We are unfortunately and inextricably reminded that we live in a fallen world. A world where a joyous occasion has people constantly looking over their shoulders. A world where we are shocked but not shocked at the news of atrocious and cowardly acts of violence.
This is the state of our world now. The past two Sundays I have spoken about comfort in the form of the Holy Spirit comforting us in our struggles and comfort in knowing that Christ will return and take his throne; at that point there will be no more death, pain, mourning, tears. There will be nothing to remind us of our fallen world.
That is a wonderful comfort and hope that one day this tragic, fallen world will be destroyed in the wrath of God by fire and those that do such unspeakable evil will be thrown in the lake of fire.
I was perusing Isaiah in light of the Boston tragedy and I found this verse in chapter 51. "I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass?" Isaiah 51:12
We seek comfort from one another but our true comfort is in The Lord. In this verse God is speaking to those "who pursue righteousness, you who seek The Lord." (51:1) I wish I could tell you that is where the chapter ended, but it doesn't.
Starting in verse 17 to the end of the chapter, The Lord speaks to the unrighteous and asks the questions, "who will console you? ... Who will comfort you?" The Lord prepares a place for his people and a place for those who are not his. He gives the unrighteous a cup full of his wrath to drink, and he asks them where their comfort lies.
To us there is no problem, our comfort and our help is in The Lord. To the others we can tell them about our great hope because they may not have our comfort. In times like this our job is to come alongside those that are hurting and love on them.
Our job is to give comfort to those that need it most. We are to love the unloved. We are to touch lives, hearts, and souls with the comfort we have, so that one day we might see the fruits of our labor worshipping the One, True God in glory
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