The consolations of God - Third in a series

There are times when only a person — someone who loves us whom we love — can be our comfort. Nothing nor anyone else helps.

Some examples of this based in Scripture are:

1. When we have lost a loved one, God may send a special person to take his or her place: And Isaac … took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. (Gen 24:67)
2. God may replace the love we miss from a special one or refocus the subject of ones heart's desire: Leah was an unloved wife, so God consoled her with children. And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren. (Gen 29:31)
3. God may enlarge our family circle or restore to us a distant member: Naomi was bitter after the loss of her sons and husband, “Call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” (Ruth 1:20b), but when Ruth (her bereaved daughter-in-law) married Naomi’s kinsman she gained a grandson. Her friends marveled, “And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.” (Ruth 4:15)

God designed us to cherish the comfort of a loved one. Nevertheless, as we go through life we will have times of aloneness even if married and in the midst of a company of people. Then, we need God's comfort, and we understand why he sent his Son to be our brother and savior.

Jesus Christ was, for a time, human as we are, even though the heir of all things by whom God made the world. (Heb 1:2b) For a brief span he was made a little lower than the angels and tested by suffering as we are. (Heb 2:9-10)

That is why he can comfort us. Though our high priest, he can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having experienced them exactly as we do, but without sin. (Heb 4:15)

Some special people understood from the start who he was. One of those was Simeon, a devout man who was waiting for the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25). He cradled baby Jesus, saying, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke 2:25-32)

Jesus is the consolation of Israel, the sum of all comfort, the whole greater than its parts. And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (Isa 11:2)

When he knew it was his time to die, he promised to send One in his place, the Holy Spirit: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:16-18)

He knows our need for consolation and the love of a special Person.