Comfort and Joy

It is said that when Handel’s Messiah first premiered in London in 1743, King George 2 stood to his feet in reverence as he listened to the Hallelujah Chorus, and thus started a great tradition that carries to this day.

While we can’t know this for sure, we are sure that Handel’s Messiah took the texts of Scripture and set them to music.

One of the passages he used was Isaiah 40.1-8.

Verse 1 says to comfort ye my people. It is the same word that is used in Psalm 23 that says his rod and staff bring comfort to us.

One of the songs we sing at Christmas has the line “tidings of comfort and joy.”

Let’s talk about how God brings comfort to us at any time, even at Christmas.

Isaiah 40:1–8 HCSB

1 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” 3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

We can find comfort in the Word of God

Isaiah 40:1 HCSB

1 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

Isaiah 40:8 HCSB

8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

Look at the number of times Isaiah mentions God speaking or someone speaking for God Vs 1 – says, vs. 2. speak, announce, vs 3. a voice, vs 5 mouth has spoken, vs. 6 voice saying, another said, verse 8 Word of God.

Please hear me.. When you read God’s word, when you meditate on it, when you hear it preached and taught. It is a word from heaven. There is no greater comfort than to think that God Himself wants to speak to us. And whatever if happening around you is as temporary as the grass and flowers, but God’s Word is forever.

For seven years, Terry Anderson was held as a hostage of Shiite Muslim fundamentalists. The former reporter for the Associated Press had been taken captive and held as a political prisoner, and for seven terrible years, he was moved from location to location, hidden successfully, and sentenced to horrible loneliness. Before he was taken as a hostage, Anderson had given much thought to matters of faith. But in prison, he was allowed to have a Bible.

“Constantly over the years, I found consolation and counsel in the Bible I was given in the first few weeks,” he wrote, after his ordeal ended. “Not other world, ‘this is just a test’ kind of consolation, but comfort from the real, immediate voices of people who had suffered greatly, and in ways that seemed so close to what I was going through. I read the Bible more than 50 times, cover to cover, in those first few years.”

If you are in need of comfort, turn meditatively to the Word of God and let Him speak to you today!

We can find comfort in the grace of God

Isaiah 40:2 HCSB

2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Isaiah is speaking to the Jewish Nation concerning their return from Babylonian Captivity. They have spent 70 years in exile for their sin, idolatry, and rebellion.

Now God tells Isaiah to speak “tenderly” And his message is that sin has been pardoned. In the immediate context the punishment of exile was over.

When we think of God’s grace, we have to think of Calvary. It is there that Jesus makes the once and for all payment for sin. What a picture of grace and mercy. Jesus taking all our punishment, so that we can enjoy all that grace has to offer. Forgiveness, atonement, a home in heaven, the Holy Spirit now, and abundant life. Its not hard to look around and see God’s grace.

Find comfort today in God’s grace.

Finally,

We can find comfort in the purposes of God

Isaiah 40:3–6 HCSB

3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.

God never wastes a hurt.

Romans 8.28 really is true. God is working everything together for good for those who belong to Him.

Isaiah speaks here of God smoothing everything out with the return of King Jesus.

Solomon said that he had been young, but he was older now.

With age comes perspective, and introspection.

I sure do want to finish well with the Lord and with my family… but I’ve blown it so many times.

And I am sure you have too.

Two insights:

Life has seasons of the unbearable. If all we had was that first insight, we would not find much comfort.

There is comfort in knowing that God has a purpose behind every pain. Sometimes we get to see it in this life, but the focus of this passage is God straightening things out when Jesus comes again.

I wonder if you know Him?

I wonder if you need to receive comfort from Him today?