From Mourning to Joy

Sermon Transcript

We are at the point of ending the Christmas season, which is often called “The most wonderful time of the year.” A time of the year when there are festivities, time with friends and family, time away from the demands of work, and songs singing of joy, good tidings, and cheer. Yet in reality, for some of us, this is actually not the most wonderful time of the year. A poll from the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2022 found that 47% of people living in the Northeast would agree that their overall mood declines during the winter, and nearly a quarter of respondents stated that they feel depressed during winter. Sadly, this is not confined simply to the holidays. Up to 53.8 million Americans report near-daily symptoms of anxiety or depression, and the rates of anxiety and depression in young adults have roughly doubled in the last two decades. We see through all of this that, despite what we might say or sing, we live in a world where there is often little joy, and the joy that many do experience during times like the holidays is not a lasting kind of joy.

Today, we’ll be diving into a passage from the book of Nehemiah that touches on the topic of joy and how a true understanding of God’s Word can turn our mourning to lasting joy and an active praise of our God. For those of you who were with us a number of weeks ago when we were going through the book of Daniel, you’ll find that we are picking up in history a little over one hundred years after the time of Daniel when Jerusalem was invaded and conquered by the Babylonian king, King Nebuchadnezzar, and the people of Israel were sent into exile. Following the people of Israel being sent into exile by the Babylonians, the Medo-Persian empire would rise up and defeat the Babylonians under the Persian king, King Cryus, and a decree would be given that the Israelites could begin returning from exile. In the book of Ezra, we read of the efforts of the returning Israelites to rebuild the Temple and the return of the Levite priests in order to teach God’s Law among the people. In the book of Nehemiah and a little over a decade later, we read that Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer for the Persian king, King Artaxerxes, learns of the current status of Jerusalem and the remnant of Israelites living there from men returning from Jerusalem: “‘The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.’” Nehemiah 1:3

Upon learning of the state of Jerusalem and the people there, Nehemiah is dismayed and saddened and begins praying, fasting, and confessing the sins of himself and the Israelites to God, asking for mercy. Now, King Artaxerxes takes notice of Nehemiah’s sad state and inquires and learns of the reason behind it and of Nehemiah’s desire to go to Jerusalem to help the people and rebuild the walls of the city. Upon learning the reason for Nehemiah’s distress and Nehemiah’s desire to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, King Artaxerxes makes Nehemiah governor of Judah and sends him to Jerusalem with a decree to rebuild the walls around the city. Despite opposition from the Israelite’s enemies to the rebuilding of the wall and even multiple assassination attempts on Nehemiah’s own life, God displays His great power in having the Israelites rebuild the walls around Jerusalem in just 52 days, leaving the enemies of the Israelites greatly dismayed. 

This is where we pick up in Nehemiah 8: God is clearly with Nehemiah and the Israelites, the Israelites are returning from exile, the Temple has been rebuilt, and the city walls have been rebuilt in record time, yet while there might be an outward physical restoration of God’s people and the city of Jerusalem, Nehemiah and Ezra are about to find that there is still a great need for an inward spiritual revival and restoration of God’s people. In fact, the most important thing to God was a restoration of God’s covenant with His people. Afterall, the Israelites had been taken into exile in the first place because they had failed to keep God’s covenant. Now with God bringing His people back out of exile, they needed to be reminded of God’s covenant with His people in His Word, and they needed to learn what that meant for them and how they are to live as God’s people. So, today, we will see that: The understanding of God’s Word turns mourning into joy. We’ll see within this passage in Nehemiah:

• The initial response to God’s Word: Mourning (v. 9-11)
• The final response to God’s Word: Rejoicing (v. 12)
• The desire to understand God’s Word (v. 1-8)

From the beginning of the passage, we start with a clear desire from the people to hear and understand God’s Word. In the first few verses, we see that the people call for Ezra, the priest, to bring the Book of the Law of Moses and to read it to them, that all of the people who were of an age who could understand gathered to hear the reading of God’s Word, and that the people had specifically built a wooden platform for Ezra to read and teach from just for this purpose. Not only that, but we read that Ezra read from God’s Word from early morning to midday and that all of the people were attentively listening to God’s Word during this time. Some people think our sermons are long when they go over 45 minutes, but we see here a people who are eager to attentively listen to God’s Word for 6 hours or more! These are a people who are clearly hungry for God’s Word! Do we have the same hunger for God’s Word as the Israelites do here? 

