Torah Meditations 8/1/20 – VaEtchanan

Comfort – what exactly is comfort? The Hebrew word for comfort is “nekhama”.

Within this word we find the word  warmth – “khama” from nekhama and the word  comfort/rest  – “nekha” from nekhama. From this we understand that to comfort is to bring warmth and rest to the hurting one’s situation. 

We have entered a three week period when we are told to comfort Zion. We are to be comforting God’s people for all the affliction they have endured.  We have been grafted in to Israel. Romans 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree….Why is Romans 11:17 so important?  Ephesians 2:12,13 tells us to: remember that at that time (before we were grafted in) you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.…

We have received unimaginable blessings from being grafted in, and as those grafted in, we need to comfort Israel for all she has been through.

Isaiah 40:1,2 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

1. Who is the above verse telling us to comfort?

2. To whom is G-d speaking?

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

 1. How does this New Testament verse agree with Isaiah 40:1,2?

2 Corinthians 1:3,4 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.  

G-d is faithful to comfort us when we are in trouble.  Now it is our time to do as our Father does. During this time, we need to be a comfort to His people and the city where He has chosen to dwell.