Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Isa 40:1
Store up comfort. This was the prophet’s mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness. (Streams in the Desert)
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. -- (Dr. Jowett)
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. -- (Dr. Jowett)
God's Response to the Cries of Suffering Humanity
Voices are ever speaking to us from the infinite; let us heed them.
(1.) There is the voice of forgiveness, Isa_40:2. Are you truly penitent? Have you put away your sin? Have you meekly accepted the chastening rod? Then be of good cheer, this promise is for you. The time of hard service as a conscript (the literal rendering) is accomplished, your iniquity is pardoned, you have received double for all your sins. God speaks comfortably to your heart, that you may be able to comfort others as He does you, 2Co_1:4.
(2.) The voice of deliverance, Isa_40:3-4. Between Babylon and Canaan lay a great desert of thirty days’ journey with mountain ranges, yawning gulfs. But when God arises to deliver His children, “who cry day and night unto Him,” crooked places straighten out, rough ones become smooth, and mountains disappear.
(3.) The voices of decay, Isa_40:6-8. The one herald, speaking from his observation of human mortality, describes man and his glory as the “flower of the field.” But in contrast to this, another voice seems to break in with the eternal word of God, which stands forever. The precepts, promises, and invitations of the gospel are as sure as God’s throne, 1Pe_1:25.
(F.B. Meyer)
(1.) There is the voice of forgiveness, Isa_40:2. Are you truly penitent? Have you put away your sin? Have you meekly accepted the chastening rod? Then be of good cheer, this promise is for you. The time of hard service as a conscript (the literal rendering) is accomplished, your iniquity is pardoned, you have received double for all your sins. God speaks comfortably to your heart, that you may be able to comfort others as He does you, 2Co_1:4.
(2.) The voice of deliverance, Isa_40:3-4. Between Babylon and Canaan lay a great desert of thirty days’ journey with mountain ranges, yawning gulfs. But when God arises to deliver His children, “who cry day and night unto Him,” crooked places straighten out, rough ones become smooth, and mountains disappear.
(3.) The voices of decay, Isa_40:6-8. The one herald, speaking from his observation of human mortality, describes man and his glory as the “flower of the field.” But in contrast to this, another voice seems to break in with the eternal word of God, which stands forever. The precepts, promises, and invitations of the gospel are as sure as God’s throne, 1Pe_1:25.
(F.B. Meyer)
The Aroma of Heaven
"They tell me I must bruise
The rose’s leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.
"They tell me I must break
The skylark’s heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.
"They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.
"Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?
"Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!"
Author Unknown
1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Dottie Rambo - The Perfect Rose
https://youtu.be/NjdpMRIlQnw?si=8T8ZOoYJFObOQW3C
"They tell me I must bruise
The rose’s leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.
"They tell me I must break
The skylark’s heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.
"They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.
"Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?
"Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!"
Author Unknown
1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Dottie Rambo - The Perfect Rose
https://youtu.be/NjdpMRIlQnw?si=8T8ZOoYJFObOQW3C
