The Father’s Love
The entire life of the Trinity begins with the Father’s love towards His Son. Jesus prayed to His Father, “You loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). This might be the clearest biblical statement on what was going on before the universe began.
This love from the Father takes great pleasure in its object. It’s this love that eternally shouted out, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
A very basic yet important conclusion to make regarding the Father’s love and pleasure in His Son is that this makes the Son a very joyful or happy Person. The Psalms prophesied that the Messiah would be anointed with the oil of gladness. The author of Hebrews confirmed that this prophecy spoke of Jesus. (Hebrews 1:9) Strong’s concordance says that the Greek word for “gladness” that Jesus is anointed with could be translated as “extreme joy.”
Doesn’t this make total sense? Isn’t it perfectly acceptable to say that Jesus, the Son of God, is a person of extreme joy because He is perfectly loved and delighted in by God Almighty, His Father?
Think about the power that it takes for God to hold the entire universe together. Now think about the energy with which the Father loves His Son. The Son is loved with an absolutely infinite love that could never be contained. That’s what makes the Son of God such a joyful Person. This is why there is “fullness of joy” in God’s presence (Psalm 16:11). Jesus’ joy is solid as a rock due to the fact of His Father’s love.
Remember, the Son is the image or reflection of the Father. Thus we should always keep in mind that the Father’s delight in His Son is at the same time a delight in Himself. Jonathan Edwards said it like this: “It is common when speaking of the Divine happiness to say that God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, His own essence and perfection” (Edwards, Unpublished Essay on the Trinity).
The Entertaining God
“You loved me before the foundation of the world.” Let’s unpack the Greek word for love a little bit. The word has a few meanings to it. Part of the word means to “welcome” or “accept.” So the Father has “welcomed” the Son from all eternity. The Son has always been accepted.
One of the other key meanings of this word is “to entertain.” This might sound kind of odd but the Greek word does in fact carry that meaning. But take another minute to think about it. Were the Father and the Son bored for all eternity? Certainly not! And what’s the opposite of boredom? Entertainment!
The Father and Son were actually keeping each other good company before the universe began. We don’t know the specifics of what they were doing. One clue might be to think of the ways in which humans entertain each other: songs, music, dancing, games, movies, shows, sports, good food, comedy, etc. Since humans are made in the “image” of God, the entertaining activities that we engage in might give us a hint into what the Father, Son, and Spirit were doing before creation.
Jesus hinted at some of His Father’s entertainment in Luke 15 when He said there was “music and dancing” in the Father’s house. It’s interesting that Jesus chose a party to represent His Father’s house. Perhaps Jesus was hinting at the music and dancing that He had experienced in the Father’s love before the world began.
Proverbs 8 begins to give us even more clues when we look into the Hebrew text. We begin to find that the Father and Son were playing and laughing as they created the world. We will look more into that next week.
In summary, the Father’s love, pleasure, and entertainment in the Son, and the Son’s extreme joy, are the realities that existed before the foundation of the world. What a wonderful origin story for planet earth. Some ancient religions believed that the universe was birthed out of the war of angry gods. These accounts were clearly the work of the enemy to blind us to the Beautiful relationship between the Father, Son, and Spirit.
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