Reflecting God – Saturday, 30 November 2013 – “Comfort Ye, My People” - Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40

Reflecting God – Saturday, 30 November 2013 – “Comfort Ye, My People” - Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40: God’s People Are Comforted

1 Comfort, O comfort my people,

    says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and cry to her

that she has served her term,

    that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

    double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up,

    and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

    and the rough places a plain.

5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

    and all people shall see it together,

    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass,

    their constancy is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades,

    when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;

    surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades;

    but the word of our God will stand forever.

9 Get you up to a high mountain,

    O Zion, herald of good tidings;[a]

lift up your voice with strength,

    O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,[b]

    lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,

    “Here is your God!”

10 See, the Lord God comes with might,

    and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,

    and his recompense before him.

11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

    he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

    and gently lead the mother sheep.

Footnotes:

Isaiah 40:9 Or O herald of good tidings to Zion

Isaiah 40:9 Or O herald of good tidings to Jerusalem(NRSV)

“Comfort Ye, My People” by Duane C. Brush

If you have attended a performance of George F. Handel’s Messiah you may remember how it begins. Following a brief string overture a single tenor voice sings “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God,” (Isaiah 40:1, KJV). The first three selections are all taken from Isaiah 40:1-5.

A friend and patron of Handel’s, Charles Jennens, is believed to have arranged the libretto (the text) on which the Messiah is based. Jennens was a supporter of the biblical view that God is redemptively involved in the world. He opposed the uninvolved Creator proposed by the popular deists of his day. Jennen’s expressed his view powerfully in the scriptures he selected. Even today they remind us that a Savior, the Messiah, has come.

The glory revealed at Christmas is Immanuel, God with us. In the manger of Bethlehem we observe, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Lift up your voice and do not be afraid, say to cities and people near and far, “Behold, your God!” (Isaiah 40:9, KJV).

Hymn for Today:

“O Christians, Haste” by Mary Ann Thomson

1. O Christians, haste, your mission high fulfilling,

to tell the world that God is one who cares,

that God who made all nations is not willing

one life should perish, lost in deep despair.

Refrain:

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace,

tidings of Jesus, redemption, and release.

2. Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation

that God, in whom we live and move, is love.

Tell how God stooped to save a lost creation,

and died on earth that we might live above.

Refrain:

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace,

tidings of Jesus, redemption, and release.

3. Give of your sons to bear the message glorious;

give of your daughters, speed them on their way.

Pour out your soul for them in prayer victorious,

till God shall bring a new and joyful day.

Refrain:

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace,

tidings of Jesus, redemption, and release.

Thought for Today:

“Whatever God wants to say [to you] will bring joy, your own very own very special, uniquely designed tiding of joy” (Debbie Salter Goodwin).

Prayer Needs:

For Christians who minister through disaster relief programs after natural and human made disasters in the United States and Canada.

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Global Church of the Nazarene

Global Ministry Center

17001 Prairie Star Parkway

Lenexa, KS 66220 United States

Phone: (913)577-0500

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