Tenderness

Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. (2 Kings 22:19).

King Josiah had a rare characteristic that kings before and after lacked when responding to God's wrath coming against a nation that refused Him. Most of the kings of the southern kingdom only persisted in their arrogance and become more wicked than their forefathers.

Josiah was different. He had a tender heart.

In Hebrew the word is rakak meaning to be soft and weak. Tenderness it's not how the world views softness or weakness. Josiah was soft and weak to the Word of God by heeding to it, rather than trying to put on brave face and walk in arrogance. To tremble at God's word is not a weakness, but very powerful in the eyes of God. It's a sure sign of a heart that is tender, (soft and weak) toward the things of God.

When you can no longer be moved by the voice of God, tremble while reading His word, there is a danger of a heart growing cold and indifferent. When you can close your ears to cry of the needy or turn your eyes from the one who is suffering, then tenderness has given way to a congealed, closed heart.

What gave Christ such a magnanimous presence and strength as He walked the earth was how He demonstrated a rich, tender heart (Isaiah 42:3). He healed all manner of sickness and illness. He wept at Lazarus tomb. He forgive the woman caught in adultery. Jesus purged the temple of money changers in display of passion for His house to be a place of prayer, not a market of buyers and sellers. He prayed in the garden until blood dropped from His forehead.

The tenderness of Christ is in stark contrast to the coldness and hardness of the religious rulers of His day who knew only about rules, laws and commandments. Forgiveness, grace, mercy and love were foreign words to them, even though Moses who they studied and revered, God revealed Himself as "...faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." (Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV).

If you are worn and tired from the battle and find your heart shutting down to defend yourself - God will be your shield to keep you tender and protected from a world that is icy cold and unfeeling. Yet a world that so desperately wants to see believers cry for them, when their tears have all but dried up. Christians who are strong to fight the battles of temptations because they are weak to God, making them more than over comers!