«Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles» (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4, NIV).
WHICH DISAPPOINTMENT BROUGHT ABOUT more suffering: the disciples’ disappointment when Christ was crucified, or our church pioneers’ disappointment when they waited for Jesus’s second coming in vain, in October 1844?
The first disciples’ disappointment was greater, as the following statement in Early Writings indicates, «l saw that the disappointment of those who believed in the coming of the Lord in 1844 was not equal to the disappointment of the first disciples.»—ch. 56, p. 245.
What did our compassionate Father do to comfort His troubled disciples? First, He commissioned His angels. Let us remember that angels were the ones who told the disciples that Jesus had risen, and that He was going before them to Galilee (see Luke 24:4-6; Mark 16:7).
Second, He directed their attention to the prophetic word confirmed. Remember Jesus’s words to the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus? “ ‘Foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!’ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25, 27).
And what did God do for His children after their disappointment in 1844? Just like in the first disciples’ experience, the angels also played a very active role, according to the following statement in Early Writings: «I saw that Jesus regarded with the deepest compassion the disappointed ones who had waited for His coming; and He sent His angels to direct their minds that they might follow Him where He was. He showed them that this earth is not the sanctuary, but that He must enter the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to make an atonement for His people. «—p. 244.
The most interesting part is knowing the role played by the gift of prophecy. In December 1844, God’s Spirit was powerfully manifested in a prayer meeting five women were holding at the home of Elizabeth Haines. While Ellen Harmon was praying, power from on high descended upon her «as never before:» “I was wrapped in a vision of God’s glory,» she writes, «and seemed to be rising higher and higher from the earth, and was shown something of the travels of the Advent people to the Holy City.»—Ibid., ch. 1, p. 13.
Eighteen centuries elapsed between one disappointment and the other, but both in the first and the second one, God was very close to His children. Through His angels, and especially, the prophetic word confirmed, He proved once again that He truly knows how to comfort.
Heavenly Father, thank You because Your angels are very close to me in my trials, and because Your Word is a lamp that illuminates my path.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
