A Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax

I love a good night’s sleep. So, I paid attention when a friend said he would ask the Lord to give me sleepless nights until I wrote a post that shows how inmillennialism¹ interprets the following passage:

Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 

“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,
My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
And in His name Gentiles will trust.” (Matt 12:14–21; cp. Isa 42:1–9)

William Hendriksen gives a common interpretation: Jesus “will treat … with tender concern, whatever is near to exhaustion.” He points to “the great consummation [when] sin and all its consequences will have been banished forever from God’s redeemed universe.” Wide publicity will gradually replace secrecy (Matt 12:16) as “the church fulfils its mission among the Gentiles.”²

But this view doesn’t explain this passage in its context. The Pharisees are plotting to destroy Jesus, in part for His Sabbath-day healings (Matt 12:1–14). When they attribute His miracles to Satan, He says, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt 12:28). And, “Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one about to come.”³ Jesus promises to judge their evil generation (Matt 12:41, 45). We need to account for these elements as we explain this passage.

I suggest Jesus is alluding to Isaiah 42:1–9 for another reason: because it describes the transition from the Mosaic age to the messianic age. As Jesus speaks, the kingdom of God has come, and the messianic age is beginning. 

I will analyze three phases of this age transition: (1) its start, (2) its future, and (3) its current status.

The Start of the Age Transition

The transition to the messianic age began with the preaching of John the Baptist. He proclaimed a simple message to disobedient Israel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt 3:2). John also said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended “from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him” (John 1:32). These events started the transition from the Mosaic age to the messianic age.

So, Jesus alludes to Isaiah 42:1 because it foretold His Spirit-anointing. God had said, “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him” (Matt 12:18; cp. Isa 42:1).

At the start of the Mosaic-age-to-messianic-age transition, God had presented His beloved Son to Israel and anointed Him with the Spirit. This accounts for Jesus’ reference to Isaiah 42 in Matthew 12.

The Future of the Age Transition

During the age transition, God would create “a holy temple in the Lord, … a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:21–22 and context). This temple would replace the temple in Jerusalem that would soon fall (Matt 24:1–3, 34). It would comprise “living stones,” both Jew and Gentile (1 Pet 2:5; cp. Gal 3:26–29). 

This construction project would require the Gentile mission. Jesus draws attention to this future (to Him) pursuit: “Till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matt 12:20–21; cp. Isa 42:1, 6).

The books from Acts to Revelation describe progress toward this goal. At one key point, God told Ananias not to fear Saul (soon to be Paul), saying, “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). 

Jesus’ allusion to Isaiah 42 fits the context of Matthew 12. The age transition would bring the Gentiles into the new temple of the Lord. God would send justice to them before He sent judgment to apostate Israel and her temple.

The Present of the Age Transition

But what of the interim between Jesus’ Spirit-anointing and the Gentile mission? Jesus reveals two purposes for alluding to Isaiah 42: (1) to reinforce His command to conceal His identity and (2) to assure His followers that He would not destroy apostate Israel before the Gentile mission began.

The Commanded Concealment

Jesus warns the multitudes “not to make Him known” (Matt 12:15–16), a command He issues on several other occasions.⁴ He cites Isaiah: “He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets” (Matt 12:19; cp. Isa 42:2). This part of Isaiah’s prophecy fits Jesus’ present circumstances during this period. 

We cannot interpret this secrecy literally, for Jesus often lifted His voice (e.g., John 7:37). Isaiah meant the Messiah would not “quarrel nor cry out” in a particular way. John Gill says, “He would not accuse to the father, nor complain against his most implacable enemies, but left that to Moses, in whom they trusted.”⁵

The Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus, but He would destroy them within His generation (Matt 24:34; cp. 1 Thess 2:16). But, for now, He does “not act the part of a plaintiff”⁶ and commands others to follow His example.

