Giving God Joy
Authored by Smitha Basil George under the complete direction and guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, dated December 22, 2023.
Joy — The deep delight
Joy is a sense of satisfaction and contentment experienced by someone, with what one accomplishes or where one belongs. Joy follows when one’s expectations are completely met or exceeded in a very pleasing and timely manner. Joy comes forth when someone experiences deep delight upon their own handiwork, or upon the actions of someone else, or something connected to them. Parents would experience joy when they see their children excelling in the things that they do, which is the desire of every parent’s heart. A person performing any vocation would be overjoyed when their work product excels and exemplifies what it is intended to do and is appreciated very well by its users. Sports competents would be joyful when they win a race / title for which they worked hard over a long time, and would be greatly delighted if the win is by a wide margin or breaks records. It is always a joy to listen to a well played orchestra, or to look at a beautiful painting / artwork, or to read through a well articulated, poetic or captivating book, and their creators will be even more delighted when others appreciate their creations.
Pleasing God
Scriptures for this section [1]:
- John 3
- Hebrews 11
When it comes to pleasing God and giving joy and delight to His heart, there are many events recorded in the Word of God that we can learn from. In the article, ‘Stewarding God’s Provisions’, we went through the details of the parable shared by Lord Jesus Christ, of 2 stewards entering into their master’s joy by faithfully managing and increasing the resources entrusted to them by the master. We, as His creations, and through faith in Jesus Christ being His children, can please our Father’s heart by obeying His word and sincerely taking care of His possessions and provisions.
Hebrews 11 provides a list of excellent witnesses (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and many others) who by their faith in God, accomplished great things, walked intimately with God, and gave joy to God’s heart in their lives. Verses 5 to 6 of Hebrews 11 highlight Enoch, who walked very closely with God and pleased Him, that he was taken up to heaven without encountering physical death. It is mentioned clearly that “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” — Hebrews 11:6. When we approach God, it should be with the clear understanding and belief that God exists, and that He is good and able enough to come through for us, to provide for our needs, and to reward us when we seek Him.
When we walk intimately with God, what is important to God’s heart will become important to our heart as well. When God the Son, Jesus Christ, came from heaven and took our place as an atonement for all humankind’s sin, God was demonstrating what is most important to His heart — we, human beings and His relationship with us (John 3). He valued each human being so much that He became willing to take the much lowly form of a human being, separated Himself from His heavenly glory, came to a very hostile and sinful world, and died the death of a criminal carrying our sins while being perfectly sinless and innocent, so that our sins will be removed forever, that we can enjoy a very close relationship with Him in His highest glory and holiness, without being destroyed. It gives great joy to His heart when we understand and accept this fact, because it paves the way for Him to come to an intimate relationship with us, communicating through His Holy Spirit with us through our re-awakened conscience / born again spirit, and we would no more be separated from Him because of our sins (which got erased by His forgiveness achieved through Jesus taking punishment for our sins).
Let us look into two beautiful accounts on God’s great desire for a renewed relationship with human beings, from His Word. One from the time of the prophets before the arrival of Jesus, and the other from one of Jesus’ own parables on the lost ones, found into His Kingdom.
Jonah and Nineveh
Scriptures for this section [1]:
- 2 Kings 14: 23–29
- The Book of Jonah
Jonah, the son of Amittai was a prophet of the Most High LORD God to the nation of Israel, during the reign of King Jeroboam II who ruled Israel during the middle of 8th century BC. He was tasked with a special message from the LORD God to go and to deliver to the city of Nineveh, that in 40 days it would be overthrown because the wickedness of the city had become great before the LORD. Jonah knew the heart of God that he mentioned— “You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm.” — Jonah 4: 2. He knew God well enough that when he preached the message of repentance to the city of Nineveh and if it repented, God would not punish them at all, even though its wickedness before was great.
Interestingly, Jonah did not share the same heart of God. He did not have a desire for Nineveh to repent or to be saved. Hence he went the other way, and boarded a ship to Tarshish from Joppa. God could have left Jonah on his way and used another prophet to deliver His message to Nineveh. However, He was very gracious to Jonah as well, as much as to let him know and compel him to walk in obedience to His word. He brought about a storm in the sea, where the ship in which Jonah was, and the others in the ship responded in great fear and started praying to the gods that they knew. However, Jonah was found fast asleep at the lowest parts of the ship, as if completely oblivious to the mighty tempest which was almost breaking the ship. He either was so tired to sleep through all that turmoil, or he made himself so numb to God’s promptings that he didn’t care at all. When the sailors and the captain of the ship cast lots on who would be the cause of the trouble, and when it fell on Jonah, they questioned him, and he told them that he was a Hebrew fleeing from the presence of the living LORD God. He further told them to cast him into the sea, because he knew that the tempest was because of him. The men were afraid to do so, and tried to return to the land, but to no avail. They finally relented, cried out to the LORD God for mercy to not charge them with innocent blood, and threw Jonah into the sea, after which the tempest ceased. It is interesting and sad to see that the ship’s captain and sailors had more fear and respect of the LORD God, whom they didn’t know personally, than Jonah, who was His prophet who heard from Him and knew Him closely.
We continue to see the graciousness of God towards Jonah in arranging a fish to swallow him and preventing him from drowning. It took Jonah three days and three nights in the fish’s belly to finally cry out to God and plead for mercy, as we can see in Jonah 2. Ironically, God was showing a great deal of patience to Jonah, whom He was using to preach repentance to Nineveh. It is significant to see that Jonah needed a lot of grace and mercy from God just like how Nineveh needed, whom he was looking down upon. At the end of Jonah’s prayer for mercy, the fish vomited him onto the shore, from where he went to the city of Nineveh, and preached the message God wanted him to preach in the first place.
