Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 08 – February 1992

 

Concern For The Bruised

 

Sermon by Rev. A. J. de Bruyn on Isaiah 42:32

Reading: Isaiah 42:1-13

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

I think that you will agree with me that the life of the Christian is not always clear cut.  We do not always clearly see the distinction between darkness and light.  No, on the contrary, there are often many frustrations in the life of the believer, many questions that we need to put to the test of the gospel.

Today, I want to deal with those aspects of the Christian life which are sometimes characterised by moments of self-doubt, moments of self- accusation.  For instance, there are times in our Christian life when we ask ourselves: Do we really belong to the Lord Jesus Christ?  Or: If I was really a Christian, would I do the things I do; think the thoughts I have.  There are all sorts of self-accusations.  Our text has something to say about the plight of the believer.

In our text we read that, ‘He will not cry out, (verse 3), a bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish.’  It would seem fair enough to say that our text falls in two parts.  First of all, the section which I just read, and then we also see at the end of the text, that He will faithfully bring forth justice.

So I would like us to consider it in two parts.  Firstly, let us consider the Lord Jesus as the upholder of the weak.  And secondly, I would like us to consider the Lord Jesus as the righteous judge.

In our text we see two illustrations.  We see there the illustrations of a bruised reed and also a dimly burning wick.  I think most of us would be at least sufficiently conversant with Bible history to know what reeds were used for.  Even today, of course, people still use reeds for basket weaving.  So it was in the days of Isaiah.

Isaiah lived in a time which was one of spiritual turmoil.  The time of writing might have been in the early reign of Manasseh, the king of which the Bible says, that there was no more wicked king than Manasseh, the son of godly Hezekiah.  Isaiah uses the illustration of a bruised reed and we may imagine ourselves, for a moment, in the land of Judah.

As we walk through the streets of Jerusalem we find the basket weaver at work.  We notice that the only reeds he can use and are any good for basket weaving are those that are strong, that have not been damaged or bruised or broken.  We can imagine the basket weaver, sitting there on the ground, taking reeds that have been bruised or damaged and laying them aside for they are useless.  To weave a basket with bruised reeds, with reeds that have been broken or damaged would be no good.  Nobody would want a basket that would have weak spots in it or that was likely to collapse when you put things into it.  And so the bruised reeds would be thrown aside, and perhaps used as fuel.  But they were of no use to the basket weaver.

Congregation, this is the illustration that the prophet Isaiah uses.  He sees Judah, God’s covenant people, in their idolatry.  He sees them in their sense of hopelessness, having turned away from God.  They have gone to idol worship under Manasseh.

Isaiah then uses that illustration and he says that when the Lord Jesus comes, when the anointed one comes, those bruised reeds will not be thrown aside.  Rather, that is the stuff that the Lord will use for the building of his kingdom.

The other illustration Isaiah uses is the smouldering wick.  Perhaps it was in that same workshop of the basket weaver that there was this smouldering wick.  Flax has been brought from the fields, it was beaten, it was drawn over sharp pins to separate it into all its different strands and then it was turned and put in oil.  And the wick, the flax wick together with the oil, would be set alight and used for illumination.

When the oil would run out, the flax would merely smoulder; it would become smelly and smoky.  It would not give light any longer but it would be a nuisance, something to be quenched, snuffed between the fingers, to be put out because the smell of smouldering flax was unpleasant.  It was useless, it did not give light, it was of no purpose whatsoever.

Let us ask ourselves then, what is meant by these two illustrations?  What is meant here by the bruised reed and the dimly burning wick?

We may see four applications.

