God means to comfort His people, but in doing so He has to bring before them very definitely their true condition in His sight; and then He shows His remedy. The first part of this message may not sound very comforting, and yet God must begin that way. God wounds that He may heal; He kills that He may make alive. We never know Him in the fullness of His power to sustain and comfort until we have come to the end of our own resources. In His gracious ministry of comfort, God always begins by showing us our need and our dependence upon His omnipotent power. In Isaiah 40, He says to the prophet, “Comfort My people,” and then proceeds to instruct the servant as to the character of the message.

The voice said, “Cry out!” Isaiah asked, “What shall I cry?” The answer was, “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field” (v. 6). This is ever the divine order. It is not until we realize our own utter nothingness and helplessness that we are in a position to avail ourselves of the comfort which the Lord waits to give.

In the New Testament we see each Person of the blessed Trinity engaged in this ministry of comfort. God the Father is called “the God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). God the Holy Spirit is spoken of four times in our Lord’s last discourse to His disciples as “the Comforter” (Jn. 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7 kjv). One character of our Lord’s work and ministry is “to comfort all who mourn” (Isa. 61:2). He is also called our “Advocate with the Father” (1 Jn. 2:1). The word for “Advocate” is exactly the same in the Greek as that for “Comforter” in John’s Gospel.

How blessed to be in fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that one can enter into and enjoy the comfort God delights to give!