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The Valley of Decision … What Have You Decided About the Jews?

HighBeamMinistry.com

“Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there because of my people, my inheritance Israel.” (Joel 3:1-2a)

 

The Lord’s Judgment Day is coming.

 

I can’t tell you when. Even attempting it would be foolish. I just don’t have enough information yet. That information would be prophecy that’s been fulfilled. Sure, I can cite some significant events that are definitely fulfilled prophecy pointing toward the Day of the Lord, but those events put us in the ballpark, not on home plate, so to speak.

 

Interestingly, they all center on Israel and the Jewish people, almost like the Father who created them had it all planned out in advance, along with the Son who is their Messiah, and the Holy Spirit who desires to save, regenerate, and fill them. Oh wait! The Triune God did!

 

Follow me, okay?

 

From the start, the children of Israel were an imperfect bunch. Even after being saved from Egypt, led by Moses to Mount Sinai, and willingly entering into a covenant with their divine King, they struggled so hard to remain faithful to Him. When we read their history in the Hebrew scriptures, we see that their unfaithfulness caused them to get the covenant “royal spanking” when Yehovah kicked the northern kingdom of Israel out of their God-given land via the Assyrian empire, and exiled them to the eastern frontiers.

 

About 60 years later, the southern kingdom of Judah took its spanking for the same reason, turning its back on its covenant King. The Babylonian empire showed up on Jerusalem’s doorstep, tore the city and the Temple down, and exiled most of the remaining Israelites to Babylon on the other end of the fertile crescent, just north of the Persian Gulf of today.

 

But Yehovah wasn’t finished with His people. The two exiles were just time-outs for the Israelites to think about what they had done. During their time of exile, Yehovah promised to bring them all home, to resettle them in their God-given land, to change their hearts, and to prosper them above the nations (Jeremiah 29:10-14; Isaiah 44:24-28; Ezekiel 36:24, 37:21; Zechariah 8:22-23; Malachi 3:12). Go ahead. Check out the verses. I’ll wait.

 

But here’s the kicker.

 

Not many Jews returned from the Assyrian exile. Most of them assimilated into the eastern nations where they had been scattered. A people group in northeast India who call themselves the Bene Menashe (Bee-nay’ Mah-nah-shay’) have been recognized by the modern state of Israel as descendants of Manasseh’s tribe and allowed to immigrate home (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) as part of the Jewish community.

 

As for the Jews who lived in Babylon, more returned, but many remained there. All of this happened around 500 B.C.

 

Fast forward to first-century Judea. The region of Israel had been absorbed into the Roman Empire as a province since Rome first occupied the area in 63 B.C. From that time to A.D. 66, the Jews endured repeated indignities, over-the-top taxes, Rome-appointed High Priests (from turncoat Jewish ruling families), and threats from Roman emperors. These abuses led to the First Jewish rebellion (A.D. 66-70), which climaxed in a Jewish civil war within the walls of Jerusalem, followed by the onslaught of the Roman legions encircling the city. It got ugly fast. Over a million Jews were killed in the rebellion, and multitudes were enslaved (jewishvirtuallibrary.org).

 

Sadly, that wasn’t the end. The Second Jewish Rebellion against Rome commenced with the Bar Kokhba Revolt, led by Shimon Bar Kokhba (A.D. 132–135). This revolt, while seeing great successes at first, became an unmitigated disaster for the Jews and their nation.

 

“Following the (final) battle of Bethar, there were a few small skirmishes in the Judean Desert Caves, but the war was essentially over and Judean independence was lost. The Romans plowed Jerusalem with a yoke of oxen. Jews were sold into slavery and many were transported to Egypt. Judean settlements were not rebuilt. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were forbidden to live there. They were permitted to enter only on the 9th of Av to mourn their losses in the revolt. Hadrian changed the country’s name from Judea to Syria Palestina…After 73 A.D., Hebrew history would only be the history of the Diaspora as the Jews and their worldview spread over Africa, Asia, and Europe” (jewishvirtuallibrary.org).

