DELIGHT
Numbers 14:7. And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying. The land, which we passed through to search it, [is] an exceeding good land.
14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
What is the definition of delight?
Delight
De-light of-light
To have light is to have understanding
To see clearly
To have clear bright understanding
I looked up delight in the concordance and then at the different Greek and Hebrew definitions and came up with an interesting list
1. in things
2. To be soft or pliable (trusting)
3. Specifically to satisfy a debt
4. To look upon (with complacency), please or amuse (self);
5. Enjoyment: - delight, pleasure.
6. To delight in: - beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing, ( X great) delight, desire, goodly, lust, (be) pleasant (thing), precious (thing).
7. Properly to spin around (under the influence of any violent emotion), that is, usually rejoice, or (as cringing) fear: - be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice.
8. (Be) acceptable (-ance, -ed), delight, desire, favor, (good) pleasure, (own, self, voluntary) will, as . . . (what) would.
9. Luxury: - delicate, delight, pleasant
10. To be agreeable (literally or figuratively): - pass in beauty, be delight, be pleasant, be sweet.
11. A delicacy or (abstractly) pleasure (adverbially cheerfully): - dainty, delicately, delight
12. To rejoice in with oneself, that is, feel satisfaction concerning: - delight.
Delight is to be happy or at peace with something. I wish I was an artist and could paint a picture of true wonderful delight. I wish I had awesome oratory skills that would set a picture in your minds that you could see a beauty that you would hold forever. I wish that I had in a greater sense of this beauty that it could be set out in my very life. This is why I study so that this beauty may become more real and more beautyful to me.
In my life though, I search for better ways to live and I desire now to share with you what I have been finding in my search for a true understanding of the beauty of true Christianity.
I would like to share with you something that I have been learning. It is a bit of an imagination bible story game. We pick a face part such as nose eyes ears and mouth. Lest say nose. We close our eyes and imagine a bible story. Let’s think about Esther as she has Haman and the King for a meal. Remembering that they are in the Kings garden what things might we smell? There would be good food to smell. Maybe we would smell oranges or kiwi or apples or bread or maybe some popcorn. We might smell the wonderful smell of roses or lilies or lilacs. How about the wonderful fragrance of the queens’ sweet perfume? We may even smell the smell of soil that has been freshly worked as the gardeners may have been out getting the garden ready for this meal so that it would be at its best for the King and Queen. We might use our ears in this same story and imagine what we might hear. I think that in a garden I might hear some birds sing as the flit about looking for something good to eat or maybe they are just enjoying the company of the King and Queen. We would hear the voices of those attending the meal as they visited. There might even be some soft music playing somewhere close by. We might here the rustle of the breeze in the trees that are standing tall in the garden. What might we see in the imagination as we look about this seen? The food, the flowers, the trees the Queen, The King, Haman, the birds, stone walk ways through the garden, fountains, statues, and many other things of wonderful rich things to enjoy. To get to know the bible stories we need to really enter into the story and try to imagine what was really happening. We can imagine the expressions on the faces and the emotions of the deferent individuals in the stories. We need to make the stories our own.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. It takes some effort to really think and to really digest something. We could put up a picture on the wall of mountains and valleys with a stream running down through the grassy meadows with trees, flowers, animals, birds, and maybe an old log cabin and we would enjoy taking a few moments now and then to look at it and maybe wish we could go there and see it for real. Or we could put up a picture of one of the lilies that are sprinkled in the valley floor and we could look at it and enjoy it from time to time and wish we could pick it and hold it and smell its rich fragrance. Or we could have a picture of the deer that are grazing there and look at it from time to time and say how beautiful and wish that we could be there to touch it and to pet it and to walk with it. There is beauty in each of these pictures that each of us can enjoy a glance now and then. But if you really want to learn a picture you need to do a puzzle. Where you see each little bit of the picture as you put it together and you become intimate with it in a very detailed way. You began to know that picture.
Who is God? Do you ever ask yourself this question? Even if we think that we know who God is we should ask this question often just for the sake of remembering who He is and that we are not Him.
God is a lover of the beautiful. He has given us unmistakable evidence of this in the work of His hands. He planted for our first parents a beautiful garden in Eden. Stately trees were caused to grow out of the ground, of every description, for usefulness and ornament. The beautiful flowers were formed, of rare loveliness, of every tint and hue, perfuming the air. . . It was the design of God that man should find happiness in the employment of tending the things He had created, and that his wants should be met with the fruits of the trees of the garden. {AH 27.1}
These men had lost sight of the fact that God is the teacher of His people; that every worker in His cause is to obtain an individual experience in following the divine Leader, not looking to man for direct guidance; that His workers are to be molded and fashioned, not after man's ideas, but after the similitude of the divine. {AA 401.3}
In comparison with the millions of the world, God's people will be, as they have ever been, a little flock; but if they stand for the truth as revealed in His word, God will be their refuge. They stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence. God is always a majority. When the sound of the last trump shall penetrate the prison house of the dead, and the righteous shall come forth with triumph, exclaiming, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)--standing then with God, with Christ, with the angels, and with the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority. {AA 590.1}
God is many things and we could go on in a list of who God is for a long time for many things He is willing to be to us.
Who is Jesus? Do you ever ask your self this question? We should so that we remember who he is and who we are. Who is Jesus?
