Giving Comfort

 "Their Joy was Full" by Walter Rane

I love what the story of Lehi and Sariah teaches me about Living in Truth. While living in the wilderness, Lehi sends his sons back to Jerusalem to get Ishmael’s family. The sons are gone a long time and Sariah’s worries and fears cause her to fall into the Pit of Illusion. Naturally when in the Pit we begin to exaggerate and complain and Sariah is no exception. She says to Lehi, “Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness.”

But Lehi is not distracted from Truth. He doesn’t chastise her and tell her she shouldn’t be saying such things. The Truth is she has said them and does feel them. He accepts that and responds by bearing testimony to her, “I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren. But behold, I have obtained a land of promise, in the which things I do rejoice; yea, and I know that the Lord will deliver my sons out of the hands of Laban, and bring them down again unto us in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 5:4-5).

As Nephi goes on to say, “After this manner of language did my father, Lehi, comfort my mother, Sariah.” By staying in Truth, Lehi comforts instead of chastising, condemning, or calling to repentance. But there is something not written here that is important. By staying in Truth and bearing testimony (speaking words of Truth) Lehi invites the Spirit to be part of the conversation and that is what makes the comforting possible. When the Spirit (The Comforter)is present, comfort occurs.

Prognostications

In Isaiah 8:19-22 there are some difficult passages to understand. Part of the problem is the King James translation which is very unclear and confusing in these verses. However, when we go to other translations of the original Hebrew texts, these passages become not only clear but extremely instructive for our times.

The gist of what Isaiah is saying in these verses is that it is useless for people to turn to mediums, astrology, or anything but God to get answers about life and what to do. One shouldn’t inquire of the dead to know what to do for the living. When people accept and speak words from any of these other sources they will have words with no light, and thus they will roam about hungry. (I assume this means spiritually hungry.) And in this state of hunger they become angry and they blame God for their problems. And as they look around everything will be depressing and full of anguish and gloom.

We live in tough times. The economy is failing. Sin abounds. Adversity hits us from every side. In our day most of us aren’t tempted to turn to mediums and astrologers for answers, but we are tempted to listen to worldly prognostications spouted by the stock market experts, newscasters, politicians, and academics. We hear them on television and read them in the newspapers. But as Isaiah taught, instead of listening to them, we should be listening to the Lord. The worldly forecasts give us advice as they guess at the future, but it is never comforting. We go away from them hungry and upset and sometimes even doubting or blaming God.

The Lord, on the other hand, will guide us as to what we should do and feed us at the same time. When fed and full of His comfort and love, we can see the problems around us and know what to do. But even more, we can live without feeling anguish, despair or gloom. We can be at peace knowing the Lord is with us and will guide us through the problems we face.