The joy of the Lord
by Craig Heidenreich
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This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10b).
Our passage today describes a large gathering of the people who came together to listen to the reading of the law.
Nehemiah keeps repeating throughout this passage that all the people were gathered together. This would have numbered thousands.
Have you ever been part of a gathering of thousands of Christians together?
Recently the results of the 2021 Australian census were released, and 43.9% of the Australian population declared as Christian. The actual number is 11,311,540 people. For some reason, I began imagining all these people gathered in one place. The number of Christians in Australia is more than the combined populations of Sydney and Melbourne. If we all gathered, it would fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground 110 times over.
That is a heavenly-sized multitude, and it is worth pondering if you think Christians cannot have an impact anymore.
Getting back to our passage from Nehemiah. There is a sense (as we read) that the people had not heard the law for a long time, and what they heard was convicting. In fact, they were so convicted that they started to weep.
The leaders responded so graciously by reminding the people that the Lord was merciful and that he had heard their cry. Here we read the well-known words, ‘Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength’.
We thank you, Father, that you are gracious and want to be close to us! You sent Jesus to take our punishment and turn our mourning into joy. Lord, help us show it on our faces today. Amen.
Craig enjoys making friends with people from other countries and trying to learn a few words of greeting in their languages. He says it’s fun to see the joy on a person’s face to hear their mother tongue. When he has some spare time, he is happy renovating the home he recently purchased in Kapunda, South Australia.
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