Monday: Rejoicing With Gladness
Daily Lesson for Monday 13th of January 2025
Hard as it is for us to imagine, God considers each person of incalculable value, which is why He rejoices over the salvation of even one soul.
Read Zephaniah 3:17. How does this verse shed light on the parable of the prodigal son?
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Zephaniah 3:17 emphatically displays the delight of God over His redeemed people. Just about every word for joy and delight in the Hebrew language is packed into this single verse, descriptive of God’s delight over His redeemed people. It’s almost as if no one of the terms by itself is sufficient to describe the magnitude of God’s delight on that day.
Notice, too, where God is according to this verse—in the “midst” of His people. The reconciliation that arises from the relationship of love comes with the immediate presence of God. Just like the father—when he sees the son afar off, he comes running—here God is in the midst of His people.
In Isaiah 62:4, similar imagery is couched with a marriage analogy. According to Isaiah 62:4 (NKJV), God’s people will “be called Hephzibah,” which means “My delight is in her,” and the land will be called “Beulah,” which means “married.” Why? Because, the text says, “The Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.” The very pinnacle of God’s joy is reserved for the day of restoration, when He will receive His people and rejoice over us, even as the father rejoiced over his prodigal son.
Read Ephesians 5:25-28. What does this say about the kind of love we are also called to display?
This passage exhorts husbands to love their wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,” and to love their wives “as their own bodies” (Ephesians 5:25,28, NKJV). These texts not only highlight the kind of unselfish and sacrificial love a husband is to have for his wife but also show that Christ Himself loves His people (the church) as part of Himself.
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Luke puts this joy in farming terms that I have experienced.
We had a couple of hundred sheep in our flock and my grandfather, the shepherd, knew his flock so well he was aware that one was missing. Typically the missing sheep was a fully-fleeced pregnant ewe who had developed an itch and had rolled over on her back to scratch it. Then she would find that it was impossible to get her legs back underneath her. Grandad knew where to look. He didn't hoist the lost ewe on his back - they are a bit heavy for that, but in his own way, he would rejoice and remark that he was glad that we had found her and saved her life.
So, when I hear of heaven rejoicing over the salvation of one soul, I understand. And if Heaven is a happy place, what sort of people ought we Christians be.
Amen to this. Heaven starts here. And with God's Holy Spirit and all of God's Precious Promises in the Bible, we can be holy, happy, healthy people here and now and end up with a little bit of heaven to go to heaven in.
It is interesting to see God expressing is love with exuberant joy and happiness over His people. The father of the Prodigal Son did not only display love, but he expressed love in the spirit of joy, happiness and rejoicing. Love has got inherent power to infuse joy and happiness. In the presence of true love there is joy, happiness, rejoicing, and restoration. This is the true substance of love. This is the beauty of love. Love is transformative. Love emits warmth. This leads to an outpouring of heartfelt expression of rejoicing with gladness. We are emotional beings, and it is ok to express our love outwards as well. When the prodigal son came back from the “death” the father expressed is love in celebration (rejoicing, gladness, music and dancing). How possibly does our God rejoice with gladness over us? What makes our God to outpour His love for us with rejoicing and gladness?
Heaven and its hosts busts into joy and rejoicing when one sinner repents, the Bible says (Luke 15:7, Luke 15:10, Revelation 5:11-12). God delights when the people which He created in his likeness are living according to his divine purpose. It gives Him great joy when we are in obedience to his divine law. We were created to live in harmony with God and He rejoices when we are in covenantal relationship with Him (Isaiah 62:5). It saddens God when someone dies in sin (Ezekiel 18:32, Ezekiel 33:11, Isaiah 55:7). God places priceless value on each one of us. No wonder God (Jesus Christ) died to Save us. Therefore, God rejoices in gladness when we accept and receive the salvation of His Son.
