Last Saturday, when the shelling of Israel began, we received the following comments on YouTube on the broadcast of our Shabbat service: “What are you dancing there? Israel is under attack!” I want to say that we do not “dance,” but glorify the Lord, we fight in dance, we do what Scripture and the Holy Spirit calls us to do.
Thank God most of the comments were positive. Last week I gave our friends in Colombia a link to a livestream of our community Sukkot prayer. And one of the sisters wrote the following review: “I am very grateful to you! There is a war going on in your country and such difficult circumstances. But when I saw you praising God, dancing, celebrating, rejoicing in His presence, it greatly encouraged me and raised my faith.”
Of course, it is written that we are “not of this world,” but we are not separated from reality, we know what is happening and where. And the community of God responds to challenges in society – we try to be where we are needed. But no one can and should not take our joy away from us. Why do so many non-believers, accidentally turning on the broadcast of our service, perceive it as some kind of party? Because among non-believers, the concept of “joy” is associated with humorous shows, in which humor is often below the belt. In this world, the concept of joy has been replaced by the enemy, because we know that he himself does not invent anything.
The Source of Our Joy and Personal Revelation
Rejoicing is one of the most important commandments of the New Testament. Therefore, we should not be ashamed to rejoice. We just need to figure out what God means by the concept of joy or “simcha” as it sounds in Hebrew in the Tanakh (Old Testament). We do not rejoice because we were told to rejoice.
Remember the question that Yeshua asked Peter: “Who do people say that I am?” He answered: “Some are for the prophet, others are for someone else…” “And what do you think?” “You are Mashiach, the Son of the Blessed One.” And Yeshua said to him: “You are blessed, Peter, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but My Heavenly Father.” This is how we should receive the revelation of joy. This is what we read in the Gospel of Matthew:
“And, hastily leaving the tomb, they ran with fear and great joy to tell His disciples. When they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them and said: “Rejoice!” And they came and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him” (Matthew 28:8-9).
Yeshua died, they come to the tomb, and then the Lord says to them: “Rejoice!” This commandment may seem completely inappropriate to us at the moment, but if the Lord says so, we should do so, even if it is not clear to us. If we become sad under the influence of something, then we are in the hands of the enemy. Sadness has never helped anyone. Why can a person become sad and depressed? Because he does not know the source of joy.
How not to lose 33 percent of the Kingdom of God?
“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness (tzedakah) and peace (shalom) and joy (simcha) in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
A third of the nature of the Kingdom of God, 33 percent is joy! And then the source of joy is described – the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can give true joy. This is a spiritual principle: if we quench joy, the movement of the Holy Spirit is weakened. And just the opposite: if the movement of the Holy Spirit weakens, joy fades away.
We see this in the historical Church. Previously, the Church was associated with something gloomy, dark, but not with joy. After leaving its Jewish roots, the Church lost at least 33 percent. And if they had not abandoned the Jewish holidays, then Sukkot would not have allowed them to turn away from joy. After all, the commandment of Sukkot is to rejoice. But they lost their joy, and with it the movement of the Holy Spirit.
How to bring joy to those who are in sorrow?
At our services, joy results in fun. But it is obvious that when we go to console someone, to empathize with someone, we will not laugh at the same time. However, this does not mean that we will be sad. If it makes more sense to you, you can replace the word “joy” with “optimism.” A believer is an incorrigible optimist, because he knows how everything will end. Because it is written that in the end God will “wipe away every tear.”
May God give us wisdom to console, empathize, and serve someone. If a person feels bad, we will not smile with all 32 teeth. But this does not mean that there must be defeat within us. There must be victory within us.
We go to console a person with the consolation with which the Lord consoled us. We go to tell him about the joy that we ourselves have – joy in the Lord, joy of salvation and joy of eternal life. It is written: “Do not rejoice because demons obey you, but rejoice because your names are written in the book of life.” And no one can take this joy away from us.
The joy of the Lord is our strength
Joy is a basic concept for a believer. It is written in Proverbs 24:10 that if you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.. But joy in the Lord is my strength. That’s why the enemy attacks joy the same way as he attacks our faith, righteousness and shalom. But we cannot give this to the enemy. A sad follower of Yeshua is nonsense.
It is written: “Rejoice, although you have been troubled for a little while by various trials” (1 Peter 1:6). Of course, anything can happen, and we are human. But if the enemy strikes you, come to your senses and remember that victory is within you. Satan is afraid of joy. He is satisfied with the gloomy spirit that dries out the bones. Even doctors say that, no matter what disease you are struggling with, the main thing is not to give up, to be optimistic. How much evidence there is of how the right mood, the right position of the heart led people out of the valleys of darkness!