Nineveh’s response was quite opposite to the self-righteous response of Jonah. The whole city and its king had the humility and fear of the LORD, just like how the ship’s captain and sailors had. They repented genuinely from their hearts, turned from their evil ways and violence, fasted completely and cried out to God for mercy. Seeing all this, God was pleased, and He obtained the intended outcome of His message — genuine repentance of the Ninevites from their evil ways. He was gracious enough not to punish them for their previous wickedness when He understood that they turned from their ways. Jonah’s mission was so successful that he could convince a whole city to turn for good. Still, instead of being joyful with God in seeing this success and a whole city (with a huge number of people with more than 120,000 who didn’t know their right hand from their left — possibly children or people who are very ignorant with respect to moral standards— Jonah 4: 11) denouncing their evil for good, he became exceedingly angry at God for not punishing Nineveh, asked Him to take his life, and sat on the east side of the city to see what would eventually come to the city.
As an extremely patient Father, God still dealt with Jonah in a kind manner, and didn’t take his life as he requested. Instead, He brought forth a plant in a day to protect Jonah from heat, and sent a worm to destroy it the next day. Jonah became angry for the sake of the plant and that he lost his shade, for which he did nothing, and again complained to God that he was angry to death! God then patiently explained to him that if Jonah had concern for a plant for which he labored nothing, how much more would God have concern for a whole city with a large number of ignorant human beings, and a lot of animals, whom He had created and sustained till then with a lot of care. It is very encouraging to see such a kind hearted Father in our Creator, who dealt with the repenting Nineveh and the very offended Jonah with long suffering and tender care that each one needed individually. Nineveh eventually gave God joy, and we could hope Jonah turned his heart for the better to align with God in the same manner.
Two Sons — The prodigal and the older brother
Scriptures for this section [1]:
- Mark 12: 30–31
- Luke 15
The parable of the two sons that Jesus told, as narrated in Luke 15: 11–31 goes in the same line as the incident of Jonah and Nineveh. It was told in the context of Jesus addressing the Pharisees and scribes who were accusing Jesus of relating with sinful people in their eyes. Before getting into the parable of the two sons, Jesus spoke two similar smaller ones as mentioned in Luke 15: 4–10. He said that a man owning 100 sheep would go in search of 1 lost sheep, leaving the other 99 for a while to find the lost one. When he would find it, he would celebrate it with his near and dear ones. This is the same heart that God, the Father has. He would rejoice with everyone in heaven when one sinner repents. The 99 others already would be there with God in their heart and would need no specific repentance. However, the lost one would need to be found from being faced with danger and going into potential death, and he/she turning to God then would become a matter of celebration as he/she would receive their salvation from death / eternal separation from God. The same concept was highlighted in His parable of a woman searching and finding the one lost coin from her set of 10 coins, and rejoicing with her dear ones over finding the lost coin.
Jesus’ next parable of the two sons that a father had, portrays the need of graciousness and forgiveness for both sections of humanity as represented by the sons, from God the Father, in their own individual manner. The younger son didn’t want to live under the authority of his father and asked for his inheritance while the father was still alive, thereby conveying that to him, his father was as good as dead. Despite the grave lawlessness in this dealing, the father gave him what he asked for, which he then squandered in a land far away, with no reverence or thought. When he finally got over with all the resources and found himself in a famine stricken land with no income enough even to eat, he came to his senses and understood what he had lost. He understood how terribly he dealt with his loving father, who treated even their servants with great dignity and care, and gathered up the courage to go back to the father to be considered as a servant. He accepted his own sinfulness, and his need to be helped and redeemed, by appealing to the graciousness of his father.
When he returned home and “was still a great way off, the father saw him, and had compassion, and ran to him” — Luke 15: 20. The father just needed the son to return and was not concerned about whether he brought anything with him or in what situation he was in. He didn’t even wait to hear what the son had to say, but embraced and kissed him. The son managed to mention his repentance to the father, but the father was more focussed on instructing his servants to dress his son up and prepare a feast for him. He was overjoyed on his son returning home to him, rather than mulling over the son’s previous arrogance, and all his wealth that the son squandered. For the father, his son was much greater a treasure than anything he wasted. The father got what he loved back, and he was full of joy and greatly celebrated the return of his loved one.
However, his older son was not that forgiving to his younger brother. In reality, the older son lost nothing. He had everything which rightfully belonged to him, everything the father owned, and the constant presence of his father. The younger son had not sinned against him, but to his father. Still he felt very angry when he saw the father celebrating the younger son’s return. He considered himself to be very righteous, doing everything according to the book, and looked down upon his brother as a sinner, unworthy of his and his father’s love and forgiveness. When we look from the view of a third person, we can see the foolishness in this thought process of the older son. The younger son belonged to the father. The wealth belonged to the father. The younger son would never touch anything that belonged to him. Still looking at the younger son as unworthy to be celebrated, when he himself wasn’t celebrated like that shows the degree of his own self-righteousness, selfishness and hatred towards his brother.
In this situation too, we can see a beautiful parallel that Jesus was weaving about how the father responded to the older son. It was just like how God dealt very patiently with Jonah. The father gently told him that he lost nothing, and all that the father had was his. He explained to him that it was right to celebrate and be joyful because his brother actually was brought back from death, and was found from the terrible danger he was in.
Knowing our Father God’s heart will help us greatly to enter into the joy and restfulness of God. His heart longs for His creations, and especially us human beings, who are purchased by His own life and blood, more than anything. By valuing our fellow humans, helping them in their need, loving them as ourselves, and guiding them to the paths of His righteousness and salvation will bring great joy to the heart of our Father, the most holy LORD God. To put it in His own words:
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” — Mark 12: 30–31
References
- The Holy Bible, https://www.biblegateway.com/, New King James Version.
