GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 25~ ~ Zephaniah 3:17~ ~ “……He will rejoice over you with singing.”
From John Piper’s “the Pleasures of God”
Jesus uses another comparison to help us feel the force of what it means to have the Father rejoice over us WITH ALL HIS HEART. In Luke 15 He says two times that “there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Vs 7 and 10)
Then he illustrates what happens in heaven by telling a story about a father who had a wayward son who left home and squandered all his inheritance. The son comes to his senses while feeding pigs in a far country, and decides to go home and seek mercy from his father. He heads home and, as he goes, prepares a speech something to this effect: “Father I’m not worthy to be called your son; so maybe you would let me live in the servants’ quarters and work and eat with them?”
As Jesus tells this story you can feel the energy of love building as he shows how the father rejoices “with all his heart” over the boy’s arrival. While the boy is still a long way off the Father sees him and his heart warms with compassion. (v 20)
He doesn’t hold back and watch to see what the boy looks like; he bursts out the front door and starts running down the road. Now don’t miss the force of this scene. Well-to-do, dignified, aristocratic, aging men don’t run, they walk. They keep their composure. They show that they are on top of their emotions. But not in Jesus’ story about God’s joy over his people.
The father runs. Can you see them running? Or maybe the boy was too stunned to run. Perhaps he couldn’t believe his eyes. Maybe the thought flashed through his mind to turn and escape this utterly unexpected demonstration of affection. But he does not turn. Jesus says the father embraced him and kissed him. Can you see that embrace without feeling the emotion? I can’t.
I can’t, because I am that son in Jesus’ story. So are you, if you have repented and acknowledged Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins. I cannot comprehend that the Father in heaven—the great and glorious Creator of all the universe and sovereign over all things—throws to the wind all dignified self-consciousness, runs to me and kisses me as though—no!!! It is no fiction—rather BECAUSE he is happy with me. He is glad WITH ALL HIS HEART that I am part of the family. This is why I cannot see that embrace without pausing to let my eyes and throat recover.
But Jesus is not finished with the story. We still do not feel all that is meant by the words, “with all my heart.” The father cuts off the boy’s speech before he can get to the part about coming back as a slave. None of that! Instead, the father orders the best robe to replace the rags; he calls for a beautiful family ring; he fits him with new shoes, even though the old ones were used to run away, and, to top it all off, the father gives a great banquet with the best food and a band of minstrels to fill the air with happy music.
This is the message Jesus has for any who will turn home to the Father and seek their joy in the wonders of his love. I say this is almost too good to believe—that when the father calls the minstrels to sing at the banquet, it is he himself that leads the singing!!! (Zephaniah 3:17) and the song has to do with how glad he is that we are there. In fact, it is too good for some people to believe, and they, tragically, cannot believe it.
Do you struggle, as a weak and damaged soul, to believe this and really feel and enjoy the unspeakable news that God exults over us with singing—(if you indeed have received Him.)—
We’ll talk about those struggles tomorrow.