Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept/69

Contributor - T Hogewaard

Title - God's Comfort

Topic - Comfort

To read: a. O.T. Isaiah 40 b. N.T. 2 Corinthians 1 : 3-11

"As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." - Isaiah 66 :13

One day an old minister was asked, in case he could live his life all over again, whether he would do it differently from the way he had done it. His answer was: "No, on the whole not, only I would stress more than I have done God's consolation, His comfort."

The need for comfort, for consolation is great in human life; the Lord God knows that better than we do and only those who have gone through hard and bitter experiences themselves, begin to see how great the suffering and therefore the need of consolation and comfort is.

We speak about the priesthood of all believers and rightly so. Well, taken in the best sense of the word a priest is one, who intercedes with God on behalf of others; also one who brings God's comfort to people. Therefore every Christian can be a priest for others and has to be. A minister alone cannot fulfill this task all by himself: the number of people in need is far too great for that and besides, a minister has other important tasks which he may not neglect (Acts 6 : 4

The members of the congregation have daily contact with those with whom they work, those who attend the same school or university. Sooner or later those people will open their hearts and share with you all their anxieties and fears, their hopes and expectations, which in so many cases, remain hopes and expectations only. That applies especially to nurses who meet people when they are in pain, in need, often in fear of their lives. Therefore a Christian nurse has often more opportunities to bring people the comfort of God than a minister has. The need of people is different, but need there is and grief and pain and anxiety and fear in one form or another. God knows that very well; it is therefore that He has sent His Son Jesus Christ to share the human life with all its joys and sorrows, its heartbreaks and tears. No one who turns to Jesus Christ in his misery need fear that the Lord will not understand him. He understands perfectly - from experience! He knows what it means to be hungry, to be thirsty, to be treated as the scum of he earth, to be betrayed by one of His friends and denied by another, to experience the alarming lack of gratitude from the side of people, the very things that so often cast a shadow over our own lives.

Now what do we need when we are hurt, when we are shamefully treated, when our eyes are filled with tears? Two things: we need someone who comforts us, who heals the wounds of body and spirit; we may also need one who takes our side, who fights for us against those who want to rob us of our rights. Now it may interest you that the Moslims (Moehammedans) have 99 titles for God, but in the New Testament the Holy Spirit of God is called by our Lord Jesus Christ: Parakletos. (In some English translation of the N.T. given as the Paraklete). What does that word mean? Exactly the two things just mentioned! He is the One Who comforts us, Who heals the wounds of our spirit and at the same time He is our Advocate, the One Who takes our side, the One Who pleads our cause. And if that is the case (and if we are Christians it is!) we can say with the apostle Paul: "If God is for us, who is against us?" If the Spirit of God, clothed in God's own Majesty and Splendour takes our side, pleads our cause, then satan himself has no chance at all, let alone human beings. Sorrow and heartbreak are not limited to adults only; children too can suffer a great deal; consequently they need comfort. Now the one who provides that comfort - in a normal and good home that is - is the mother. There is hardly any pain, any sorrow in a child's life that cannot be taken away or greatly mitigated when the mother takes the child in her arms, kisses the tears away and speaks comfortingly to it. And even after we have grown old, no longer children, but parents or grandparents ourselves, we remember with warm gratitude the comfort our mother gave us, when we needed it so badly.

The Lord God knows that too and it was therefore that He ordered the prophet to tell the people of Israel in His Name: "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." When you think of your mother comforting you, think of the Lord God, our Father in Christ, the highest title there is in heaven and on earth: Father; remember that He is willing to comfort you, in the same way, yes even better than your own mother comforted you when you were young. Dr. 0. Noordmans once wrote that sometimes a person who wants to go God's way, finds the Christian life hard and difficult; the demands which our Lord Jesus Christ makes upon us, are sometimes very difficult; we suffer because we are the ones we are and not the ones we should have been. Now here is where the Holy Spirit comes in. In every Christian home, both father and mother love the children, but each in their own way; the children need both. But the mother represents the softer side, the comfort, the deeper understanding and so, Dr. Noordmans wrote, you may see the Holy Spirit as the motherly element in God, the Provider of comfort and encouragement. And remember that He is-not different from God, but very God Himself!

Chapter 40 of Isaiah is the famous chapter of consolation. The Jews were in exile, far from their beloved country, dishearted and full of sorrow. It is to those people in their peculiar circumstances that God sent His prophet with the message of comfort: "Comfort, comfort My people," says your God, "speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity (sin) is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

ABLE AND WILLING

Those of you who have taken the trouble to read carefully the O.T. chapter may have noticed something remarkable. It is the well known chapter of consolation, of comfort, but the greater part of the chapter consists of a description of God's almighty power! We read that everything fades away, but that the Word of our God will stand forever; we read about God, for Whose Majesty the total population of the earth is simply what for us is a grain of sand, a drop of water! We hear about foolish men who make an idol of stone, of wood, overlaid with silver or even gold and the prophet challenges: "Would you compare Almighty God with idols, made by human hands?" How is it now? Is this the chapter of comfort and consolation, or is it the chapter of the power and majesty of God Almighty? The answer is: it is both and the two cannot be separated.

For how do matters stand? Have you too experienced the following circumstance in life? You are in need, of money, of advice or some other form of help. There are people who have the money, the time, the ability, the strength to help you, but they will not, they are only interested in their own affairs. There are others, who are perfectly willing to help, but they have not the money, neither the strength, the ability, nor the time. And this, is not limited to the Christian world, for there is an Arab saying: "The well with drinkable water is always dry!" meaning that those who are will ling to help, have neither the strength, nor the means, nor the capacity and those who have, are not willing to help. That too is one of the bitter experiences of life. The Heidelberg Catechism Q.& A. speaks briefly about the Father. The question reads (in Dr. T. F. Torrance's translation):

"What do you believe when you say: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?"

