God Can Feel Hurt​—How We Can Bring Him Joy

Have you ever been hurt so badly that you cried?—a All of us probably have. At times, though, the pain may not be to our body. Someone may say bad things about us that are not true. That can hurt, can’t it?— God too can feel hurt when lies are told about him. Let’s talk about this and see how we can bring God joy rather than pain.

The Bible says that some people who said they loved God made “him feel hurt.” Yes, “they pained” God! No one, of course, can hurt the body of Jehovah God. He is almighty. Let’s see, then, why Jehovah feels hurt when we don’t do what he says.

The first two people Jehovah created on earth caused him to feel a lot of pain. These two were put in the Paradise on earth called “the garden of Eden.” Who were these two?— Yes, Adam and then, sometime later, Eve. Let’s see what they did that caused Jehovah pain.

After Jehovah put them in that garden, he told them to take care of it. He also told them that they could have children and could live together in the garden without dying. But before Adam and Eve had children, a terrible thing happened. Do you know what that was?— An angel moved Eve and then Adam to rebel against Jehovah. Let’s see how this happened.

The angel caused a snake, or serpent, to appear to speak. Eve liked what she heard​—the serpent said she would become “like God.” So she did what the serpent told her to do. Do you know what that was?—

Eve ate from the tree that Jehovah had told Adam they should not eat from. Before God created Eve, he had told Adam: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

Eve knew that law. However, she kept looking at that tree, and she saw that it “was good for food and that it was something to be longed for to the eyes . . . So she began taking of its fruit and eating it.” Later she gave the fruit to Adam, and “he began eating it.” Why, do you think, did he do that?— It was because Adam had come to love Eve more than he loved Jehovah. He chose to please her rather than to please God. But obeying Jehovah is more important than obeying anyone else!

Do you remember the snake, or serpent, that spoke to Eve? Just as a person can make a puppet appear to speak, someone made that snake appear to speak. Whose voice was coming from the serpent?— It was the voice of “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan.”

Do you know how you can make Jehovah happy?— You can do so by always trying to please him. Satan says he can get everyone to do what he wants them to do. So Jehovah urges us: “Be wise, my son [or daughter], and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.” Satan taunts, or mocks, Jehovah. He says that he can turn everyone away from serving Him. So make Jehovah happy by obeying him and serving him! Will you try hard to do that?—