Dennis Tuuri

Reading of God’s command word, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and we’ll read verses 12-15. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. May be seated. Going through the book of First Thessalonians, and I read the whole verses preceding this verse and one after it to give you the context of what we’re talking about today. We’re going to really center in upon one phrase of verse 14, an ivory phrase for the purpose of the title of this talk.

Comfort the little hearts. And you’ll see that in your text actually as in the King James, comfort the feeble-minded. Or in verse 14, we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. We talked about that really the last couple of times we’ve spoken last week in more extended fashion on Matthew 18. But in any event, the next phrase says to comfort the feeble-minded and then next week we’ll talk about supporting the weak and then after that be patient toward all men.

So we’re handling these clauses here at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5 in specific chunks. The reason for that is these are a series of commands or exhortations following the bulk of the letter which had to do with Paul’s giving thanks, acknowledging the work that God had begun at the church at Thessalonica, encouraging them in the face of persecution, encouraging them in the face of those who had apparently already had relatives and loved ones who had died in the faith and weren’t sure their status in terms of Christ’s return, etc.

And so he’s given a lot of practical history in the first couple of chapters. He gave some doctrinal instructions in chapters 4 and beginning of chapter 5. And he ends the epistle as he frequently does with a series of specific commands or exhortations. And these are exhortations of course to us. We want to understand them then. And so what going to be talking on is this particular phrase then and as you can see in your outline the first thing we’re going to consider is the first word of that phrase the word comfort.

Comfort the particular word here we’ll get some implications for the meaning of this word and for the command to us by looking first at the specific word and what it means what the root meaning of the word is a it’s a combination of two terms the first term means to come alongside or to be near to something and the next term in the Greek word that’s used here means to speak or at least breathe forth some sort of utterance.

And so essentially the word can be said to come alongside of somebody and speak to them. But of course the obvious implication is comfort. The basic meaning of this word as found in the in the Greek usage at the time and documents of that particular period of time meant to speak to somebody and as I said coming fairly close alongside to them to speak with them. Always in the Greek usage of this particular word that we have translated comfort, the favorable sense of it is indicated.

In other words, this is a friendly coming alongside of somebody to speak to them in a friendly way. Very important to recognize. In Greek usage, it can develop along a couple of major lines. One of those two lines is to tell people what they need to do. And that would have the implication then of to admonish them to a particular action. The other line that the word is frequently used to indicate has reference to something that has happened.

And so you would come alongside of somebody and speak to them about something that has happened. And here the implication is to console them about that particular thing. Okay? And so when we read the word comfort, that’s what it basically means in the sense of the word itself. It can in the in the Greek usage of the time also is used fairly extensively in some cases for financial transactions. It can indicate the interest paid on a loan for instance or a gift to a landlord in addition to rent.

And so it can be used in a monetary sense as well and it also is used to speak for instance of a vineyard yielding comfort to a widow or and to her children. So it can mean economic coming alongside of as well instead of just somebody speaking to somebody. It can be used in that by way of application in that sort of specialized meaning as well. And we’ll see why as we go along in this. There are no Old Testament references in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint.

This particular word is not used any place. So we can’t help get a meaning as to the word from that reference. Reason we go into this is it’s used very few times in the New Testament. It’s only used five times. So we have to look at the contemporary usages to understand what the word means to us. And so from the implication from the word is it’s a friendly coming alongside of somebody perhaps to urge them to a particular action or perhaps to also console them about an action that has already happened to them.

So that’s kind of the meaning. But secondly, we can get some implications from the scriptures themselves. In John 11, we have a passage of scripture where this particular word is used twice in a very specialized sense. So if you could turn to John 11, we’ll spend a little bit of time there looking at some implications from that passage of scripture relative to what it means to comfort somebody. And of course, we need to know that if we’re going to obey this command.

So turn to John 11. We have a very memorable passage of scripture here. Lazarus is brought back to life. And you remember the basic story, I’m sure, that Jesus tarries for a while knowing that Lazarus was sick. And we’ll get to those sections of those verses leading up to the verses that actually have the word in them. But notice in verse 19, we read that many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

Okay? So he’s died and they come along to comfort them. And then in verse 31, the Jews which were with them in the house and comforted her when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went out followed her saying she goeth into the grave to weep there. Okay. And so those are the two specific occurrences. And what’s being spoken of here is a Jewish practice that was very common at the time of comforting people.