Fake joy in this world
The enemy stole people’s joy by introducing counterfeits in the form of comedy shows and other substitutes. But the human soul needs joy. And people are trying to replace it. Once upon a time there was such an expression. When a person took alcohol or drugs and was asked: “Why?”, he answered: “To change the picture. I’m tired of gray everyday life.” This is how people get addicted. The soul needs God’s joy, because the soul is from God, and a person begins to look for a substitute.
There is a good example in Scripture about Noah. It would seem that you were saved, through you God saved people, a new life begins. But Noah was not happy enough, and he drank wine. We remember the consequences of this. Therefore, we should not look for substitutes. One commentary on the Torah says:
“Noah’s drunkenness after leaving the ark was an attempt to achieve joy in a different way. At first glance, when a person gets drunk, he forgets about himself, but nevertheless, such behavior also led to undesirable results. After all, in fact, intoxication is not a means of suppressing something wrong. It confuses a person and causes him to run away from himself. Also in our time, we see how many people try to get rid of sadness and depression with the help of drugs, although such a step cannot lead to real joy.”
We know this, but people don’t know and fall into a trap. They are looking for compensation. As they say, the soul desires a feast. Only one celebrates with God in the Holy Spirit, while others celebrate like this. This is why God’s feasts are also important.
Strive for more joy
A church in which everything is sad and gloomy is not what the Lord wanted. He said that He would create the Church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And despondency and sadness are one of the weapons of the enemy. If we are discouraged, it will not make anyone feel better. And the fact that we can rejoice in difficult circumstances shows that our joy does not depend on external circumstances.
Friends, we need to work on our joy. It is worth praying to the Lord about this. Even if you already knew what joy is, you can take it to the next level. Our rebbe likes to tell a story about two tzaddikim who met at the door. One door is righteousness, the other is shalom, and so on. And one says to the other: “I have already gone through all the doors. There is only one left. It’s the last one, but the most important one. This is joy.”
We shouldn’t think that we already know everything about joy. We need to receive a personal revelation of joy from the Holy Spirit and become even stronger in this, and not give anything to the enemy. A third of the nature of the Kingdom is joy. And one of the nine components of the fruit of the Spirit is joy. I think that in these difficult times God is putting emphasis on this. Therefore, let’s be open to this, let’s pray, search and share joy with each other.
The messages of the Apostle Shaul (Paul) are replete with this word: “Rejoice!” He had already passed various tests, but everything came down to this for him. This was already practice. This is the teaching of Yeshua, which He put into practice while serving God and people. He understood that it was important to rejoice.
Joy is what the world does not have, what people who do not know the Lord do not have. They know substitutes that take you away from reality for a while, and then you need more and more, like a drug. Therefore, we need to seek God’s source of joy.
Why is joy important?
I think that lack of joy is one of the factors that is holding back the revival that we are waiting for. We need to actively wait for it, we need to do something, as the title of one book says: “Revival Begins with Me.”
Joy is the fight against selfishness. A selfish person cannot rejoice because he is constantly missing something, he constantly thinks that he was not given something, that he is owed something. It is written that it is a great gain to be godly and content. And satisfied is joyful. Therefore, it is worth checking yourself why I am not happy when everyone is happy. Perhaps it’s selfishness. Perhaps I am offended by God. It’s also worth checking myself to see if I’m happy for someone else.
One Jewish commentary says: “A truly joyful person is a humble person who knows that all the virtues and merits he possesses are given to him from above, and by humbling himself, serving others, he finds this joy.” By giving in to others, struggling with one’s selfishness, a person begins to feel what joy is. Humble yourself, be modest, serve others, give to others and it begins to produce joy over time.
I think that if at this time God shows us to rejoice, we need to meditate on it, pray about it, seek it and ask God for it. If He Himself is the source of this joy, then He is the one who can reveal it to us. Friends, let’s connect to the sources of heavenly joy. Wherever we go, whatever we do, let us remember that within us there is joy in the Lord, which is our strength. So that it fills us, strengthens us, so that we do not fall for the tricks of the enemy and this world, which are trying to drive us into despondency and godless sadness.
Igor Korogoda, senior minister of KEMO/ Не дайте врагу украсть у вас Божью радость (kemokiev.org)
Word on Shabbat KEMO October 14, 2023
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