Jesus is savior, redeemer, friend, brother, king, Lord Creator, Re-creator, guide, example,
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Those who are called to be shepherds of the flock of God are called to be laborers together with God. The Lord Jesus is the great Worker, and He prayed to His Father that His followers might be sanctified through the truth.
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
We could go on for a long time as to who God and Jesus are for they are an eternal subject. The question needs to be, who are they to you and to me as individuals?
I ask my self the question. What makes them beautiful and lovely and desirable? What is it about them that, does make me, to want, to follow them? When you close your eyes and imagine looking up into heaven and picture God, what do you see? It is hard for me as may be for you to picture something that we have never physically seen. If you were to play pictionary and your word was either God or Jesus, how would you draw? What would you put on the drawing board that would help me to understand what you were trying to present. How do you see God?
Many people, when they see God, see only justice, while others see only love. Some see nothing at all. What do you see? What should we see?
I believe that when we look to God we should see beauty, indescribable beauty. One thing I know is that we should see for looking. And if we do look I believe that we will see, though we may need to look with earnestness like when we are looking for a certain piece in that puzzle.
If we were to go out on a clear night and set up a telescope we could take pictures of things out in space. The better our telescope the better would be our picture. The best way to get a good picture is to have a motor hooked to our scope so that it would follow the night sky so that the shutter could be opened longer and receive more light. The problem is, is that we run out of night. So to get a really good picture we go out into space with our telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope can lock onto a planet or nebula for days at a time allowing light to really accumulate in a way that we can not do on earth.
To really see the beauty of God is going to take some time and doing. It is not like the passing glance at the mountain scene picture that we put on the wall awhile ago. It is going to be like doing the puzzle. It is not even like the separate picture of the lily or the deer. No it is like growing your own garden of flowers and then getting down on you r knees and weeding around them and cultivating and just getting your nose right in there and just smell them for your own self and the fragrance becomes your very own.
I want to play the face parts game again. I would like to use our eyes first and look around. We see the mob of people going down the street we see Jesus walking, staggering along being pushed and shoved. We see one Simon carrying the cross. We see Jesus being nailed to the cross and set up to hang there until He should die.
Is this picture beautiful? Is it lovely? No not so lovely to look at as far as looking goes. Even if there had been only the most wicked, and vile persons there, it would not be a very enjoyable scene.
What happened on the cross for the looking may not be so pretty. Yet this is the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in the existence of humanity. Most of us find it easy to love something beautiful and to admire something pretty. Is there a difference in pretty and beautiful? I believe that pretty is what we see on the outside and beauty comes from deep from within the heart.
How beautiful is God to you. Are you dazzled as you look to Him and admire His workings in creation and in the leading of your life? Are you so enthralled in Him that you just can’t seem to get enough of Him. If not maybe it is because we do not know Him. Real deep intimacy comes with real deep good communication. Let’s see how King David sought how He might know God better.
Ps. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
139:24 And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
9:10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
119:124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
119:125 I [am] thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies
We need to know God like getting down on our knees in the garden and getting so close to the flowers that we can taste it loveliness.
To know Jesus, to be with Jesus, does it burn with in you? Can you get enough of Him or do you sometimes think that you have had enough of Him? If we think that we have had enough of Him it is because we have had either none of Him or at least not enough to realize the love that He has given to us as individuals. To really know Him, what does it mean?
I would like to share a short story with you about a young man who was to write a PhD dissertation about the Navajo Indians. He was from Indiana and had never met or seen one of these and so knew little to nothing about them. So it was decided that he would go to live with a family of the Navajo on a reservation in Arizona. Arrangements were made and off he went. He showed up with his brand new Dodge pickup all black and shiny. He got out of his truck wearing his brand new cowboy stile boots with brand new jeans and cowboy stile hat and carrying brand new white leather duffle bag with his extra brand new clothes for the year. He looked around the yard and didn’t see anyone and after a while the man came out and with out a word led him in and showed him his bed. No one said a word to him that first day. There was the dad and mother several children and a grandmother. After a few days he was able to befriend the children by entering into their play and by generously complementing the food he finally gained some friend ship with the mother. By showing an interest in learning some Indian hunting skills he gained friendship with the father also. But grandma was not so easily bought. The man and the family began to really enjoy each other very much as time went on and all too soon the year was over. The man ate his last breakfast there and got his now not so white leather duffle bag and headed for his not so new looking Dodge truck that was not shiny anymore and that had a broken window and dirty seats and banged in fenders. The children just jumped into the truck like they had so many times in this past year and with tears in their eyes they gave him hugs and said their good byes. The father and mother too had a few tears in their eyes as they were saying goodbye. As he was getting into his truck ready to close the door grandma came outside and walked up to him and handed him a little gift and looking up into his eyes and for the first time she spoke to him. And in very fine calculated English words she says to him “I like me best when I am with you”.
“I like me best when I’m with you.” What about you? Is this what you say to your heavenly father? When you look back at the years of your life and you see where you were alone and where you were with God can you say that you like you best when you are with Him? When He is cleaning out the closet of your heart do you like you best when you are with Him then? It may be hard as you see some of the garbage going into the dumpster but be patient when it is all clean you will be able to enjoy your being with you with God all the more the better. Get to know Him and learn to let Him be a part of every aspect of your life and you will learn to like you best when you are with Him.