And the word used here indicates people that were officially there for the specific purpose of comforting these two sisters upon the death of their brother. And it tells us in verse 31 on there that what they actually were to do was to actually accompany the person that was in grief wherever they went and they were concerned about them and wanted to show their concern and comfort them, come alongside of in that way.

In the Jewish tradition that John 11 records for us in holy scripture, we know from other documents at the time and many writings of the rabbis etc that the comforters were always supposed to stay as close as possible in Jewish tradition to those that were grieving, stay right alongside them if possible and they actually stay in the very house of the mourning individuals. They accompanied them wherever they went out from the house.

They were not to be left alone in their grief, particularly in the perilous first days of sorrow after one had died or something else had happened. And according to Jewish tradition, this period of sorrow and and perilous time of sorrow lasted 7 days according to their custom. So for 7 days, if you had a relative who had died, you would have friends from the community come and stay with you to make sure that you didn’t in your grief do something very stupid.

And so words were spoken perhaps in this process or actually the sound that they would remember we said the word means come alongside with some sort of sound or utterance. It could be words to console people or it could actually refer to in the Jewish custom at least the grieving and the crying and the weeping that the mourners would engage themselves in. Now of course this could go on to a fault and the scriptures are very clear both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We’re not to grieve as the world does. But in any event part of that may have been lamenting and weeping as well, which is certainly appropriate in times of sadness. And you can see that according to this tradition, why Job’s comforters, looking back at an Old Testament example, were really miserable comforters in the Jewish traditional sense of the term. They didn’t really give comfort or just simply be there with them.

They began to accuse them of a wide variety of activities and they were wrong in most of those things. One other thing that’s of interest to us in terms of the New Testament, in terms of Jewish tradition and this comforting aspect, helping us to understand it again is that frequently letters of condolence would be sent or occasionally even they would send a book with a note of condolence inscribed on the inside of the book or not on the inside.

They didn’t have books as we do but along with the book or structure they would the papyrus they would also give a note of condolence. Now this is very much like we do today. You know if somebody dies we send them a sympathy card or we don’t send them a sympathy card. We send the surviving ones a sympathy card. We may send them a note. And this is really very much traditional in the in the Jewish sense.

But it also, I think, can be seen in the very New Testament itself. In 2 Corinthians, why don’t you just turn there real quick and hold your place in John 11 because we’re going to come back there. But in 2 Corinthians, the very first chapters of 2 Corinthians, really some people have spoken of that section of this epistle as the consolatory epistle, an epistle specifically written to give comfort. And you’ll see right in the opening verses of the epistle to the Corinthians, the second epistle, after his normal greeting in verses 1 and 2, he says in verse 3, “Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth 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.” You notice comfort, comfort, comfort, comfort.

And you’ll find that going through the first several chapters of this epistle. The whole epistle begins in this predominant theme of the first section of it is to give comfort to people who are grieving. for various reasons. We’ll come back to that epistle later because he has something specific to say in terms of disciplinary action which is also very interesting in terms of the context of this phrase in first Thessalonians.

We’ll get to that a little bit later. So we have actually here a consolatory epistle so to speak that Paul utilized in Matthew 28. Remember it ends with Jesus giving words of comfort and consolation as well as encouragement to a particular task to his disciples that he is with us till the end of the age. And so we have the power of course to go forth in the power and authority of Jesus Christ. And it also can be seen as adding a note of comfort to a book given to a people who are in grief because their savior has died.

And of course he’s the resurrection and the life and so he can tell us that great comfort of knowing that he is always with us as we go forward in obedience to his word. In the Jewish tradition that we’re discussing from John 11, the recipients of the comfort according to rabbinic sources were to be those who were sorrowing because of some loss such as a death, those who were sick, prisoners was another particular one and our savior reminded us of the need to comfort prisoners, those in prison as well as widows and orphans.