 

With New Year’s and New Year’s resolutions right around the corner, many of us will or have previously made the resolution that we would read the Bible more, yet how many of us have started a yearly Bible reading program only to not finish it? What starts off as something that we are happy to do can turn into a daily chore instead. If this sounds familiar, we ought to reflect and ask ourselves why this is the case? Why don’t we desire to immerse ourselves daily and for long periods of time in the Bible, in the very Word of God? Why don’t we echo what the Psalmist says in Psalm 119: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Ultimately, there can be a number of reasons why we lack a desire to immerse ourselves into God’s Word, but here are three common reasons why: 

1. The Bible can be intimidating to read.
2. We come across parts of the Bible that we dislike or wrestle with.
3. We simply lack the desire to read God’s Word.

First, let’s tackle the fact that the Bible can be intimidating to read and to understand. After all, the Bible was written thousands of years ago, is made up of 66 different books that recount many different stories, books, and figures within it using different writing styles that we may not be familiar with or even recognize. This can lead to questions like: How do we know where to even start? When we pick a book to read, how do we know who the figures and places are? How can we begin to understand the cultural context of the day when the book was written thousands of years ago in a world that looked different than the one we live in now? All of this can feel quite overwhelming, but it’s helpful in this instance to take a step back and remember that while the 66 books of the Bible were written by different authors, in different places, at different times, they were all inspired by God and all point to the same one big story. That story is a story of the Gospel, of a gracious God and how He redeems a broken people and brings them into relationship with Himself through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Remembering this as the big picture of the Bible is helpful, and taking a step back while reading the books of the Bible and asking the question of how you see the Gospel unfolding in what you are reading is helpful in preventing us from getting overwhelmed or lost while reading God’s Word. 

However, it is also the case that understanding and reminding ourselves of the main underlying story of the Bible does not necessarily help us to understand the figures, places, culture, and stories that we come across. This is similar to the people within Nehemiah 8. The Israelites at this time were a people returning from exile, and many of them likely did not speak the Hebrew that the Bible was written in at that time. Because of this we see in verse 7 and 8 that: “The Levites, helped the people to understand the Law….” and “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” God’s people had a desire to understand and hear God’s Word, yet they lacked the skills and training, the ability, to do so. Does this mean that they are out of luck and left to their own devices to try and read and interpret God’s Word? No! Despite the years of exile, wars, and turmoil, we see that God has been faithful and steadfast to His people and has maintained a remnant of His people, the Levites, who do understand God’s Word and can teach the people the meaning of God’s Word. Similarly today, we have pastors and elders, the teachers within our local church, who have been brought up and trained in God’s Word and the teaching of His Word to the church and are able to walk alongside us as we read through God’s Word and teach us the meaning of what we are reading, what it tells us about our God, what it means for us, and how we are called to respond. This is one of the many reasons why being part of a local church that consistently and correctly preaches the Gospel is so crucial. Simply having the desire to understand God’s Word does not mean that God will instantly grant us the wisdom to do so. Instead, God has ordained that local churches should have pastors and elders who can teach God’s Word and help us to begin and continue to grow in our understanding of His Word.

Next, let’s think about another reason we may lack a desire for God’s Word: We come across parts of the Bible that we dislike and that we wrestle with. Even after we gain an understanding of the historical and cultural context of what we are reading in God’s Word and are taught the meaning of His Word and how it relates to the Gospel, we will still come across parts of the Bible that we dislike or that we wrestle with. Topics like predestination, the presence of evil within the world and God’s judgement of sin, the nature of hell, and many more are all topics that have been and will continue to be hotly debated, both among Christians and non-Christians alike. When we come to a part of the Bible that we wrestle with, it can be hard to feel like the Bible is “honey on our lips.” It can be tempting to simply ignore these parts of the Bible when in fact we should do the opposite. We should dive all the deeper into parts of the Bible that we wrestle the most with! After all, if we are uncomfortable with God’s Word, His primary way of revealing Himself and who He is to His people, then we are really uncomfortable with God Himself! Often in these cases, our study of God’s Word is clouded by preconceived opinions, our feelings, or our false understanding of who God is. After all, if we come to God’s Word with the preconceived idea that the existence of evil in the world implies that the God of the Bible cannot be a loving, caring God, then it will be hard for God’s Word to ever taste like honey on our lips! If we’re honest with ourselves about these moments of discomfort while reading God’s Word, we would confess that it’s ultimately a matter of the heart. We do not naturally desire God. We do not naturally understand His Word or the true things that are revealed about God within it. In fact, our natural state as a fallen people is to be openly hostile against God and His Word. 

