174. Delight and Married
Isaiah 62:4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and they land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
Hephzibah = “My delight is in her.” Beulah = “Married.” God promises that He will delight in us; He smiles upon us; He rejoices over us; He exults over us. The “her” that the Lord delights in is the Church, the people of God, the family of God, the Bride of Christ, that is, all believers in Christ as a group and each individual believer in it. The land that shall be married to Christ is the Church, the Kingdom of God, the people of God gathered in union with Jesus Christ.
The people whom God created and redeemed make God happy. When the Lord looks upon us with fatherly love and motherly care it makes Him happy, for He sees reflected His own goodness and mercy. And it is beautiful. The Lord delights in the choices we make, the words we speak, the things we do, and the thoughts we dwell on. These are all good as God sees us; this makes Him happy. Now He also sees the sin in us: it is ugly to Him; it repulses Him; He hates it; and it makes Him sad. He is grieved over our sins. So he does something about it: he gave His Son to take it away. The blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin, so that the Holy Spirit living in us mixed with our human spirit is able to give joy to the Lord. The Lord is interested in us and watches us to see how we react to adversity, how we choose our words and actions, and how we think about our relations with others and with the world. And “there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” We repent of sin and believe the Gospel and that puts a smile on God’s face. And it is a blessing for us when God is smiling on us and rejoicing over us. Our faith makes the Lord so happy He wants to join in marital union with us.
Sin causes separation, forsakenness, and desolation. And there may be no greater fear in the human heart than being Forsaken and Desolate. We know that the strongest fear children have is the fear of abandonment. Death of a parent, divorce of parents, abuse from father or mother, and neglect from Mom and Dad is terribly devastating. This primal fear, caused by sin, is even worse than fear of torture, pain and death. For this reason the Lord joins Himself to us, delights in us, and takes us as His beautiful bride. And we are eternally united to God and securely taken care of.
Note that God is delighted in you, the person, your faith, and your relationship with Him. He loves your good works, but it is not your works that delight the Lord so much as your faith in Him (which produces the good works). Make God happy: believe His promises.