His Tender Mercies & Guidance
His Tender Mercy & Guidance
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
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.” (Luke 1:76-79)
O how beautiful are these words that are contained in this prophecy by Zacharias concerning his son, John the Baptist, and how he will prepare the way of the Lord, which would include His tender mercy and His guidance into the way of peace. This would be so important to know since the birth of Jesus would be followed by the death of all the male children, two years of age and under, due to the cruel jealousy of a tyrannical king Herod.
Even though various prophecies can have a general application for the generation that first hears it, we must remember that a word of prophecy may still have its true fulfillment some time in the future. This was the case for the words of Hosea that said, "Out of Egypt, I called My son" (Hos. 11:1 - which referred to the nation of Israel and the Messiah when Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod) and also here in Matthew 2, where the words of Jeremiah were recalled, "A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more" (Jer. 31:15, Matt. 2:18).
A lament is an honest prayer or expression of grief, confusion, pain, or protest directed to God. A lament remind us not hide our sorrow but rather to release it to God, and to allow Him to heal us and build us back up in hope. The Bible is filled with honest times where God's people vent to God and release their burdens and concerns to Him.
God welcomes our honesty and can handle our grievances but He is always pleased when we confess and respond in faith. His kingdom is a kingdom of light, and light always dispels the darkness. This will help us to be shining lights in our world and the salt of this earth.
Sometimes, our hearts refuse to accept the comfort of the Holy Spirit due to our unwillingness to admit our sins or hurts or to truly release our lament and pain in prayer to God or to someone who cares. When we suppress our feelings and keep things hidden in the dark, we give access and authority for Satan to bind us up, blind us from the truth, or to hinder our communion with God.
There have been many times in the history of God's people where great lament was offered up to God as sorrow and anguish would fill the souls of God's people due to the evil and suffering that is prevalent in our world.
Let us remember that God desires us to see things as they really are. Let us that see that...
Evil is real.
Evil is all around us.
Evil is the absence of good.
The evil we see may be due to our own failings, the free will actions of other men or of angels that disobey God, or even the effects of the original fall of man, which caused the fallen condition of our earth to bring forth disasters, disease, and death. We are called not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21).
This means that we need to be honest about what is really going on in our hearts. When we are suffering from loss, regret, disappointment, or other painful effects of our broken and fallen world, we must not stuff it down deep within our hearts. We must release it to God and to confess it openly so that we say the same thing that God says about it and open our hearts to receive His tender mercy and guidance.
God knows how to lead His people through the valley of the shadow of death and to bring us into safe and secure places. He gently leads those with young and faithfully guides us into His desired will. Sometimes, His will leads us to places that seem undesirable and that carry certain disdain, just as Nazareth represented in the times of Christ.
It was once said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), but the prophets showed us that the coming Messiah would be be like a despised branch that would produce a new kind of fruit on the earth:
"For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief..." (Isa. 53:2-3)
But this same suffering Messiah who was tempted in all points is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. It our Lord Jesus would bring salvation to the world.
"There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
His delight is in the fear of the LORD,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist." (Isaiah 11:1-5)
May we be completely open and honest with God to ask Him to uproot anything that is defiling or corrupting our hearts so that we can be rooted and planted in Christ and produce His fruit of righteousness on this earth!
Discussion Questions for Home Groups
1. When you hear and see things that are evil in the world, do you also ask God to expose any evil that may be in lurking your own heart before critiquing it in others? What does that look like in practice and what does the Bible teach us to do when faced with evil?
2. Would you say you have a healthy view of lamenting and is this something that you have a healthy practice of in your life. Elaborate on this as to why or why not.
3. Since God is holy, we must see our sin in light of who He is and what His Word says. What are examples of how God is guiding you away from danger and leading you and helping you to navigate the evils of our times. Discuss.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
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.” (Luke 1:76-79)
O how beautiful are these words that are contained in this prophecy by Zacharias concerning his son, John the Baptist, and how he will prepare the way of the Lord, which would include His tender mercy and His guidance into the way of peace. This would be so important to know since the birth of Jesus would be followed by the death of all the male children, two years of age and under, due to the cruel jealousy of a tyrannical king Herod.
Even though various prophecies can have a general application for the generation that first hears it, we must remember that a word of prophecy may still have its true fulfillment some time in the future. This was the case for the words of Hosea that said, "Out of Egypt, I called My son" (Hos. 11:1 - which referred to the nation of Israel and the Messiah when Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod) and also here in Matthew 2, where the words of Jeremiah were recalled, "A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more" (Jer. 31:15, Matt. 2:18).
A lament is an honest prayer or expression of grief, confusion, pain, or protest directed to God. A lament remind us not hide our sorrow but rather to release it to God, and to allow Him to heal us and build us back up in hope. The Bible is filled with honest times where God's people vent to God and release their burdens and concerns to Him.
God welcomes our honesty and can handle our grievances but He is always pleased when we confess and respond in faith. His kingdom is a kingdom of light, and light always dispels the darkness. This will help us to be shining lights in our world and the salt of this earth.
Sometimes, our hearts refuse to accept the comfort of the Holy Spirit due to our unwillingness to admit our sins or hurts or to truly release our lament and pain in prayer to God or to someone who cares. When we suppress our feelings and keep things hidden in the dark, we give access and authority for Satan to bind us up, blind us from the truth, or to hinder our communion with God.
There have been many times in the history of God's people where great lament was offered up to God as sorrow and anguish would fill the souls of God's people due to the evil and suffering that is prevalent in our world.
Let us remember that God desires us to see things as they really are. Let us that see that...
Evil is real.
Evil is all around us.
Evil is the absence of good.
The evil we see may be due to our own failings, the free will actions of other men or of angels that disobey God, or even the effects of the original fall of man, which caused the fallen condition of our earth to bring forth disasters, disease, and death. We are called not to be overcome with evil but to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21).
This means that we need to be honest about what is really going on in our hearts. When we are suffering from loss, regret, disappointment, or other painful effects of our broken and fallen world, we must not stuff it down deep within our hearts. We must release it to God and to confess it openly so that we say the same thing that God says about it and open our hearts to receive His tender mercy and guidance.
God knows how to lead His people through the valley of the shadow of death and to bring us into safe and secure places. He gently leads those with young and faithfully guides us into His desired will. Sometimes, His will leads us to places that seem undesirable and that carry certain disdain, just as Nazareth represented in the times of Christ.
It was once said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), but the prophets showed us that the coming Messiah would be be like a despised branch that would produce a new kind of fruit on the earth:
"For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief..." (Isa. 53:2-3)
But this same suffering Messiah who was tempted in all points is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. It our Lord Jesus would bring salvation to the world.
"There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
His delight is in the fear of the LORD,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist." (Isaiah 11:1-5)
May we be completely open and honest with God to ask Him to uproot anything that is defiling or corrupting our hearts so that we can be rooted and planted in Christ and produce His fruit of righteousness on this earth!
Discussion Questions for Home Groups
1. When you hear and see things that are evil in the world, do you also ask God to expose any evil that may be in lurking your own heart before critiquing it in others? What does that look like in practice and what does the Bible teach us to do when faced with evil?
2. Would you say you have a healthy view of lamenting and is this something that you have a healthy practice of in your life. Elaborate on this as to why or why not.
3. Since God is holy, we must see our sin in light of who He is and what His Word says. What are examples of how God is guiding you away from danger and leading you and helping you to navigate the evils of our times. Discuss.
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