Joy

In Nehemiah 8, after the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, the people gathered to hear Ezra read from the Book of the Law of Moses (Neh 8:1). While he read it (for half of the day!), the people stood (Neh 8:5) and worshiped (Neh 8:9), and when they heard it, they wept (Neh 8:9). Nehemiah, the governor, told them "Do not mourn or weep," (Neh 8:9) and told them to go home and eat. "And do not be grieved," he added, "for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Neh 8:10)

Think about that for a minute. What did that mean? "The joy of the Lord is your strength." It could mean, "The joy that God has should strengthen you." That is, "God is joyful that we've done this today and that should give you strength." It could mean, "The joy that God gives should strengthen you." Clearly Nehemiah was differentiating between regular joy and what they were experiencing that day. That is, it was not "Let's party because we feel good!" This joy was "of the Lord", not fleshly. Given the context -- the reading of God's Word -- it would appear that this joy was a holy joy in the goodness and grace of God. The answer to my question, then, would be the "joy of the Lord" is the joy that the Lord gives, but we must remember that this joy that the Lord gives comes from the joy that God has. In a sense, then, the answer is "Yes."

In what sense does the joy that God gives (from the joy that God has) provide strength? To me, it is the key. If we have joy in God, it is the best possible motivation for serving Him. We can do it out of duty, but that's more work. We can do it out of fear, but that's not strength. But if we find joy in the Lord, then serving Him is great, not just duty or fear. If the thing that really makes you happy is serving God, then it is the strongest position to have.

Often we are perceived as dour. People think of us as killjoys -- no joy for them and no joy for us. They think we're stern, no fun. I would suggest that people think of that because, honestly, too often it is accurate. But, brothers and sisters, these things ought not be. We serve the Risen Savior, the Creator of all. We serve the God of love, the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Jehovah. We are in the service of the King of kings. Why? Because He saved us and replaced our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. Because it is our joy to do so. When we represent the Christian life as a life of duty and drudgery, we misrepresent the joy that the Lord gives and miss out on the strength we can gain from it. Sometimes, I think, we need a realignment in our thinking and feelings because, in fact, "the joy of the Lord is your strength." And that's certainly something we can offer to others.