Joy Is A Choice

“And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God.” (De 27:7 AV)

Put yourself in their shoes.  They were fixing to cross Jordan.  They buried their parents and grandparents in graves they would never visit again.  They literally survived forty years of wandering in the wilderness by the skin of their teeth.  There was no permanent settlement.  They lived the life of nomads.  They almost lost everything several times over.  Now, they cross the Jordon River and are immediately paced with two major battles.  Looking at their future, it will be filled with war, toil, and death.  This instruction is to the generation that would cross Jordon.  One of the first things they were commanded to do is to rejoice.  That is particularly difficult when one realizes what the immediate future might hold.  I can see how the allurement of the wilderness would be hard to leave.  One may have to wander and never have a home, but at least they were at peace.  Yet, there is it.  The command to rejoice.  This sounds kind of odd.  We normally think of joy as a spontaneous emotional response to exterior circumstances.  Yet, the LORD commands the people to rejoice regardless of exterior circumstances.  Therefore, we are to conclude that joy is something we can choose to feel.

We’ve all gone through that miserable teenage stage where misery seems to be our most faithful companion.  If anyone can rain on a parade, it would be a hormonal teenager.  There was this TV commercial featuring a family with an adolescent son and a teenage daughter.  This commercial featured different activities the family did while on vacation.  In each activity, the daughter could be found with a scowl on her face.  Her mission was to make everyone else as miserable as she was.  The tag line at the end was this vacation spot was so effective; it could relax the worst spirit out there.  Then the camera showed the teenager with a smile on her face and a chuckle under her breath.  While watching this, my wife and I remarked this young lady didn’t need a vacation.  She needed an attitude adjustment.  Have you ever been sent to your room because of a sour disposition?  I have.  How is that fair?  I may have had a bad day at school, got bullied, then found out the girl I liked thought I was no better than a pile of garbage.  How are my parents supposed to know all that?  It didn’t matter.  If I had a miserable attitude, regardless of circumstances, I had to answer for it.  The only way that could be fair is if our disposition was more of a choice than a response.  As far as my parents were concerned, attitude was a choice for which we were accountable.

Joy, as well, is a choice.  It all depends on what we wish to dwell.  Israel could have obsessed about the loss of family.  They could have preoccupied themselves with potential battles in the future.  They could have worried themselves over the struggles that a new nation would face.  Unpredictable weather might be a concern.  How are they to survive until the land could be settled?  Where would their food come from?  How many families would be left fatherless because they were conquering the enemies of God?  What of the two-and-a-half tribes on the other side of Jordon?  No doubt, the fathers and husbands worried day and night for them.  No excuses.  When they entered the land of Promise, even though great hardships still await, they were to rejoice.  They were to find things to be grateful for.  They were to rest their troubled hearts and spirits in the benevolent hand of God.  They were to rejoice that God choose them and that given a bit of tragedy, joy comes in the morning.  The command to rejoice is just that.  A command.  We can choose to be miserable, anxious, or frustrated.  Or we can choose to rejoice.  The ball is in our court.