The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength (Neh. 8:10)

This sermon was preached on 16/12/2012

The Book of Nehemiah describes a stage in the national recovery of the people of Israel after the exile in Babylon. Almost a hundred years had passed since the first group of exiles had returned after the Persian Emperor, Cyrus, had given them permission, but little progress had been made until Nehemiah came with initiatives to restore the city. The incidents describe in Nehemiah 8 are concerned with what took place on the first day of the seventh month, which in the Jewish calendar was the date of a festival called the Feast of Trumpets. It was followed a fortnight later by the week-long Feast of Tabernacles. So it is possible, indeed likely, that the gathering on the first day was in preparation for what was anticipated on the fifteenth day.

The Danger of Wrong Responses

If we had read the previous chapters of Nehemiah, we would have seen that there had been a great and successful restoration programme in Jerusalem under the guidance of Nehemiah. The city wall had been rebuilt and various schemes of the enemies to prevent them doing so had been prevented. Yet there was still much recovery to take place and the leaders and people wanted to find out how they should do so. Therefore they all gathered together near the Water Gate in order to hear the Word of God read to them. As they listened, they probably realised how far they and their forefathers had fallen from the Lord’s requirements. Despite all their hard, dedicated work, they discovered that many other changes had to be made before things were as they should be. They responded with sorrow as they listened to the Word of God.

Why were they sad? No doubt one reason was that they were repenting of their failures. Listening to the Word of God as it shone its light into their hearts and as it probed their inner man as a sword wielded by the Spirit had a profound effect on them. It was good that they experienced such divine dealings with their souls. Yet Nehemiah realised that there was a danger facing them, that their sorrow had other features which were not so healthy. His words to them indicate that they had forgotten that their God had already done great things for them and could do much more for them in the future. Therefore he urged them to rejoice before the Lord.

As we come here today under the sound of God’s Word we may find ourselves convicted of our failures. All of us have not been what we should be and it is important to confess our sins from our hearts. Hopefully we are doing so even at this moment. Yet we have to watch that repentance is not our only response. Our failures can sometimes blind us to the reality of God’s gracious dealings towards us, both in the past and in the present. The enormity of the task facing us as his witnesses in our society may overwhelm us. Even a kind of spiritual exhaustion arising from having done a lot of work for the Lord may engulf us. And when we are in such a situation of facing up to our sins, of assessing the difficulties facing us from those who don’t love God’s ways, and of reacting to times of service for him, we need to hear the words of Nehemiah, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’

A surprising description of God

Nehemiah called his people to think about God, which obviously was a very wise pastoral exhortation. Such a requirement arises from the basic spiritual reality that God is the solution to our spiritual needs, whatever they may be. We are to look to God when we are happy and we are to look to him when we are sad; we are to look to him when we are afraid and we are to look to him when all is going well. Nehemiah’s people had taken their eyes of him and instead were looking at something else, be it their failures or their weaknesses.

It is easy to say that we should look to God. Yet such an exhortation was not sufficient for Nehemiah. His desire for his people was more specific than a general looking at God. He wanted them to realise a specific feature or aspect of the heart of their God. The attribute he directed them to was the joy of their Lord. They were sad, but Nehemiah pointed them to the One who was glad.

This raises the interesting question as to where the Lord will find joy. We can answer that question by saying that within the Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit there is an eternal fountain of joy. Such is true and is a profound reality. Or we may remind ourselves of the words of Jesus in when he is speaking about part of the reward that will be given to his people: ‘Enter into the joy of your Lord.’ That promise highlights that the joy believers will receive then is God’s own joy. So we can deduce that the experience of believers throughout eternity will involve entering into the joy of the Lord continually. The main reason for the Lord’s joy will be connected to the presence of all his people with him and the anticipation of giving to them great blessings throughout the endless ages to come.

Nevertheless the Bible leads us to think about causes for divine joy that are found in the Lord during this life. Here are two common occasions that bring great joy to the Lord.

