One word for Joy in Hebrew is
simchah – שִׂמְחָה –
joy, happiness, gladness, mirth.
Another word for JOY is
chedvah: חֶדְוָה –
joy.
Strong’s Concordance #2304.
Original Word: חֶדְוָה.
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine.
Transliteration: chedvah.
Phonetic Spelling: khed-vaw’.
Strong’s Hebrew: 8057.
שִׂמְחָה (simchah) — joy, gladness, mirth
Original Word: שִׂמְחָה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: simchah
Phonetic Spelling: (sim-khaw‘)
exceedingly, gladness, joyfulness, mirth, pleasure, rejoicing.
From sameach; blithesomeness or glee, (religious or festival) exceeding (-ly), gladness, joy (-fulness), mirth, pleasure, rejoice delight (1), exceeding joy (1), extremely* (1), festival (1), gladness (34), happiness (1), joy (38), mirth (1), pleasure (6), rejoice (1), rejoiced (1), rejoicing (6).
At that moment …
He was filled with JOY – שִׂמְחָה
שִׂמְתָה שָׂשׂן
Transliteration: sim•cha, sa•son
Simcha, Joy, is one of the most used words in the Scriptures; it appears over 400 times, together with its synonym, sa•son. Interestingly, the English word ‘sassy’ came from sa•son.
Both words together form a beautiful expression that is said in every Jewish wedding, as weddings themselves and other events such as a child birth are called by the general name ‘sim•cha’.(The word is spelled both with and without an h at the end.)
This expression, used by the prophet, Jeremiah, says:
‘kol sa•son ve•kol sim•cha, kol cha•tan ve•kol ka•la’.
“The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride” Jeremiah 33:11
We can also see this as prophetic concerning Messiah returning for His Bride/Challah/.
From the references to joy, the first time it is mentioned in the Brit Chadashah/New Testament it is noted with the birth of Jesus, Yeshua:
“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy”
Matthew 2:10
We may be most familiar with joy being listed among the fruit of the spirit which are qualities noted in Galatians 5:22-23.
The second fruit of the Spirit is joy, ‘sim•cha.
Sim•cha is connected to the name of an important Jewish Holiday – Sim•chat To•rah – the Rejoicing of the Torah.
This holiday is celebrated on She•mi•ni A•tze•ret, which is the first day following the seventh day of Sukkot also called
Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles.
The holiday commemorates the completion of reading portions of the Torah during the year; there are 52; each portion is read each week of the year all over the world.
This custom is biblical because it was first done by Ezra the Scribe.
Luke 10:21-25
when we hold someone dear and love them in truth we want to know what makes them happy ….happiness is an emotion of the soul and often does not outlast the occasion or reason for its declared feeling. We are in a flesh body but we are spirit first and foremost; and we must learn to NOT be led by our feelings but by His Spirit of Holiness within us, guiding and leading our spirit not our flesh.
The scripture does not say Yeshua/Jesus was happy,
it says
He was filled with joy. Luke 10:21
The scripture says in
Nehemiah 8:10 This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the lord is our strength.
Nehemiah 8:10, Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!
We may assume that our strength comes from the joy our Heavenly Father gives to us.
Have we ever thought to ask, where does that joy really come from?
The word joy that is used in Nehemiah is the word chadoth which is really the word for pleasure.
The pleasure of God is our strength.
But what does that mean?
Psalms 105 may give us an answer.
He called down famine on the land,
broke off all their food supply,
17 but sent a man ahead of them —
Yosef, who was sold as a slave.
18 They shackled his feet with chains,
and they bound him in irons;
19 until the time when his word proved true,
God’s utterance kept testing him.
20 The king sent and had him released,
the ruler of peoples set him free;
21 he made him lord of his household,
in charge of all he owned,
22 correcting his officers as he saw fit
and teaching his counselors wisdom.
This Psalm vs. 16-22 holds a very interesting reference to Joseph. Most scholars agree that this reference means; that until the time came for Joseph to fulfill his purpose or mission in life, which was to become a prime minister of Egypt and thus bring his family into safety from a famine; he first had to go through various trials to be tested by Adonai. This testing/trial proves faithfulness and obedience, vs.19.
