A Bruised Reed He Will Not Break
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Picture in your mind an ancient general leading his solders on a campaign to fight an important war. The soldiers go through a river and they trample on all the plants decorating the river bank. Could you ever imagine the general stopping the army's march to mend a reed that was harmed? And yet, Christ stops everything to tend to His wounded ones.
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- Well, that's the description. Let's look at his task. He will bring forth, the scripture says, justice or righteousness, not just for Israel, but to all the nations.
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- And how does he do it? And I find that to be one of the most astonishing things in this passage. In verse 3, we read this,
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- A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick, or a smoldering candle, he will not extinguish.
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- Now, what chapter 42 is talking about is God coming, and all that infinite strength of deity, united to humanity, to conquer our enemies, to conquer us, to make us his people, to redeem and rescue.
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- This is an act of war. It is a military campaign, and Christ comes as a general, leading a military campaign.
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- Can you imagine, in human history, any general landing with his armies on the beaches of his own country, and he's going to reconquer it?
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- Can you imagine him seeing a bruised reed, a piece of grass, a reed growing along the water's edge, that's been bent over?
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- Can you imagine him stopping all the armies and saying, wait, and he goes over, and he pushes the reed back straight, and he binds it so that it heals?
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- It's impossible to imagine. Can you imagine that same general in the evening, if we might think of kind of an ancient world scene?
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- He's in a tent with all of his lieutenants and captains, and he spread out this map that shows the military campaign tomorrow morning, and they put a candle on the table so that they can see the map clearly, and it's flickering so badly.
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- It's just, it's an aggravation. I can imagine a general saying, what fool brought me a candle that doesn't work?
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- But I cannot imagine a general stopping the entire meeting and saying, wait, and going over and carefully trimming the wick so that that candle would burn brightly.
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- Wonderful picture of Christ, and what Christian has not found this to be true? I am like a candle that's supposed to burn brightly for the honor of Christ, and though I am fueled by all the grace of God, I'm more like a smoldering wick.
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- I fear I will go out. But how many times has Christ stopped and knelt down and carefully dealt with my soul to cause it to flame up again?
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- I'm a bruised reed, and the sorrows and the enemies in this life have dealt such a blow to me, so many repeated blows that I feel like that I will break, and Christ stops the great work of the military campaign and seems to pay attention only to me, and He walks over and He binds up my soul.
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- Another amazing thing is what we find in the next verse. It says that He, this military captain, this servant, will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth.
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- In other words, even though He deals with bruised reeds and smoldering candles, it's the same exact words in the
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- Hebrew language. Dimly burning wick, that's the word that we find in verse 4, disheartened.
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- He comes to smoldering candles, but He will never be made to smolder. He comes to the bruised or crushed reeds, but He will never be crushed.
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- Gentle yet almighty. It's quite a rare combination. Thanks for watching the clip.
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- We hope it was spiritually beneficial for you. We really do appreciate being able to interact with you through the comments.
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