Rejoicing In The Word For Ladies – Man of Sorrow & the God of ALL Comfort (May 2022)
There are passages and promises in God’s Holy Word upon which His children can anchor their hearts and minds. Specifically, there are many faithful assurances that the Lord will never leave nor forsake His own. Deuteronomy 31:6 is a beautiful example: “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Even the name Immanuel, “God With Us,” echoes from the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, when God tabernacled among His chosen people, the whole way to His ascension from the Mount of Olives where He spoke, “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
How incredible, then, to recognize that the human Christ was forsaken on the cross (by both mankind and by His Father) in a way we can never fully comprehend! Isaiah 53 speaks of that forsaking with painful words- despised, rejected, acquainted with grief, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, chastised, and oppressed. Our hearts are grieved by these descriptions of our Savior’s sacrifice for our sins. But this account of Christ’s suffering also leads us to understand and grasp the truth that our Lord has experienced every human sorrow of the soul. Hebrews 4:15 teaches us that our Mediator and High Priest is touched by the feeling of our infirmities– He suffered the same physical frailties of flesh and feelings of anguish as we may, being tempted in all points like as we are.
I think of some of the griefs and troubling of mind and heart that we feel…
Sometimes we feel isolated. We can remember that the Man of Sorrows walked this earth as perfect God and perfect Man. And still, He was isolated by His birth, by His family, and set apart by His character of holiness.
Sometimes we feel judged and condemned. The Man of Sorrows was unjustly accused. He felt every wound inflicted by His accusers’ unjust speech. And He opened not His mouth!
Sometimes we feel rejected and neglected. Our Lord was rejected by an entire nation- His chosen people!
Sometimes we feel so alone. Christ prayed alone in Gethsemane. He later stood alone in front of His accusers, forsaken by His closest friends.
Sometimes we are weary of body and soul. The Man of Sorrows was at times wearied, overwhelmed, and crowded by the cares of life and needs of others. He was often “pressed by the crowd.”
Sometimes we feel grief at a loss, be it small or great. Our Savior was acquainted with grief. He also suffered sorrow of the heart at the loss of His beloved Lazarus.
The Man of Sorrows who suffered every feeling of our infirmities is the very same Jesus we find in the New Testament as the God of all Comfort. What a blessing we find in 2 Cor. 1:3-4, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” Consider the following, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” (2 Cor. 1:5) God is never in the position of wondering how to help us or what to do for us. He can meet our every need. The Psalmist said it this way in Psalm 73: “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” In all our sorrows, He is the Divine God of all Comfort. His Holy Spirit is the Comforter. His Son, our Savior, is the Man of Sorrows and with His stripes we are healed. Praise the Lord! ~V.K.S.