Joseph learned to be joyful in every situation because
the joy of the Lord was his strength.
His pleasure is our strength …a verse in Philippians also helps us understand:
For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure. Phil. 2:13. Amp. and again in Rev. 4:11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Here is confirmation of two things that believers in Messiah understand to be true; and that is,
we are all created for a specific purpose in life
and
that our Heavenly Father puts us through times of trial/testing or as it’s often referred to as spiritual boot camp.
This is for the purpose of developing our
obedience and faithfulness
and to bring us to the place where we fulfill the mission /calling He has placed on our lives.
These verses are important for us.
Why?
Because it gives us a scriptural basis, revealing that we are not put on this earth haphazardly, or by chance or mistake; rather that our Heavenly Father has placed us here at this specific time to fulfill a specific role.
It also gives us an understanding of the reason why we all go through trials in life; that it is to provide a training ground which helps prepare us to fulfill the role chosen for us in His plan.
Concerning
the joy of the Lord is your strength;
it’s not the joy you feel,
but the joy our Heavenly Father has in us
and reveals it to you through devar.
The Hebrew word
devar:
Strong’s Hebrew: 1697.
דָּבָר dabar/devar – speech, word.
Davar or dabar means word and it also means thing.
This fact reflects a deep facet of a Jewish world view.
Words are the creative energy of the world. God spoke, and through words brought the universe into being.
It directly correlates to Yeshua for it is the Hebrew equivalent to “Logos” found in John chapter 1.
In Hebrew John 1: 1 reads,
“Bereishit hayah hadavar. V’davar haya et haElohim, vElohim hayah hadavar.”
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Yeshua is Hadavar Elohim, “The Word of God.”
The Fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy is called “Davarim” (Words) in Hebrew. It was written at the end of 40 years of the Children of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.
There is something interesting to be seen here.
The Hebrew word for “wilderness” is Midvar. Davar is the root word for Midvar. Notice that the last three consonants of Midvar are the same as the three consonants of Davar.
Davar is spoken by Moses (a type of Yeshua) at the end of the 40 years of testing in the wilderness. After Moses’ death, Yehoshua (Joshua, another type of Yeshua) leads the children of Israel to the Promised Land (yet another picture of Yeshua).
Yeshua at the end of the 40 days of testing in the Midvar (wilderness) is confronted by Satan. Three times Satan tries to tempt Yeshua. Yeshua responds only one way. He uses Hadavar Elohim (the Word of God).
Which book does Yeshua quote from all three times?
Davarim.
Interesting Note:
Davar HaChaim (The Living Word)
is in the Midvar using the Hadavar Elohim,
specifically the book of Davarim to defeat the adversary!!
We all know that as God, Jesus/Yeshua could have just simply performed a miracle and thrown Satan out of the desert, but He didn’t. So why did He
The Living Word
Davar HaChaim
use the Word of God to defeat the adversary?
because He is our example.
Jesus/Yeshua,
the Living Word/Davar HaChaim
had to show that Satan/adversary can be defeated by the
Hadavar Elohim/the Word of God
and in the power of His Spirit of Holiness/Ruach HaKodesh. Had Messiah done something to the adversary/devil that only God can do, He would not have been much of an example for us, as that option would not have be available to us.
The word/devar that is
spoken from the heart of God.
Devar represents a
word of power
and could also be
a word of prophecy or inspiration.
Devar – DBR – is spelled with a
Daleth
which is a doorway
to the
Beth (b and/or v)
or the heart
of the Resh or Spirit of God.
So Devar is:
a doorway to the heart of God.
It’s the heart of God that gives us strength!
When we enter His heart, we find it is
filled with JOY over us and our faithfulness
and when we see the JOY of the Lord…
that becomes our strength to overcome!
So Yeshua/Jesus was filled with strength also ..
this joy is a spiritual force that helps us in our halak/walk;
this too is to be our joy – our strength!
