Isaiah further declares that Christ will not quench the smoking flax, or wick, but will fan it up till it flames. In a smoking flax there is but little light that is weak, quite unable to build up into a strong flame, and mixed with smoke. As God’s children, when we have been bruised either by our own sin or circumstance or sickness and pain, there remains in us a small measure of grace and faith mixed with much doubt and confusion, anger and resentment. But Christ will not quench this smoking flax.
At that point of pain and perplexities, faith may be as `a grain of mustard seed' (Matt. 17:20). Just an insignificant grain but with the great potential of growth, nonetheless. Did you realise that those things that are of the greatest perfection are the longest in coming into their growth? Man is God’s highest and most perfect creature, and he comes into maturity by little and little; as opposed to lesser things, as grass and mushrooms and the like, like Jonah's gourd – these spring up quickly , and then vanish just as quickly. The Christian is the God’s most prized creature in all the world, therefore h causes us to grow up by degrees.
We see in nature that a mighty oak tree rises from an acorn. So it is with a Christian, God’s oak of righteousness. In the small seeds of plants lie hidden both bulk and branches, bud and fruit. Likewise, all the glorious fireworks of zeal and holiness in you and I as God’s children have their beginning from a few sparks, often found in a smoking flax.
So don’t be discouraged at the small beginnings of grace. Don’t despise the days of small beginnings. Don’t underestimate the potential in a dying flame. Christ values us by what we shall be, and by what we are destined to be in him. We call a little plant a tree, because it is growing up to be so. `Who has despised the day of small beginnings?' (Zech. 4:10). Christ would not have us despise little things.
The glorious angels do not disregard attending on little ones. You may be weak with a struggling faith in your pain and shame but yet in God’s eyes, there is worth in that small, struggling faith. It is Christ that raises the worth of little and mean places and persons. Bethlehem was the least (Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:6), and yet not the least; the least in itself, not the least in respect that Christ was born there. The second temple (Hag. 2:9) came short of the outward magnificence of the former; yet it was more glorious than the first because Christ came into it. The Lord of the temple came into his own temple. The pupil of the eye is very little, yet sees the entire open sky all at once. A pearl, though little, yet is of much esteem. Nothing in the world is of so good use as the least grain of grace. A smoking flax he will not cause to die out!
