Unspeakable joy
Luke 1:68-79
Malachi 4:1-6
Luke 9:1-6
First, watch this video. It's short.
"Leaping like calves from a stall" Sometimes it just helps to have an actual visual image, doesn't it? Malachi tells us that this will be the response of those who love and fear God when the sun of righteousness rises. Uncontained joy.
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It is the last word from God which is followed by a 400 year silence. It is important to pay close attention to the endings of things, and Malachi, in this last chapter, neatly sums up the whole of Biblical history. People are a sinful and messy people who anger God with their evil ways. But God, the sun of righteousness will return, and for those who follow Him, it will be a joyful time, while for those who don't it will mean utter and complete destruction. (Even the root will be wiped out.) This process will start when Elijah is sent again to prepare the people for God's return, for the coming day of the LORD.
Four hundred years pass, and the next word from God is His sending angels to Mary and to Zechariah, followed by two babies; the first being Zechariah's son, John. In the scope of the Bible, Malachi's final prophecy begins it's fulfillment in a matter of paragraphs. Zechariah tells us that John will be a prophet of the Most High God, and that he (John) will prepare the way for the Lord. There will be a path made for salvation from sins by the coming of the sunrise. There can be no doubt that what is about to happen in Luke was what was foretold in Malachi.
Here we have the beginning of the rescue plan being enacted. God is keeping His word.
I keep going back to those calves leaping around, though. They've been penned up all winter, and this is their response to the freedom of the pasture. They are little calves, most likely this is the first time they've been in a place where they can run and play since they were born. This is unadulterated joy. This is what we are promised in Jesus. I don't know about you, but I will confess that for much of the time, this joy is not what I'm feeling in life. When I have, it is most often because I have felt God's love, experienced God's provision, in tangible ways, often in the face of my own ugliness, in the mess of my own making. And then not too long after, I go back to my old ways and grab the reins again, mistakenly believing that this time, I'll do just fine being in charge. I'll tell you, it hasn't worked that way yet. I'm a slow learner.
I share this because I'm pretty sure that we can only experience this boundless (and bounding) joy when we realize that our self-sufficiency is an illusion. You only reach out to a savior when you realize that you need to be saved. The person who knows he is about to fall off a cliff is far more grateful to the person who tackles him back than the one who didn't know there was even a cliff and wonders why someone suddenly knocked him to the ground.
Are you looking for joy? Look to Jesus. Lay it all out to Him. (He already knows, anyway.) Tell Him your fears, worries, cares. Tell Him your deepest, darkest secrets that cause you to lay awake at night. Tell it all to Him. Let Him deal with it. He loves you despite all of that, and just wants you to see you need Him and His love.
"because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death,"
"But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall."
Unspeakable joy.
Malachi 4:1-6
Luke 9:1-6
First, watch this video. It's short.
"Leaping like calves from a stall" Sometimes it just helps to have an actual visual image, doesn't it? Malachi tells us that this will be the response of those who love and fear God when the sun of righteousness rises. Uncontained joy.
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It is the last word from God which is followed by a 400 year silence. It is important to pay close attention to the endings of things, and Malachi, in this last chapter, neatly sums up the whole of Biblical history. People are a sinful and messy people who anger God with their evil ways. But God, the sun of righteousness will return, and for those who follow Him, it will be a joyful time, while for those who don't it will mean utter and complete destruction. (Even the root will be wiped out.) This process will start when Elijah is sent again to prepare the people for God's return, for the coming day of the LORD.
Four hundred years pass, and the next word from God is His sending angels to Mary and to Zechariah, followed by two babies; the first being Zechariah's son, John. In the scope of the Bible, Malachi's final prophecy begins it's fulfillment in a matter of paragraphs. Zechariah tells us that John will be a prophet of the Most High God, and that he (John) will prepare the way for the Lord. There will be a path made for salvation from sins by the coming of the sunrise. There can be no doubt that what is about to happen in Luke was what was foretold in Malachi.
Here we have the beginning of the rescue plan being enacted. God is keeping His word.
I keep going back to those calves leaping around, though. They've been penned up all winter, and this is their response to the freedom of the pasture. They are little calves, most likely this is the first time they've been in a place where they can run and play since they were born. This is unadulterated joy. This is what we are promised in Jesus. I don't know about you, but I will confess that for much of the time, this joy is not what I'm feeling in life. When I have, it is most often because I have felt God's love, experienced God's provision, in tangible ways, often in the face of my own ugliness, in the mess of my own making. And then not too long after, I go back to my old ways and grab the reins again, mistakenly believing that this time, I'll do just fine being in charge. I'll tell you, it hasn't worked that way yet. I'm a slow learner.
I share this because I'm pretty sure that we can only experience this boundless (and bounding) joy when we realize that our self-sufficiency is an illusion. You only reach out to a savior when you realize that you need to be saved. The person who knows he is about to fall off a cliff is far more grateful to the person who tackles him back than the one who didn't know there was even a cliff and wonders why someone suddenly knocked him to the ground.
Are you looking for joy? Look to Jesus. Lay it all out to Him. (He already knows, anyway.) Tell Him your fears, worries, cares. Tell Him your deepest, darkest secrets that cause you to lay awake at night. Tell it all to Him. Let Him deal with it. He loves you despite all of that, and just wants you to see you need Him and His love.
"because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death,"
"But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall."
Unspeakable joy.
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