At
the beginning of Holy Week I heard a familiar scripture in a new way. When the reader recited Isaiah 42:1: Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul
delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations, I thought about God’s soul for the first time.
Before
really hearing that scripture, the words
soul and delights seemed more
applicable to describe something like dark chocolate candy. Thinking of the pride God the Father takes in
presenting to the world God His Son to fix up the problem of sin in the world
leaves me in awe. For the first time I
let my mind conceive that God has a soul.
He has a soul like me (or the other way around, He saw fit to give me a
soul like His). His soul is capable of
being delighted by Jesus! His soul longs
to be delighted by me.
As
I sat in that service, I began to think about the reality that how I live, what
I think, the words I speak and write—all of them can bring delight or despair
to the soul of God. Jesus always brought
delight. I wish I could say the same.
This
image of bringing delight to the soul of God encourages me to want to do what
He asks of me and assures me of what I am capable. A personal, loving God has a soul that is
impacted by the actions and affections of human beings. God’s soul is impacted by my behaviors,
thoughts and words. I honestly want to
delight His soul like Jesus did.
I
pray that my Lenten journey has delighted God’s soul. It is not worth taking if that is not the
result. I know that my soul has been
delighted by Jesus’ journey to the cross.
Though I felt overwhelming sadness at the reality of what it cost to
redeem me, I feel extraordinary expectation that it means that, just as Jesus
conquered death, so can I.
It’s
easy to imagine that God’s soul delights in Jesus. It’s harder to think that His soul could be
delighted by me. There is nothing in
Isaiah 42 that would cause me to know that He does feel delight in me. The passage is about His Son—His soul’s
delight. Just grasping that is enough to
keep my mind, heart and spirit full. It
was God’s will to crush Him (Is. 53:10), but not because He lacked delight in
Him. He wanted to give Jesus more glory
than He already had. At the name of
Jesus, God delighted so much that every knee will bow and every tongue will
proclaim that He is Lord (Phil. 2:10).
This
relationship between God and Jesus, the love they feel and express for each
other, is the delight of the world. It
delights my soul to think of how they delight each other. Webster’s dictionary describes delight: a high degree of gratification; joy; also : extreme satisfaction. Amidst all the ugly realities that the Easter
story brings out, underlying is the delight that is the joy set before Him
(Hebrews 12:2) that motivated Him to endure the cross.
I
want to live my life motivated by joy. I
know it’s a longshot, but I want to be one of those in whom God’s soul
delights. I want to live my life like
Jesus, focused on delighting God!
Comments
Post a Comment