COMFORT MY PEOPLE
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1,2). The covenant that God made with His people in the Old Testament was often marked by His wrath being poured out upon them for some misdeed or another. He that despised Moses' law often died without mercy. Of course, this is because the law was all about works. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, 'That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.' " (Romans 10:5). How extraordinary, then, are the words of Isaiah. God wanted to comfort His people, and speak to their very hearts and their inner man with tender words of hope. What were these words of comfort that God wished to speak - no, that He wished to cry out - to His people? That her warfare was