Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Sometimes
the newer translations help me to think about things I hadn’t seen before. A
translation that I have on my computer called the Bible in Basic English says
this verse this way;
Happy
are those who are sad: for they will be comforted.
At
first when I saw this I thought, “Now that sounds silly.” But as it cooked a
little and probably with some help from the Holy Spirit I thought of other
verses in God’s Word that explain why I was having a problem. Consider if you
will Isiah 55:8-9;
For My
thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor your ways My ways, says Jehovah. For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
No
one wants to be unhappy. But God’s word says that there is something to be
desired here. How can that be? In Isiah
53:3 the prophet speaks of Jesus and says:
He is
despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and
we hid as it were our faces
from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
And
then the writer of Hebrews says of Jesus;
Thou
hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore, God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Hebrews 1:9)
Although
he was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” he was anointed with the
oil of gladness above his fellows. Someone has said, “He was the happiest man
that ever lived.”
Jesus
chose the way of sorrow and grief that he might have everlasting joy. If I will
follow Jesus that is the way I must choose in order to come to the same
everlasting joy.
Happy
are those who are sad:
Father these
words are pretty scary for me at first look. I need grace to obey what I see
here. Give me grace to be always looking to Jesus who is the pioneer and
perfecter of this way, who for the everlasting joy that was out where it could
not be seen, endured the cross and ignored the shame. Please give me grace for
this in each situation. Amen.
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