The better the story, the more that the reader is moved — to tears, laughter, or action. Not all tales are happy ones and we wouldn’t wish some stories on anyone, but a reader knows when he has been touched deeply by what happens to a character. This is the reason people read, listen to, or watch stories at all. Even when a good story ends in tragedy and great loss, the reader puts the book or remote down with a heightened sense of the importance of life and how their particular journey could be changed or preserved.
Joy is what humans are after. Not mere entertainment, diversion, or power. One of the greatest Christmas carols starts “Joy the world, the LORD has come!” Even those who are not religious nod with the sentiment.
Is it possible that the Author of the “greatest story ever told” is full of joy and desires that His readers share it? I believe so. While many of the Bible’s stories are sad and its characters come to a tragic ends (at least in this world), the Bible’s overall aim is that its reader’s possess “a joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Over the next several entries in this blog, I will explore the circumstances when “joy” appears in the Bible. I hope that it will engage, inform, and equip my readers for more joyful living. I know I could use the encouragement.
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“Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. (Leviticus 9:24-10:2)
Leviticus is not considered by most as a place to turn to for joy. It is known for detailed and strict regulations for sacrificial worship under the First Testament. Joy seems more like what comes when good news comes or a breakthrough happens. For Israel, worship is not about getting God’s attention. It is a response to the One who has had them on His heart since before creation. Israel has recently been delivered from centuries of slavery and promised a homeland by Someone who is very different from the gods of Egypt. Their worship experience will be very different.
When the LORD of their fathers took up the offering they had brought, they experienced something they never did in the presence of Egypt’s shrines. Here was One who acted. Here was One who did not lead them on, only to disappoint. Here was One who did not hide himself, leaving it up to human beings to figure out how to be with Him. God acted proactively and they were overjoyed.
How shocking it is then to see two persons immediately presume to manipulate worship for some other purpose. They employ fire of their own contrivance and are destroyed. It is a human temptation to try to replicate what God gives. Human beings want to control life and have it as they prefer. One example of it is how they manufacture positive experience in entertainment and spectacle and then market it to the masses.
Joy comes in the presence of what rises organically from life. Man does not live on saccharine substitute, but on every grain of genuine sweetness from the mouth of God. Rather than trying to take possession of joy, it is better for us to prepare ourselves for it, like when we settle into a seat as the curtain parts or when we snuggle next to someone who cracks open a familiar storybook. This is the true point of Leviticus and its system of offerings. One of God’s great delights is when His children take delight in Him and what He does. Our part is to position ourselves rightly, ready for God to reveal his joy-producing self.