And of course, James in his epistle confirms that for our Christian use as well by telling us that it is indeed pure and undefiled religion to visit widows and orphans in their distress to go alongside of them as comforters. You see, certainly try to help them in other ways, but if not other way you can help people, you can always do it by coming alongside of and comforting. Okay, so we have some implications in terms of Jewish traditional customs, but notice that this text in John 11 really gives us the source, the true source of all true comfort.

True comfort comes ultimately, of course, only from our savior himself. And so in John 11, we read that he then comes to the grieving scene and brings true comfort to the two sisters. Verses 17 and following record, I’m sorry. verses 24 and following record of course the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus in the context of all of this. And let’s start reading at verse 24. Martha says unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. And when she had said so, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master has come and calleth for thee.

As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she arose up, hastily, went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came unto her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They say unto him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

Verse 35, shortest and perhaps one of the most profound verses in all of the scriptures. Jesus weeping. Then said the Jews, “Behold how he loved him.” And some of them said, “Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died?” Jesus came alongside Martha and Mary and comforted them. And one of the things the scriptures tell us specifically in terms of his comfort given to them so far in this text is his teaching about the resurrection and the life.

Reminding them that though they grieved for a dead brother. And while he grieved with them very importantly, yet he pointed them to the resurrection the same way Paul does in his epistle to the Thessalonians in chapter 4. Remember those instructions about the dead who were in Christ. So Jesus came with words. He came alongside of grieving people and spoke to them and so literally did what our command to us tells us to do.

And additionally, Jesus did this in a spirit of grief for their sufferings. He had regard for the sufferings of Mary and Martha. He didn’t despise their littleness of heart at seeing their brother dead. Rather, he understood and was compassionate for them. And he himself wept and grieved. Now, that is our savior. That’s the God of all the universe. It’s the Son of God, eternal. It’s the creator of all things, member of the Trinity, one of the persons of the Trinity in whose providence all things come to pass.

Now, that is an example to us and it is a model for us in terms of our comfort. When we come alongside of people, we’re to have regard for what they’re going through, sympathy, and compassion for the loss of, in this case, a dead loved one. Jesus, of course, goes on to bring Lazarus back to life. And he who is the resurrection and the life brings the only true source of comfort. The Jews who had rejected him had no real comfort to give Mary and Martha.

Whether they stayed there seven days or whether they stayed there 30 days, those who rejected him had no resurrection and life to point toward and they could give no true comfort. So true comfort finds its source in the person and work of Jesus Christ and we’ll stress that later as well. Third though, Jesus doesn’t just comfort Martha and Mary in the context of this. We see traditional Jewish comforters.

We see the true source of comfort, Jesus Christ. But we also see Jesus comforting those of little faith. In verses 11-16, his own disciples are comforted in a sense. Now, we’re getting a little ahead of myself, but the ones we’re told to comfort are those who are little of heart, okay? Who don’t have sufficient resources for the tasks that they’re to do that are to be done. And they don’t have quite what they need to do to approach something joyfully and gladly.

And look at verse 11, these things said he and after that he saith unto them, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep.” And then said his disciples, “Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.” Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. By the way, you know, sometimes you get a little upset about people using euphemisms for death.

But here, our savior did it, didn’t he? And he used a euphemism that wasn’t even understood by his apostles. He used another word for death. In other words, he used sleep, you know, passed on, something like that. And our savior used it. It’s probably an okay thing. His disciples were confused. And he told them then very clearly, “No, this guy is not sleeping literally. He’s dead literally. He’s sleeping figuratively.” Then in verse 15, “And I’m glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe.

Nevertheless, let us go unto him.” Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, “Let us also go that we may die with him.” Now, it’s very interesting, you know, because he says here, he’s actually glad that he wasn’t there to save him from death because he wants to demonstrate to them his power over death, that he is the resurrection and the life. Our savior here then is dealing with the disciples in words and then he’ll do it with actions when he raises Lazarus to do what?

