"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Isaiah 66:13

Additional Readings: Isaiah 66, Psalm 86, Psalm 87, John 14:15-31

The Lord said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). All things are in His hand, and the means for accomplishing all things are in His hand. All nature speaks of the wisdom and power which the Almighty God displays in His control of things material. He holds the stars in their courses; He provides for every created thing. The whole universe is created that it may meet every possible need of man.

There is also the spiritual world. "In the beginning God. created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The spiritual world is a much vaster realm established by the Lord for man, to meet his higher needs. In the beginning men were in close connection with the Lord and with the heavens, but in process of time they departed from the laws established by the Lord, and so they are not in the condition in which the Lord first created them.

The Lord always provides for all things in His universe. When men departed from the way of life He provided that there should be the means whereby His laws might be reestablished among them. When the first spiritual development—the Adamic Church ¹ —came to its end, a change was made in the mental structure of man and a written Word was given him, that he might again order his life according to Divine laws. This is the forerunner of many provisions that the Lord has made to meet the needs of His children. He continually provides distinct means for salvation, for "comfort" in every possible state in the life of man.

Were man in mental and spiritual integrity, as in the most ancient times, enlightenment and power from the Lord could flow directly into him without restraint, blessing him in every way, both naturally and spiritually. But as it is, man is weakened by evil and is under its influence. So life from the Lord has to come to him hedged in by precautionary measures, lest it slay him. The way to the tree of life is guarded by the letter of the Word, through the marvelous care and mercy of the Lord.

In that wonderful work The Divine Providence the laws by which the Lord secretly operates are revealed to us. We must be led in freedom to learn of the Lord and to follow Him. There is no experience through which we may pass which is not provided for. Belief in God is inseparable from a belief in His providence. But a correct understanding of His nature is needed. For by His providence is meant the influence which He exerts over the affairs of men—His active government of the universe.

To feel that the Lord is merely a Creator, One who originally made the world and then ceased to have anything to do with it, is to deny Him all participation in human affairs and all interest in those whom He has created. Such a denial removes Him so far off as to make any personal relationship with Him impossible. If He does not watch over and provide for us, our prayers and praises amount to nothing and might as well cease altogether. To come into a living relationship with the Lord we need to have a true understanding of Him. We cannot worship one about whom we know nothing, and a wrong idea of God is destructive of any intelligent or helpful relationship with Him.

Our text begins "As one whom his mother comforteth." The picture is one of a child who is sick or in distress. As the child is shielded from responsibilities too heavy for him, so the Lord in His tender mercy adapts His truth to the minds of His children. To those who are not far advanced He gives the lower truths, clothing them with such appearances as they need, while to those who have gone further He gives knowledge of Himself in more definite outlines and in larger measure. So it is in all things.

The latter part of our text reads "Ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." It is in the New Church, which is here called Jerusalem, that the Lord has gathered together all the means of comfort. It is in the doctrine of the New Church that the Lord comforteth man as a mother comforteth.

Sometimes adversities overtake us, and life seems bitter, and the question arises "What are we living for?" This is an age old question. Philosophers beginning with Socrates have tried to answer it. Stoic and Epicurean have given their answers. Nirvana is the answer of the Hindu. All these, though they have afforded some comfort, are in reality but idle dreams. It is in the doctrines of the New Jerusalem that we find the reality. "What are we living for" is a question which finds its answer in the teachings of the New Church and in them only.

When disaster or bereavement comes, none of the systems of philosophy devised by men, with their glittering phrases and mental gymnastics, give any real comfort. But in Jerusalem ye shall be comforted.

If one has lost a little child the Lord says, "Let the little ones come unto me and forbid them not" (Matthew 19:14) To those who are strong and prosperous He says, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Psalms 127:1). To the student the Lord says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10). Whatever be our state or station, the Lord will comfort us in Jerusalem.

And it is written, "In that day shall Jehovah be one, and his name one in all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9). In Jerusalem we are taught to see the Lord as the center of all things, in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the center for every variety of character, for the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.

From Divine love through Divine wisdom the universe was made and all that is therein. We live because God loves us and desires objects on whom His love can be bestowed and who can know the happiness of loving Him in return. From and by His love and wisdom he always cares for us, for no event or circumstance can be overlooked by Him. To the merely natural man the world may at times seem harsh and cruel and God a hard taskmaster. But the truth is that "the Lord, is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." Not a sparrow can fall to the ground without His knowledge. Even the hairs of our heads are numbered. Nothing can take place without Divine permission: "the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" (Psalm 76:10).

The Lord looks beyond the things of time to eternity. The one great fact of our existence which no one can deny is that sooner or later the earthly life of every man comes to an end. This is part of the Divine plan. When we know that the Lord is Love and Wisdom itself and trust Him, we are enabled to see that all untoward and unwelcome events come to us only for the purpose of furthering our eternal happiness. Then all sickness, sorrow, and disappointment, from whatever cause they may arise, are fully accounted for by the knowledge that the Lord’s providence in all that it does looks to the infinite and eternal. We may not clearly perceive the reasons for our particular trials and afflictions, but there is comfort in the certainty that we should never have been subjected to them unless our Heavenly Father saw that they could contribute something toward making us better and happier to eternity.

The Divine omnipotence—the power of infinite love and wisdom—is always about us. It can never fail us in least things or greatest. Knowledge and acknowledgment of this fact is a part of genuine belief. And wherever true knowledge of the Lord exists, it serves as the basis for a living trust, bringing us into that vital relation to the Lord which is the purpose of our creation. Of this new light which has been given us for our salvation the prophet writes: "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem" (Isaiah 52:9).