Firstly, by the bruised reed and the dimly burning wick, we can understand new believers.  Those who are weak on their spiritual feet.  They are those to whom has been given the commandment by the Lord Jesus, ‘let your light so shine before the world’.  But their light is ever so dim.  It lacks the fuel that is necessary.  It does not have the background.  All it can do is smoulder and be troublesome, sometimes even in the midst of God’s people.  Sometimes, new believers are enthusiastic but cloud the issues by the smoke which they generate and make themselves even unpleasant from time to time by the smell that they give.  The Word of God says, do not quench them.  The Lord Jesus Christ came not to quench them but to make them blossom and shine with the light that He wants to give.  So we see, in the first place, new believers may be meant by the smouldering wick and the bruised reed.

Secondly, we see that it can apply to the life of a believer, whose light has almost been extinguished.  A believer who may have been walking with the Lord perhaps for many a year.  He/she may have been in the church for years and years.  They may have been brought up in the church.  They went through the Sunday School, and they went to the Catechism classes, youth clubs, Bible studies, but then, they became tired.  And there is now a time of weariness, a time of dryness in their spiritual life.

That’s not so unusual, congregation.  David says in one of the Psalms: Why are you so cast down O my soul?  Why are you so weary?  Why are you so spiritually depressed?  And he comes with the answer: Hope in the Lord, trust in the Lord.  You can read it in Psalm 42 and 43.

Yes, there are times in our lives, congregation, that the light is almost extinguished.  Though we ought to serve in the church as the light to our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we have become unprofitable.  Perhaps we have become smoky and smelly.  And the light which was ours to give is but a dim glimmer in the darkness.  Just enough to show up the intensity of the darkness which surrounds us, rather than giving light.

There is a third category as well, congregation.  Where believers have bowed down to the gods of this age.  Their spiritual light has not gone out in all the world, as Jesus commanded, but their light has been dampened.  Someone has put that bushel on their light.

Jesus uses this expression in the gospel of Matthew.  Their light is hidden, for their light is dampened.  They are a reed to be used in the factory of God’s basket weaving.  But that reed has been bent and bruised by the circumstances of this world.  They are finding the going so difficult because they have bent to the pressures from outside.  The gods of this world have taken precedence.

What now of them.  What of the faith?  What of the light?  Oh, praise God that He has promised that a bruised reed He will not break or the smouldering wick, the smouldering flax he shall not quench it.  Rather his love and faithfulness is to all generations.  And what He has begun, shall He not fulfil it?

Yes, there are others, congregation, there is yet a fourth category.  People who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, but storms have come in their lives.  Oh no, they have not been playing with the things of the world.  But trying circumstances and testings have come.  God has allowed circumstances to come into their life, and they are like storms such as we read in Job.  Robbers came and robbed him of his wealth and of his children, of everything that he had.  And when Job was scratching himself on the rubbish heap with a piece of broken pottery, he wondered and could not understand why all this had happened to him.  There may be members in our church from time to time who have come to that place when their light has almost been extinguished by the storms which have raged over their life.  Then instead of being upright, standing reeds, fit for use in God’s kingdom, they have been bent over, bruised and damaged.

Congregation, our faith may be weak and circumstances in life may have undermined our assurance.  The attacks from Satan may have been bitter and long, irrespective of whether they have been attacks because of worldliness, or because we are young, vulnerable Christians.  The attacks from Satan have been bitter and long and spiritually we may be robbed and devastated, like Job.

That may be just a condition and the situation in which we find ourselves here tonight.  The joy of faith may be little more than a dim memory and we have been accusing ourselves, asking ourselves, what of us?  What of our faith?  If we were really such Christians as we thought that we once were, what is left of our faith life at this present time?

We may be accusing ourselves, that we have perhaps committed the unpardonable sin.  Or Satan may be suggesting that God will not forgive us for what we have done some time in the past or even as recently as today.

But we see in Scripture that even murder is not unpardonable.  David confessed this sin and was forgiven – we read that in Psalm 32:5 and Psalm 51.  That is not unpardonable.  The thief on the cross, he was pardoned.  We read that in Luke 23.

Blasphemy is not unpardonable, Paul was the blasphemer and he was pardoned.

