I have to confess, I’m not a naturally joyful person.

Probably like you, I’ve seen and experienced a lot of junk in my life.  So each time I open the Bible, I naturally (and I use that word very intentionally) tend to see hard stuff.  Sad stuff.  Mad stuff.

A mad God.

But is God’s nature actually nasty?  Does He have a mean disposition?  If we listen to what He says about Himself, we’ll hear something very different.  We’ll hear and see incredible joy.  Just listen to the theme of God’s emotion in Genesis 1.

He’s not a quality control inspector reluctantly checking His inventory, mumbling “That’s good…good…okay…yeah…alright.”  He is delighting in His creation!  And that’s important for us to note, because nobody wants to be with a grumpy God.

Yes, I know and agree that simply because He is Holy (morally perfect), the sovereign Creator of the universe, and the rightful Judge of all Mankind, we must obey Him.  And He is worthy of worship.  But that doesn’t mean we would want to be with Him…if He was miserable and He didn’t want anything to do with us.  But that’s not God.

Pay particular attention to the second day of creation.  Did you hear the deafening silence?

It’s the only day God did not declare “good”.

Why?

It’s a physical picture foreshadowing the spiritual separation of heaven and earth – of the joyful, perfect God and Man who would decide to go their own way.  God takes no joy in being separated from people, especially their spiritual and eternal death (Ezekiel 18:23, 32 and 33:11).  It’s a separation that He finally fills forever in the end, when He comes down to live with all those who follow Christ by faith in Him (Revelation 21-22).

So as you read His Word today (and every day) and gather with others for worship, know that God is the most joyful Person in the universe!  And, through the work of Christ and His Spirit, He can super-naturally re-create greater joy in us.

If you’re interested in reading other posts from this series, “Satisfaction Sundays”, you can refer to the menu above.  You can also click on the following link for inductive Bible studies on the shorter books of Scripture, Understanding and Applying the Bible, or studies in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, or you can subscribe to tool4trenches.net/

If you’d like to know more about who publishes the articles, videos, and other materials on tools4trenches, you can click on the picture of me and my wife.