So, what do we do knowing that our natural state is to resist God? How do we grow in our desire of God? One thing that we should do is pray for new tastebuds on the tongue of our hearts. We cannot, of our own will, create within our hearts a desire for God and His Word. Only God Himself through the Spirit can do that. The same Psalmist who exclaimed that the Word of God tastes like honey on his lips also prayed within Psalm 119: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” The Psalmist realized that it was God alone who could open the eyes of our hearts to the wondrous things within God’s Word. Many of us are familiar with Romans 3 where we read: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” But, later on in Romans 9, we read Paul also telling us that it is God alone who can change this condition by writing: “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” No amount of work or willpower on our part will change the natural state of our hearts. We cannot will ourselves to desire or delight in God. Therefore, we must cry out to Him and ask Him to change our hearts. Despite the fact that we are helpless to change the natural condition of our heart, once God does begin working within our hearts and we respond by praying for new hearts and a desire for Him, we can rejoice in knowing that we have a God who hears and answers these prayers. We read in Luke 11: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you….”

Now, while we cannot will our heart’s desires to change, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a role to play in desiring God. Reading God’s Word is a spiritual discipline, and like other disciplines in our life, it takes work and willpower to grow in. If we want to grow stronger physically, we have to choose to exercise, even when we don’t want to. If we want to grow in our ability in a certain field or study, we have to choose to study and practice, even when we don’t want to. Reading and studying God’s Word is no different. I sometimes think about the many hours I put in studying in college and grad school to be able to do the work that I do today, and I wonder if I pursued God’s Word and studied it with the same fervor and energy, how much more would I know and understand God’s Word? How much more would I have a better understanding of God’s love for me that is shown over and over again within His Word and grow in my desire to be in God’s Word? Admittedly, though, we are finite beings who have a finite amount of time during the day, and we do have responsibilities in this life that God has called us to. However, it’s important to properly prioritize these responsibilities in our lives. After having fasted for forty days and forty nights, Jesus was tempted by the Devil to turn stones into bread to eat, but Jesus responded by saying: “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” More important than eating, even after fasting for forty days and nights, was the very word of God. Are we willing to lose 30 extra minutes of sleep to get the chance to read the Bible, God’s very Word?

Finally, it’s also important to note that the desire to hear and understand God’s Word was not enough for the people in Nehemiah to fully understand God’s Word and what it meant for them. In fact, we see in verse 7 that the Levites: “Helped the people to understand the Law,” and again in verse 8 the Levites: “Read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave sense, so that the people understood the reading.” Through this, we see that we are not meant to gain understanding of God’s Word on our own. Similar to how God had appointed priests to understand and teach His Word to the people during Nehemiah’s time, God has appointed pastors and elders of our local churches today to help Christians of our time understand His Word. Listening to the preaching of God’s Word each Sunday and working through challenging passages or theological topics with our elders should be a cornerstone of our growth in understanding God’s Word in our personal devotional time. But, like reading God’s Word in our own personal time, listening to God’s Word being preached is also a skill, so what can we do to improve upon that skill? In his book, “Listen up! A practical guide to listening to sermons,” Christopher Ash provides some helpful steps we all can take. First, he suggests that we approach each sermon with active listening, just as we see in our passage that the people were attentive listeners. What does that mean practically? Well, when we listen to a sermon, we should seek to both understand what is being taught but also how we can apply it to our own lives. This often means asking questions like:

“What is this passage teaching me about God?”

“How does this apply to my life right now?”

“What action is God calling me to take?”

Another helpful tip that is recommended and is similar to what can be useful in our own personal devotional time is to listen for how the sermon fits into the big picture of God’s plan for salvation. By focusing on how the sermon and passage being preached fit into the overall story of the Gospel can help us to focus on what is most important for our lives and for our understanding of who God is and what His plan for His people are. The last time that Jesus appears to His disciples before ascending into heaven, Luke 24:44 tells us: “Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations….’” And as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians: “We preach Christ crucified.” This is the core message of all of the Bible. It is the core message that can help to turn our weeping into joy. But, first, we must walk alongside the people of Nehemiah’s time as they are taught the meaning of God’s Word and as their mourning turns to joy.