Answer: "That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who created out of nothing the heaven and the earth, with all things in them, Who also upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God, and my Father, in Whom I so trust that I do not doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul; and further, that whatever evil He sends upon me in this miserable life, He will turn to my good, for He is able to do it, as Almighty God, and He is willing to do it, as a faithful Father." Have you noticed the combination here of the two things we find in chapter 40 of Isaiah? "for he is able to do it, as Almighty God, and He is willing to do it as a faithful Father." Human experience is again and again: those who are able to help are not willing; those who are willing are not able. But with God it is: able and willing! That is the source of our confidence, comfort and strength. The great danger which we human beings run when we are in deep or prolonged trouble is that we get discouraged, that we let fall down our arms and say: "What is the sense of it all?" And indeed, as someone has said: All discouragement is from the devil! We should never discourage a person, that means: paralyze him!

And so, before the prophet can comfort the people in their discouragement, he has to point out to them what they can expect from God: great things that is! There is no limit to His power, nor to His ability and He is willing to use all that power, to apply all those properties of His for us,_to comfort us, to strengthen es indeed: "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Where did those Jews hear this message? In the foreign land in the exile in Babylon, so this promise of consolation contained another promise at the same time, namely that God would see to it that their deepest longings would be fulfilled and satisfied, so that one day they would again be in Jerusalem, comforted by God. For s, Christians, this has an even deeper meaning. In the N.T. heaven is referred to as "the New Jerusalem". Indeed, it will be there that we as Christians will r)e comforted, it is there that God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, as the Book of Revelation tells us.

In God's glory, in the New Jerusalem, our comfort will be complete and our joy will surpass anything we have ever thought possible. Some months ago we were visited by Dr. and Mrs. Praamsma of the Christian Reformed Church in Stoney Creek. They were accompanied by their uncle and aunt: Dr. and Mrs. L. Onvlee, (before the war linguist of the Netherlands Bible Society in Soemba, Indonesia, and after the war professor of ethnology at Free University, Amsterdam), The Onvlees had been in the same concentration camps in Indonesia where we were, but we had not seen each other for 24 years. We discussed the fact that of late several friends we had known in the camp had died, among them Dr. Bergema, professor of Missions at the Free University of Amsterdam. When we walked back to the car, as it was time for them to leave, I said to Dr. Onvlee (who is 15 years my senior): "When you grow older, the number of relatives and friends who have gone to heaven is greater than the number of those who are still living," and he fully agreed. When you think of your father or mother, children or dear friends who have died, remember that they are now comforted in the New Jerusalem, as you will be when your time has come. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."

THE NEW TESTAMENT

In the N.T. we have in the first chapter of Second Corinthians Paul's famous words about God's consolation. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too."

Compared with the O.T. words about comfort, there are two striking differences. In the frist place the Name of Christ is mentioned: Paul sees his suffering as sharing the suffering of the Lord Himself so that he shares His comfort too. What greater honour is possible than to be enabled to share -Christ's sufferings and consequently His comforts and glory as well? God adopted us His children in Christ and now He allows us to partake in the sorrows, sufferings, in the comfort and glory of His own Son! This is something that even the highest of the angels have never known: Christ shares the secret of -ain and comfort with us, God's children, and with no one else. The highest thing in Christian life is not to work for the Lord, to give talents, time and money to Him, but to be given the privilege to share Christ's sufferings. We even read in the Book of Acts that after John and Peter had been lashed by the Supreme Court of the Jews that they went home gladly, rejoicing in the fact that they had been considered worthy to suffer for Christ and tens and hundreds of thousands of Christians since then have shared in Christ's sufferings and in His glory and comfort here-after.

The second and final point. After God has comforted us, in Christ, by His own Spirit, He wants us to do something with the comfort He has given to us. For although we sometimes may be inclined to not know Him enough. After God Himself has comforted you in your sorrow and heartbreak, He expects you to go out and bring God's comfort to others, who need it badly, but who do not know where to get it. "So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." And what is this comfort? The fact that we are not alone in this world, not left to ourselves, to our sins and guilt, to our own miserable resources, but that God, loving and all-powerful, stands ready to come to our aid, to elevate us to the honour to be His children in Christ. That is the highest we have received, which we may and must share with others: "You can have it too, it is for all who accept." God comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we too, in our turn might comfort those who are in trouble and distress with the same comfort with which we are comforted by God. "What is your only comfort in life and death?" "That I, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my precious Saviour Jesus Christ." That is the summary of the Gospel- to live by grace and to tell others that they too may live by God's grace and think so, we are not the only ones who suffer by God's grace alone. "As one who suffer in this world: there whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."

There are many others, people who de not know Christ at all, or who do not know Him enough. After God Himself has comforted you in your sorrow and heartbreak, He expects you to go out and bring God's comfort to others, who need it badly, but who do not know where to get it. "So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." And what is this comfort? The fact that we are not alone in this world, not left to ourselves, to our sins and guilt, to our own miserable resources, but that God, loving and all-powerful, stands ready to come to our aid, to elevate us to the honour to be His children in Christ. That is the highest we have received, which we may and must share with others: "You can have it too, it is for all who accept." God comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we too, in our turn might comfort those who are in trouble and distress with the same comfort with which we are comforted by God. "What is your only comfort in life and death?" "That I, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my precious Saviour Jesus Christ." That is the summary of the Gospel: to live by grace and to tell others that they too may live by God's grace and by God's grace alone. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."

Please click the "Back" button of your browser to return to previous page.