A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
-Proverbs 17:22
I have been pondering the essence of art in recent days. Painting, drawing, music, and poetry date back to the beginning of humanity. Actually, these things date back even farther. Much farther. Like in an eternity past. Art finds its origin, not in creation, but in its Creator. God is the ultimate Artist.
Have you considered Jesus in this way? Proverbs 8:27-31
When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
Read how God answered Job out of the whirlwind and imagine what it was like as God created the universe. Job 38:4-7
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Everything God ever created He declared to be good. Creation is Artistic expression and overflows out of the joy of the Artist. No two sunsets look alike; He has painted them all. No two human beings are alike; all have unique fingerprints. He formed and molded every single one like clay on His wheel. He declared human beings to be very good. Nothing God makes is bad. It is all good. 1 Timothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
Yet Ezekiel receives a vision from God of a valley filled with dry bones (Ez. 37). “And behold they were very dry” (v. 2b). This does not seem good at all. Indeed, it is not. This valley of very dry bones is the result of the curse of Genesis 3.
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy (preach) to them. As he obeys and begins to preach, he hears a rattling noise. He watches in utter astonishment as skeletons are pieced back together and flesh began to grow on them. Verse 10: So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
This is a beautiful and artistic vision of God joyfully reversing the curse on humanity and the created order. It comes through the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. The result is a masterpiece much more spectacular than the creation of the universe.
A key ingredient of the curse poison is kill-joy. We often talk of how the curse and sin separate us from God. However, a key tragedy of this separation is the shriveling of true abiding happiness in the human heart. There is no Divine joy in the Valley of Bones. There is no true imaging of our joyful Creator. For, according to Psalm 16:11, You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Indeed, the second fruit of the Spirit after love that Paul lists in Galatians 5 is joy.
When you piece all of this together you can conclude that as God is reversing the curse on the earth, He is also restoring Divine joy to it. Because He is ultimately restoring His image. So that exceedingly great army that God is raising up all over the world is also an exceedingly joyful army.
Christian, it is an understatement to say that you have permission to be happy in Christ. How can you be called into the myriad of the redeemed and not be joyful? Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
It is because of these truths that I agree with John Piper when he concludes that the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. To fail to enjoy Him is to fail to image Him and return to the bone pile. You do not have permission to call God a liar and not believe the Gospel. You do not have permission to disobey God’s imperative call to come to Him for rest (Matthew 11:28-30).
So embrace this truth and swim in it:
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
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