Strength from Joy

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Ne 8:10 AV)

Israel had returned to the holy city and repaired the temple.  They returned to rebuild the wall.  As they were doing so, they had time to reflect on how things came to be as they were.  It was the disobedience of their nation that resulted in the consequent ruin that they were now trying to resolve.  They thought back on the years of idol worship, sodomy, and human sacrifice.  They saw their failure to keep the law, keep the Sabbath, and keep Jehovah as their only true God.  When they finished the temple, the older generation who knew of the first temple, wept.  They wept because the new temple was simple and nothing to be compared to the elaborate beauty of the older temple.  To them, it was a giant step backward.  All this remorse built up into one massive national repentance.  They wept and sobbed for all they had failed to do. They fell on their faces as the law was read, realizing the absolute abomination they had become to the God who had treated them so well.  This was the right thing to do.  But one cannot stay in that state of remorse and sorrow.  If they truly believed in the mercy of God, it was time to rejoice in it.  There are multiple reasons we may be in a state of sorrow.  But it is not good to stay there.  The longer we stay in the state of sorrow, the more our strength to continue wanes.  Joy is the answer.

I cannot purport to be an expert here.  I tend to be a natural pessimist.  It is safer that way.  I am never disappointed because I come that way.  When times are hard, I often become overwhelmed and joy becomes scarce.  I definitely did not get that from my mother.  She was just the opposite.  We remember several times she turned disaster into a fun event.  I think of the time when we were traveling down the N.Y. state thruway and she had to go to the bathroom really bad.  There were no restrooms for quite a while but she could not wait.  She gave my dad such a hard time, he pulled over and she ran into the woods.  This is with hundreds of cars passing at any given moment.  Praise the LORD she was discreet.  Rather than getting into the car angry with my father, we all laughed about it.  Then there was the diaper-dropping incident at the airport.  Going through security and my brother’s diaper was so full, it dropped to the floor.  My mom handled it like a pro!  She was the sunshine in any room.  She was the life of our family.  When things were hard, you would never have known it.  The one memory I have of her that truly sticks out was her refusal to wear wigs when she was suffering from chemo.  She lost all her hair, but she would not wear wigs.  She wore her bald head with pride.  A simple wrap was all she wanted.  My mom knew how to live a joy-filled life through poverty, rough patches in family life, and cancer.  This was the reason she endured so well.  Her joy in the LORD is her strength.

Solomon puts it this way.  “A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Pr 17:22 AV)  As hard as it might be to find joy, finding joy we must.  Israel had a land that lay in ruins.  Nehemiah tells us they had no homes.  The temple was rebuilt and the walls repaired.  But they were still camping in the streets.  There were no fond memories of the place which they now inhabited.  No creature comforts.  No commerce.  No health care system.  No income to speak of.  And, it was all their fault.  Yet, Nehemiah correctly encourages his people that God is good and reversed their captivity so that they might rebuild and have hope.  In the present, joy might have been scarce.  But in the future, it would run over.  With that in mind, the people of God decided to find that in which they could rejoice.  If they continued to be downcast, they would soon lose hope.  If they lost hope, they would soon perish from the land.  Joy is what enabled them to do the impossible.  And, it is joy that will do the same for us.

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