Isa 51:12  “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 

Isa 51:13  and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy?

Isa 66:13  As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

• Nacham. Sigh. Exhale. (regret: Noah story or King Saul) 
• How can it mean both?
• Scared child. Into lap of mother. Mother: “I’m so sorry that you had to go through that! I regret/ rue that you had to be exposed to that!”
• Comfort with empathy, with sadness
• In these verses, God as Comforter is in the context of fear.
• The stronghold of Fear. 
• Me; London not afraid of anything. Istanbul, afraid of a lot of things.
• Strategy: expose to confront.
• Know fear. Know the comfort of God. So that we can comfort others:
• 2 Co 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 
• 2 Co 1:4  who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.