 

The consequences of this horrendous defeat cemented the Jewish Diaspora (“diaspora” = “dispersion, scattering”), which began with the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

 

The fantastic thing is how Yehovah has preserved His people in the midst of such awful tribulations over the last 2,747 years. The most remarkable event was the resurrection of the Jewish State in 1948, declaring the reversal of the many previous exiles. However, many Jews still live in the Diaspora, particularly in the United States.

 

Yes, Yehovah preserved His people, despite even the most dreadful persecutions at the hands of Gentile nations—the Crusades, the pogroms, the Holocaust, and the terrorism of today. Since October 7, 2023, we’re seeing the rise of global antisemitism by nations, people groups, and anti-Israel/anti-Jewish movements.

 

The worst antisemitism to witness is the disgusting, vile garbage coming from Christians who hold to Replacement Theology/Supersessionism, which declares “that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan. Adherents of replacement theology believe the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel, and “that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church, not in Israel. The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are spiritualized or allegorized into promises of God’s blessing for the church” (gotquestions.org, italics author).

 

The Jewish Messiah has replaced His people with the Gentile Church? Really?

 

Yehovah gave His answer to those Christians when the nation of Israel was reconstituted in 1948, after and amidst waves of Jews returning home, beginning in the late 1800s. As a theologian would put it, “So there!”

 

But Yehovah has a warning for the nations and people who have historically neglected and abused His people, and for those who do so during the End Times.

 

“Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there because of my people, my inheritance Israel. The nations have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided up my land.” (Joel 3:1-2)

 

Even though Yehovah used the nations around Israel to discipline His people for turning to idolatry, the nations took it too far. No doubt, these people succumbed to satanic influence that was (and is) attempting to subvert the Lord’s plan of salvation and work to restore humanity and His creation. But there’s always a price to pay when overstepping Yehovah’s line.

 

He will judge them for their anti-Jewish/antisemitic decisions and actions in the Valley of Decision.

 

“Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for holy war; rouse the warriors; let all the men of war advance and attack! Beat your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say, “I am a warrior.” Come quickly, all you surrounding nations; gather yourselves. Bring down your warriors there, Lord. Let the nations be roused and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the surrounding nations. Swing the sickle because the harvest is ripe. Come and trample the grapes because the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because the wickedness of the nations is extreme. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will cease their shining. The Lord will roar from Zion and make his voice heard from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will shake. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites.” (Joel 3:9-16, italics author)

 

Jehoshaphat means “Yehovah has judged” in Hebrew. The physical location of the Valley of Jehoshaphat is presumed to be the Kidron Valley on the east side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives. If taken literally, it seems like that valley will be a place of slaughter, where the Lord will judge the nations. But how can the Lord bring all those nations into that small valley for judgment?

 

What I see in this prophecy is the surety that the King of Israel, the Lion of Judah’s Tribe, the quintessential Jew, Messiah Jesus Himself, will judge the anti-Jewish nations and peoples for what they have done to His people in the Last Days, or perhaps throughout history. Since verse 17 says, “Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will never overrun it again,” it seems clear that this will happen in the future at the end of the End Times, and at the start of Jesus’ Millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:2-7, italics author).

 

So, this is what I would say to everyone around the globe who has decided it’s okay to persecute the Jews, “Are you ready for God’s decision about you?”

 

I find the polarization between pro- and anti- Jew/Israel fascinating and grievous. I believe we’re watching spiritual warfare in action, sifting humanity into those who stand with the Lord and His plan and those who don’t.

 

No, I don’t believe Israel is perfect or that every Jewish person is perfectly righteous. They’re not, just like you and I are not. That’s between them and the Lord.

 

What we see in Joel and the people of the world today is a revelation of those who are aligning with the Lord and His plan, and those who aren’t.

 

Judgment Day is coming. What have you decided?

 

Sources:

 

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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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