The first concerns a sinner’s conversion when he or she repents of their sins and trusts in the Saviour. Jesus informed his listeners us Luke 15, through his parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost sons, that there is joy in heaven when sinners repent of their sins and return to God. The Saviour says that the joy is found in the presence of the angels of God when that occurs, and we should capitalise the first letter of the word ‘presence’ because it is a description of God. He is the Presence of the angels. Of course, it is because of the riches of his grace that sinners have come to him in repentance. The Holy Spirit has worked in their hearts, convicting them of their sinfulness, in order to lead them to repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever that happens, and it has happened on innumerable occasions, the Lord in heaven experiences great joy.

Another occasion of divine joy is when his backsliding people return to him and want to please him. A description of his delight is found in Zephaniah 3:16-18: ‘On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.  The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.  I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.’ Something similar is described in our passage as happening in Jerusalem. The children of Israel have returned to the Lord after decades of failure following their return to the Promised Land from exile in Babylon. As is the case with initial repentance from sin, deep repentance is produced in his backsliding people by the Lord’s rich grace. Nevertheless he rejoices in their renewed attitude as he listens to their confession of sin and prayers for divine restoration, and Nehemiah indicates that the penitents should not only be sorry for their failures, but should also know the joy of the Lord as their strength.

Thinking a bit more about this joy that exists in the heart of God should lead us to focus on particular aspects of it in order to understand what is happening. Here are three aspects of the divine joy: first, it is forgiving joy which rejoices in providing a free and full pardon; second, it is future-focussed joy as the Lord looks ahead with anticipation of fellowship with his restored people; third, it is fatherly joy because it is an expression of what he feels for his children. Even thinking about those three aspects should lead us to share his joy because such thinking is evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts.

A sweet encouragement to believers

No doubt, Nehemiah and his people felt very inadequate and weak as they thought of what they had to do in the ongoing process of rebuilding the city. And we too feel the same as we look at the task given to us to be his witnesses in a very difficult environment for Christians. We may look around us and become depressed at what we see. We can imagine that there is very little that can be done. We may ask, ‘Where are we going to get power to enable us to serve the Lord?’ The answer, of course, is that we receive power from God.

But what kind of power does he give? Sometimes we give the impression that the only type of power that the Lord provides is a form of stoical stickability that perseveres without any sense of inner pleasure. Yet here in our verses at least the power of God that is promised is joyful strength.

We will assume, based on what we have seen already, that those who will receive this divine strength are the penitent. So how does the penitent express their strength in the Lord? Several clues are mentioned in this chapter from Nehemiah. Given the type of strength, we must look for ways that are marked by great joy.

First, there is a strong desire to practice God’s Word. In the chapter the recovery that is described is connected to the rediscovery of what God’s Word said about the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the three annual feasts of Israel, in which they celebrated the Lord’s goodness to them. Obviously it had not taken place during the captivity and was not practised by the first returnees from exile. But here they have been taught what God’s Word required, and because they are penitent they want to do what it says.

Spiritual joy comes from understanding and obeying the Bible. It does not come from only understanding it because such may only be an intellectual exercise. Nor does it come from mere practice without thinking, because we are told that we must love the Lord with our minds when we obey him. The right way is when we rejoice in God’s Word because it is his revelation for us, and we delight to obey it because we know that such a response pleases God. When joy is absent, God’s Word can seem dry and obedience is sluggish. Yet joy is like wings for our souls that enable them to fly in obedience to God’s Word.

Second, there will be a strong desire for fellowship in those who are experiencing the joy of the Lord as their strength. This is clearly seen in the way the people in this chapter delighted in meeting with one another. They shared with one another the good things that the Lord had given them (v. 12). One sure way of losing the joy of the Lord is by heading off into isolation. There is nothing spiritual in the attitude of a person who prefers his own company to the fellowship of God’s people. For example, I might decide to stay at home and read the Bible by myself instead of meeting with fellow Christians. In doing so, I might understand it, but does my isolation lead me to obey it gladly. Fellowship warms the hearts of one another. Christians notice when one or more of their number is not contributing to the flame.

Third, Nehemiah encouraged them to focus on what God was doing in the present. It would have been so easy to look back to great things the Lord had done in the past. Yet focussing only on the past would have discouraged them about the present. Even if what was happening was not as expansive as the past, it still was the case that the Lord was working. And the same can be said about our situation as well.