Heavenly Comfort: Charles Spurgeon and Isaiah 61

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote a powerful little book. He called it The Mourner's Comforter. The title paired a seemingly depressive word, mourner, with a highly soothing one, comforter.

On the Internet, mourner and comforter searches point to death and funerals or bed comforters and hotel ads, respectively. Word searchers also may think of comfort zones, comfort foods, and comfort levels. A long list relates to physical and material satisfaction. The church traditionally has recognized earthly satisfactions as temporal...for limited, time.

Product ads often refer to "heavenly comfort." And that is truly the comfort that Charles Spurgeon had in mind. The warmth and sense of security we desire relate to the comfort and security of heaven and eternity.

All true comfort gets its meaning from the spiritual term, the Comforter. This is God as Father in heaven, His only-begotten Son, and the abiding Holy Spirit.

When Spurgeon wrote of comfort, he explained the first three, powerful verses of Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,

To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.