Comfort


Matthew 12:20 "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory."

But we pass on to consider how the blessed Redeemer "will not break" the "bruised reed," nor "quench" the "smoking flax." "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Here, then, is a "bruised reed," a poor child of God, ready to give up all hope, to sink beneath the wave no more to rise, expecting that the next blow will sever the stem, or suffocate and bury him in his native mire and mud.

But O how graciously, how tenderly and gently does the Redeemer deal with this timid, tried member of his mystical body! He deals with him neither according to his merits nor his fears. The "bruised reed" deserves to be broken again and again; and it fears it because it deserves it. But the gracious, tender-hearted Redeemer, so far from breaking gently binds. And how he can in a moment bind up the "bruised reed!" By one word, one look, one touch, one smile, he can in a moment rear up the drooping head. This is his blessed office. The disciples would have broken the bruised Syrophenician woman, when they said, "Send her sway, for she crieth after us." But not so their heavenly Master. He dealt not so with her. His holiness, his purity, his hatred of sin, his zeal for the glory of his Father, would indeed all lead him to break; but his mercy, grace, compassion, and love, all lead him to bind.

You may perhaps feel yourself a poor "bruised reed"––bruised by afflictions, by temptations, by guilt, by Satan, ready to perish, to give up all hope, and droop away and die, O remember––the Lord give us ever to remember––that this blessed Man of Sorrows "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." "Being touched with the feeling of our infirmities," he can sympathize and succor, and therefore will never, no, never break a "bruised reed." If our poor soul is bruised by affliction, by temptation, by doubt and fear, by Satan's suggestions, be it known for our comfort and encouragement, that the condescending and tender-hearted Redeemer will never, no, never break that "bruised reed," but will most graciously, in his own time and way, bind it up.  Philpott

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