For Yeshua/Jesus too, the joy that filled Him, came by way of His Fathers’ Spirit of Holiness/Ruach HaKodesh; as He saw what JOY was in His Fathers’ Heart as His will and plan was being fulfilled.
21 At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
22 “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
He continued to speak
23 Then, turning to the talmidim, he said, privately, “How blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing! 24 Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”
Just before that moment He had told His talmidim/disciples in
verse 20, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.
His Joy/Simchah/chedvah, was at the declaration of His Fathers will being literally fulfilled!
He and His disciples and anyone at that time who saw what was happening were seeing what the prophets had desired to see!
“Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17).
In other words, to experience something that marvelous, was that which many wise and holy people had longed to experience but couldn’t …this should make us aware that we are truly blessed, and should cause us to be very thankful.
In 1 Peter 1:10-12. he is encouraging us to express a more grateful attitude and respect for our salvation because the old testament prophets and the angels of heaven longed to see what we have now experienced through the gospel of Messiah.
This salvation referred to in vers. 5 & 9, reveals that 10 The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it. 11 They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah’s sufferings and the glorious things to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that their service when they spoke about these things was not for their own benefit, but for yours. And these same things have now been proclaimed to you by those who communicated the Good News to you through the Ruach HaKodesh sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things!
If this is true then the days we are living in should also fill us with that same JOY!!?…
again this JOY is not an emotion or a feeling from our soul based on a carnal based reaction to our physical body’s 5 senses. It is rather a definitive condition of our spirit based on truth and rooted in His devar/Word; both the written and Word made flesh in Messiah.
It was the fulfilling of His Fathers will that filled Yeshua/Jesus with Joy/simcha/chedvah.
As we see prophecy being fulfilled at an almost alarming pace, we too should be filled with His joy/simcha/chedvah;
as His and our Heavenly Fathers will is being literally fulfilled today!
The hour is at hand!
Matt 26:45 behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners
He also said in Luke 22:53
When the authorities come to take Jesus/Yeshua away, He tells them in verse 53
this is your hour — when darkness reigns.
It could be translated as
this the hour of the authority of darkness.
The physical darkness is a representation of something deeper that happens.
Then Jesus/Yeshua said to the chief priests, temple officers, and elders who had come for Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against an outlaw? 53
Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this hour belongs to you andto the power of darkness.”
Messiah was facing a time of crisis.
An hour of darkness.
And we all face those because, there is a power in darkness. It’s the power of uncertainty, and anxiety and fear. However He tells us to fear not
WHY?
Because…
He has overcome the world and all things are in the Fathers hand. He is in control whatever our 5 physical senses try to tell us…
Knowing what His Word says regarding these things we experience in our flesh, will dispel ALL fears; and when we resist them in the name of Jesus/Yeshua; and keep ourselves under His protective, redeeming blood, by being obedient to what He has told us to do and be… then…. no weapon formed against us can prosper.
Yeshua/Jesus called the adversary, the prince of this world, who indeed did offer Him all the kingdoms of the world. Messiah did not choose the easy way but chose instead to complete His Fathers’ plan for His life
because this is why He came.
Likewise we must fulfill that for which we are here.
There are times that the darkness seems to be winning but it’s only for a designated hour!
The hour is at hand for us …as the end of the age presses in and
all things must be fulfilled Luke 24:44
That day and that hour Luke 21 36
We are called to set a watch in the night time.
This is both physical night and times/days of spiritual darkness. When Yeshua/Jesus said,
the hour has come…
darkness had its designated but short reign.
This manifested presence, although dark, was still the will of His Father however, it was restricted within the boundaries and restraints of our Fathers’ perfect plan of the ages.
Even the wicked in Prov. 16:4
Adonai made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of disaster.
and
Isaiah 45:7 I form light, I create darkness;
I make well-being, I create woe;
I, Adonai, do all these things.
Are we distracted by lifes’ events?
Are we pressured by conforming to the ever increasing dates for activities and celebrations on mens’ calendars?
Should we not be more concerned with our Heavenly Fathers’ timeline and calendar?
What is the word watch for?
It is to rise and pray..
WHY?
So that the hour does not come on us unaware
and
that we do not fall into temptation.