• The initial response to God’s Word: Mourning (v. 9-11)

And, why do we say that they have more to learn? Because in verse 9 we see a shift in the people’s response to God’s Word when we read that: “All the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.” Why the weeping? Well, if we look a little bit later in Nehemiah in the next chapter, we see in Nehemiah 9:16-17 that the Israelites come before the Lord and begin to confess the many ways that they and the Israelites before them had sinned and broken the covenant with God. Speaking of the Israelites that God had brought up out of Egypt they confess: “‘But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.’” For generation after generation, God’s people had actively turned their backs on their God, the very God who brought them up out of slavery and took care of them throughout their wandering in the desert. Worse yet, we read that God’s people even actively planned and desired to return back into the very slavery that God had just rescued them from! Just imagine if you had rescued someone from poverty or slavery only to have that person tell you later down the line that they are worse off now after you have helped them than when they were enslaved or impoverished. How hurt would that make you feel? This is exactly how the Israelites were treating God! And were the Israelites of Nehemiah’s time any better? No! We read in Nehemiah 9:33 “‘Yet you” speaking of God “have been in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.’”

One can only imagine that, as Ezra continues to read the Law of God, hour after hour after hour, the Israelites are beginning to despair more and more. They are coming to the crushing realization that they have failed to live up to the Law of God in more ways than they can count. Now, it’s important to note that when God’s Law is mentioned in Nehemiah, we are not simply talking about the Ten Commandments, though those are certainly part of it. Instead, we are talking about the first five books of the Bible Genesis through Deuteronomy, from the beginning of creation and the beginning of God’s chosen people with Abraham, to the eventual freeing of God’s people from slavery in Egypt by Moses and the wandering in the desert until they arrive at the Promised Land. Throughout all of these books, the Israelites of Nehemiah’s time are surely seeing the cycle of sin within their ancestors, a cycle of receiving God’s grace, forgetting it, rebelling against God, and ultimately needing to be restored once more. Worse yet, the Israelites were recognizing not just the sins of their forefathers before them but also seeing the same patterns of sin and rebellion against God in their own lives. 

Throughout the book of Nehemiah, we are confronted with the sins of the Israelites of that day. Chief among the sins of the people of the day were intermarrying with non-believing people and the adoption of their idol worship, neglect of the God’s Temple and the priests within whereby the Israelites were failing to tithe and give to the priests of the temple, forcing the priests to even return to the fields as farmers just to survive; and oppression of the poor where the Israelites were giving predatory loans to the poor whom they knew could not repay and then taking the poor and their children into slavery upon failure to repay. We can see quite clearly that, even though God was bringing back the Israelites from an exile that God had imposed upon them for sinning, the Israelites had not changed even a little in their sinful ways. 

Now, it’s easy for us to look at the Israelites and judge them for the sins that they were committing and feel pretty good about ourselves. After all, we aren’t worshiping false idols like Baal, and we aren’t selling the poor into slavery, right? Our idols may not look the same today as they did in ancient times, but we certainly do have idols, things that we prioritize, rely on, or fear more than God: Career, money, comfort, approval, self-sufficiency, political identity, romantic relationships or family, the list can go on. And while we may not be selling the poor into slavery today, Christians and non-Christians alike can abuse the poor in countless similar ways as the Israelites through things like subprime lending, landlords who charge maximum rent for substandard housing, Christian charity teams who treat the poor as projects instead of as people made in the image of God, or even just a general lack of care for the poor. And even if you don’t see yourself in any of those descriptions, Jesus tells His audience in the Sermon on the Mount that anyone who is angry against someone, anyone who even thinks lustful thoughts, and anyone who fails to love their enemies has fallen short of the standard that God has given us and has sinned. Yet, Jesus follows all of this up with something even more astounding by saying: “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48. Perfect, God expects perfection from us. This is where we begin to see the reason for the weeping of the Israelites as they read God’s Law. The weeping comes from the realization that they have broken God’s Law

