AP

For those of you who receive TQW, and who might not have heard the sad news, I thought it right to let it be known generally that my dear wife, Pat, went ‘home’ to be with her Lord and Saviour last Friday morning after having been diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2023, and then with cancer on the back of her brain at the beginning of this year.  The last 6 months have been very difficult for her so her calm and peaceful death at home, with me and three of our five children around her and praying with her, was a gracious blessing at our good Lord’s sovereign hand. 

“Whate’er my God ordains is right, his holy will abideth; I will be still whate’er he does and follow where he guideth; he is my God, though dark my road, he holds me that I shall not fall – and so to him, I leave it all; and so to him, I leave it all.”  (Samuel Rodigast).

Isaiah 42:2-4a   He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.  In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.

This is part of one of Isaiah’s ‘Servant Songs’.  Jewish scholars have always had difficulty identifying the ‘person’, the ‘Servant’, to whom they refer, and the best they have ever been able to come up with is ‘Israel as a nation’.  The Apostles of Jesus, however, as they reflected on their Master’s teaching and healing ministry, had no doubt about this Servant’s true identity, especially after they had witnessed his Resurrection.  The saddest thing of all is that now for two millennia Jewish scholars have failed to see this clear connection and its implication concerning their promised Messiah.  No other person in all human history has had such an impact on the world, in terms of establishing the fabric of righteousness and justice, as has Jesus of Nazareth.  More than this, he has achieved it all, not by a powerful display of strength or military engagement, but by faithfulness, humility and apparent weakness – a ‘weakness’ that led him to an ignominious death on a cruel, shameful cross!  

The prophecies of Isaiah, and their unmistakable fulfilment in Jesus 750 years later, give us great confidence in the trustworthiness and authority of God’s written Word and his unique Plan of Salvation.  No scheme of man has ever, or could ever, formulate a strategy for developing a better world based on a person who does not ‘shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets’, or one of whom it can be said, ‘a bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out’!  

Perhaps we, as his followers, have much to learn from this in our striving for justice in our increasingly unjust world.  Firstly, nor should we ‘falter or be discouraged’ in our efforts while ever injustices remain around us. Secondly, and more importantly, our main ‘weapon’ for achieving this is faithfulness – not yelling and screaming about the problems but living faithful, obedient, Christ-like lives that reflect a strong trust both in God’s sovereign power and in his faithfulness.  As I’ve frequently mentioned before, I like the verse in Faber‘s hymn (‘Workman of God, O lose not heart’): “Then learn to scorn the praise of men, and learn to lose with God; for Jesus won the world through shame and beckons thee his road.”

–  Bruce Christian