To strengthen doubting apostles. Not apostles yet. Disciples. Doubting disciples. And specifically the one mentioned here is Thomas. Doubting Thomas. And so our savior also encourages comforts comes alongside of those who are little in faith. But he also comes along alongside of those who are little in courage. Look a little bit earlier in the passage, verse 7. Well, we’ll start at verse 6. When he that is Jesus had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

Then after that saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again. We just got persecuted real bad there. They tried to kill you. We don’t think it’s a good idea to go back there where there’s danger waiting. Jesus answers, “Are there not 12 hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

But if any man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there’s no light in him.” These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps.” Let’s go. Jesus said to those who were little in courage, he came alongside of them and comforted them. “I’m the light,” he said. We walk in the light of the father. We don’t let fear of men dictate what we do. We let the fear of God and we let God’s light guide and direct our path in his word.

And his word says we go and comfort these people. So Jesus not only strengthened Martha and Mary and comforted them by grieving and then by bringing them the teaching of the resurrection, he also comforted the disciples who were of little faith and he also comforted these same apostles or disciples rather later to be apostles who had little courage. And so we see in this process comforting in many applications.

Now, in these last two statements that Jesus comforted those of little faith relative to death, that’s what we were speaking of, and those who were of little courage relative to persecution, we see the two main applications of comfort, usually referred to in the New Testament. Times of death, times of persecution are when people become weak in faith, weak in heart, weak in courage. And those are times the scriptures seem to point to largest.

We’ll look at some other references to in the Old Testament, but largest in terms of when it’s necessary to come alongside of people and comfort them when they have death in their family, death with friends, etc., or when they themselves face death or when they face persecution, when they face troubles that they lack courage for. The scriptures point those who are littlehearted or of little courage because of impending death or the death of others.

They point to the one who is the resurrection and the life. And the scriptures take those who are disheartened a little of courage because of persecution and suffering and reminds them that they suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ and they share in his sufferings. In both cases of course the person and work of our savior is at the very center focus of the comfort that’s brought to the Christian community.

So we see many implications for this particular admonition to us from John 11. Another element in the New Testament outside of the gospels now moving to the epistles in various verses and I’ve listed some of them for you. This particular word for comfort, to come alongside of in a speaking manner or a breathing manner, is related to another word which means to exhort or to come alongside of in a more exhortive or admonishing way.

And these two words are linked up very often. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 14:3, don’t bother turning there. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto man to edification and to exhortation and to comfort. And that word edification, of course, has to do with teaching and building it up. Exhortation is the other word that’s not used in our text. Comfort the feeble-minded. But then comfort is the word that we have here from 1 Thessalonians 5:14.

So you have exhortation and comfort linked together there. Then again in the epistle to the Thessalonians earlier in chapter 2:11, we read, “You know how we that is the Paul and his entourage you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children.” Remember we preached on that. Paul says three specific things he did as a father exhort and that’s that word that our word comfort is frequently linked to comfort our word and charge okay now Hendrickson in his commentary quotes from Bengel in his commentary in that particular verse to say that they’re being admonished to act freely to do what’s right volunitionally of their own.

They’re being encouraged to the end that they would act gladly. And they’re being charged or testified that they may act reverently with the fear of the Lord. And so, while we don’t want to build too much from one verse, I think that the correlation between admonish and comfort is that admonish tends to stress more the admonition, the exhortation of a specific action. Comfort tends to build people up to the end.

that they would do whatever they’re supposed to be doing with joy and not with grief. Doing it gladly, as Bengel would say. Another place, by the way, where these words go together is in Philippians 2:1. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels of mercies, they’re frequently linked together, so it has a relationship to the term to admonish.

To admonish means to spur on, and to comfort means rather to cheer or to weaken or lessen shocks or blows that one receives. Now, I’m trying to draw some distinction between these two terms and help you to understand what this particular term is. It has more to do with comfort than in a friendly fashion as opposed to exhortation, although it can have connotations of the other. I’m trying to help you to see that the subtle differences between the two words, but it should be obvious in my striving to do this that it’s not a hard and fast difference in the Greek.

The word of God ties these two terms together very closely and that’s for a very good reason. It is tough to distinguish because in the Christian life the volitional aspect of our lives and our emotions are linked. Exhortation and encouragement to a task is frequently seen in the context as bringing comfort in terms of God’s grace to us. We’re exhorted to do what’s right. It’s a comforting thing to do what’s right as well.

