Trusting a "Bruised Reed"
2 Kings 18:21
"Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him."
The verse above is a message that the king of Assyria sent to King Hezekiah. Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not compromise his beliefs in God. Hezekiah understood that God commanded His people to live a certain way, and the king of Assyria attempted to change that. The king of Assyria told Hezekiah that he shouldn't trust in the "bruised reed" of Egypt. What he was telling him was that his trust in what God did in the past wouldn't work for him in the present. He was saying that God's methods were outdated and that those methods were no longer relevant for Judah. Thankfully, Hezekiah would not compromise his beliefs and was willing to die for God's way of living. As you finish reading the story you find that God blessed Hezekiah for not compromising, and instead killed the king of Assyria.
I recently heard a sermon by a supposedly fundamental Baptist educator who compared how independent, fundamental Baptist do things to "grandma's couch." He said that the only reason we like grandma's couch is because of all the memories that the couch had, but that grandma's couch was outdated and no longer useful. He then said that the way fundamental Baptist did things in the past does not work in bringing people to the church. The whole analogy of the sermon was that the methods of the past were outdated and that we need to be willing to change our music, style of dress and church services to a contemporary service for the sake of keeping people.
This mentality is the same mentality that the king of Assyria used against Hezekiah. Christian, you must realize that we are to follow God's methods whether or not they work. It is not a matter of whether we become popular or not. It is not a matter of whether our churches grow into mega churches. It is not a matter of whether we seemed outdated to the world. The whole matter is that we must always do what God tells us to do even if it doesn't seem to work. I often say that I would rather preach to a small crowd and stand for right than to preach to large crowds through compromise.
Furthermore, we must watch out that we don't fall for the mentality of trying to bring God down to man. 1 Peter 1:16 says, "Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." You will notice this verse does not say that we are to bring God down to our level. On the contrary, God is saying that we are to bring ourselves up to His level. Holiness should not be measured by the world, holiness should be measured by God. Too many Christians compromise and want God to come down to their level when they need to change how they live and dress to become like God. We should not lower our dress and music standards just to get a crowd. Instead, people should change their music and clothing styles to meet God's standards.
Christian, the compromisers will always try to convince you that the old-time way doesn't work anymore. You must stand strong and not accept their compromising ways. God's methods have worked in the past in times of compromise, and they will still work today. However, even if they didn't work, we are never to change God's way of doing things for the sake of being successful in the eyes of the world. Success is not measured by crowds and popularity, but success is measured by whether we successfully follow God's way through whatever we face.