With joy

“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke o
f iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.” – Deuteronomy 28:47-48

I’ve had that passage on my mind today. It bothers me because I’ve always had an issue with those verses. Nowhere in the whole Torah is it commanded to have joy, so why would Israel be punished for not serving God with joyfulness and gladness of heart. It’s almost like God expects to be served with joy and not just obedience. It bothers me because I am the reluctantly obedient type. I might not like it, I might even resent it, but alas like a martyr accepting their fate, I submit. Why wouldn’t that be enough? I mean, I obey, right?!

If God would ONLY want obedience, He would have made us all robots. So, what does God want? I suppose He wants what anybody wants from the object of their love: to be acknowledged and appreciated. His very first commandment was, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut. 6:5). I guess love is closely linked to joy, unless it’s unrequited love, but that’s not the case here. The object of your love and affection brings you joy. If in serving God there is just reluctant obedience, then that’s not love.

I don’t know of any other god, except the God of the Scripture that demands to be loved. All other religions expect obedience, worship, fear, awe, but love? Not so much. I guess that is the difference between false gods and a living, true God. He wants to be loved not just obeyed. Why? Because then the service to Him will be a joy and not a burden.

Please note that by joy I don’t mean some ecstatic feeling, nor manic laughter. I mean what Paul says in Romans 12:12, “rejoicing in hope.” It’s serving God with the attitude that a farmer has while sowing in his field. It’s work with a hope for reward at harvest time and that prospect causes joy. Someone might ask, why hope for a reward? Can’t you just love God for His sake? Uhm, because even God was working His vineyard hoping for a good harvest.

 “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” (Isaiah 5:1-6)

 If He loves me and cares for me and invests in me, wouldn’t He be entitled to gratitude, to joy, to appreciation?  Wouldn’t He be entitled to obedience with joyfulness and gladness of heart?

I am writing this for myself. I am one of those people on whom God must extend more grace because I’m often just obeying with no joy. I don’t always see it as a privilege to serve my King. If I am quiet instead of defending myself, I expect monuments to be erected in my honour because it feels like such an injustice. If I do something nice and nobody sees it, I accept it but with a little bit of bitterness because apparently, I’m not as dead as I’d like to think and I still need validation. If I go an extra mile with one that asks me, I need God to record it immediately. If I’m kind when I would be entitled to retaliate, If I’m seeking peace instead of escalating a situation into an argument, I need it noted! Foolish, wretched flesh of mine!

Lord, You know all things and You know me, I’m not trying to hide behind the trees in the garden. (Gen. 3:8-10) I am ashamed, and I want to run for cover, but here I stand. Thank You for making a way for me to be able to stand before You, hidden in Your Beloved Son, Jesus. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3)

For His sake, forgive me.

 Cristina Pop