The Hope of Comfort

The Hope of Comfort

Comfort, O comfort my people,

   says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

   and cry to her

that she has served her term,

   that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

   double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

   and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

   and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

   and all people shall see it together,

   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

A voice says, ‘Cry out!’

   And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’

All people are grass,

   their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

   when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;

   surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades;

   but the word of our God will stand for ever.

Get you up to a high mountain,

   O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,

   O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

   lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,

   ‘Here is your God!’

See, the Lord God comes with might,

   and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,

   and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

   he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

   and gently lead the mother sheep.

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable is an old saying which originally described the job of a newspaper. It echoes the blessings and woes from Luke 6.

When it comes to justice, the stereotype is that those who seek justice will set about afflicting the comfortable in pursuit of it. And this is often a solemn duty. Yet justice also involves comforting the afflicted.

For defeating injustice requires of us not just the work of the advocate, but also the ministry of the comforter.

When we think of justice flowing, we often think of it as a rushing river, breaking down obstacles in its path. The image seems to come from Amos 5:24 ‘But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (NRSV). But rivers are also life-giving - as they flow, those alongside them can satisfy their thirst, cleanse their bodies, water their fields and animals. Thus a justice which brings comfort is less like a torrent than a cool flow from a tap on a hot summer’s day.

The passage for today starts with the words ‘Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God’. It is a passage cited in all four gospels and applied to the coming of Christ (Matthew 3:1–3; Mark 1:2–5; Luke 3:2–6; John 1:23).

During Advent, as we remember the first coming of Christ, we look forward in hope to the second coming. Christ brings the hope of comfort. 

As a parent, I soon discovered that I needed to comfort my children not only when they were innocent victims but also when they had been at fault. One such occasion is seared into my memory: my young son, having hurt his brother, had thrown his tea towel superhero cape onto the floor, weeping at what he had done.

This passage is addressed to a people who had done wrong, and suffered the consequences in exile (vv 1-2). They were also a people to whom wrong had been done. It is to them comfort is promised. It is easy to bring comfort to those we perceive as innocent, but harder to do so for those we perceive as guilty. You might think of the phrase “the undeserving poor” to think of how this may be (destructively) applied. Yet all of us are in need of God’s comfort, for all of us live in a world in which injustice permeates every space and every time.

God is depicted as coming with power and ruling with a mighty arm (v10). Here then an image which accords with that idea of a torrential justice. But how is that rule described? In v11, like a shepherd tenderly carrying young lambs, and gently leading mother ewes. Here also, then, justice as comfort, a refreshing drink from a stream or a warm bath for tired limbs.

As Christ’s people, we are called to comfort just as we have been comforted (2 Cor 1:4). May we reveal God’s justice as we do so.

Rev Dr Megan Powell du Toit is Senior Pastor of Rouse Hill Baptist Church in Sydney. She is also an academic, editor, preacher, writer, and poet. Megan co-hosts the With All Due Respect podcast with Rev Dr Michael Jensen, which is produced by their joint project, The WADR Project, and is part of the Undeceptions Network.

This devotional is part of a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2024 reflecting on the life-giving, thirst quenching justice of Jesus we long to see flow across these lands. A justice overflowing with love and compassion, bringing forth hope, healing, nourishment and flourishing for all.

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