Bruised Reeds a Study on Brokenness — E.A. Johnston

I believe that God is a God of method. I believe that God is a methodical God in his dealings with us. I believe this is clearly seen in the Gospels, where the Lord Jesus is continually teaching his disciples, his men, how to have faith and walk closely with him.

And Jesus deals with each individual in a different way. With Peter, he is more patient, because he knows the fragile clay needs to be broken, to be reshaped by the potter's hand. I believe, friends, as we parents use different methods of dealing with our children, who have different personalities.

Some children have a stronger will than others, and they need more corrective discipline. Whereas a more sensitive child would just shrink from a raised voice. So too, God deals with each of us in his own unique way.

God's Methodical Dealings With His Servants

Study the Old Testament and see how differently God deals with Moses, as opposed to Abraham, or Jacob, as opposed to Joseph. Each had to enter the school of Christ for their instruction and curriculum.

I believe one method that God uses to effect change in his servants is brokenness. My message this evening, friends, is entitled, Bruised Reads, A Study in Brokenness. And my text can be found in Isaiah chapter 42.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verse 3. And let me read us this illustrative passage of Scripture to us at this time. Here now is the word of God. And may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

Isaiah's Bruised Reed and God's Purposeful Discipline

Bruised read shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. The word judgment in the Hebrew can mean method. And here it applies to our text. We can read it.

He shall bring forth method unto truth. That almighty God in his sovereignty and in his providence will use methods on us to bring us unto truth, to make us more Christ-like. Oftentimes, God will bring a servant of his, a low, to a place of brokenness for several reasons.

And that's what I'd like to draw out from our passage tonight, friends. God will bring a follower of his low for his glory. He will bring a believer into a season of brokenness in the school of Christ for instruction.

He will bring us to the place of brokenness for correction. He will bring us into brokenness for further usefulness to him. Each of these aspects of brokenness have a providential hand behind them. In the book of Job, we see God's corrective hand.

God's Corrective Hand in Seasons of Brokenness

In Job chapter 5 and verses 17 and 18, we read, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore, despise not the chastening of the almighty. For he maketh sore and bindeth up. He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Years ago, as a young man, my back was injured, and I was in physical therapy for about a year. And during this time, I felt God was disciplining me as I was brought low. And I kept on my wall a handwritten note with this verse from Job on it, and I looked at it every day.

And I was eventually healed, and I learned the lesson God was teaching me through that time where I was brought low. Perhaps you, friend, are in a season where God has brought you low. You are in a time of brokenness from the sovereign hand of God, and he is dealing with you for his purpose, your good, and his glory.

When I study my Bible, I see how God dealt with King David to bring him low. Go ahead and read Psalm 34. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save us such as be of a contrite spirit.

Contrite means smashed. Alan Redpath used to say, Before God can use a man, he must first smash him. David knew what it was like to be broken. But our text from Isaiah speaks of the gentleness of God in his dealings with us, for we read, A bruised reed he shall not break.

He will bruise us, but not destroy us. I see God's method in Scripture of using brokenness for further usefulness. Before Moses could be used of God to deliver the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage, he had to first spend years in the solitude of the Midian desert, walking behind stinking, smelly sheep.

Moses, Self-Annihilation, and Preparation for Usefulness

Like the words of F. J. Hegel, who wrote, For forty years, on the lonely slopes of Midian, the fiery Moses has schooled. There were graves, if I may so speak, scattered all over the mountainside, where hope after hope was buried until, at last, self went down in utter annihilation.

Let me ask you, friend, have you ever been there? Have you ever been there? Do you know what it means for self to be annihilated? Let me ask you, friend, do you know what it is like to become a nobody so an important somebody can live through you?

Jesus is the pearl of great price who's worth selling off for and losing off for so he may be gained. John the Baptist said, I must decrease so he may increase. Self must go the way of the cross. I believe, friends, that the entire Christian life is best lived via the cross.

You try and live it any other way and you'll be heaping up a pile of wood, hay, and stubble to show for your religious work. God had to bring Moses through a period of brokenness before God could reveal himself to Moses in a deeper way and use him like he never used him before.

Sometimes it takes God longer to effect a change in a person. God had Moses in Midian for 40 years getting Egypt out of Moses before he could send Moses back to Egypt to thunder in Pharaoh's court. Thus saith the Lord.

Biblical Portraits of Transforming Brokenness

Look at the remnants of brokenness all throughout my Bible. Jacob walked with a limp. Peter always knew from whence he had fallen before he could preach that searching sermon of conviction at Pentecost.

And Paul never forgot the blazing blindness from the road on Damascus. Brokenness often brings us to the place where we, like Elijah, can hear the still, small voice of God as he speaks to us. It is often in brokenness we learn about the wickedness and deceitfulness of our own hearts.

Oh, what is your name? The angel asked. Jacob, he replied. He had admit he was a supplanter. And it was through his desperate night of brokenhearted prayer that he wrestled with God and his name was changed to Prince with God, Israel.

God will bring a factual change in our lives through our seasons of brokenness. If you are in a hard place right now, friend, remember this. A bruised reed shall he not break. And do you know what, friend?

Trusting God's Sovereign Purpose in Difficult Seasons

God's ways are the best ways. He has our best interests at heart. In Jeremiah we read, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. To do what, friends?

To give you an expected end. God is bringing each of us to an expected end for his purpose. Romans 8, 28 speaks of this. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose.

I'll never forget a story that Stephen Offord shared with me. He had an uncle in England who was a pharmacist and one day he went to visit him in his pharmacy. He entered the shop and no one was there.

Stephen Offord walked to the back of the store to a back room where his uncle was standing behind a long table of different shaped jars and bowls filled with colored powders. He was leaned over them and mixing things and his uncle would take a little of this and a little of that and mix it together in the bowl and a potion of medicine would emerge that could be used for healing.

And Dr. Offord commented to me, God is like that. He is the divine alchemist and as he affects change in our lives he takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that and mixes it together for good according to his purpose.

And it's true, friends. Although God's ways are in the sea and his footprint's hard to find he will use a time where we are brought low to mix in his ingredients in our lives for our good according to his purpose.

Oh, friends, how God wants to bring us into harmony with him and his will for our lives. Well, I hope this little lesson on brokenness has been a help to you as it has been to me. Let us pray.