"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

If God is the source of all joy, then what makes God show great joy? What makes Him rejoice? Because if we are carrying His Spirit inside of us, whatever moves Him should be moving us too.

So what I'm seeing is this... all through the Old Testament, God keeps coming back to the same thing. In Deuteronomy 30, after listing every blessing for obedience and every curse for rebellion, God already knows what Israel will choose. He knows they will wander. But He doesn't leave them without hope. He says, "When you wake up one day and realize you messed up and call on me, I will be there for you. I will bring you back home like I promised." And then in verse 9, He says the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers. Not reluctant acceptance. Not a frustrated sigh. Rejoicing. God's response to a repentant heart is not tolerance, it is joy.

In Isaiah 62, the Lord is looking ahead to the salvation of His people and He is so passionate about their return that He compares it to a wedding. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." That is not casual language. That is the kind of joy that rewrites your whole future, the kind that says everything starts now.

In Jeremiah 32:41, God says something that should stop every one of us. "I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul." With all His heart and all His soul. That is not a God who is indifferent to people coming home. That is a God who is completely invested in it.

And then in Zephaniah 3, after calling Jerusalem rebellious and defiled, after saying she listened to no voice and accepted no correction and failed to trust in the Lord... He looks forward to the day when a humble remnant seeks refuge in His name. And on that day, He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you by His love, He will exult over you with loud singing. God sings over the ones who come home. Heaven is not silent when the lost return. It is loud.

So here is the incredible thing about all of this. The pattern never changes. In Deuteronomy, it is restoration. In Isaiah, it is salvation. In Jeremiah, it is return. In Zephaniah, it is rescue. And every single time, God's response is joy. Not a reserved nod of approval, but the kind of joy that shouts, that sings, that pours out with all His heart and soul.

If that is what moves God, then it should be what moves us. And if it does not move us yet, maybe it is because we have been sitting in the comfort of the 99 so long that we forgot what the one sounds like when heaven throws the party. Tomorrow we will see how this joy showed up supremely at the cross.

Pick one of the passages from today (Deuteronomy 30:9, Isaiah 62:5, Jeremiah 32:41, or Zephaniah 3:17) and read the full chapter around it. Ask God to let His joy for the lost become your joy.