A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice... Isaiah 42:3
Have you ever been taken advantage of? Dumb question. If you breathe, you've been taken advantage of. Everyone hates it when that happens, but I think it is even worse when someone kicks a person when they're already down. It can be devastating.
God's assurance here that He will not allow His people to be pushed beyond their endurance level is one of the most powerful promises in scripture. It goes well with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 about God being faithful to us and not allowing us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.
Check out the way Eugene Peterson translates this passage from Isaiah in The Message:
He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right.
That's a promise we can count on.
What does this scripture bring to mind for you?
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While I cherish this assurance, I am often fearful of finding out just what my level of endurance might be…
ReplyDeleteI love knowing He won't allow me to be pushed beyond my endurance level and I fear some believers feel that He is the one doing the pushing. Not true!
ReplyDelete"A bruised reed He will not break" portrays to me some very wonderful and powerful messages. Firstly, the statement alludes to the fact that God has the ability to break us--after all, He created us. So it reminds me of his power--if He so chose, He could do what He wanted with me, but since He is a God of love, He does not. I love that comfort! I think some people have a fear that God is capable of hurting and I hope they learn, from this and other scriptures, that He would not. He allows things to happen, but it is not to hurt you. We hurt as a result of the fall and circumstances that surround it; not as a result of Him. If it were up to Him, we would still be with Him in the garden living peacefully. But He gave us free will...now He knows who truly loves Him. What a reward He will have in store for us!
Secondly, and even more powerfully, I receive the message that He acknowledges the bruised. How amazing is our God that despite His perfection and Holiness, He acknowledges that His creation, although created perfectly, has imperfections. I am a bruised reed. I admit it. I can rest in knowing that I will not be broken by my God--I will actually be healed by Him. If you think about a person that is bruised, you think of an accident that happened--of something they didn't intend to happen--whether the person was doing the task or simply near the incident--the bruise isn't ever planned. I certainly know my bruises were never planned. But Jesus knows that, acknowleges it, and even more than that--has plans to not simply make me whole, but also fight for me. He and His army go to battle for me, for my soul. He protects me when I rest in Him; many of the things He does I will NEVER know--I can only feel that they've been done when I am with Him. He would not gain me back to lose me again. I am that special to my Father. My Father will set things right and will look at me one day and wipe my tears from my face! Mine. How He loves me--and I am only a bruised reed.
Your Holiness is too much for me, Lord. Your Holiness overflows my being. Thank you for loving me more than my mind can fathom. I know that is part of your perfect plan. I look desperately forward to the joy I will experience with You!
Reading this verse, both in the NIV and in the Message gives me hope. I'm so glad that the servant(Jesus Christ) can mend broken lives because I and everyone else on this planet has been broken at one time or another. I'm just amazed that God can turn a person's messy lives into a message of hope.
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