Bowels of Mercy

Hello everyone.

Well, the school year is over.  Aaron, my youngest, graduated from high school last night. It's hard to believe.  Where did the time go?  Any way, I wanted to continue sharing from my study in the book of Luke a little tidbit that I have enjoyed recently.  In Luke 1:67-80, Zechariah the priest and father of John the Baptist prophecies.  It appears that the Holy Spirit has given Zechariah a great deal of insight, because he seems to understand what is about to happen, a lot more than other people do.  He says a lot of great things about the coming Messiah in his prophecy, like, "He has come to his people and redeemed them (v. 68)," and "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us.  (v. 69)"  Now, Jesus has not been born yet here.  John was just born, and Jesus birth is still a few months away, but Zechariah seems to understand that God is soon to dwell among the people, buy them back and offer to them salvation.  In verse 77, Zechariah talks about sins being forgiven.  So it seems that Zecharaih, through the Holy Spirit, understands that the Messiah was not about a great rescue from Rome, but a rescue from our sin. It is on verses 76-78 is where I want to focus for today.  It says:

   And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
      for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,
   to give his people the knowledge of salvation
      through the forgiveness of their sins,
   because of the tender mercies of our God,
      by which the rising sun will come to uss from heaven.

I want on the phrase translated here as "tender mercy."  It is because of this tender mercy that God offer us salvation through the forgiveness of our sins.  So I was curious about this phrase and decided to look it up in the Greek.  To be honest, my knowledge of the Greek is very limited, but I do own a Zondervan parallel Greek and English New Testament and a Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words, with a rudimentary knowledge of how to use them.  So from the Grrek, I looked at Luke 1:78.  The word that is translated "tender" is σπλαγχνα (splagkna).  According to Thayer's it means of "bowels or intestines." Both the KJV and NIV translate it into the word "tender," because, I think the phrase, "bowels of mercy," makes very litle sense to ur western ears.  We would probably use "heart" to express this type of emotion.  Thayer says this though, "the Greek poets fr. Aeschylus down the bowels were regarded as the seat of the more violent passions, such as anger and love; but by the Hebrews as the seat of the tenderer affections, esp. kindness, benevolence and compassion."  I thnk that what I and getting from Zechariah and Thayer is that God's mercy for us resides deep within Him, as deep as His intestines.  Let us all enjoy God's bowels of mercy.

Tom