Footnotes:

200. And I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. That this signifies that they will be in Divine good and thence in Divine truth, is evident from the signification of I will confess his name, as being that they may be according to the quality of the state of their life; for by confessing, when by the Lord, is meant to grant that they may be; for what the Lord says, or confesses, concerning a man or an angel who is in the good of love and faith, He grants and provides, because all the good of love and faith is from Him. This is why to say, in the Word, when said of the Lord, signifies to instruct, to enlighten and provide (see Arcana Coelestia 5361, 6946, 6951, 7019, 8095, 10234, 10290). That by name is meant the quality of the state of the life, may be seen above, n. 148. It is also evident from the signification of Father, when said by the Lord, as denoting the Divine good which is in Him and from Him, which will be treated of in what follows and from the signification of angels, as denoting Divine truth, which is also from the Lord (concerning which see above, n. 130). It is therefore evident that by I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels, is signified that they will be in Divine good and in Divine truth.

[2] The reason why by Father, when it is said by the Lord, is meant the Divine good which is in the Lord and from the Lord is, that the Lord called the Divine which was in Him from conception, which was the esse of His life, His Father, to which Divine He united His Human when He was in the world.

That the Lord called this His Father is quite evident from the fact that He taught that He himself was one with the Father; as in John,

"I and my Father are one" (10:30).

Again:

"Believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father (10:38).

Again:

"He that seeth me seeth him that sent me" (12:45).

Again:

"If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye have known him, and have seen him. Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus saith, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:6-17).

Again:

"If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also" (8:19).

Again:

"I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (16:32).

[3] Because the Lord is one with the Father, therefore He also declares

That all things of the Father are His, and His things are the Father's (John 17:10);

That all things that the Father hath are His (John 16:15);

That the Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son (John 3:35; 13:3);

Because all things are delivered to Him by the Father, no one knoweth the Son but the Father, nor any the Father except the Son (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22); also, that no one hath seen the Father except the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18; 6:46); the Word was with God, and God was the Word, "and the Word was made flesh" (John 1:1, 2, 14).

From this latter passage it is also clear that they are one; for it is said, that the Word was with God, and God was the Word. It is plain, too, that the Human of the Lord was God; for it is said, and the Word was made flesh. Since then, all things of the Father are also the Lord's, and since He and the Father are one, therefore the Lord, when He ascended into heaven, said to His disciples,

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18);

by which He taught that they should approach Him alone, because He alone can do all things; as He also said to them before,

"Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Hence it is evident how the following words are to be understood:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6);

that is, that the Father is approached when the Lord is approached.

[4] Amongst many other reasons why the Lord so often spoke of the Father as another was this, that by Father, in the internal or spiritual sense, is meant the Divine good, and by Son, the Divine truth, each in the Lord and from the Lord; for the Word is written by correspondences, and is thus both for men and angels. The Father therefore is mentioned in order that the Divine good of the Lord may be perceived by the angels, who are in the spiritual sense of the Word; and the Son of God and the Son of man are mentioned, in order that the Divine truth in like manner may be perceived (as is evident from what has been shown in Arcana Coelestia, namely, that Father in the Word signifies good, n. 3703, 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834. That Father signifies the church as to good, thus the good of the church, and mother the church as to truth, thus the truth of the church, n. 2691, 2717, 3703, 5581, 8897. That the Lord called the Divine good which was in Him from conception, and which was the esse of life, whence His Human was derived, Father, n. 2803, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897. That the Lord is acknowledged as the Father in heaven, because they are one, n. 15, 1729, 3690. That the Lord is also called Father in the Word, n. 2005. That the Lord is also a Father to those who are regenerating, because they receive new life from Him, and His life, n. 2293, 3690, 6492. That the Son of God, and Son of man is the Lord as to the Divine Human and as to the proceeding Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 63, 151, 166). Now, because all who are to come into heaven must be in good as well as in truth, for no man can be in the one unless he be at the same time in the other, since good is the being (esse) of truth, and truth is the manifestation (existere) of good, and as by the Father is signified the Divine good, and by angels Divine truth, both from the Lord, therefore it is said, I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Similarly in the Evangelists:

"Everyone who shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32).

"Everyone who shall have confessed me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8).

[5] Because Father signifies the Divine good, and angels Divine truth, therefore also the Lord says,

"When the Son of man shall come in his own glory, that of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26; Matthew 16:27).

Here the Lord calls His own glory, the glory of the Father and of the angels, for He says, in His own glory, that of the Father and of the holy angels; but in another place He says, in the glory of the Father with the angels; and in another place, in His own glory with the angels; as in Mark:

"When he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (8:38).

And in Matthew:

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him" (25:31).

To what has been said above it must be added by way of appendix, that if it be assumed as doctrine, and acknowledged, that the Lord is one with the Father, and that His Human is Divine from the Divine in Himself, light will be seen in every particular of the Word; for what is assumed as doctrine, and acknowledged from doctrine, is in light when the Word is read. The Lord also, from whom all light proceeds and who has all power, enlightens those who are in this acknowledgment. But, on the other hand, if it be assumed and acknowledged as doctrine that the Divine of the Father is something else than the Divine of the Lord, nothing will be seen in light in the Word, because the man who is in that doctrine turns himself from one Divine to another and from the Divine of the Lord, which he may see, which is effected by thought and faith, to a Divine which he cannot see; for the Lord says:

"Ye have never heard the voice of the Father, nor seen his form" (John 5:37; and also chap. 1:18);

and to believe in and love a Divine which cannot be thought of under any form is impossible.