Pensees: Preaching to Softness. Preaching to Hardness.

Preaching to Softness. Preaching to Hardness.

I have the immeasurable blessing of preaching to softness. There is hardly a Lord’s Day that goes by when I do not see the tears of tender people in direct response to the preached Word. It is something that never ceases to amaze me. I know that it is not the preaching. There are far more gifted and godly preachers than I who have been appointed by God to very hard places.

Isaiah was one such preacher. When he was called, God said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’” In other words, “You’re preaching to hardness.”

Understandably, Isaiah wanted to know how long he would have to preach to such hardness. “How long, O Lord?” Basically , God told him that it would be for a very long time. The rest of his life.

Sometimes I wonder if I am not sanctified enough to have a hard place. I’d whine. I’d quit. I’d cast myself into fits of despair. So, God in His gracious oversight of the field, put me in a place where it’s not so hard. But there is also a subtle danger that we need to avoid. Preaching to softness may deceive us into thinking we are endowed with unique spiritual power. But a better field doesn’t necessarily mean a better farmer. In fact, it might be wise to put the best farmers on the worst fields. Thus, we’ll really never know how we have worked until we all get to glory.

There are good men that preach passionately and biblically and with Spirit-power week after week after week. But they preach to hardness. In the end, when our successes are lined up, those of us who thought we were ahead because of the softness of our hearers may find ourselves faint luminaries compared to the resilient saints who patiently and lovingly proclaim God’s Holy Word to stones.

The church is a field. The laborer in the field has little control over the field. He just works it. If it is hard and rocky, it is still the field where he has been assigned. If it is soft and yields much, it is still God that gives the increase. He who can raise up children of Abraham from the stones can use dull bumpkins to bring in a harvest.