On occasion we read international news stories that detail how people seeking safety will make a mad dash to an embassy Whether because of political, legal or some other issue, the people have gotten into some trouble with the local officials and they need asylum. They need protection.
While stories like this pique our interests they seem foreign. They might as well be tales from another world. Most of you reading this blog live in a nation that affords you tremendous safety and privilege. We don’t feel this type of pressure.
At the same time, we do have trouble and we do seek refuge.
The truth of difficulty is declared by the Scripture:
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)
It is also vindicated by our experience. Consider your own life or the lives of those close to you. Life is hard.
Now, where do you go? When you are feeling hail stones of conflict and uncertainty you need to run somewhere, where do you go? The temptation is to retreat to yourself, to your own wisdom, power, skill or ingenuity when the dark clouds of trouble are overhead. You may run to you career, finances, morality, accomplishments, what you do/don’t do, or even your involvement at church. All of these things are good blessings from God but they make horrible strongholds. They are like a flimsy piece of paper in the thunderstorm of difficulty.
In Nehemiah 8 we are reminded again of the stronghold of God.
Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
(Nehemiah 8:10 emphasis mine)
Nehemiah reminds these exiles who were formerly weak and helpless in a foreign land that their refuge is the joy of the Lord. You could say here that their “stronghold” is the joy of the Lord.
Think about that. The joy that we have in God is to be our strength our stronghold. It is to be the embassy in the midst of a turbulent, troublesome world and amid our battles with personal sin.
This joy has two immediate aspects for me:
- God’s Joy in himself. The fact that God is eternally happy as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is tremendously encouraging. God was never lacking satisfaction in himself, he is his own sufficiency. He creates then out of this eternal happiness in himself. It is a desire to showcase and share his delight in himself that leads him to create. This eternally fixed truth of divine happiness is an unshakable stronghold. I want to run to this unwavering axiom amid the temporal storms of life.
- God’s Joy in his people. Because of the work of Christ people may enter into this joy of the Trinity. We are able to experience and truly know what it means to fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit, by means of the work of Jesus the Son. God’s covenant faithfulness to his people ensures our ready access to him. We are accepted in Christ, the Beloved, therefore, we may continually retreat to this stronghold. The truth of the gospel drives us to know and experience the joy of the Lord as our strength.
The fact that the forecast for the foreseeable future here is trouble we have to make sure that we are retreating to the right embassy. Do we run to ourselves and our accomplishments and abilities? Or do we run to the joy of the Lord, who is our strength? I love that Nehemiah (and the Levites) reminded those forgetful exiles of this. He reminded me too. May it likewise encourage you to do the same.