Nehemiah: The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength and Reward
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Where do you need strength today? Have you ever considered that the source of strength for you could be the joy that comes from the Lord to you? It is true. This is post #11 in the Old Testament Men blog series. In the last article, we saw that God’s tender love for Elijah that helped him move past weakness and disappointment. In this post, we will see how the joy of the Lord is God’s gift to those who trust Him. Joy is a reward for perseverance.
Listen to this post as a similar podcast from the Profiles of Perseverance Bible Study covering the lives of Joseph, David, Elijah, and Nehemiah.
The Joy Set before Jesus
We started this study by looking at Hebrews chapter 12.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, … For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
For the joy set before him, our Lord Jesus Christ endured the shame and pain of the cross. And, in that time of extreme trouble, Jesus looked ahead to the joy He would experience after He persevered through His earthly life. Joy is a reward for perseverance. We see this reward in Nehemiah’s life.
Nehemiah Responded to God’s Call
At the beginning of Nehemiah chapter 1, we read that those who had visited Judah and Jerusalem came back with not-so-good news. After hearing this discouraging news, Nehemiah trusted God to do His part and recognized how God worked alongside what he was doing. Nehemiah courageously talked with the king about what was on his mind. God took care of His part by directing the king’s heart and mind to be favorable to Nehemiah’s requests. God worked through the authorities to provide the resources and give him authority to do the work in Jerusalem. Those are the two aspects of trusting God.
Once in Jerusalem, opposition tested Nehemiah’s trust of God. In Nehemiah chapters 4-6, we see the fear tactics used by his enemies: intimidation, distraction, lies, slander, and treason. Nehemiah trusted God to give him discernment to recognize what was coming against him and how to respond properly. God gave him the strength to combat those weapons as Nehemiah prayed for that. Nehemiah trusted in God while at the same time taking safety precautions to protect himself and the faithful people working beside him. Those are the two aspects of trusting God.
For more details about Nehemiah’s challenges and responses to each in these two blogs, “Nehemiah 1-6: Trusting God with Lies, Danger, and a Really Hard Job” and Nehemiah 7-13 • Rebellious Hearts Spurn God’s Grace.”
And God gave him joy throughout the challenges of life as he did the work God called him to do.
The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength
After the walls in Jerusalem were completed, the priest Ezra led the people in worship of the Lord and reading of the Law that God had given to the Jews. All the people listened attentively and also began to weep. As a nation, they had failed to keep God’s Law and suffered the consequences of their sin.
But Nehemiah told them this in chapter 8,
“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” … Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8:10, 12)
This was an intense emotional and spiritual experience for those present. It was like an Easter service—full of tears and joy.
God Is a God of Joy
What is joy?
Most people define joy as a feeling of happiness when you’re smiling and laughing a lot. You feel like everything is going well for you.
But what happens if things are not so good? Your family is stressed financially. You may be struggling in work or school. Your relationships are fraying. You or someone close to you is very sick. Can you really have joy then?
The word “joy in the Bible refers to having a deep inner gladness, regardless of the circumstances going on around you. That means whether you are rich or poor, sick or healthy, successful or struggling, you can still have a feeling of gladness or pleasure deep down inside. Now, you may not feel like smiling on the outside, but you can still smile on the inside. Have you ever felt that way?
Joy is in God’s character
Nehemiah told the people, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Joy is part of the character of God. Have you ever thought about joy being part of God’s character?
God has joy whenever anyone comes to Him to have his or her sins forgiven by faith in His Son Jesus. The Bible describes lots of rejoicing in heaven at that time.
God has pleasure in His creation. We see that in Job and In Psalms a lot. After the 6 days of creation, God declared His creation was very good. He wasn’t only giving His approval but was also revealing His pleasure. The Father God has joy in what His hands have made, especially His creatures. That includes you. You are one of His creatures. Does that make you smile inside to think that God finds pleasure in you?
God expresses His joy. In the small Old Testament book of Zephaniah, the writer declared to anyone who would return to God and trust in Him these words,
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
There is that truth about God taking delight in you again. But have you ever thought about God rejoicing over you through singing? In His love for you, God rejoices over you with singing. He takes delight in you because you trust in Him.
Joy is something that God has. God is the source of joy. But God also chooses to give us His joy.
God Gives Us His Joy
A sense of joy pervades the Bible. Have you noticed that?
