Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Isaiah 40 1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." 6A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 7The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." 9You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, "Here is your God!" 10See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
II Corinthians 1:3-5 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
When? When will it ever end? This pain in my back? This aching loneliness? This dull boring job? Having to learn all this useless information? When? When will it end? Some of us may have been spared the anguish of that question, but I believe most of us have know the agony of “when will it end.” We know the feelings of the question.
Isaiah offers the power of comfort. Comfort does not answer the question of when it will be over. Comfort has the power to sooth the agony of wondering and even the power to extinguish the need to ask “when will it end.” The comfort of Isaiah is not the comfort of sympathy. It is not the effort to speak some soothing word during a difficult time. This is not the impotent phrase we might say trying to comfort someone.
Comfort, real comfort is something that is given. Comfort is something that happens. Real comfort is an event in the soul. Real comfort is a kind of deliverance before deliverance comes. Have you known that deliverance before deliverance comes?
Comfort is this inner awakening of the soul that Jesus spoke of when he said to his disciples, “I will give you the comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Comfort is the inner awakening and power that Paul spoke of to the church at Corinth.
Comfort is this deliverance before our deliverance. It is this inner awakening of our soul. During the rush and busyness of Christmas time a small bit of comfort continues to reach me. Something happens and I realize “It’s all a gift. My life, my marriage, my children, my opportunity to serve this church, my abilities. It is all a gift.”
Can we receive the gift of comfort? What will it take to get our attention? Does it take a megaphone of problems, pains and pressures or do the problems, the pains, and pressures of life tend to drown out the Word of God to you and me?
What will it take to get our attention? “Cry…a voice says cry.” Maybe that is it. Maybe a baby’s cry will get our attention. A baby’s low cry has the power to shatter the darkness of the soul that believes God cannot or will not do anything about it.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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