“Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy” (Ezra 3:1212But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: (Ezra 3:12)). Some rejoiced and some wept at the same event. Why? At a funeral, we often find both joy and weeping. Why? When we remember our Lord Jesus in His death, we sometimes sing, “With joy and sorrow mingling we do remember Thee.”
May we each profit, as we read this issue, by pondering what we find our joy in and, by contrast, what we find our sorrow in. Is our joy selfish in character? Do we only find our joy in what gives natural pleasure to us? Or do we find greater joy in seeing what brings good to others?
God finds His joy in His Son and the blessing of the sinner. He finds sorrow in what dishonors and brings pain to His Son and in what hinders the sinner’s blessing and brings judgment upon him.
We will each benefit as we learn more and more to find our joy in God and in what He finds His joy. We “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”