And if we’re comforted in a loss, we’re encouraged to the end that we might not act foolishly in a particular way. And so for instance, when Paul in 2:11 said that as a father with children, he exhorted, comforted, and charged. Verse 12 says, “The end is that you should walk worthy of God.” He comforted them to the end that they might act they walk worthy of God. Now, he brought comfort to people that grieved, but the end was also an exhortation to an action to walk worthy.

Now, this combination between exhorting and comforting Really I think that in the article in KD’s theological dictionary of the New Testament they said that really the basis for this is because the gospel itself is both gift and task. The very heart of the Christian message is a gift from God to us but it is a gift and a comfort and a joy that God brings to us to bring it also brings with us to us rather a task.

So the idea of comfort and exhortation being so closely linked really finds its basis in the gospel itself which is as KD says both gift and task. Okay, probably let’s move on then to say we understood a little bit about comfort here. I hope there is some relation to admonition. There’s but mostly we’re talking about coming alongside of people in a friendly fashion to encourage them when their hearts are weak when their courage is down for various reasons usually death and persecution but other factors as well.

Now who is it that we’re to comfort according to this verse? Got the action down the verb. Let’s see who we are supposed to exercise this action toward and the scriptures tell us here in verse 14 that there’s those who are of little heart. Little heart here the word this is the only place in the whole New Testament where this particular word is used and so it’s even more difficult to get a good meaning of what this word means it is a combination of two words one word simply means little or few like the little boy who had a few fish to feed or when Jesus said the harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few.

So that’s the word the first part of this two-part word few or little. The second part is the word that can be translated and is in the New Testament heart life mind soul and it speaks of course to the gift of life and the implications of that in terms of who we are. So when people are seeking somebody’s life in the New Testament frequently this word will be used to indicate that life or the person’s soul or heart or mind also can be this word is used Chrysostom for instance in his commentary on this term took it more literally as little minded feeble-minded people that couldn’t think real clearly.

I don’t think he’s right there. I think the word really means more the heart the mind in the sense of the motivating factor of our will but it’s we can see why he would get that because sometimes that second part of the word is translated mind. Wycliffe I think did real good. He said that basically this term is interpreted as the men of little heart and I guess that’s how I’ve used it. My translation that I like is we’re to comfort the little hearts or as Wycliffe would say the men of little heart.

These are people who either characteristically of their lives or at particular times in their lives are not robust in their Christian faith. They’re easily discouraged. They may be lacking courage over a particular task. Although we’ll see next the next phrase has more reference to physical strength or physical courage but here it’s courage of heart faint-heartedness so we have some implications from the word itself now we also have some implications from the context some commentators have seen that in these threefold exhortation in verse in this verse they see a relationship to three classes of people in other words they say you got three phases warn or admonish the unruly comfort the feeble-minded strengthen the weak and if you look at the context the people we’ve talked about that this letter has been written to this epistle.

Remember, there are some who are unruly. I think Hendrickson called them fanatics, meddlers, and loafers. Those are the unruly ones who were getting all wrapped up with rapture fever or who were loafing or who were become slothful and as a result of that become meddlers in other people’s lives. They’re the unruly. Then there are also the weak, they say. So this line of reasoning goes, those people who are grieving over loved ones who had died in the Lord and were not sure of their own state of their body relative to Christ’s return and Paul at the end of chapter 4 says comfort one another with these words the teaching of the doctrine of the Parousia and the return of Christ the resurrection of the final resurrection of the body that was given to comfort people.

So they said this second class our particular phrase refers to those who are grieving over a particular loss of loved ones. The third class by the way would be those who are without strength and have a tendency toward immorality. So the saying goes those are the ones that receive the exhortations at the beginning of chapter 4, remember terms of immorality and correct business relationships and those things we talked about in chapter 4.

Those are people who are weak morally. So they say this third phrase we’ll talk about next week has to do with that. And some of this could be true. It’s hard to make a hard and fast distinction that these are true, but certainly we want to look at the very context of the phrase we’re working with. And that context indicates those in need of comfort are those in terms of death. So we saw that from the from the word comfort.