As God rejoices with gladness over his redeemed Children, we too are greatly admonished to rejoice in the Lord. God’s goodness and mercies should invoke a spontaneous response deep from our hearts (Psalm 100:2-5) Salvation is a profound reason to rejoice in the Lord with gladness (Isaiah 61:10, Luke 10:20, Revelation 19:7). Even though this life may cause us trials and tribulations, the hope we have in Jesus Christ will comfort our troubled souls (Romans 15:13).
Zeph 3:17...Why would love me? What for? For what benefit why would you love someone so sinful as I, why would you rejoice over someone who doesn't care, doesn't honor or worship you. I see so much of a humble God, longsuffering, to go to that far extent of rejoicing and quietening with love over people who don't even care about Him. Oh God, your love is so STRONG!
Thank you, Helen, for reminding us how never-ending God's love is and how long-suffering and humble. It made me ask, "Is God's rejoicing over us never-ending too? Does God rejoice over us always, even when we are not honoring Him and not valuing and enjoying Him back?"
While God's love is uninterrupted, I think Scriptures reveal that His joy in us is interrupted by sin. We see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem; He was saddened that His people had not responded to His love, that they didn't care about Him. And after that scene, Jesus swept into the Temple and cleansed it, hurt and angry that prayer/2-way conversations between God and man had been replaced by greed. The Prodigal Father rejoiced when the son who had left home returned, but I think the Prodigal Father grieved while searching the horizon before that, missing His boy and the giving and receiving of love they once shared.
Our Zeph. 3:17 text shows God rejoicing "in the midst" of His people, but God cannot dwell in the midst unless we open the door to Him (Rev. 3:20). He won't barge in. And so before we open the door, He is nauseated and wants to spit His people out of His mouth because they are so apathetic about Him (Rev. 3:16). Back to context in Zephaniah, in Zeph. 3:6 God has "cut off" the wicked nations who don't honor or worship Him, and Zeph. 3:8 speaks of His fierce anger. God cannot dwell with wickedness and this is painful for Him. The tides turn in Zeph. 3:12-13 with a remnant people who humbly "trust in the name of the Lord" and it is then that God can return to His people with joy (Zeph. 3:14-15), and free them from their captivity to sin (Zeph. 3:20).
So this shows me how God's love is relational, and while He is always being stirred and moved by His feelings of love for all people, His joy in us is in reply to our response to Him.
Thank you again, my Sister in Jesus, for helping me to go deeper here.
Whoever knows God learns about love because God is love. God loves His creation as part of Himself, offering reconciliation through Jesus' perfect sacrifice.
This is a lesson to be study to show us how christ love us with his love
Just as our heavenly Father continued to introduced Himself to the children of Israel as they continued in their rebellion, He continues to do so today when we show doubt and engage in our willful ways. This pattern has remained unchanged throughout mankind’s history.
Looking back to the beginning of time, just as He led the children of Abraham with His compashioned hand out of Egypt, He will lead and welcome home anyone who wants to be included again in His family. There are still many prodical sons and daughters out in the world, and we should be glad for anyone that wishes to come home.
It is often difficult if not impossible to fully express God’s love through words alone. As Maurice so often states, the best way to communicate His love is by living it — by loving others. Experiencing God’s Love is transformative, freeing us from carrying the heaviest burdens of life alone. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
I believe much of the unhappiness, confusion, strife, and competition among people stems from an inability to 'feel' God's Love in their lives. If this is true, then the only way we can engage to draw people back to God is by reaching out to them with loving understanding and compassion – forgiveness and care.
Reflecting His Love through acts of loving kindness invites them to experience God's steadfast Love. His Name is 'Love and Righteousness' - I AM who I AM; by His Spirit of Agape love does He draw people to Himself. As we have our life in Christ Jesus, His Spirit residing within us, allows this selfsame Spirit to flow through us to draw the prodigal sons and daughters to Him - 1 John 4:20.
Those who are called to his sheepfold practice love more dwell in love for God is Love. God demonstrated his love unto us while we were sinners Christ died for us what a wonderful and amazing love of God upon us.