Thursday, 22 October 2020

The joy of our salvation

Tweet

"... And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given you and to your house you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you." (Deuteronomy 26:10-11)

This is a piece of scripture that we thought about as we prepared for the Sukkot earlier this month, just as Israel is given a positive command to worship and to rejoice, we also need to remember that we have been given a command to rejoice. (1 Thessalonians, Philippians, 4) This was done both as individuals and as a community. Indeed, as week we look at the New Testament writings as well we see many times where we are told to rejoice. One of the reasons for this is because our identity in Yeshua is reinforced through our rejoicing, in the Lord and in one another.

Our identity is not static. Brain science reminds us that our every 1/6th of a second we are being reminded of our identity. It happens faster than our conscious thought and therefore we are not aware of it.

One of the ways, we demonstrate to ourselves and to others, our identity in Yeshua, is through unity. It was his prayer in John 17 and is outlined in Ephesians 4 as part of the equipping for and work of the ministry. And, one of the ways we attain this unity is through love. Part of this comes through rejoicing.

We can see in the tabernacle worship model we are given in scripture that thanksgiving is the very beginning of worship. This rejoicing is part of thanksgiving. It is beyond this little teaching here, but this idea also connected to food and very important.

For now, it is imperative for us to remember that as week seek to maintain our identity in Yeshua, we must do so by rejoicing. We should continue to focus on the joy of our salvation.