The Delayed Destruction

Jesus uses two images to show the Gentile mission must start before He returns to destroy Israel and her temple: the breaking of a bruised reed and the quenching of smoking flax.

Breaking of a reed. Commentators say the reed in Isaiah’s prophecy is “a fitting picture of His compassion.”⁷ Yet, the Scriptures never elsewhere use “reed” imagery this way.⁸ Instead, they often use a reed to represent an apostate nation ready for God’s judgment. I will give three examples.

First, when Babylon’s army surrounded Jerusalem, the commander used reed imagery to describe Egypt: “Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it” (2 Kgs 18:21; cp. Isa 36:6).

Second, God also used this imagery: “Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel” (Ezek 29:6).

Third, and most important, Ahijah the prophet used reed imagery to describe Israel before God’s judgment of her in the time of Jeroboam:

For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the LORD to anger. (1 Kgs 14:15)

This imagery fits Jesus’ present situation—He will not “strike Israel as a reed” until He has accomplished the next step of age transition.

Quenching of flax. The image of smoking flax also fits Jesus’ situation. Here is His promise: “Smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory” (Matt 12:20; cp. Isa 42:3).

The Hebrew word for flax in Isaiah 42:3 (pishtah) can mean “a wick made of flax or cotton, Isaiah 42:3; 43:17.”⁹ The same is true for the Greek word in Matthew 12:20 (linon): it means “lamp-wick … a smoldering wick Mt 12:20 (cp. Is 42:3).”¹⁰ This definition appears in several translations: “a faintly burning wick” (Isa 42:3 ESV) and “a smoldering wick” (Matt 12:20 ESV).¹¹

The Scriptures never elsewhere use “flax/wick” imagery to describe God’s compassion. Just the opposite. In Isaiah, God used this image to describe His previous judgment of Egypt:

Who [i.e., God] brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick. (Isa 43:17)

John Gill says, “As the wick of a candle, when put into water, is quenched at once; so the Egyptians became extinct in the Red sea.” He says the following verses (Isa 43:18–21) refer to “the great salvation by the Messiah, which exceeds both the deliverances out of Egypt and Babylon.”¹²

All this fits Jesus’ purpose—to reassure His followers that He will not judge apostate Israel “until He has led justice to victory.” Afterward, “The nations will put their hope in His name” (Matt 12:20–21 HCSB) during the messianic age.

Conclusion

Matthew 12:14–21 and Isaiah 42:1–9 fit well in the inmillennial prophetic model.¹³ In the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age, God sent the Messiah and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. He then sent “forth justice to victory.” Afterward, He destroyed apostate Israel, breaking them like a reed and quenching their “smoldering wick” (Matt 12:20 ESV).¹⁴ Now, in the messianic age, the Gentiles trust in His name.

Jesus alludes to Isaiah because he had foretold the Mosaic-age-to-messianic-age transition. 

With that said, I look forward to a good night’s sleep.

1. I document this perspective in Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020). This book is available here in hardcopy and here as a PDF. A free summary PDF document of inmillennialism is here.
2. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 522.
3. Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), 30 (emphasis added). Or, “not in this the age and not in the one being about to be.”—Paul R. McReynolds, Word Study Greek-English New Testament, 3rd ed. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1999), 30 (emphasis added).
4. Matthew 16:20; 17:9; et al.
5. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 9 vols. (1809–10; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 7:130.
6. Gill, “Exposition,” 7:130.
7. Louis A. Barbieri Jr., “Matthew,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 46.
8. Using the Hebrew word qāne or the Greek word kalamos.
9. Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 695 (emphasis added).
10. William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 596 (emphasis added).
11. NASB, HCSB, and other versions also use this translation.
12. Gill, “Exposition,” 5:249.
13. Again, I document this perspective in Rogers, Inmillennialism, available here in hardcopy and here as a PDF. A free summary PDF document of inmillennialism is here.
14. For similar imagery, see my comments on Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins here and here.