STRENGTHENED BY JOY!

Nehemiah 8:10 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 you sorry: for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Let me set the stage for our verse.  The last part of this verse is very popular, and it is amazing that the joy of the Lord is your strength.  It is a very powerful verse and concept that we must have.  Nehemiah had been sent by God to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.  This was his outward calling.  It is what people could see, to take the reproach away from Israel.  But what they all didn’t know was that God’s greater purpose was to restore the Word of the Lord to Israel.  After the wall was finished, and the reproach was taken from Israel along with some internal things among the people solved, it was time for the holy reading of the Word of God.  Ezra, the priest, read the Word and taught the people the meaning of the Word; and the people began to mourn and weep because they were hearing the Word of God for the first time in a long time.  Our verse comes after the people had lifted their hands, bowed their heads, and fallen to their knees in reverence and honor for the holy Word of the Lord.  Ezra was saying that it is now time to rejoice, get something good to eat, drink something sweet, make sure everyone gets something good to eat and drink because this is a holy day.  So, quit being sorrowful; put that away from you; let that go now.

It reminds me of Psalm 30:11 that says, “He turns our mourning into dancing.”  Let’s look at that verse in the NIV, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”   That is what Ezra said the next step in this celebration was, to celebrate what God has done.  He was saying that the Word had been restored to them, so now, it was time to get full of joy and celebrate.  The great thing about joy is that it is the byproduct of rejoicing.  There is something the Bible says happens when you, by choice, get full of God’s joy; strength comes.  We have to choose to rejoice with joy unspeakable and then, the glory comes.  So, when I rejoice with the joy of the Lord, the result is that strength comes to my spirit, soul, and body.  Confess it, “The joy of the Lord is my strength!”