Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law. (Isaiah 42:1-4)
The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, proclaim the life and work of Jesus Christ. There we find His story on every page. But, the entire Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, has Jesus for its main subject. There are prophetic passages concerning His birth, life, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. He is also pictured in symbolic fashion in various images and individuals. Jesus is held forth in these prophetic utterances throughout the pages of the Bible because He is all we need He is the sum and substance of all theology. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. It is in Christ and Christ alone that our relationship as believers ought to be centered. There isn't anything that is more important than a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is nothing we need as believers that we can't find in Jesus.
God holds Jesus up for us to see. In the first verse of this chapter, He shouts, "Behold, My Servant..." It sounds much like John the Baptist saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." God holds forth His Son for us. "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights..."
Look at Him! Gaze at Him! The word "Behold" carries with it the connotation of not just looking, but continuing to look. To behold Jesus means to fix your gaze on Him; to look, and look, and look again. We need to understand that the very heart of what we should be doing as believers is beholding Jesus. We must gaze upon Him, meditate upon His greatness, worship Him through praise, song, prayer and the Word.
We not only need to behold Jesus, but we also need to behold His grace in dealing with us. I am particularly fond of this passage before us in Isaiah 42 because it speaks to me about God's grace and mercy. In powerful images, it gives us insight into the very heart of God. It tells us something of the depth and breadth of the love which God has for us. It shows us why Jesus went to the Cross and suffered and died for each one of us.
"A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish." (42:3)
The Hebrew children would often go down by the riverside to play. There was where the reeds grew. One of the things these reeds were useful for was that they made good flutes. So the children would cut them down, hollow them out and make flutes out of them. The riverbank would be full of these reeds, and many of them were less than perfect. If they came across one that was cracked or bruised, they would break it in half and toss it away. After all, they needed reeds of a certain quality in order to make a flute that would play well. Cracked or bruised reeds were worthless.
Bruised reeds can easily be seen as symbols of people, and I believe that is what Isaiah is talking about here. Actually the word "bruised" is used by him and other writers to refer to oppression. It is also used to refer to discouragement in someone's life. We have all been bruised reeds from time to time. We all have experienced times when we were oppressed and discouraged, bruised and almost broken.
Why won't He break the bruised reeds? The children would break them and toss them away because there were thousands more along the river. One broken one wasn't important and besides they weren't good for anything anyway. In any case there were plenty more available. Why wouldn't Christ do the same thing with "bruised reed" people?
"A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish." (42:3)
He will not break a bruised reed and He will also not extinguish a dimly burning wick.
The Hebrew homes, of course, didn't have electric lights. They had to light their homes with oil lamps. They looked much like an "Aladdin's lamp." In fact, they looked almost like a gravy dispenser you may use at home. Most had an open top. The bowls were filled with oil and contained a wick, made of flax or linen. As long as the wick would stay moist with the oil, it would burn. Occasionally when the oil would burn out, the wick would smoulder and burn and give off smoke. The thing to do was to extinguish it and toss it away. There was plenty of flax where the first wick came from.
But He will not extinguish such a dimly burning wick. Again, these wicks can be compared to people. They represent people who are exhausted, or "burnt-out" in their Christian lives. We have all "burnt dimly" from time to time, and have met others who do the same.
God says that He will not break the bruised reed or extinguish the dimly burning wick. I believe He puts this in negative terminology because that is precisely what you would not expect Him to do. When you think about these illustrations in terms of people, you realize what He is saying. These people are the down-trodden, the failures, the outcasts, the "problem people." They are the embarrassing people who don't have their lives together. They are the people who do not live up to other's expectations. They are the kind of people we feel threatened by and don't want to be around. Some are quick to dispense with these people, but Jesus is not.
One example is the woman found in adultery. She was a bruised reed, a dimly burning wick. When Jesus encountered her, she was about to be stoned by the men who were quick to judge. Jesus came on the scene and started writing on the ground. One theory is that He was listing their sins. These men were embarrassed and angry because this woman threatened them. They wanted to kill this bruised reed and get it out of the way. But Jesus didn't. He restored it. Jesus, while not condoning her sin, restored her while challenging those who would kill her to look at their own lives.
There is only one passage in Scripture where our text is quoted, found in the Gospel of Matthew. I find this interesting, because Matthew himself was, in a sense, a bruised reed. He quotes this in an incident on the Sabbath Day when Jesus healed a man with a withered hand in the Synagogue (Matthew chapter 12). The controversy was whether Jesus was going to heal the man on the Sabbath. People didn't care about his need, only about whether Jesus would break their law. If He healed on the Sabbath, it would constitute work, which was not allowed. But Jesus didn't worry about offending the onlookers. He healed the man anyway. Matthew quotes this passage from Isaiah indicating that Jesus was fulfilling this prophecy by healing the man. Judgmental religion would let the man suffer in the name of God. Jesus would not. Rules and regulation religion would break the bruised reed and condemn it for not being whole. Jesus would heal the bruised reed and restore its usefulness.
Contrast Jesus' ministry with that of the Devil. Jesus comes alongside hurting mankind and doesn't break us or snuff us out. Rather, He does something, by His grace, to restore us. Satan's "ministry" is also one of intercession, but as the accuser of the brethren. Unfortunately, many of his accusations are true. He brings all of our problems to God in an accusatory way. He points out the bruises and faults. But God's reply to these accusations is, "That is true; but behold My Son..." Our destinies are not wrapped up in how well we perform, but in the Son of God. He speaks in our defense because He is our Advocate, our Intercessor. He has already paid for the sins for which Satan is accusing us.