When someone comes to the realization that they have broken God’s Law, they can be struck with fear and sorrow, just as the Israelites were when hearing the Law. Now, it’s important to understand that there is a righteous kind of sorrow in these moments and a kind of self-serving sorrow. A self-serving sorrow is a sorrow born of sadness for the consequences you now face for the wrongs you have done. It is possible to be sorry for the consequences you are facing from your actions without actually regretting what you have done. Like a thief who regrets getting caught stealing because it has landed them in jail but would gladly steal again if they knew that they could get away with it, it’s possible that the Israelites are weeping only because they are hearing of the consequences they now face because of breaking God’s Law, and there are many consequences listed in the Bible for doing so. In Leviticus 26, one of the books of the Bible that Ezra reads to the people of Israel in Nehemiah 8, we read of God warning His people of progressive judgements against them if they fail to live up to God’s Law. God warns that He will send terror, wasting disease, and fever; their lands will yield no crops; wild animals will attack them; the Israelites will be turned over to their enemies, and their cities will be turned to ruin. Ultimately, God will exile His people out of the land that he had promised them and be forced to live in constant fear with no rest. These are things that could easily lead to one weeping over facing for their actions! 

But there is also a deeper level of sorrow and regret for our sins: A mourning of how our actions are a direct rebellion against a loving and patient God and actions that grieve Him directly. We read in Genesis 6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.” In his commentary on this passage, John Calvin wrote: “We ought not to imagine that God is iron-hearted or incapable of being affected…. Scripture speaks of Him as grieving, not because He is subject to passion, but because He truly cares.” It is important to note that God’s grief at our sin is not a loss of control on God’s part or an ability of mere man to impact God but is an expression of His holiness. God is grieved by the broken fellowship with His creation and children that sin brings about and because sin harms what God loves, us. And should we not weep because of this? Should we not weep because our sin fractures our fellowship with our Creator, our God who is patient and steadfast in love towards us? 

But praise God that our passage in Nehemiah does not end here. It does not end with weeping and sorrow because our God does not leave His children with weeping and sorrow but with praise and rejoicing! Several times in Nehemiah 8 we see the command not to remain weeping: “Do not mourn or weep.” (v.9) “And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (v.10) “Do not be grieved.” (v.11) It is right for us to mourn and be grieved by the recognition of our sins against God, but it is not right for us to only remain in grief and mourning. As John Piper states on this matter: “Grief is good. Fear is good. Penitence is good. Tears are good. But not if that’s all you feel.” Within God’s holiness is not only the purity and perfection of His justness but also of His mercy and grace. A people who are only weeping and mourning do not reflect the glory of God and His mercy and grace.

• The final response to God’s Word: Rejoicing (v. 12)

And we see this being taught to the Israelites by the Levites and Ezra, as we see the priests telling the people to cease their mourning but also to go and celebrate and be joyful. We see in verse 10: “‘Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’” Eating fat and drinking sweet wine were things reserved for celebration, so not only are the Levites telling the people to stop mourning, but to also replace it with celebrating and joy! Now, you may have caught within verse 10 that “this day is holy to our Lord,” and again we read in verse 11 “Be quiet, for this day is holy,” and again before this in verse 9 we read: “This is a day holy to the Lord your God.” Why the emphasis on this day being holy to the Lord? Well, at the end of verse 2 we read that Ezra began reading the Law to the people “on the first day of the seventh month.” Now, many of us likely don’t know what might be special about the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, but this day marks a festival day called the Festival of the Trumpets. As its name implies, the Festival of the Trumpets is marked with the sound of trumpets, and it is these trumpet calls that are meant to remind the people of the trumpet blasts that marked the presence of God on Mount Sinai as God came to speak directly with Moses, give the Ten Commandments, and enter into a covenant with the people of Israel. The Festival of Trumpets is meant to remind the people of this event and to remind them of their covenant with God, their duty to follow the Law of God, which they have just spent the entire day hearing and being taught and realizing that they have fallen far short of upholding. So, why the call to not be grieved and to celebrate when the Israelites have not held up their end of the covenant? 

The thing about covenants is that there are multiple parties involved in it, and the beautiful thing about this particular covenant is that the Israelites have entered into it with the God of the universe, a God that we read being described in Nehemiah 9:17 “‘…you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.’” when God was dealing with past sinful generations of Israel. The reason that the Levites are telling the people not to be grieved is because they know that they are in covenant with a God who is “ready to forgive, gracious, and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” When God’s people return from sin with repentful hearts, as the Israelites are doing here, God welcomes them back with open arms ready to forgive them and to shower them in grace and mercy. What a reason to rejoice!