In the Old Testament, joy is seen in worshiping and praising God. It was seen as the enthusiastic response of the worshiping community. It’s seen as the people celebrate who God is and what He has done for them in the past. It’s rooted in hope and confidence of what He will do in the future. A relationship with God is the key.
God’s joy comes to us from a relationship with Him through knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was God, had God’s joy in Him.
In John chapter 15, Jesus promised this,
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
Jesus promised to give His joy to His disciples so that it would be in them also. He would not give just a little bit of joy but fullness of joy. Lots of it.
And Jesus did not promise joy just to those who knew Him when He was on earth.
I love what Peter says in his letter—1 Peter,
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy… (1 Peter 1:8)
“Though you have not seen Him.” That refers to us today. You and I have not seen Him. But the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. And He gives you God’s glorious, uncontainable joy. It is a fruit of His presence.
But there is more. God’s joy given to us makes us strong.
God’s Joy Makes Us Strong
Going back to what Nehemiah told the people in chapter 8. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The joy of the Lord is God’s joy. He has it, and when He gives it to His people, it makes them strong. But how does God’s joy make you strong?
Assurance of His presence
I have had a sign on my wall for my entire adult life that reads,
Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.
That sign reminds me that God’s joy makes us strong by giving us the assurance of His presence during the best times of life and during those miserable, painful times of life. Don’t you love that assurance?! Assurance of His presence makes us strong.
Courage
God’s joy in us gives us the courage to face tough times because we know He is with us. We have seen that in what Joseph, David, Elijah, and Nehemiah experienced. God gave them courage to face their challenges His way.
Jesus is our example of how to endure opposition and difficulties, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart. That makes us strong.
Hope
God’s joy in us gives us hope and confidence in what God is doing in any situation. So we can have the ability to smile on the inside even if things are going wrong on the outside. That makes us strong.
Motivation
God’s joy wells up within us and motivates us to serve others in love. We want to share His joy so that others will experience His joy too. That unselfishness makes us strong.
Read the “Joyful Walk with Jesus” blog series for application of God’s joy in our daily lives.
God’s joy also leads us to share in God’s delight.
God’s Joy Leads Us to Share in God’s Delight
What gives God joy
We can ask ourselves: “what pleases God” and “what gives Him joy?” How would you answer those questions?
God’s joy leads us to take pleasure or delight in those same things. When we have the joy of the Lord,
- We delight in justice.
- We delight in approaching life God’s way more than our own way or the world’s way.
- We delight in studying His Word the Bible, in doing what pleases Him, and in praising God.
Laughter and delight reveal His joy
Some people think that when you are a Christian, you give up anything that gives you pleasure. That is not what the Bible says. It is not wrong for a Christian to have pleasure or to seek pleasure. It is only wrong to seek pleasure in the things that are selfish.
Christians filled with God’s joy should find many reasons to laugh and delight in life. We can serve God with delight. We can love our families and friends with delight. We can enjoy nature.
Celebration expresses His joy
We can celebrate God’s goodness to us. Celebration is a biblical concept. You can’t read the Old Testament without seeing how often God called His people together for a time of celebration. It was woven into the fabric of their calendars so they would remember God’s goodness to them.
We have Christmas and Easter as cultural celebrations. But why not have a yearly celebration of the time when we trusted in Christ or chose to really commit our lives to him?
One day, our joy will be even greater in heaven when we are with Jesus and can have the delight of seeing Him with our own eyes. Oh, glorious joy!
Until then, the joy of the Lord right now is our strength. Your strength. My strength.
Are You Ready for Perseverance in Your Life?
As the Bible promises,
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4 NASB)
We can have hope because we have God with us. So, remember our lane markers for the race.
- Choose to persevere through every challenge.
- Count on God’s promise to give you hope.
- Let that hope sustain you through the rough-and-tumble of life.
- Celebrate the joyful reward.
Let Jesus satisfy your heart with hope as you persevere through everyday life.
All of the above information is covered in the Profiles of Perseverance Bible Study covering the lives of Joseph, David, Elijah, and Nehemiah.
Related Resources:
- Old Testament Men blog series
- Identity: Sticking to Your Faith in a Pull-Apart World Bible Study
- Nehemiah 1-6 • Trusting God with Lies, Danger, and a Really Hard Job
- Nehemiah 7-13 • Rebellious Hearts Spurn God’s Grace
- Esther • Trusting God to Work in the Background
- Joyful Walk with Jesus blog series
Ai was not used to generate this post.