AT 12:20-12:21" A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust."
I CALL attention to the above passage, believing that, however well the commonly received interpretation of it may comport with the true idea of the grace of the Lord, it is a false interpretation, both as to the persons it refers to, and also to their condition.
The popular thought is, that the bruised reed is a figure of a person broken and contrite in heart, and that the smoking flax is a soul in which the fire of divine life is newly kindled, or, at least, in which grace is operating, though as yet but feebly and dimly; and that the Lord will not break the one, nor quench the other. This fails as an interpretation, because the Lord is to do both when the proper time arrives;-the words are "till he send forth judgment unto victory." But will he ever break the broken heart? He was sent to bind it up (Isa. 61;1). Will. He ever quench the operations of His own grace? We need not answer the question.
The reed is used in Scripture as an emblem of weakness, and in several places for a nation, as in 1 Kings 14:1515For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger. (1 Kings 14:15)-" The Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water," etc.; and 2 Kings 18:2121Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. (2 Kings 18:21), where Egypt is called " the staff of a bruised reed;" also Ezek. 29:66And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. (Ezekiel 29:6). A reed was, moreover, put into the right hand of the Blessed One, in derision of His claim to sway the scepter of the kingdom.
But neither of the figures in the passage do I look upon as expressing a good or desirable condition which the Lord was to cherish; but a bad condition which He must certainly judge, though not until a certain time.
1st. The bruised reed expresses, I believe, the external condition of the Jewish nation, as under the Gentile yoke; but not yet given up to the unrestrained will of their enemies under the full weight of the judgment of God. This condition they were in when the Lord was upon earth, had they but felt and owned it.
2ndly. The smoking flax is an emblem of the internal or moral condition of the Jews, full of that envy and hatred to the Lord which betrayed itself so early and so constantly, which led to His crucifixion, and which is still leading onward to the reception of the Antichrist; under whose hand as the instrument of God, the bruised reed will be emphatically broken, and the smoking flax quenched (i.e.), the Lord shall visit His judgment upon the full-blown enmity of His people; but, in the midst of judgment remembering mercy, He shall save them from utter destruction, making them willing in the day of His power, and leading them to say, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! ' so that the judgment shall end in victory, "and in His name shall the Gentiles trust." In Isa. 7:44And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. (Isaiah 7:4), Rezin and the son of Remaliah are called, because of their " fierce anger," "smoking firebrands." And ver. 8, in three score and five years Ephraim was to be " broken, that it be not a people;" passages almost suggestive of the view here taken. In Luke 12:49,5049I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 50But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! (Luke 12:49‑50), the Lord said, " I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled l But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." There were many tokens of this kindling, and Matthew quotes the passage from Is. xlii„ as illustrative of the Lord's charging them not to make Him known; but in connection with the fact that He withdrew Himself from thence, etc., upon learning that the Pharisees had gone out and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him." Here was a tuft of the smoking flax; but the time of its judgment and quenching had not yet come. It must smolder and increase, till it should compass His death—that baptism by which the flood-gates of divine love should be opened, and He, who was the expression of that love being glorified, should be the unfettered Dispenser of eternal life to as many as the Father bath given to Him.