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A Special Comfort

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A Special Comfort

10 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13).

Rev W.C. Lamain (1904-1984)

Translated from Voor Stille Uren, Den Hertog, Houten, the Netherlands 4th printing, 1995

It is a lovely and precious image which the Lord uses in this text to give expression to the comfort wherewith He comforts His people. The bond which exists between a man and a woman is presented in the Bible as the closest bond there is. Many words used in God’s Word express this, and when Paul speaks about marriage in Ephesians 5, he writes at the end of the chapter, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Between parents and their children we can also see this close bond. Think of Psalm 103:13 where we read, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.” What a warm heart Jacob had for his children, yea, even for his grandchildren. How moved David was for those who had come forth out of his bowels; how tender is especially the bond between a mother and her child(ren). Think only of the history of Hagar and Ishmael. Does not the question which Jehovah places before us in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb,” say much more to us than can be expressed in words?

I once visited a young widow who had brought her husband to the grave several days earlier. She was left behind with two young children, the older of whom was just four years. Upon the question where the child was, the mother said, “She was Just here.” After some time the mother went to look for the child. The young child was standing next to the bed where her father had lain and where he had died, and she was crying and calling for him. The mother picked her up to comfort her, saying, “Oh, my dear child, you still have your mother.” And ... that caused the tears to stop flowing. A father cannot comfort a child as a mother can comfort.

It is in this manner that God also comforts His people—in such a tender, heartfelt, and decisive manner. Who are those who are comforted by God? They are those who have learned to sorrow after God, those who have learned a sorrow which is not to be repented of. Many people in the world have set out to comfort sorrowing ones. Many comfort themselves, and they consider themselves secure for the coming eternity, but here is spoken of a people that is comforted by God; they cannot be comforted by anyone else.

It is said of Esau that he found no place of repentance though he sought it with tears. According to 2 Corinthians 7:10, the sorrow of the world worketh death. God’s elect are not satisfied with an outward, imagined sorrow or a sorrow of despair but only with a sorrow which drives them out to God. It is a sorrow which is worked in their heart by God’s Spirit. It is an upright, hearty, humbling, and mortifying sorrow which is not concerned first of all about the results of sin but with sin itself. God has opened their eyes to show them that they have angered Him with their sins. They are shown that they have sinned against God. “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalm 51:4a).

They spend their nights in moaning and seek hidden places to express their sorrow before God; they have desecrated his image and have sinned against a holy, righteous, and good-doing God. They seek to hide their sorrow from their parents and are afraid that other people will notice it. It is a quiet, calm sorrow which causes them to pine away before God and the people. They have purposefully and willfully separated themselves from God, and just like the publican in Luke 18, they no longer dare to lift up their eyes unto heaven. They no longer have much to say about others, oh no, because they themselves have become the guilty person. No one has sinned as much and as severely as they have done.

Everyone else can still be converted, but for them it is no longer possible. Oh, that they had never been born nor had seen the light of day. Their entire life is nothing but sin and unrighteousness. They can never forgive themselves that they have sinned so terribly against God. If possible, they would lose their life crying before God. They cannot believe that they will ever be happy in this world again and then those fearful conflicts—oh, that the tears which they shed would be more upright tears—if only their sorrow would be real. When it is sometimes spoken about, they say that their sorrow must become more genuine and must go deeper. They do not realize that their sorrow is a true sorrow; they are afraid that it will pass. They can believe that it is true for others, but they cannot believe it for themselves.

How blessed it is when a change proceeds in this manner. If it were not so, they would be converted too quickly. They may, at times, be encouraged and strengthened by the gospel, yet they remain miserable in themselves. They are without God, and they wander as exiles over the earth. What a precious moment it would be if the Lord out of heaven would once speak to their soul, for there is such a wound in their soul. How did that wound come into their soul? The great King has shot arrows from His quiver into their heart, and no matter what they try, that wound is so deep that they are mortally wounded. If the sorrow abates somewhat, then they are still not at ease, but even that causes sorrow. The more that God’s Spirit discovers them to their sin, the greater becomes their sorrow. Oh that sorrow, when they come to the realization that they have sinned against all God’s commandments and have transgressed His holy law.

When they come to the realization that in Adam they lie condemnable before God, then their lives are forfeited, and they deserve death. Their souls shake and tremble when God shows them the deep abyss and that they are without God in the world. They come to the realization that all their tears cannot be a mediator or repair the breach between God and their soul. They become more and more miserable. They have already promised God so much and have had so many good intentions, yet with all this they go backwards continually. They feel themselves to be without God in their lives, completely leprous from the crown of their head to the sole of their foot, and disfigured by a thousand sins. God cannot be satisfied by their actions and inactions. They must have their guilt atoned, and their unrighteousness must be taken away.


In the dark night of their soul, it is like a ray of light from heaven when in their heart it is explained that there is help bestowed on One who is mighty to save. Yea, that gives comfort, spirit, and life in their heart. This joy, however, is also again mixed with sorrow. The prophet Zechariah prophesied of the Church which has been made alive that “they mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.”


In the dark night of their soul, it is like a ray of light from heaven when in their heart it is explained that there is help bestowed on One who is mighty to save. Yea, that gives comfort, spirit, and life in their heart. This joy, however, is also again mixed with sorrow. The prophet Zechariah prophesied of the Church which has been made alive that “they mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.”

How grievous it becomes for them when they see Christ in His humiliation and hear Him complain about the wounds which He has suffered in the house of His friends. How much pain and anguish their sins cause them there, much greater than at the time of their first convictions, when they personally experience that it is their sins which have filled the cup of His suffering but also that they have platted the crown of thorns with their unrighteousnesses. The more the blood of Christ is revealed unto them, the greater their sorrow becomes. Then they experience, “My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart.”

In the beginning they come to see their sins in the light of God’s perfect attributes. Later, they learn to see them in the light of Christ’s humiliation and, even later, in the light of the love of God the Father. Just think of the tears of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Oh, those pangs of love that engulf their soul after the Lord has had so much concern for them and provided them with so many benefits. Now they experience times that they weep more within than without. Outwardly there are times that their tears dry up, but then those inward sins of the soul. “My stroke is heavier than my groaning” (Job 23:1b). Here it will always remain a sowing with tears as long as they remain upon the earth, also in the way of sanctification where their sinfulness is revealed more and more.

But, “as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” Here it becomes the longing of their soul, “O Lord, how long wilt Thou delay? My soul for Thy salvation waits” (Psalter 92:5; Psalm 35:17). The faithful covenant God comforts His sorrowing people. He comforts them with His Word, with His promises, with His Christ, and with His covenant through His Spirit. Christ comforts them as He comforted the sinner who lay at His feet weeping about her sins. He comforts them as He once comforted Mary at the cross and Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. He was as the great Comforter who was promised in Genesis 5:29. It is especially the work of the Holy Spirit to comfort the elect. “O LORD, I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away (by the application of Christ’s righteousness), and Thou comfortest me” (Isaiah 12:1).

That is now the comfort at Jerusalem when the Church, brought back into the communion with God, is adopted as a child. Then God’s Spirit testifies with their spirit that they are children of God. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17a). The sorrowing are comforted with godly and eternal comforts by a Triune God. One day eternal joy shall be laid upon their heads, and they shall eternally acknowledge God in the Jerusalem that is above.


Some may say, “The minister never describes my case.” Have you a case to describe, or are you at ease in Zion? “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!”

— William Tiptaft

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van woensdag 1 februari 2012

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A Special Comfort

Bekijk de hele uitgave van woensdag 1 februari 2012

The Banner of Truth | 24 Pagina's