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.
The moving piece Handel’s Messiah starts with the words from today’s scripture, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” George Frideric Handel composed the music Messiah over the course of about twenty-four days in the summer of 1741. The lyrics, a combination of scripture texts from the King James Version of the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer, were compiled by Charles Jennens. Have a listen here: https://youtu.be/iTMJVvld9ok – (the whole thing is over 2 hours, but you can hear the opening if you don’t have time for the entire work).
https://youtu.be/iTMJVvld9ok
Comfort … Comfort comes in many different packages. Comfort can be found in the people we love, familiar experiences, smells, memories, pictures, music and more. We find comfort in smiles, hugs, shared meals, a warm coffee, a good book, a movie, the list goes on. This passage starts with comfort – not once but twice – a message for the people of God. A message of relief, if you will, that through the trials and tribulations that the people have undergone, Jerusalem has paid the penalty for their sins, and as a result, God’s people are to be comforted.
We seek comfort when we are sad, when we are uncomfortable, when we are broken, shattered and feel incomplete. Can we know and understand comfort without trials? Without pain? Without loss? My guess is no. I know for me, the times that I have felt the most comforted have been when I was also the most in need of comfort. In a way – seeking comfort is seeking hope – hope that things will improve, hope that the pain of loss will sting a little less with each passing day. Each little comfort found is a hope that something new is coming, something better, something that will make the waiting worth it.
In the Hebrew text, the word used for comfort is nachamu – which literally translated means “to cause to breathe again.” God is speaking through Isaiah telling the Israelites that they can breathe easy again – their waiting is done. In that same way – Advent is our time of waiting – waiting for a promised king, a savior, a messiah. In Advent we are seeking the comfort of Jesus – a comfort we have to experience to understand. Let us seek the comfort of the Christ-child this Advent season, so that we can breathe again knowing that discomfort is temporary and God will care for us when we need it the most.
Let us pray:
“Mercy and love and peace belong to You, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Just as you care for each hair of my head, You assure me that Your love surrounds me every day of my life, that I might live to Your praise and glory. Remind me of your comfort so that I may breathe in peace, in love and hope as I await the coming of Jesus. Thanks be to God, Amen”
Written by Merry Willis
