t the greeting means
"Joy" or "Oh the joy!" And the angel later announced "good tidings
of great joy." And that blessed life which was lived upon earth to
the Glory of God, was a life which knew joy. All along the way from
Bethlehem to Golgotha He had joy before His heart. It is true He
wept, He had sufferings, He was tempted, He was ill-treated, cast
out, maligned, accused of evil and rejected, but joy filled His
heart. His God and Father was His joy, yea, His exceeding joy. To do
His will, who had sent Him was His constant joy. His joy was to walk
in confidence, in dependence on Him. His Father's love and delight,
which rested upon Him were His joy. "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (Ps.
lxxiii:25). This beautiful word must have been His constant
declaration; and that is joy. "I have set the Lord always before me"
(Ps. xvi:8) is another utterance of God's Spirit concerning the holy
life of God's well beloved Son. And that meant joy. The seventy He
had sent forth had returned again with joy, because the demons were
subject unto them. That is sinful man in carnal rejoicing! some
power manifested, some great success fills our proud hearts with
joy. But His words told them of a different joy. They were not to
rejoice that the spirits submitted to them, but that their names
were written in heaven. "In that hour Jesus _rejoiced_ in spirit,
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and
hast revealed them to babes; even so Father; for so it seemed good
in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no
man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is,
but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him" (Luke x:21, 22).
Thus _He_ rejoiced. In the parable of the treasure in the field He
speaks of His joy. The man who has found the treasure, for joy
thereof goeth and selleth all he hath, and buyeth that field ( Matt.
xiii:44). The man in the parable is the Lord Himself and the field
is the world. With joy He gave up all and came down here to buy us
back. And all His suffering from man and from Satan, the
persecutions He suffered from His own people to whom He came were
borne by Him with joy. He told out His own blessed character in the
beatitudes and in speaking of those who are reviled and persecuted,
He said, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." Thus He must have