Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. In February, we’ll learn more about the man behind the Bruised Reed as we tackle Mark Dever’s biography of Sibbes. (Purchase it here). I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged!

If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.

Summary/Engagement

And so we begin with one of Sibbes’ best known works, The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax. The text used is Matthew 12:20, which reads;

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.

Sibbes sets to work explaining Christ’s office, and what the execution of that office is. Christ came under the authority of the Father to seek and save the lost. He came for bruised reeds and the smoking flax, or in modern translations, the smoldering wicks. Those who would come to Christ are thus bruised and smoldering. The imagery of the Bible is of one under conviction of sin and suffering greatly. Sibbes observes it is the grace of God that he bruises us, “A marvellous hard thing it is to bring a dull and a shifting heart to cry with feeling for mercy.” (44)

We are indeed bruised reeds and faintly smoldering wicks. We are not mighty oaks and roaring fires as we might suppose. Christ is concerned with the heart convicted by sin, and thus bruised, (injured, wounded, distressed) and humbled, moved to cry out for mercy.

Yet, Sibbes notes that we are not left bruised, broken, and smoldering. Christ does not come for the crushing blow. Such is the work of Satan. Christ comforts those bruised and moved to cry out to mercy. He does not break us reeds, and snuff out the last of our burning embers. Christ uses the bruising to crush our pride and wring repentance from our sinful hearts. We are bruised in preparation for redemption. We are torn to heal. Indeed, how are we to come to faith without knowledge of our sin and need of the Savior?

Sibbes, ever the Pastor, spends chapter 4 addressing objections to his assertions. The objections center around assurances of salvation. They deal with whether we should expect God’s mercy and whether we have a Christ-like spirit. Put another way; how can I know I am saved, and how can I grow in holiness?

Haven’t we asked these same questions?

He doesn’t leave us without answers. “And shall there be more mercy in the stream than in the spring? Shall we think there is more mercy in ourselves than in God, who planteth the affection of mercy in us?” (45) Indeed, we must remember that in all of life, the wellspring of mercy is God. God gives us life, suffers our sin, plants our desire for mercy within us, draws us to him, and saves us through the suffering of his Son. What glorious truth! He sums this well when he says, “there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” (47)

Application/Discussion

Reading this I was moved to worship as I jumped from one glorious sentence to the next. J.I. Packer notes (in the foreword to Dever’s book on Sibbes) that Sibbes was called the “Sweet Dropper” by reason of his encouraging sermons. In just a few short pages I have certainly been encouraged to trust Christ in my suffering and to see it as his means to draw me closer to him. Bruising brings repentance; we must put sin to death. And it is this point I want to focus in on a bit more.

He said, “Therefore let us not take off ourselves too soon, nor pull off the plaster before the cure be wrought, but keep ourselves under this work till sin be the sourest, and Christ the sweetest, of all things. And when God’s hand is upon us in any kind, it is good to divert our sorrow for other things to the root of all, which is sin. Let our grief run most in that channel, that as sin bred grief, so grief may consume sin.” (47)

Our bookstores are full of self-help books. Talk shows discuss ways to alleviate our distress and to soothe our consciences. Marketing promises happiness if we buy the next thing. Here’s my question:

Are we short-circuiting the work of God by, as Sibbes said, not keeping ourselves under this work til sin be the sourest of all things?

Reading this set me off thinking; do we try to medicate and deaden our emotions in an attempt to merely alleviate suffering, when it is God who may be orchestrating those things to bring us to repentance in some way or another? Or, if not repentance, is he using events in our life to bruise us to bring us closer to him?

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

If Lewis and Sibbes are correct that God uses suffering to speak to us, how can we redeem it for God’s glory?

Share in the comments your reflections on this, the first of our many readings together, and engage with my questions as well if you like. Feel free to ask your own questions. I look forward to reading Sibbes together with you this year!

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Next week, we’ll be covering chapters five through eight.