- 24: Comfort in place of Anger
Isaiah 12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
God was angry with us, but because Jesus, the Son of God, took the righteous wrath of God the Father upon Himself on the cross His anger is turned away from us. God’s anger over sin and disobedience was placed directly upon Jesus, and so it was turned away from us. In place of the anger God promises comfort. The promise of comfort is the comfort of sins forgiven, the comfort of anger taken away, the comfort of the gift of eternal life, the comfort of an open and restored relationship with God, the comfort of the presence of a loving God always with us.
God Himself, with His own love and power, comforts us to the bottom of our soul and spirit; He totally surrounds us and fills us with overwhelming love. Jesus bore the anger so that we would bear the comfort. That day of comfort has come, and we still live in the day of comfort. Every time we hear the Gospel we are comforted so much that our future is secure and our present is safe. Comfort replaces all the guilt, shame, disgust, fear, worry, and anxiety that surrounds us and desires to bring us down every day. Since the accusing Satan, our own sinful flesh, and the temptations of the world are always around us and relentlessly bring discomfort, God comes to plant comfort deep within.
God’s comfort is eternally present even while suffering the discomforts of life and death. We see the discomfort, but we believe the comfort. The promise of comfort has been given to us once for all, and that comfort is continuously available and it is continually administered to us. We enter into the place of comfort by faith in the Gospel. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” We live in daily mourning and comfort, that is, repentance and faith.