고난과 위로

Comfort Born in the Throes of Pain: A Word from Isaiah 66

God's throne is in heaven, yet He bends toward the bruised and broken heart—comfort flows where suffering has been.

BibleVibe Editorial읽기 5분
번역본：ESV
이사야 66:1-20
본문 읽으러 가기 →

Thus said GOD:The heaven is My throneAnd the earth is My footstool:Where could you build a house for Me,What place could serve as My abode? All this was made by My hand,And thus it all came into being—declares GOD.Yet to such a one I look:To the poor and brokenhearted,Who is concerned about My word. As for those who slaughter oxen and slay humans,Who sacrifice sheep and immolate dogs,Who present as oblation the blood of swine,Who offer refers to giving the “token portion” (ʼazkarah); cf. Lev. 2.2, etc. incense and worship false gods—Just as they have chosen their waysAnd take pleasure in their abominations, So will I choose to mock them,To bring on them the very thing they dread.For I called and none responded,I spoke and none paid heed.They did what I deem evilAnd chose what I do not want. Hear the word of GOD,You who are concerned about God’s word!Your own kindred who hate you,Who spurn you because of Me, are saying,“Let GOD manifest the divine Presence,So that we may look upon your joy.”But theirs shall be the shame. Hark, tumult from the city,Thunder from the temple!It is GOD’s thunder As retribution is dealt to the foe. Before she labored, she was delivered;Before her pangs came, she bore a son. Who ever heard the like?Who ever witnessed such events?Can a land pass through travailIn a single day?Or is a nation bornAll at once?Yet Zion travailedAnd at once bore her children! Shall I who bring on labor not bring about birth?—says GOD.Shall I who cause birth shut the womb?—said your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,All you who love her!Join in her jubilation,All you who mourned over her— That you may suck from her breastConsolation to the full,That you may draw from her bosom, Arabic zīzat, “udder.” Glory to your delight. For thus said GOD:I will extend to herProsperity like a stream,The wealth of nationsLike a wadi in flood;And you shall drink of it.You shall be carried on shouldersAnd dandled upon knees Like one whom a mother comforts.So I will comfort you:You shall find comfort in Jerusalem. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice,Your limbs shall flourish like grass.GOD’s power shall be revealedOn behalf of those who render service;But [God] shall rage against all foes. See, GOD is coming with fire—With chariots like a whirlwind—To vent anger in fury,And rebuke in flaming fire. For with fire will contend,With the sword, against all flesh;And many shall be GOD’s slain. Those who sanctify and purify themselves to enter the groves, imitating one in the center, eating the flesh of the swine, the reptile, and the mouse, shall one and all come to an end—declares GOD. For I [know] their deeds and purposes.[The time] has come to gather all the nations and tongues; they shall come and behold My glory. I will set a sign among them, and send from them survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud—that draw the bow—to Tubal, Javan, and the distant coasts, that have never heard My fame nor beheld My glory. They shall declare My glory among these nations. And out of all the nations, said GOD, they shall bring all your kindred on horses, in chariots and drays, on mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem My holy mountain as an offering to GOD—just as the Israelites bring an offering in a pure vessel to the House of GOD. And from them likewise I will take some to be levitical priests, said GOD. For as the new heaven and the new earthThat I will makeShall endure by My will—declares GOD—So shall your seed and your name endure. And new moon after new moon,And sabbath after sabbath,All flesh shall come to worship Me—said GOD. They shall go out and gazeOn the corpses of those who rebelled against Me:Their worms shall not die,Nor their fire be quenched;They shall be a horrorTo all flesh.And new moon after new moon,And sabbath after sabbath,All flesh shall come to worship Me—said GOD.

Isaiah 66:1–20 gathers two visions at the close of the prophet's scroll: judgment on those who ritualize religion while despising God's word, and a sudden, almost violent joy for those who tremble at His speech. The pivot is verse 2 — 'to the poor and brokenhearted who is concerned about My word' — and verses 10–14, where Jerusalem's travail becomes the very source of comfort for all who mourned over her.

