Bad News
O afflicted one, storm-tossed one, and not comforted, behold; I will . . . Isaiah 54:11
Not Comforted – There was a time when God was not comforted. You can read about it in Isaiah 22:4. The Hebrew words lo nuchama (not comforted) describe God’s refusal to accept the bad news of the destruction of His people. That tells us something important. Ultimately, comfort comes from relationship. I am not finally comforted by inanimate objects, unfeeling possessions or lifeless events. In the end, I am comforted by another person. I need the touch, the kind words and the gentle embrace if comfort is to have its full effect. Don’t send me your presents. Give me your presence. Then I will be comforted.
Too often we make the mistake of assuming that there are substitutes for tender mercies. As we succumb to the temporal tentacles of calendar time, we forget that comfort belongs in the kairos realm. It knows no temporal constraint and accepts none. Giving comfort opens windows on the soul. It is a time-less activity, found only in interaction between real people.
Consequently, to be one of those who is not comforted is, at the same moment, to be one of those who has been thrust entirely into the rushing apathy of temporal disregard. “No one has time for me,” is the declaration of those not comforted. It is not an appointment that is missing. It is an opening into kairos soul.
The root of our word is nacham. You will recognize the name of the prophet, Naham, in this word. Naham, the comforter, delivered a message of God’s grace, bound up with the role of justice and power in the created order. Although Naham’s message came in a time of tremendous turmoil, he provided a lasting hope: God is ruler of all and God’s justice will prevail. There is comfort in knowing the God Who is.
Although there was no one to comfort God over the loss of His children (because there is no one who is able to sooth divine distress in kairos time), nevertheless, God comforts us. Furthermore, He sends the consummate expert in kairos care, the Comforter Himself. Jesus can say, “A state of bliss belongs to those who mourn because they will be comforted through a relationship with Me.” He can also promise to send the Comforter. For all those who experience the absence of kairos connection in human relationships, the guarantee of God’s comfort is a joy to behold. At any moment, and in any moment, God can pry open the windows of this chronos fixated realm and shower us with the infinite depth of kairos comfort. Only because such slices of eternity can occur now, in this world, are we finally able to stand the absence of human compassion.
If you know what it means to cry out, “Who will comfort me?”, then you know that there is ultimately no human answer to your call. The pain we feel is so deep that it hides among the leaves of a lost Garden. We long for the touch of the One Who made us. This “bad news” is the opening to rejoicing, because when no other human being can touch the depth of our trouble, God says, “I will.”
