GOD’S HEART OF TENDER MERCY

“Through the TENDER MERCY of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us” – Luke 1:78

Humanity would gain the most if we truly recognise and value GOD’S HEART of TENDER MERCY: “Through the TENDER MERCY of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk.1: 78-79). For many centuries, the Glory of God had left the Temple and the voice of the prophet had been silenced in Israel. But the Lord had not forgotten His people, for the day at last came when He spoke through the mouth of Zacharias that His promised Kingdom and salvation, through the long-awaited Messiah, was at last dawning. The Light of Salvation, which had been promised in the Garden of Eden so long ago, was ready to pierce the deep darkness of the world.

Through the Tender Mercy of our gracious God, spiritual darkness which had been the sorry state of Israel was being dispelled. Because of His Tender Mercy, the people who were walking in darkness were to see a great Light and on those living in the land of the shadow of death, the radiance of God was dawning to guide every willing feet into the way of peace. The reviving Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God can only be seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is “the Dayspring from on high” – “the morning Light” or “rising of the sun”! Jesus is history’s unique Person – the Morning Star – and the Light of Grace and Mercy!

God's Mercy is one of the most precious realities in the world, one of the most revealing themes in the Bible, and one of the most misunderstood truths about God. If we want to know who God really is, if we want to peek into His Heart, it is not the display of His just wrath and celestial power to which we should look. Rather, we should set our eyes on His Mercy, without minimizing the fullness of His Power and Might. Mercy is the tangible, dynamic demonstration of divine Love – the outworking of God’s Love. Mercy is an infinite, inexhaustible capability within the divine nature, which disposes God to be actively compassionate.

Mercy is God’s benevolence stretched towards humankind to meet every conceivable need. God – who is Love and whose Heart is Love – expresses Himself as “the Father of mercies” (2Cor.1:4). God is rich in Mercy, which inevitably overflows to deliver His people from sin and misery and translate us into realms of blessings – spheres of Joy, Comfort, and Fulfilment. His Mercy is Timeless on those who fear Him (Exo.34:6-7); sovereign (Rom. 9:16); Unchangeable (Psa.66:20); and Unfailing (Lam.3:21-22).

Many people today are prone, by nature and nurture, to see God’s Mercy as peripheral or incidental to who He is. They assume that perhaps He shows mercy accidentally or out of weakness. But the Scriptures aver that when God shows His Mercy, He does so with absolute intentionality and strength. We as His creatures get our deepest glimpse of who He is not just in His Sovereignty but His Goodness; not simply in His greatness but His Gentleness; and not only in His towering Might but also in His surprising Tenderness.

God’s Mercy not only demonstrates who He is, but also reveals something vital about ourselves: That we have been shown Mercy means not only that we didn’t deserve His favor, but that we deserved His righteous hammer against the anvil of justice. Our cry for Mercy admits to our ill-deserving, not just undeserving. By rights, we should be under God’s impending wrath, but for the “the tender mercy of our God” (Lk.1:78). We would have remained “by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph.2:3). “God who is RICH in MERCY, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph.2:4-5a). Beloved, let’s set our eyes on and entrust ourselves to God’s Mercy, seeing into His very Heart!