Pounding Tenderness

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,” (Lu 1:76-78 AV)

I thought this was slightly ironic when compared to John’s preaching towards the Pharisees!  Haha!  When one considers the tone of the message and the accusations leveled at the Pharisees, it hardly reminds one of tender mercy.  However, as we saw in a previous entry, there are only two styles of preaching; fear and compassion.  In either case, it results in the tender mercy of God being the desired outcome.

I remember my Mom giving us a chore. It was beating to death a cube stake in the hopes it could be eaten.  She gave us this little hammer that had teeth on both heads.  We would sprinkle a little seasoning in it then beat it to a pulp.  This little kitchen hammer was called a tenderizer.  Today, we can use spices (compassion) or the hammer (fear).  It all depends on how tough we are at the time.

Years ago, we used to have really hard preaching.  Really pointed.  Penetrating to the soul.  Yes, some of it was over the top.  There were preachers who believed that if they made someone made, it was Holy Ghost conviction.  Yet, most of the hard preaching was not.  We have become so sensitive that we cannot endure the chastening and rebuke of the LORD from the pulpit.  Guilty as charged!  There was a time when I could not endure it.

There is something the child of God must remember.  There are times we are not as tender to the leading and instruction of the Holy Ghost as we would like to believe.  I can personally attest to that!  There are and were times when the obvious escapes us.  As a preacher, there are times when the sheep cannot take a hint and sometimes one must be extremely blunt.  All these blunt times are still considered the tenderness of God!  His mercy to try to fix us!  Praise God for these ‘tender’ times.