God's grace is dependent upon Jesus and what He has done for us. He is revealed as the one who will make something out of your life when the world is ready to throw you away. He will complete His work in you. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says that His power is perfected in our weakness. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says that God chose the weak things of the world, rather than the strong. God chooses us, not because we have so much to offer, but because of what He can do in our lives. We can't ever forget that. We need to understand that in the midst of our failures, God is there for us. Every time I get up to preach, I am aware that there are broken, bruised people present, even if they won't admit it. There are things in your life, situations and failures, that make you wonder, "What good is my life? How can I ever be used?" Sometimes we are the people that smile on the outside and hurt on the inside. We are run over by the Devil, or even by other people.
When we are those bruised reeds, we need to understand that God hasn't given up on us. He is the reed-repairer and the flax-restorer. He is the One who can take a bruised reed and work with it until it plays beautiful music. He can take that smoldering, smelly wick that is disturbing to others and make it burn brightly again. Sometimes, it is in our very weakest places that He makes us the strongest. He takes those bruised, burnt, charred places and uses those experiences of hurt to enable us to minister to others.
All of us go through hard times, times that make you feel almost broken and almost snuffed out. If you have never gone through those things in your life, you will. And it can be the best thing that can happen to you. God wants people who are sensitive like Jesus was. He doesn't want us to be high and lofty in their ivory towers of our prideful self-righteousness looking down on those who haven't arrived yet.
That is what the Pharisee was doing when he prayed, thanking God that he wasn't like the publican sinner on the other side of the temple. He felt that he was much better and more acceptable to God. Of course, the publican was the one who was justified because he knew that he needed what God had to offer, and God gave it to him. The Pharisee, unfortunately, was just praying to himself.
If we understand that God's grace has been sufficient for us, if we have been picked up in our time of need and set upon a rock, we can understand how God can do that for other people as well. This makes our hearts soft and sensitive, and less judgmental. We can point people to Jesus. We receive them and lift them up, but not to make ourselves look good. Unfortunately, some hypocritical people with the Pharisee spirit, like to have a few bruised reeds around, because they can point to them and say, "I'm better than they are." But who do they think they are? Has Jesus not forgiven them of sin? Are they in a position to judge others?
Jesus wouldn't point to people's shortcomings, He would just minister to them. He wants to take that bruised reed and make it into a beautifully sounding flute. He wants to take that dimly burning wick and make it into something that gives forth the light of God's grace. When God does that to someone, they become a glorious testimony of the grace of God. I'd rather have one living testimony to God's grace than a hundred sermons about it. You can study commentaries and books about grace, or I could preach a whole series on it, but you might come away still not knowing what God's grace really is. Where you really see grace is in a human life that was broken and bruised and full of failure; a life that God restored.
That is the kind of business God is in, and the church needs to be in. The Bible is full of examples of this. Peter is an example of a bruised reed. He was impulsive. He often shot off his mouth at the wrong time. He failed at the very point he thought was his strongest when he denied Christ. He went out and wept because he didn't have the courage to testify that he knew Him. Jesus had taken him in. Peter loved him and followed him for three years. Then he couldn't tell a mere servant girl that he knew Him. Just a few days prior to that, he had told Jesus, "Lord, though everyone deny you, I won't deny you." But he did. He must have felt worthless and heartbroken.
But after the resurrection, Jesus said, "Go tell the disciples and Peter." Peter might have been too ashamed to be with the rest of them at that point. So Jesus singled him out. Then later on the beach, Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love [agape - God's love] me?" Peter, in his reply, didn't use the strong word for love, but a word that meant friendship. He said, "Lord, you know all things. You know I am your friend." He probably didn't feel worthy to use such a strong term as Jesus did. "But Peter, do you really love me?" asked Jesus, stacking with the stronger term. And again, Peter replied, "Lord, you know I am your friend." Then Jesus used Peter's term and asked, "Peter, are you my friend?" And Peter said, "Lord you know all things (including how I've failed you). You know I'm your friend." After every answer of Peter's, Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." Jesus gave Peter a commission, a purpose in His kingdom. In that exchange, Jesus took a bruised reed and made it play again.
Jesus had a plan for Peter to "play in the orchestra" on Pentecost. He was busy putting Peter back together and prepare him. Then on Pentecost, the man who couldn't testify to a servant in front of a fire, stood up in front of thousands of people and preached a sermon that resulted in the conversion of 3,000 people.
John Mark was also a bruised reed. He had gone with Paul, thinking it would be great to travel with a big-time preacher. He got as far a Perga and found out that the business was much harder than he had expected. He couldn't handle it, so he left. Paul was very tough on him at the time. In the end, John Mark ended up traveling with Peter. In fact, when Peter chose to share about the Gospel of Christ, it was Mark who put it down. It is called the Gospel of Mark, but it is really Peter's account of the life of Christ. Later in Paul's life, perhaps when he had mellowed, he asked Mark to come back and work with him. Paul came to understand the value of a bruised reed.
God is in the business of taking broken people and making them into something that testifies to His glory. Whether it is your life, or the life of your neighbor, or the life of someone you don't even know about yet.
This is why Jesus went to the Cross to die for us. This is why He allowed His body to be broken and His blood to be shed. He was broken so we would not have to be. He was bruised so that all of the bruised reeds could be restored. His life was put out so our smoking and smoldering lives could burn brightly again. This is what it means to experience God's mercy.
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