Adar 11
Those Who Mourn
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall
be comforted.” (Mat
5:4 NKJV )
Most
of us are familiar with the story of King David and Bathsheba, a story of
adultery and murder (see 2Sam 11–12:23).
Nathan was the prophet chosen by YHWH (2Sam 12:1) to confront and expose
the depth of these sins to David; upon
doing so, the king’s comment to Nathan was: “I have sinned against יהוה.”
(2Sam 12:13). Much of the heart-wrenching teshuva – repentance - that David went
through is written for us to bear witness to in Ps 51.
How
many of us can say we have truly “mourned” over the sin we have committed in
our lives, sin that has brought sorrow to our ABBA Father, sin that has grieved
Him, disappointed Him?
Have we reached such a place of casualness concerning sin, of expecting and assuming forgiveness, of
taking it for granted, of treating it lightly?
Noah Webster’s definition of “repentance” includes “real penitence;
sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a
violation of His holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of
infinite benevolence”[1]. To mourn is to express much grief, pain and
sorrow; genuine repentance for sin should be an area for us to mourn deeply over.
“For sorrow over the things
of YAHWEH works enduring repentance of
the soul, that brings one to life. But the sorrow over the things of the
world causes death.”
(2Cor 7:10 NLT , emphasis mine)
The
promises of YHWH are “Yea and Amen” (2Cor 1:20). For those of us who are not “just sorry we
got caught”, but have spent our season
in mourning over our past sinful state, are truly repentant, and have done teshuva, we have the promise of being
comforted by the loving arms of our Creator (see Isa 49:13).
There
are those of us (myself included) who have lost loved ones, those especially
dear and precious to our hearts. This verse
from Matthew is also a promise for
us. Our ABBA Father is well acquainted
with how it feels to lose someone close to the heart; He lost His Son on the
stake, and He has experienced grief. But
He also sends us the Comforter, the Holy Breath of YHWH, not only to comfort,
but also to console, to strengthen, and to walk us through the dark days of
grief until we come out the other side (John 16:7 Amp). How great is our God, how merciful, how
tender, how loving …
“To
everything there is a
season, A time for every purpose under heaven … a time to
weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance …” (Ecc 3:1,4)
©2018
[1] American Dictionary of the English
Language, Noah Webster, 1828
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