Broken Reeds and Smoking Flax

We read in Isaiah 42:3: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”

Isaiah is referring to the mission of Jesus Christ to bring life and restoration. According to Isaiah, the ministry of Jesus Christ would be a ministry of life and restoration and not of death and condemnation. “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”

What are bruised reeds and smoking flax? A reed is a straight stalk of grass. A field of grass would have countless stalks or reeds. Obviously, in a field of grass the significance of one stalk would be minimal, and much less would be a bruised one which may likely wither quickly. Flax is a plant produced for its fibre. Smoking flax may appear useless for two reasons. One is smoke is a nuisance and may be a signal of unwanted fire. The other is if flax is being burnt for its heat, smoking flax may be a sign of smothered or dying fire and would be considered unnecessary. So for either reason one does not need smoking flax.

But why then would Jesus not break a bruised reed or quench smoking flax? While a bruised reed is just a faulty withering stalk of weed among many unscarred stalks in a field, it still has the potential to be restored to a healthy plant. In a similar way, while smoking flax is a nuisance it can be fanned into useful flames. Not to break a bruised reed or put out smoking flax is to demonstrate hope in the potential of the bruised reed to heal and the smoking flax to rekindle.

Now, what about the bruised reeds and smoking flax among us today? Bruised reeds and smoking flax are usually among the outcasts of religious establishments. Bruised and smouldering, their inner potential for life and restoration is completely dismissed. Their outward bruises and flameless cinders make them rejects by the Pharisaic standards of mainstream religions. This is usually due to two obvious reasons. One is that their bruises and suppressed spirits may be the direct results of persecutions from the cold and callous hand of loveless religious snobbery and authoritarianism. The other is that cold and callous religious establishments, void of the life-giving power of the Spirit to heal and revive, cover their shameful helplessness by shunning and condemning the wounded and the faint.

God, however, sees beyond the bruises and smoke which conceal the undying purpose and inextinguishable fire born of the Spirit of God in hearts of those who are His, yet are judged unfit by the uncharitable yardstick of men's religious traditions and arrogance. “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Usually, as history often shows, it is through the healing of rejected bruised reeds and the rekindling of discarded smoking flax that the ongoing move of the Spirit of God breaks out. Jesus Christ was rejected by His own people. Martin Luther, whom God used to provide leadership to the reformation movement, was thrown out of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pentecostal movement of the early 20th century was despised as fanaticism. The Latter Rain movement of the mid-20th century was shunned as heresy.

The history of God's dealings with mankind indicates that mainstream religious establishments seemed to have always failed to recognize the true direction of the move of the Spirit of God, and have had the tendency to reject those in whom the Spirit of God is moving even when they themselves have had their historical origins in similar radical movements. It seems so common for spiritual movements which were once aflame and empowered by the life of the Spirit of God to become settled in a stagnant pool of accumulated traditions and forms which refuse to flow with any ongoing move of the Spirit in life-giving truths and power. It is in these stagnant pools of religious traditions and forms that unyielding structures of positions and arrogance arise.

A usual unfortunate consequence is that they who once were persecuted for righteousness' sake become the persecutors of them who are moved in the newness of righteous living in Christ and by the ongoing flow of the Spirit of God. Limited now by a narrow view by which they see their past experiences as the beginning and end for all God does in the Church they have no regard or tolerance for the ongoing move of the Spirit of God in new areas. They easily embark on a crusade of breaking bruised reeds and quenching smoking flax.

Someone wrote to me these inspiring words along this line: “Christ-like mentality produces life; the Law only produced death. Let no man try to destroy the dreams that are produced out of the relationship between you and your Father. Those who live under the Law will try to bring death to all of the God produced thoughts that pour out of your belly like living water.”