We see Now at the implication from the term itself and its context in Thessalonians. One other very important part of this context is that there is of course a change. Remember we said that this verse is very important for beginning to help us think about a biblical diagnosis of who we’re dealing with, what kind of people we’re dealing with. If they’re weak, if they’re feeble-hearted, if they’re unruly, they get different actions from us.

Now we just had the phrase to admonish the unruly. And then we have we shift now to a second class of people and that is these people who are littlehearted who are going to comfort and in a way they are really the opposite of the ones we’ve just talked about. The unruly people are the ones who are very self-confident very much full of braggadocio very much you know their own people going their own way and remember unruly is the basic sense of to break rank and to go their own thing instead of participating in the life of the church not correctly marshalling up as it were under the commanders that God has given the institutional church.

Those who are seditious in that sense, factious and leading off in their own direction or these are the proud who are sure of their own way. On the other hand, and they become admonished, that’s what we’re supposed to do with those people. Lay it down. Warn them the direction they’re headed. Here we have a different sort of person though. This is a person of little heart who is timid and not at all sure of what they’re doing and in fact very unsure of various things.

And the Bible says we find people that way and we’re supposed to come alongside them in a very comforting way instead of an exitative way so much mostly to come alongside in a friendly comforting fashion. Okay. Now we can also look at the Septuagint and we’re going to do that now from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is a Greek version of the Old Testament that was being used at the time of the New Testament was written.

And so it’s very helpful for us. It’s not a sure clue, not a sure thing, but it does tell us the way particular Greek words were thought to be used in the Old Testament. Old Testament was written in Hebrew. They translated Hebrew into Greek. So if we’re trying to find the meaning of a Greek word, it helps us to see what those people at that time thought which Greek words correlated with which Hebrew words in the Old Testament.

So it helps us and I’ve got listed on your outline several of these. Basically the Hebrew word that is translated with this particular word and there is a word that basically has the basic meaning of having too few resources. to meet a particular situation. That’s who the feeble-hearted are according to the Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew from the Old Testament. Those who had not enough resources to meet a situation.

And I’ve listed four examples here for us that will help us maybe get a picture of the different ways in which this can be expressed. First, an oppressed people in Exodus 6. Without well, let’s turn to Exodus 6 real fast and we’ll see this. Exodus 6, verse 9, what’s going on here is Moses has been called, he’s been charged by God to deliver the people out of Egypt. And then in verse he first goes to verse 9, Moses speaks unto the children of Israel, but they hearken not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.

And see this word there, Anguish of spirit is translated with this same Greek word that we’ve got here. And so here we have a people who were of little heart because of oppression and slavery by a foreign power. And we can see here how God comforted these of little heart. What did he do? Verse 10, the Lord spake unto Moses, go speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt that he let the children of Israel out of the land.

Moses spoke before the Lord saying, “Behold, the children of Israel not hearken unto me.” Verse 13, The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. So God through his representatives, Moses and Aaron, brings a charge to the children of Israel to encourage them that they might indeed participate in the plan that God has developed here to bring them out of Egypt.

So God uses words again through men to come alongside of a people to prepare them for deliverance. And so we see God here comforting those who are of little heart and doing it with by means of a charge. We see a different occurrence of this word or a different group rather in Numbers 21. In Numbers 21, well, we won’t let’s not turn there. I’m probably running a little short on time, but here we have the people.

Well, I think it is important we turn there to look at the context. Numbers 21 and we’re going to be looking at verse 4. The reason why I wanted to open this up is to show you in verse 2, Israel vows a vow to the Lord and said, “If thou will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities.

And he called the name of the place Hormah. That’s the context. Now look at verse 4. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. See, here they become little of soul, little of courage, little of heart because of the way. But you see, they had just been delivered by God and made a vow to him.

And here they are already getting discouraged about the task, the trial really that God laid out for them. Verse 5, the people moved that discouragement into act of rebellion. The people speak against God and against Moses. Wherefore you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? How does God deal with discouragement? When discouragement gives way to sin, verse 6, the Lord sends fiery serpents among the people, they bit the people and much people of Israel died.

