, horror, wars, selfishness, evil, greed, and ego. Instead, we will live in the perfect light of the perfect love of Jesus FOREVER. Look forward to the Valley of Decision because Christ walked through the Valley of the Shadow for us, defeating death, overcoming evil, and revealing an infinite love for us.
O happy day--Jesus' decision to call us by the gospel. O happy day His decision not to bring up a single one of our sins on Judgment Day. O happy day the Valley of Decision will lead to our be lifted up on the Mountain of love--Paradise--forever and ever and ever! No more peaks and valleys--only an eternal perfect peak!
