Article by Jon Bloom; Staff Writer, desiringGod.org
Jonathan Edwards said, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.” Oh, what a glorious truth!
This truth is the message of the Bible to humans in a nutshell. This was the glory of the Edenic garden. Its eclipse was the tragedy of the fall from grace. This has always been at the heart of true, saving faith in all the saints, old and new covenant. This truth was the core issue in ancient Israel’s most glorious and most disgraceful moments. And restoring lost people’s ability to see and believe this truth is at the heart of why Jesus came, died, and rose again. He came to bring us to God, our exceeding joy (1 Peter 3:18; Psalm 43:4).
Our souls are meant to enjoy God supremely and all else in him. This truth will give every pleasure we enjoy fully forever the substance of its exquisite sweetness (Psalm 16:11).
God Is the Sun
Edwards said that everything else that bring us happiness in this age, “the most pleasant accommodations . . . fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the Sun.”
God is the sun. Understanding this reality makes all reality understandable.
The sun is not God, as some of the ancients mistook. But the sun tells us of God. Its refrain in the heavenly oratory of God’s glory (Psalm 19:1-2) is, “God is the sun! In his light we see light!” (Psalm 36:9).
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.