So here we have a littleness of heart really due to sinful rejection of God’s leading, complaining about the tests and evaluations that God puts into the lives of each and every one of us. And that complaining spirit, maybe the anguish is okay, but to move from anguish to complaint against God and his representatives turns the church and state is not okay. And with those people, God brings judgment. Now, in Judges 8:4, I don’t have this on your outline, I don’t think, but Judges 8:4, we have the story of Gideon.

And Gideon comes to Jordan, and he passes over, and he’s after some bad guys here, and he has 300 men that are with him, and they’re faint yet pursuing the enemies of God’s people, Gideon. He comes to some people who are supposedly friends, and he says, “Give us something to eat. We’re just about ready to drop here. And they say, “Well, do you have these two bad guys in your possession yet? Have you won the victory?

Have you won this battle?” They say, “No, we’re after them.” And the people say, “Well, you come back and you got them. We don’t want to help you if they win.” That’s what they’re saying. And Gideon says, “Well, I’m going to catch them, and after I catch them, I’m coming back.” He goes to another city. The same thing happens. He tells him, “After I catch him, I’m coming down and breaking down your tower.” Here, Gideon has a trial.

He’s got a tough way, too. just like the people in Numbers 21 had. But Gideon perseveres on the tasks God had given him to do rather than complain even in the sight of the people of God turning him down to give him relief from his hunger and his discouragement of his men because of their hunger. Terms of test and evaluation, he pursues on and of course the end of the story is he catches the bad guys and he does what he’s supposed to do in terms of eliminating God’s enemies and he goes back to those two cities and he deals with them as well.

And he kills them by taking in the in the case of the first city briars and thistles and beating him with it, chastising him, scourging him with it. It’s a picture of God’s judgment and the curse of briars and thistles instead of great green plants. So here we have discouragement in both the Numbers 21 and Judges 8 and the Old Testament picture of it because of the way that God has in his providence laid out various trials and tribulations in our life.

Responded to correctly though, God brings blessing. Responded to incorrectly, He brings judgment. One of the ways we comfort people and encourage them is to help them to see very gently of course but to help them to see that if they do not if they do not if they let their discouragement turn into sin they face the judgment of God and they must be worried about that and very concerned about that. Okay.

A wearied mate. Judges 16. I suppose I shouldn’t have thrown this in at all but it is one more occurrence of this term in the Old Testament. We have here Samson driven to desperation by a nagging wife. Verse 16. It came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death. He gives in and tells her a secret. His soul is vexed unto death. He became little of heart because of the discouragement of a mate who was always on him about something.

Now, I only throw that in by way of application. You know, it’s and this could go either way. This can go either way. Husbands and wives who nag each other can bring discouragement and littleness of heart to their mate. And that’s what’s going on. This was the strongest man of all history apart from Jesus you know obviously there’s a greater Samson Jesus but this is the great strong man you know of all history and this man is driven to despair and vexed unto death by the continual dripping of a contentious wife bad deal we can laugh about it but you know it happens in home after home across this country happens both ways husbands to wives to husbands it’s interesting that of these various examples where this word is used, this one there’s no cure for it.

No eventually, of course, Samson comes out victorious. But the fourth example, a vehicle of God’s grace, Jonah, he goes and preaches to the Ninevites. And gosh, they even come to the faith, you know, and Jonah gets all bummed out. Turn to Jonah. That’s a that’s another great example of God’s comfort to people. even when they’re rebellious as Jonah really was here. Jonah, you know, the old minor prophets, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum.

Jonah builds Nineveh up. Micah uses Nineveh and the Assyrians to chastise his people. And Nahum, he brings judgment against the Ninevites. But Jonah then is the start of that minor prophet. And in verse 8 of Jonah, came to pass when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah. that he fainted and wished himself to die and said it’s better for me to die than to live.

He had littleness of heart here because of his own failure to understand God’s grace. So here we have a man of littleness of spirit for who’s discouraged because he doesn’t really he’s not a compassionate person those who have come to believe. Now before we start judging Jonah too harshly here of course it’s real important that you know and I know most of you do that the Assyrians were the wickedest, the biggest, the baddest, the meanest.