📖 이사야
🕰️ Post-exilic period (Second/Third Isaiah)📍 Jerusalem📍 Babylon
Narration

배경

Isaiah 66 stands at the end of the longest prophetic book in the Hebrew canon. Chapters 40–55 (often called Second Isaiah) addressed exiles in Babylon with promises of return; chapters 56–66, sometimes called Third Isaiah, were spoken to a community already back in the land — or pressing toward it — wrestling with a temple that looked smaller than Solomon's, with neighbors who scorned them, and with a people whose worship had grown thin. The geo-political horizon in chapter 66 still includes the nations streaming to Zion (vv. 18–20), but the immediate audience is the returned remnant in Jerusalem. God refuses a house built by human hands ('Where could you build a house for Me?'), and instead points to the kind of person He will dwell with: 'the poor and brokenhearted… concerned about My word.' The 'city' whose tumult is heard in verse 6 is the city of God's people; the 'thunder from the temple' is not destruction but deliverance. Verses 7–9 then unfold a startling image — Zion giving birth before her pangs even arrive, a nation born 'all at once.' It is this impossible birth that becomes the river of comfort in verses 10–14. The suffering and the comfort are not sequential; they are braided together.

시대와 장소

During the prophets and exile era, Isaiah spoke to Jerusalem and the Davidic community scattered in Babylon, addressing God's judgment and ultimate comfort through suffering.

의미

Three movements structure this passage. First, a redefinition of sacred space (vv. 1–2). God is not contained by architecture; He is found by the lowly whose ear is tuned to His word. Religion that performs sacrifice while practicing injustice is not worship but self-selected abomination (vv. 3–4). Second, a verdict on those who mock the faithful — God's own laughter answers theirs (vv. 5–6). Third, and most importantly, a birth that defies the normal order: Zion's children arrive without the customary travail (vv. 7–9). Theologically this means God's saving act can outpace, override, and even reverse the pains of history. He who opens the womb is not mocked by it. The 'comfort' in verses 10–14 is therefore not a softener placed over sorrow but the overflow of an unstoppable delivery — Jerusalem is to be nursed, carried, dandled. The mother's comfort in verse 13 is the closest Hebrew parallel to the New Testament picture of God as one who 'comforts those who are lowly' (cf. 2 Cor. 7:6). Suffering and comfort are not opposites here; comfort is what happens when suffering meets a God who acts.

적용

1. Stop looking for God in the grandeur of buildings and start looking for Him in the trembling of the brokenhearted. The locus of His presence is not a sanctuary; it is a soft heart (v. 2). 2. Examine what you have 'chosen' (v. 4). Comfort does not arrive as a bribe to unchanged habits; it comes as God's answer to those whose ways align with His. 3. Weep over the city before you rejoice over her. Isaiah does not skip the mourning; he commands those who 'mourned over her' (v. 10) to be the very ones who now rejoice. 4. Expect disproportionate comfort. The wadi in flood (v. 12) is the picture — what you receive will outweigh what you endured. 5. Receive comfort as a child receives a mother (v. 13). Be carried. Be dandled. Let the comfort pass through your body, not just your mind. 6. Refuse to be mocked into silence. Those who hate you because of God will demand proof; the answer is not argument but the visible joy of those God has drawn to Himself (v. 5).

되새김

There is a kind of suffering that cannot be argued with — the kind that sits in the chest before the pangs even arrive, that names us before we name it. Isaiah 66 insists that into exactly that kind of suffering God walks, not as a commentator but as a mother who takes the child on her knees. The text does not pretend the travail wasn't real; it says the birth came first. So the next time you find yourself in a season where every diagnostic, every prayer, every friend insists the worst is yet to come, this prophet whispers the unthinkable: it may already be here. Comfort, in God's economy, is not the absence of pain but the presence of a Deliverer who brings to birth in the night. Sit with verse 13 today. Let it be the mother-comfort you did not know you were allowed to receive.

자주 묻는 질문

Why does God say heaven is His throne and yet promise to dwell with the lowly?

Because God is not limited by space; He limits Himself to the brokenhearted who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2).

What does it mean that Zion gives birth before her pangs come?

It means God's saving act can outpace the human schedule of suffering — the child arrives before the labor registers. Pain is not denied; it is overtaken (Isaiah 66:7–9).

If I have mourned a long time, how can I also rejoice as Isaiah 66 commands?

Isaiah does not skip the mourning — he addresses those who 'mourned over her' (v. 10) and calls them to rejoice. Rejoicing is not denial; it is letting God's flood-wadi comfort (v. 12) pour into the already-broken place.

← 이전 글

When the Shadow Lifts: From Suffering to Banquet

다음 글 →

When Comfort Is Withdrawn: Hearing God in the Midst of Grief

HomeDiscoverStudyReadMe