Author: Gary Witcher
Company: none

Christian Walk:  By the Spirit - In the Consolation of the Spirit

     For the past several studies we have been discussing what it means to walk by the Spirit.  So far we have examined the fruit of the Spirit recorded in Galatians 5:22-23.  We have seen that a person who is trying to walk in the Christian pathway must develop the traits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
     But, of course, walking by the Spirit involves even more than this.
     "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up;" Luke writes in Acts 9:31, "and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase."
     Walking by the Spirit affords us the opportunity to walk in the comfort or consolation of the Spirit.
     Attempts to comfort and console are as old as the world itself.  As we learn in Genesis 5:29, the name "Noah" refers to someone who comforts.  In Genesis 37:35 we read of an attempt by the sons of Jacob to console their father after the disappearance of their brother, Joseph.  The brothers try to comfort their father by visiting with him, but they are not successful.
     The classic example of trying to comfort is found in the book of Job where various people try to console Job.  In verse 25 of chapter 29 Job makes reference to his own past when he tried to comfort those who mourned.
     Jeremiah 16:5 and 7 give us some insight into how the people of the Old Testament tried to provide consolation.  Lamenting together as well as eating and drinking together were apparently used to try to comfort.
     If there is anything that we learn about these forms of consolation from the Old Testament, it is that they seldom work.
     "I have heard many such things;" Job replies to his comforters in Job 16:2-3, "sorry comforters are you all.  Is there no limit to windy words?  Or what plagues you that you answer?"
     In Ecclesiastes 4:1 Solomon laments the absence of real, meaningful comfort for the oppressed.
     What about these poor people living during Old Testament times?  Were they doomed to live without any hope of comfort?  No, there was always one source of consolation: God.  God wanted them to be comforted.
     "Comfort, O comfort My people," God says in Isaiah 40:1.
     "Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion," Isaiah 51:3 promises, "He will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody."  Verse 12 identifies God as the One who comforts.
     God makes a promise in Isaiah 54:11-17 to those who are oppressed.
     "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted," He begins in verse 11, "behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires."
     "I have seen his ways," God states in Isaiah 57:18, "but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners."
     Isaiah 40:11 compares the comfort and care of God with that provided by a shepherd for his sheep.  Another comparison is made toward the end of the book.
     "As one whom his mother comforts," Isaiah 66:13 prophesies, "so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."
     But just how does God provide this comfort?  David helps answer this question in Psalm chapter 119.
     "My soul languishes for Thy salvation;" he says in verses 81-82, "I wait for Thy word.  My eyes fail with longings for Thy word, while I say, 'When wilt Thou comfort me?'"
     David associates being comforted with salvation.  And he also includes the fact that the word of God is involved in the process.
     "I have remembered Thine ordinances from of old, O Lord, and comfort myself," David writes in verse 52 of the same chapter.
     "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me," Isaiah 61:1-2 notes, "because the Lord has anointed me-to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn."
     So comfort from God is associated with salvation and comes through His word.  And, as we have seen in this last passage, comfort comes through the Spirit of the Lord.  But Isaiah 61:1-2 tells us more than is found on the surface.  In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus quotes this very Scripture, adding that it is being fulfilled that very day.  We'll have to look to the New Testament, then, for the real picture on the comfort of God.

     The early church found itself in the midst of constant persecution.  Perhaps this is why real comfort was so important to early Christians.
     The word "comfort" is used in some form at least ten times in the first few verses of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.  Chapter seven also uses the word several times.
     "And I have sent him to you for this very purpose," Paul says of Tychicus in Ephesians 6:22, "so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts."
     In Colossians 2:1-2 and 4:8 Paul tells of things that he has done to encourage the Christians in Colossae and in the nearby city of Laodicea.  1 Thessalonians 3:7 and 4:18 talks about comfort received and given by Paul regarding the congregation in Thessalonica.  Paul writes in Philemon verse seven about the comfort he has received through the love of this Christian friend.
     Consolation provided though human efforts is, as we have seen, rather limited in its success.  The same is not true about the comfort provided by God for His people.
     "And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes;" Revelation 21:4 promises, "and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
     "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word," 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 urges.
     If all of this is true, and we know it is, then why don't more people look to the right source for eternal comfort?  Why do so many turn to riches?
     "Woe to you who are rich," Jesus points out in Luke 6:24, "for you are receiving your comfort in full."
     Our pursuit for real comfort must begin, according to the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:4, with a proper attitude.  We must feel a need for help and be willing to seek it in the proper place.
     Then we must recognize that this proper avenue is Jesus.  Luke 2:25 tells of a man who is looking for the consolation of Israel.  What he is really waiting for is the arrival of the Christ.
     As we have already seen, consolation from God through Jesus is associated with our salvation.
     Hebrews 6:17-19 describes the strong encouragement that the heirs of God's promise receive through hope of salvation.
     "If there is any encouragement in Christ," Paul writes in Philippians 2:1-2, "if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."  Encouragement and consolation come through Christ and love.
     We learned from David that consolation comes from God's word.
     "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction," Paul agrees in Romans 15:4, "that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
     "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul exclaims in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, "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 just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.
     "But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort."
     God knows that we are bound by the sufferings and afflictions of every-day life.  And He offers comfort through His truth that will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."