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The God of All Comfort
It is the single saddest day on the Jewish calendar.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, that statement, purposely given with the present tense “is,” is true today.
It was equally true for Peter’s original Jewish readers.
One day each year, indelibly imprinted on the collective psyches of our Jewish friends then and now.
“It is today as it was then.”
A day which reads in English, “the ninth day of the month of Av” (usually around our month of August).
In Hebrew it is called, Tisha B’Av.
If we don’t understand what this day is all about, we will not understand what the closing verses of 1 Peter 1 are all about. For Peter’s original readers. And for us!
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say,
“People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
25 But the word of the Lord remains forever.”And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25)
On Tisha B’Av in 586 B.C., the Babylonians destroyed Israel’s first Temple – the Temple that Solomon built. This was the day that demarked “The Babylonian Exile”. It also marks the day that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 A.D, resulting in a worldwide exile that wasn’t reconciled until the establishment of Israel as an independent nation in 1948.
Now, keep in mind that Peter wrote his letter in around 64 A.D., about six years before the destruction of the Second Temple. His initial readers were a people desperately in need of God’s comfort… NOW!
So, what does this have to do with us, today? Everything.
Especially regarding our understanding of God’s heart and His care, compassion, and concern for our comfort.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:3-5)
A voice said, “Shout!”
I asked, “What should I shout?”“Shout that people are like the grass.
Their beauty fades as quickly
as the flowers in a field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fade
beneath the breath of the Lord.
And so it is with people.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)
These words from Isaiah were from the conversation between Isaiah, God’s prophet, and God, Himself, with encouraging words to the Israelites who were in exile by the Babylonians. These were the same words Peter quoted to those where were being persecuted and about to be exiled by the Romans, and they are meant to encourage us today.
You see, both 1 Peter 1 and Isaiah 40 were written for people then and now for people whose hearts have been significantly broken because they have suffered a significant loss in their lives. Even if our losses are self-inflicted, God eagerly awaits with His comfort.
(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)
