JESUS:OUR JOY, PART ONE
JESUS: OUR JOY, PART ONE
God intends for His children to discover throughout our lifetime on earth more and more of His Glory, and so, more and more of our JOY. In the Bible, from the Beginning until the New Beginning, He invites us into His Holy Presence, essentially through JESUS, promised throughout the Old Testament, and appearing—living, teaching, healing, dying, rising, ascending, and returning in the New Testament. So, as we look to the Old Testament first for the Promise of Jesus, we find JOY as we consider the assurance, the hope, the seeking, the finding, and dwelling in the Promised Land where the line of David is established, and from which Jesus will be born.
From the very beginning, and throughout history, in the Bible, God’s Story of Redemption, Jesus has been our JOY. Throughout the Old Testament God spoke through first, a particular people; and then to a particular nation, to share His Promise of blessing the whole world with His Presence in the Person of One who would prove to be Jesus. Again and again, God was pointing His People to His gift of the Promised Land. He was also pointing them to the Promise of the Messiah, who would establish God’s Rule over over His people and throughout the world. So, in the Promised Land of peace and plenty, and in the Promised One, God was forever working toward the coming of Jesus as His gift of JOY for all the earth. He has always been at the center of God’s Plan for ultimate reconciliation with human kind. In the Promise of the the blessing of all human kind through the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God was preparing His nation.
Genesis 12:1-3
Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
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Jesus At The Center
Always and forever Jesus is at the very center
or God’s eternal plan to redeem His children
and so to give us the JOY of knowing
the fullness of His Love and Grace
even as we struggle every day with trials and
tribulations following our failure to obey
Him in the garden—and so to lose our
honored place in His Creation—
Jesus comes Incarnate to participate with us
in life’s opportunities and its struggles
blessing us with His smiles, His laughter, His Love,
His care, His Wisdom, His Power and His Life,
for God held nothing back as He daily proved His
eternal and His perfect, His sacrificial plan as
He demonstrated every moment how we
could perfectly trust in and follow Him.
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God Made Himself A Nation
God made Himself a nation out of Israel as a testimony
to the glory of His Presence among His people who
choose to follow and and obey Him as He blesses
and He leads them while He delivers
on every Promise He makes them passing through the Sea
and the desert discovering for them water when
they’re thirsty and manna when they’re hungry
and His Law when they wander—
and at the heart of every promise He was looking forward
to His Incarnation being born among His People
as the baby Jesus born almost unseen in a
manger in the quiet town of Bethlehem.
Genesis 28:11-14
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night,
because the sun had set.
Taking one of the stones of the place,
he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold,
there was a ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God were ascending
and descending on it! And behold,
the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord,
the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.
The land on which you lie I will give to you
and to your offspring.
Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth,
and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east
and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring
shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
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As Jacob’s family and descendants grew in number, God intervened on their behalf, multiplying and blessing them during their time in Egypt until their numbers and their strength became a threat to Pharaoh. So, he effectively enslaved them. Then God sent Moses as a deliverer, and through the plagues convinced the king to release the Hebrews, but only after the ultimate and tenth plague, from which the Hebrews were spared, due to their obedience in sacrificing a perfect Lamb—of course—pre-figuring Jesus.
Exodus 12:11-13
Jesus: The Passover Lamb
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them,
“Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.
Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood
that is in the basin, and touch the lintel
and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.
None of you shall go out
of the door of his house until the morning.
For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians,
and when he sees the blood on the lintel
and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door
and will not allow the destroyer
to enter your houses to strike you.”
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Jesus: A Prophet
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from among you, from your brothers—
it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the Lord your God
at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said
‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God
or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’
And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right
in what they have spoken.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you
from among their brothers.
And I will put my words in his mouth,
and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name,
I myself will require it of him.’”
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God speaks through Moses, pointing to Jesus as a prophet. God promises to put His Words in Jesus’ mouth. Jesus will speak all that God commands. All will be held accountable for their response to Jesus and everything He says for God. The pattern throughout the Old Testament is clear: Listen to God. Hear Him carefully. Obey Him. Find blessing and JOY in heeding God’s Word.
Interestingly God chooses a wandering family, builds them into a mighty nation, and then gives them the Promised Land. Over and over again He blesses them in the midst of mighty trials. When there is no water, He provides. When there is no bread, He provides. When there is no meat, He provides. When their disobedience leads to sickness, He provides the means to express their faith in Him, and He heals those who follow His direction. They are blessed over and over again with His Presence, and so His JOY for them—just as Jesus will be His Presence to bring JOY among His people when He lives physically among them. This is true even though Jesus is like a stone the builders have rejected.
Psalms 118:21-22
Jesus: The Stone The Builders Rejected
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
As the stone, the priceless cornerstone, Jesus is crushed for us. To bring us blessing or JOY, Jesus is put to grief. His soul offers Himself for our guilt. God’s Will prospers in His hand. The righteous one, Jesus, will make many rejoice in righteousness purchased by Him and His Holy Sacrifice. Jesus has died to purchase our JOY. Jesus has born our iniquities—even as the prophet has written.
Isaiah 53:10-11
Jesus: Crushed For Us
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul
he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Jesus comes as the Son of Man who receives dominion over all peoples. He comes before God, the Ancient of Days. He is given dominion and glory and the Kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages serve Him. This dominion is eternal and cannot be destroyed. It will never pass away. In God’s Presence Jesus becomes our absolute and eternal JOY.
Daniel 7:13-14
Jesus: His Dominion Over All Peoples
I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Jesus will bring salvation to all who call on His Name. Our JOY in Jesus arises from the complete salvation He brings as we proclaim His Name. We are then delivered from separation between us and God, our judgment. He sets us free from the penalty of our sinful rejection of His call to love and honor and worship Him. This is our JOY in Jesus.
Joel 2:32
Jesus: Salvation For Those Who Call On His Name
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those
who escape, as the Lord has said,
and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Although Bethlehem is a very small town, and for most people an almost completely forgotten one, this town which has been the birthplace of David, Israel’s greatest king; and so, of Jesus, His promised descendant, as set forth and prophesied according to God’s Perfect Will. There shall be great JOY among God’s people when His appointed King is born in little, almost forgotten, Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2
Jesus: Bethlehem Born
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
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And so, we see how from the very beginning, and throughout the Old Testament, Scripture after Scripture points us to JESUS as God’s fulfillment of His eternal gospel plan to bring us JOY as as He reveals His glory. We can absolutely trust in JESUS with our whole lives and find in Him JOY for each day we live. Praise the Lord! Amen!
(“Jesus in all of the books of the Bible” jesusplusnothing.com {December 23, 2025} provided suggestions for passages used in this post.)
