A throbbing headache, pain shooting behind your eyes, pulsating in your temples. You see flashes, and light becomes unbearable. You lie down and break into a cold sweat. Then the nausea starts. Unless you’ve recently suffered a migraine, it’s difficult to understand the sensation of relief and freedom you feel when it’s finally gone. Joy, like many other things, is appreciated best in its absence. Read Isaiah 12:2-6. Isaiah is prophesying to a people who have sinned greatly against the Lord. Most of the first half of Isaiah is a message of divine judgment against Israel. The prophet continually beats them down with words of condemnation and retribution for their sins. But in the midst of this cosmic migraine, he gives them a chapter of relief. Actually it’s more than relief, it’s great joy. There will come a savior, a messiah, to save them from this condemnation!
We can know the joy and freedom of deliverance only when we’ve experienced the sorrows and pain of bondage. It is possible that God allows us to experience pain in order that we might understand the deep relief and exuberant joy of salvation that is only found in Him.