Adultery is not unpardonable, the Samaritan woman, she was saved in John 4.

In fact, the riches of God’s grace are clearly shown in 1Cor.6:9-11, which I will read to you.  ‘Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ The apostle Paul warns there against various sins: Do not be deceived, fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, thieves, the greedy and covetous, drunkards, nor evildoers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God.

But wait…, here in verse 11, we see the riches of God’s grace in Christ Jesus.  For in verse 11, Paul points out, ‘and such were some of you but you were washed, but you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.’

Do you see now that the riches of God’s grace in Christ Jesus are certain?  That even the Bible declares to us that these fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, yes all they may inherit the kingdom of God.  Washed in the blood of Christ all things are new!

Manasseh is a very powerful example of a bruised reed, and a smouldering wick that God didn’t cast out.  God had mercy on Manasseh though he was the most godless king that reigned.  God had mercy on Manasseh!  We read that in 2 Chronicles.

What does it mean to us?  It means that we may have great comfort and assurance in that word of God.  When God’s word declares to us that the Lord Jesus, for it is of him that Isaiah speaks, that the Lord Jesus will not break that bruised reed nor quench the smouldering flax, it means that when in our lives we are beset by doubts and self-accusations, and the accusations of Satan, that we may turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus.  We may be strengthened and comforted by the comfort that the bruised reed he shall not break nor the smoking flax quench.  That we may be comforted and strengthened even though everything else around us is fit to collapse.  Our faith seems little more than a mustard seed, little more than the flicker, the tiniest shimmer of light, of the smouldering flax.  Yet, God will fulfil his purposes, for his purposes are ‘yea and amen’ in Christ Jesus.

But there is another side to the text.  It is that the Lord Jesus is also the righteous Judge.  We cannot fool around with Christ.  We cannot use the first half of this verse in Isaiah 42:3, as an excuse.  The Lord Jesus will also come to execute righteousness.  He will come not just for the sake of mercy but also as the avenger.  As the one who will destroy his enemy.  The words of mercy and pity do not apply to this other category of people, those who boldly and obstinately resist.  God’s mercy is not for those who despise God’s goodness for in Psalm 29, we read that He will come with a rod of iron to break those who oppose him.

So we see, congregation, that there also is the other side of the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no middle ground.  We may be weak in our faith and sometimes we may wonder and waver, and feel awfully uncertain of our faith life.  We may feel as certain as the Apostle Peter did when he decided to go walking on the water to the Master.  Remember he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink.  He cried out: Lord save me.

It may be that from time to time in our faith life, the waves are high and winds roar.  We feel threatened and insecure.  There are times of self- doubt.

Then turn your eyes to Jesus.  Turn your eyes to him, for his promise is certain.  He will fulfil that which he has begun.  He will not leave his work unfinished, ‘For who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’  Nothing, nothing at all.  We may be bruised.  We may be bent.  We may be like a bruised reed in the shop of the basket weaver.  We may appear utterly useless – we may only be considered fit to be thrown out.

But the gospel says that He will not break the bruised reed.

Sometimes we may want to get rid of bruised reeds or put out half- hearted smoking flax.

The Lord Jesus can even use bruised reeds, smouldering flax.  There is a place for it in his kingdom.  Those who are humble and contrite.  The Lord Jesus is merciful and compassionate and he wants to put his arms around those who find the going hard.  He wants to encourage those who are sitting down in despair and anguish.  He says to them: Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden.  I will give you rest.

But for those who are self-righteous, for those who feel strong, who want to stand by themselves, those who think they have no need of Christ, there is a solemn warning: ‘Depart from me you workers of iniquity into the fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels.’

Where are you in your faith life this morning?  Where do we stand in our Christian life?  Yes, there can be times of discouragement.  Times of hopelessness.  Times of utter weariness.

O turn to Jesus!  He will give you rest.  His word does not fail; it stands forever.

AMEN