They were bad news. They conquered cities. They would pile up heads, big pyramids of heads in front of the city to throw fear into the whole rest of the land roundabout. They were bad guys. They would strip people’s skin off alive. They do terrible mean and nasty things. And they’d done these things to people that probably Jonah knew of. So when he didn’t want to go to them and see them come under the blessings of God, let’s be careful before we judge them too harshly.

Imagine somebody beating up this church for 50 years. and doing terrible things to us and then coming to repentance. Well, probably for some of us, we’d feel like Jonah. That guy’s going to get blessed by God. Now, that’s what Jonah thought. Jonah’s discouragement, which seems physical in verse 8, God points out in verse 9, it’s something else. God says to Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” There was a plant there that, you know, Jonah got mad because the plant got smitten by the heat.

And he said, “I do well to be angry even unto death.” Oh, this guy’s a brave guy, isn’t he? Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd. for the which thou hast not labored, neither made it to grow, which came up by night, and perished in the night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle?

End of the book. Questions left unanswered. God, to faint-hearted Jonah, comes alongside and brings comfort. And he does it by means of pointing Jonah out to some realities of the world. at the bottom. These are my creatures. These Ninevites, I know they were mean and wicked and nasty and evil. They’ve been brought to faith in me now and they’re my people. Shouldn’t you have compassion for them? He gives him a lesson from the scriptures to comfort Jonah and to bring Jonah into joy.

Well, was it successful? Well, I think so. I think that that’s kind of implied there that God knows just what words to bring at the right time to bring people to their senses and back to a position of wholeness and soundness. Okay. So that’s another Old Testament picture of those who are comforted in this sense. Now responsibility of all. Okay. So we’ve understand now to comfort the littlehearted means to come alongside of those who don’t have sufficient resources for the task or to do or to handle emotionally what they’ve just gone through.

And you are part of those God-ordained resources. Apart from you, they don’t have sufficient resources because you’re part of the way the secondary means that God says is supposed to help them to get through trials because he’s given this as a command to you. Who is this command given to? Well, first of all, the command is given to office bearers. In 1 Corinthians 14:3, we read that before. He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, exhortation, comfort, prophets, office bearers in the sense the prophetic teaching of the word has this comforting aspect to it.

First Thessalonians 2:11, remember we read that too. Paul said that he was like father in comforting the Thessalonians. So office bearers have a specific responsibility just as they do to admonish the unruly and to nouthetic counsel people in that sense also have a responsibility to come up alongside of people and comfort them. Okay, in grief, times of loss, times they’re a little heart-hearted for whatever reason, nagging mate, whatever it is, come alongside of and bring comfort.

so it’s definitely true that office bearers have that responsibility. But secondly, family members have their responsibility because Paul says, “I did this as a father.” See, I’m like a father to the church and that’s why I did this thing. But if that’s true, then the analogy must hold true that fathers are supposed to do this thing, too. And so, fathers have a responsibility to do what? To exhort their children, admonish them, tell them what to do, and make sure they get their tasks done right, but also to comfort them.

To come alongside of children as they’re growing up, to put the arm around them and talk softly to them. Basic meaning of the word comfort here. And to help them when they’re fearful of the dark and don’t just say buck up, okay? But to come alongside them and explain to them God’s presence over and over again. Our children little of heart and little of everything. They’re little of mind, you know, they don’t know much yet.

They’re little of heart. They’re little in all kinds of ways. And that’s why they’re little physically, too. And we have a responsibility to come alongside of our children in a comforting way and not simply in an admonishing way. That’s why this stuff about, you know, how the rod can cure all problems with children’s dis behavior. It’s just wrong. You know, God has all kinds of ways these instructs us where to deal with our kids.

And while the rod is one thing, you know, the gentle shepherd’s rod in terms of nourishing too, the thing that brings the bail, as it were, to those that are to feed, that’s important, too. And to come alongside of our children in quiet times with the word of God and biblical truths and to point them to it. That’s a real responsibility of fathers. And of course, it’s a responsibility of mothers as well.

They just happen to do it a lot more often than men do. And I think it’s real nice that Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2 remind