dailywordofdestiny

ISAIAH 42: 3,4

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench: This is another reference to the gentle character of Jesus. A reed is a fairly fragile plant, yet if a reed is bruised, the Servant will handle it so gently that He will not break it. And if flax, used for tinder to start a fire, does not flame but only smokes, He will not quench it into extinguishing. Instead, the Servant will gently blow on the smoking flax, fanning it into flame again! I have pondered these two verses and thought about Jesus and how we, as believers in Him, can see what He went through in our own lives.  Some of the conclusions I came to are as follows and I pray they will stir up the flame in your own heart.

i. Often we feel that God deals roughly with our weaknesses and failures. Just the opposite is true. He deals with them gently, tenderly, helping them along until the bruised reed is strong and the smoking flax is in full flame. 

ii. I think about the reed as a type of the many lives that have been crushed, or hurt by unkindness, a life that is somehow bent and bruised and shattered, without strength or beauty. There is nothing attractive about a reed, and there is certainly nothing very pleasant about the circumstances in which it lives! Usually it grows in a smelly, unsavory swamp.

iii. We call ourselves Christians, but if you are like me, sometimes you are desperately ashamed of how dimly your light burns. There is far more smoke than fire: so little prayer, so little real testimony, so much depression and discouragement. But the Lord says He will not extinguish the smoking flax.

iv. He is not dismissive of others; however useless or beyond repair (bruised reed), however ‘past it’ and near extinction (smouldering wick) they may seem. The negative statements imply their positive equivalents: he can mend the broken reed, fan into flame the smouldering wick. The former has been internally damaged, the latter lacks the external nourishment of oil. The Servant is competent both to cure and to supply.

Jesus sees the value in a bruised reed, even when no one else can. He can make beautiful music come from a bruised reed, as He puts His strength in it!  Though a smoking flax – used for a wick on an oil lamp – is good for nothing, Jesus knows it is valuable for what it can be when it is refreshed with oil.  Many of us are like the bruised reed, and we need to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (Ephesians 3:16). Others are like the smoking flax, and can only burn brightly for the LORD again when we are drenched in oil, with a constant supply coming, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit.   

Jesus wants us to have His heart towards the lowly, broken, and hurting. It’s easy to pass them by just as quickly as the priest and the Levite passed the man on the road to Jericho. The superficial Christian worker ignores that kind of situation.  He wants a sphere to serve where it will be worthy of his talent, if you please.   A task where his abilities will be recognized and used, something that is big enough to justify all the training he has undergone.   In the eyes of the Lord, the test of the real servant is, does he bend with the humility of Jesus Christ over a bruised reed and smoking flax?   He will not fail nor be discouraged: The Servant is gentle, but not weak.   He will bring forth justice for truth. There aren’t two ways about it; it will happen, and failure or discouragement will not stop the Servant!

Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus never gets discouraged?  When we think of the job that He has to do, the obstacles He must overcome, and the tools He needs to work with, it is amazing that He never becomes discouraged.   It is because He has all power and authority! 

Fail is the same word as smoking in smoking flax He will not quench.  Discouraged is the same word as bruised in a bruised reed He will not break. So here is the Servant of the Lord . . . there are no bruises about Him; He is no mere smoking flax. He is well able to do the task of redemption because He is free from all the weaknesses and failures of His people. He has no flaws or blemishes – He is perfection and majestic strength.  Till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law:  the work of the Servant will extend to the whole earth, and all the peoples – even those in the distant coastlands – shall serve Him.  Praise the Lord!