EVERY TIME WE PICK UP OUR NEWSPAPERS, or listen to the radio and watch television, we hear of wars and rumours of wars. There is rioting in Africa and Asia, Cuba and South America. Murder, rape and violence of all kinds is rampant everywhere, even in our own country. After hearing of the conditions in the world today, I think it would be comforting to hear what the scriptures have to say about all these things. In Romans 15:4 we read, “For whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning, that we through patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
As one writer expressed it, “For most of the time comfort is a soft, sleek, stroking word. But not always! Not always for the scriptures. Comfort is no softling. The word itself is like a strong man armed. Comfort, fort, fortify, fortitude.” In other words strength, nothing soft about that!
“Fortitude to see unflinchingly;
Strength to stand unwaveringly
Not a lullaby, but a trumpet call.”
The Moffatt translation of the Bible, which I will be quoting from, translates Isaiah 44:8 as follows. “Fear nothing; dread not in the days to come: Have not I foretold it and announced it long ago?”