They offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
– Nehemiah 12:43
Well, did you hear the theme of that verse? It’s one of my favorite pictures in the book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah 12:43 shows God’s people rejoicing in the face of tribulation.
After they have rebuilt these walls around Jerusalem, and as you read through the book, there were times when their enemies were saying once they build these walls, a cat couldn’t even walk on them without them falling down. And so in Nehemiah 12, they climb up on the walls and the people march around the walls, and they sing with loud voices, and all kinds of loud instruments.
In verse 43, did you hear it? It says they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. That’s three times joy is mentioned. Then the women and children also rejoiced. That’s the fourth. And the joy of Jerusalem, number five, was heard far away. Five different times. There’s an emphasis in this one verse on how the people’s joy was expressed in this moment of worship and exalted not just in Jerusalem and on those walls, but far away from Jerusalem, among the enemies who had said not even a cat could walk on these walls.
Nehemiah 12:43 reminds us we can rejoice no matter what we are walking through.
As I read that, I just want to encourage all of us today who are in Jesus. No matter what we’re walking through, we have a reason to rejoice. No matter what challenges we are facing, we have reason to sing with great joy. I was reminded of this listening to a sermon recently from Acts 16. Paul and Silas in prison. They had all kinds of reason, in a sense, to complain about where they were, about what was happening. But what are they doing in the middle of prison in Philippi? They’re singing, they’re singing hymns to God. They’re not saying, “Why are we in these stocks? Why is this happening to us,” complaining about how they’re hurting. All those things could have been true. They certainly were hurting. They certainly could have been wondering why, but they were singing with joy, worshiping God.
I just think, yes, I want to live that kind of life. I want to be that kind of person who no matter what is happening in life … Not that it’s easy, certainly wasn’t easy in Acts 16, and nothing in the book of Nehemiah was easy. And not that there isn’t grief and pain, and hardship, and trial and tribulation that we face in life. I don’t want in any way want to make light of that. But I do want to make much of the reality that joy in God supersedes all that; that grief and pain and trial and tribulation and hardship and opposition or whatever it might be, those things do not have the last word for those who are in God.
This verse reminds us our joy is founded in an eternal hope.
For those who know God and love God and are in Christ, joy will be the theme of our story and our song forever and ever. Not just joy, but great joy. Eternal joy that is resounding not just in our lives, but among people from every nation, tribe and tongue, enjoying God for all of eternity. That’s where our story is headed for all who trust in Jesus. That gives us reason to sing today, no matter what we’re walking through.
So God, I pray over those who are in the middle of trial, tribulation, pain, grief, hardship, opposition, attack, whatever it might be from, the adversary and this fallen world, God, I pray for your presence with your strength and your peace all over your comfort for every single person walking through whatever they’re walking through. And God, I pray for your all-surpassing, superseding, otherworldly joy to meet them in this moment and to give them hope of the day when this trial will be passed, this grief will be gone. One day you will wipe away every tear from our eyes, Revelation 7, and lead us to springs of living water, of satisfaction and joy from a well that never, ever, ever ends. Jesus, we praise you. This is the end of our story.
So, today we sing. Today we rejoice with great joy.
Prayer for the Cochin Jewish People
And God, we pray for this joy in Christ that’s eternal and supersedes this world, to spread through us, to others around us, especially when we walk through trials. Oh God, help us to show a joy in Christ that draws others to Christ. And God, we pray for peoples around the world who don’t know this joy, people’s far away, to use language from Nehemiah 12:43, who don’t know the joy that’s found in Jesus.
We pray for the Cochin Jewish people in Israel, this group of South Indian Jewish men and women and children in Israel. We pray for the joy of Jesus to spread to the Cochin Jewish men and women and children of Israel. And to all the peoples of the world, let the nations be glad in you. We ask for that, God. Cause your joy to spread and use our lives however you want toward that end. In Jesus’ name, we pray, according to this picture in Nehemiah 12:43. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
