Bruised and Dimly Burning . . .

hat is Isaiah saying here? Actually, is this Isaiah  who is actually speaking in this passage? Did  Isaiah have the authority to put the Spirit of God on anyone? No. The very thought of that is audacious. Isaiah is merely a mouthpiece here. It is God who is speaking and God who is putting his Spirit on someone.

I don't know if you've noticed in your reading of the Old Testament . . . but in Old Testament times God didn't give the Holy Spirit to everybody. It was very different from how God works today. Today every believer receives the Spirit of God when they receive Jesus as Lord. If you're a believer, you have the Spirit of God. If you belong to Christ, he has given you the Holy Spirit. But in Old Testament days, before the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, only certain persons had the Spirit of God.

Here are two examples. If you were the king, and your heart was right with God, you had God's Spirit. And the Spirit gave you the wisdom to rule. If you were a prophet, the Spirit of God would come upon you so that you could prophesy. God gave the Spirit to people he had chosen to do something special.

So having the Spirit of God was unusual. It meant that you were set apart. God had a special plan for your life.

In the passage from Isaiah from which we just read, God puts his Spirit on a very special Servant. What was God's plan for this Servant? The one in whom his soul delighted? The one whom he upheld? For one thing, he planned to use him to bring forth justice. The passage reads: "The coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."

What I want to focus on, however, is the promise:

A bruised reed he will not break,
A dimly burning wick He will not extinguish.

Just what does this mean: A bruised reed he will not break?

End of Part One

Page Two of Bruised and Dimly Burning