I. Consider, first, the representation of the servant of the Lord as the restorer of the bruise that it may not be broken. "He shall not break the bruised reed." Here is the picture. A slender bulrush, growing by the margin of some tarn or pond, its sides crushed and dinted in by some outward power, some gust of wind, some sudden blow, the foot of some passing animal. The head is hanging by a thread, but it is not yet snapped or broken off from the stem. And so, says my text, there are reeds bruised and shaken by the wind, but yet not broken. And the tender Christ comes with His gentle, wise, skilful surgery, to bind these up and to make them strong again. The text applies (1) to mankind generally, (2) especially to those whose hearts have been crushed by the consciousness of their sins.
II. Look next at the completing thought that is here in the second clause, which represents Christ as the Fosterer of incipient and imperfect good. "The dimly burning wick He shall not quench." There is something in the nature of every man which corresponds to this dim flame that needs to be fostered in order to blaze brightly abroad. In a narrower sense the words may be applied to a class. There are some of us who have in us a little spark, as we believe, of a Divine life, the faint beginnings of a Christian character. We call ourselves Christ's disciples. We are; but how dimly the flax burns. How do you make "smoking flax" burn? You give it oil, you give it air, and you take away the charred portions. And Christ will give you, in your feebleness, the oil of His Spirit, that you may burn brightly as one of the candlesticks in His temple; and He will let air in, and take away the charred portions, by the wise discipline of sorrow and trial sometimes, in order that the smoking flax may become the shining light.
III. Lastly, we have the representation of the servant of the Lord as exempt from human evil and weakness, as the foundation of His restoring and fostering work. "He shall not burn dimly nor be broken till He hath set judgment in the earth." There are no bruises in this reed. Christ's manhood is free from all scars and wounds of evil or of sin. There is no dimness in this light. Christ's character is perfect. His goodness needs no increase. And because of these things, because of His perfect exemption from human infirmity, because in Him was no sin, He is manifested to take away our sins.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,Jan. 28th, 1886.
References: Isaiah 42:4. Archbishop Benson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 232; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 20, vol. x., p. 288. Isaiah 42:7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 986. Isaiah 42:9. Ibid.,vol. xxv., No. 1508.