And likewise for us today, we serve the same God who is eager to welcome us into relationship with Him when we come to Him with repentant hearts. We may have broken the Law of God, and God has perfectly upheld His end of the deal, yet the God we serve is a merciful and gracious God who deeply desires for His children to return to Him and walk alongside Him in obedience and rejoicing. Yet, our God is also a just God, a God who must bring about justice for the sins that we have committed, so what are we to do? This is where this passage in Nehemiah points us towards the Gospel and Jesus Christ. Notice at the end of verse 10 the famous verse “‘for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’” What do we need strength for? What are we being protected from? Why are we to be joyful in the Lord? We need strength because, as all of us have broken the Law of God, we all stand condemned and the wrath of a just and holy God is speeding towards any of us who have broken the Law and have not yet repented from it. Yet we are to rejoice in the Lord for there is a refuge within Him from the guilt, shame, and fear that overcomes us when we hear the Law. That refuge is Christ Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, who stepped down from Heaven and took on the body of a man, lived the perfect, sinless life we never could have done, and ultimately sacrificed Himself on the cross, taking on the sins of all of God’s children and in exchange granting God’s righteousness to us so that all of God’s children may now stand unafraid and no longer condemned by the Law. Christ is our strength and our refuge from the wrath of God. He took on the wrath of God and judgement that we all deserved. As R. C. Sproul once put it: “Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered.”

So, you see, how firm a foundation we have for rejoicing in Christ when compared to the things of this world that we might be tempted to find our joy in instead? The refuge that Christ offers through His death and resurrection is of infinite value, and best of all, God offers it freely to those who seek Christ as their treasure. Now, one important thing to note about the response that the people are called to in Nehemiah 8. It is a response that is a call to outward celebration, one of feasting and giving to the needy. Why is this important? Because, if we are a people who truly delight in our God and what He has done, is doing, and will do for us, then how can we help but to outwardly praise and rejoice in our God? We see this in Luke 19:38-40 where we see that “Upon Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the people broke out in praise in a loud voice for all of the great things that they had seen Jesus do saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ Yet the Pharisees said to Jesus because of this: ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples,’ and Jesus replied ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’” Did you catch that? Our Savior is so great that the very stones would cry out if His people did not shout His praises! 

An additional point to make here on rejoicing in the Lord and the kind of rejoicing that God is seeking from His people. You may have noticed that the command that is given to the Israelites in Nehemiah is to go feast and to give to the needy and those who do not have anything prepared. Why would that be the case? Well, one reason that it might be the case is because, just as the love and joy that God has within Himself overflows outward and onto His people, the joy and delight that we find in our God should also overflow from within us and onto those around us. This joy that is our strength is a kind of joy that should affect everything we do. Speaking on this kind of joy, John Piper says: “It humbles us, breaks us, satisfies us, frees us, overflows from us. It is a restless joy that grows by including others in it. This expansive restlessness is called love.” We see a great example of this kind of overflowing joy and love when Paul writes of the church in Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:2-3: “…in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord.” The love and joy found in God is a restless overflowing joy that meets the needs of others. 

Finally, one last point on the kind of joy that God is seeking from His people. Our God is not seeking for a people who rejoice in Him or give to others in a forced or simply dutiful manner. Instead, God is seeking a people who worship Him because it is their own greatest desire to worship and praise Him, it is a joy to worship Him, not because they are forcing themselves to do so. We see at the end of 2 Corinthians 8:3 that the church of Macedonia gave “…of their own accord.” They desired and were glad to give! Imagine the difference in the joy we feel when we receive a random gift from someone “just because” or because they were thinking of us compared to when we receive presents on our birthday or on Christmas. It’s great to receive gifts on our birthdays or Christmas, but it feels all the more special when we receive gifts from others on ordinary days! Why? Because the gift that is given on a random day is truly a gift given of one’s own accord. It is given because the person was thinking of you and cares for you, not just because it is a requirement that they give you a gift on a certain day. Similarly, God is seeking a people who worship Him because they desire to worship and praise Him, it is a joy to worship Him, not because they are forcing themselves to do so. Jesus said of the Pharisees: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Matthew 15:8

So, what reason do we have to rejoice in the Lord and have joy in Him? Well, most of all, we have reason because our God is a God who desires His children deeply. He is not a distant or uninterested God. He is a God who is deeply jealous for His children. If you are in Christ, He desires and loves you far more than any earthly parent, friend, spouse, or child ever could love or desire you. And this is a great reason to rejoice! Despite our sin and rebellion against the very God who loves us like this, He remains faithful and patient with us to the very end, so rejoice and delight in God because we have a God who delights in His children!