Picking it back up where I left off.
Now I took liberty to search for the meaning of Comforter and I might say that the Strong's was weak and beggarly to say the least so I turned to the Thayer's and found this: first this: one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate; then this: in the widest sense, a helper, succorer, aider, assistant; of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ within the apostles (after His ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom.
Then I went back into the Old testament to find these:
Ecc.4:1
“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions (to strive against, to hold back) that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of oppressed, and they had no comforter (to regret, to repent); and on the side of their oppressors power; but they had no comforter (metaphoric to heal, to bring to restoration).”
Lam.1:9, 16 “Her filthiness in her skirts; she remembers not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself ( the word himself is inserted by the translators).............For these I weep; mine eye, mine eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.”
A thought just came to mind so we'll also look at the word guile for a moment, first the detention:
First in the Old Testament:
Exo 21:14
"But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile (H6195); thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die."
Psa 32:2
"Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile (H7423)."
Psa 34:13
"Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (H4820)."
Strong's Dictionary on Hebrew words:
H6195: Feminine of H6193; trickery; or (in a good sense) discretion: - guile, prudence, subtilty, wilily, wisdom.
H7423: From H7411; remissness, treachery: - deceit (-ful, -fully), false, guile, idle, slack, slothful.
H4820: From H7411 in the sense of deceiving; fraud: - craft, deceit (-ful, -fully), false, feigned, guile, subtilly, treachery.
In the New Testament these are found, the reference number used is the same and here we'll use the Thayer's Greek Dictionary:
G1388: craft, deceit, guile; from an obsolete primary verb, dello (probably meant to decoy; compare G1185)
G1185: to bait, catch by a bait; metaphorically to beguile by blanishments, allure, entice, deceive. from the base of G1388.
The Dictionary meaning for guile and taken from the Webster's 1828: n. gile. Craft; cunning; artifice; duplicity; deceit; usually in a bad sense. We may, with more successful hope, resolve to wage by force or guile eternal war. To disguise craftily.
Here are a few of the scriptures where used:
John 1:47
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
2Co 12:16
“But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.”
1Th 2:3-8
“For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.” (Now for those passages not quoted: 1 Peter 2:1, 22, 3:10; Revelation 14:5)
Now back to where we were before the side trip. Resuming our study, here is what the Lord Jesus has to say about Him, the Comforter:
John 14:16-17, 26
“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you...........But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.”
John 15:26-27
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of me: Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
John 16:7
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
And with that we're finished with this study. However we've added a few quotes for further thought.
"We never read of Christ running. He probably started out in His youth trying to run in the ways of His Father. But He too had to learn obedience by what He suffered. (Heb. 5:8) Everyone learns to walk slowly with God through the suffering that increases patience and faith. And so, when He finally begins His ministry at the age of thirty, we find Him always walking in an unhurried pace. But He was always on time, He never lacked anything, and nothing was ever over-due. ... It is into this same Divine life that we are to enter and learn to move by walking in His Spirit. There needs to be a real death to the old self-originated form of life that comes from the flesh. We are to walk in Christ, and with Christ, and for Christ. This steady, quiet, slow, mature walk with Christ in the Spirit is the condition that leads to the deepest and most heavenly knowledge of Divine things."
If we pay close attention we'll find that most of the Lord's ministry was in the cities in the outskirts of Jerusalem and away from the madness of it all. He chose to be separated from the religionists of His day as much as was possible.
"God never intended for us to have life in ourselves. He chose for us to live through the Son so that we would always be like Him in holy love. While the first Adam chose to live by self-will and lost the life of God from his soul, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, came into the world to reverse this loss. He destroyed this work that the devil had fostered on the world by choosing to live through the Father. By walking in the Spirit in complete harmony with His Father’s will, the Father was able to continue to “dwell in” Him and “walk in” Him. He lived as a temple of the living God and thereby restored the way of life that Adam lost. ... After paying the penalty for man’s sin through His death, the Son became the Federal Head of a new linage of people who would begin to walk as He did. By choosing to walk by the Spirit of God, God could dwell in them and walk in them. This would enable each of God’s children to become a vessel of His heavenly life. That divine life of spotless, lowly, gentle, holy love, as it was expressed through Jesus, is seeking vessels in which to shape and spread itself abroad in the world today. This is His promise: “He who follows Me [in the way of the cross] shall…have the light of life."
"It is a long way from the fallen Adam to Jesus, from self to God, from the earthly to the heavenly. But the length of the journey does not depend on years as counted by men. It depends on the receptivity of the soul and how quickly we respond in a yielded faith to the ways of God. Waiting seems to be a slow thing, and yet it is by waiting on the Lord, in a true yieldedness to His Spirit, that the soul meets the condition that enables it to change its strength. Those who are responsive to God find their spirit being lifted by His power into ever-higher levels of divine spiritual life. Their spirit rises up into the heavenly realms where it becomes “one spirit” with the Son." -Quoted from Steve Bray by Disciple Life, 2-24-2013.
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