The time is short –
Final salvation, days of His glory, are nearer to us now, than when we first believed – It is continually advancing, flying forward upon the swiftest wings of time.
“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” Romans 13:11.
Even so, the events that Yeshua/Jesus mentions in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 lead to the end of this worlds age; and because of this, we know that
the hour is at hand
and our final salvation is indeed
nearer to us than when we first believed.
Yeshua/Jesus went on to say,
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. Mark 13:32-33.
The storm is gathering fast and He calls us to discern the events that are currently forming in the affairs of men. We are to be observant of their warning, that disaster and and holocaust are in the making and shaping up to be released.
Doom and gloom you say??
NO!
Rather it is prophetic declaration of the Words of our Lord and Savior; and it let’s us know He is soon returning!
It’s a season for every believer to rejoice and be joy filled
and for those looking for Him who are the redeemed bride,
they will say what
Is. 25:9 says…
this is the Lord for whom we have waited.
On that day they will say,
“See! This is our God!
We waited for him to save us.
This is Adonai ; we put our hope in him.
We are full of JOY so glad he saved us!”
We are a chosen generation…
chosen to see the culmination of the ages
Yeshua/Jesus said in Matthew 24:21
21 For there will be trouble then worse than there has ever been from the beginning of the world until now, and there will be nothing like it again![b] 22 Indeed, if the length of this time had not been limited, no one would survive; but for the sake of those who have been chosen, its length will be limited.
this will be a time like no other and never will be again…
James 5:7 7 So, brothers, be patient until the Lord returns. See how the farmer waits for the precious “fruit of the earth” — he is patient over it until it receives the fall and spring rains.[a]
He waits only for the precious fruit of the earth, until the times of the gentiles (the last 2000+years) be fulfilled Luke 21:24.
He waits for our Heavenly Fathers’ timing…
Matthew 24:36 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
We must be ready, we must be in the company of the wise virgins. The call has already gone forth, so we must be listening more and more to Him than to what the world around us is saying.
Keep our focus on Him and things above.
We must learn to
be still before Him,
as chaotic disturbances scream for our attention.
Be obedient when He speaks and raise the standard of our personal discipline and dedication to a higher level….NOW…
He has called us to come up higher… Did we move yet?
Or are these just words that we give mental assent to, agreeing and acknowledging, but with no action or response!
Once His face was set like flint towards Yerushalayim/Jerusalem for the hour had come…
It’s time to set our faces towards His will for us!
Setting our face to go to Jerusalem means letting go of home, a sense of security, and a place in society. If we set our face to go to Jerusalem, then we have put ourselves on a path of change and transformation according to His Will plan and purpose for us.
Darkness and all its works have an allocated time for all prophecy to be fulfilled. Again remember…
The LORD has made everything for His purpose–even the wicked for the day of disaster. Proverbs 16:4
If there was no bad, we would not comprehend what good is. Our Heavenly Father has created a perfectly balanced universe, beyond our finite minds can understand. He is infinite.
The day of reckoning and judgment is in His hand. These things Yeshua/Jesus said must take place. Read Matt. 24:34 & Luke 1:20.
He will lift up His voice as the sound of a trumpet.
Isaiah 58:1 and Heb. 12:9 Rev. 3:20.
Those with ears to hear will recognize the clear tone of His call.
As we prepare ourselves, being more with Him, allowing His Ruach/Spirit to fill us to a greater capacity; this will keep us from the influences and deceiving elements of the prince of this world, and all his wiles. We must become like our Lord and when the devil comes be able to say…
he finds nothing in me!
for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me.
John 14:30
Hold fast to the profession of your faith. Hebrews 10:23
to that which is good
But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. 1 Thess.5:21
and godly
Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Rev.3:11.
and
occupy till He comes. Luke 19:13.
1 Tim. 5:21; 2 Tim. 1:13. Titus 1:9; Heb 4:14, 10:31; Rev. 2:13; Ps. 11:6; Is. 62:1; Jer. 6:11; Acts 3:11; Rom. 14:4; 1Cor. 14:30.