Joy - Our Principle Emotion

“So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.” (Ezr 3:13 AV)

 

What a scene that must have been.  The temple was rebuilt and for the first time in over seventy years, there were offerings again at God’s house.  There was a reason there was weeping that went with the rejoicing of others.  Those who wept had every reason to.  They wept because they remembered the former glory of the house of God and compared the appearance of the new temple as inferior to the old.  Upon reflection, they realized it was their sin that resulted in a simpler form of a temple.  There was much remorse and regret from the older crowd because of what the house of God had become.  Yet, the rejoicing of the up-and-coming generation overwhelmed the sorrow of the older crowd.  In this, we see a great balance in emotional reaction to the hand of God over our failures and His forgiveness.

I don’t follow sports all that much.  But I do look at headlines every once in a while.  This past weekend was bowl game weekend.  Friday night there were two playoff games.  Then New Year’s Day rolled around and we have five or six more bowl games.  From what I read, they were pretty good games.  Especially the Ohio State game.  However, one headline caught my attention and I read the article.  I cannot remember the team or bowl, but apparently, a starting quarterback for one of the teams went down with a serious injury.  I think it was later in the game.  It was particularly significant because this young man was projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft.  I think it was the starting quarterback of Ole Miss.  Anyway, Ole Miss went on to lose that game because, in part, because their starting quarterback went down in the third quarter.  Now, writers are wondering what will happen to this young man seeing as how he suffered a serious leg injury.  Time will tell, but we can be certain he will play somewhere.  Wherever he plays, in the back of his mind might be the 2022 Sugar Bowl and a lot of what-ifs.  Whichever team he hooks up with may place him as a second-string player.  Perhaps he will never be the next Tom Brady.  I doubt anyone will be.  However, his future does look significantly better than had he not chosen to play at all.  The setbacks of the past may in part define our future.  But the past does not have to fatally define our future nor dictate our response to the future.

It is quite natural and appropriate to feel remorse, regret, and shame over the failures of life.  If we didn’t feel these things, we wouldn’t be motivated to get right with God.  However, we cannot allow the negative emotions of our sin to overcome the joy that comes from divine forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration.  The days of old may have seemed better.  But they were not.  Tomorrow, for the child of God, can always be better.  No matter how much we have failed in the past, the LORD can overcome it and build a life better than we had before.  Not only that, but God is as much God in the present and future as He was in the past.  The newer temple may have been significantly simpler, but that doesn’t mean the glory of God was any less.  God is not the building.  God is not the facilities.  God is a person and as long as God is in the midst, the properties are of minor consideration.  The point is this.  Our rejoicing over the forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration from God should be louder than our weeping over regret, shame, and remorse.  The joy of God’s mercy should be the chiefest of emotions.  The same is true of the condition of our world.  We can be frustrated, disappointed, and anxious over the direction of this world.  But those emotions should not be strong that the hope of our calling in Christ Jesus.  The church of God should ring out in joy more than it does in weeping.  We may weep in the night, but joy comes in the morning!