e East is set up. It
is just [Pg 214] because of His not being beat upon carrying through
any thing, because of His great confidence, that the Servant of God
_gains_ everything, and obtains His object of bringing right to the
nations.--Matt., in chap. xii. 15-21, finds the confirmation of the
character here assigned to Christ in two circumstances:--_first_, in
His not entering into a violent dispute with the Pharisees opposing Him
([Greek: hoi de pharisaioi sumboulion elabon kat'autou exelthontes,
hopos auton apolesosin]), in His not exciting against them the masses
who were devoted to Him, but in withdrawing from them ([Greek: ho de
Iesous gnous anechoresen ekeithen], ver. 15), being convinced that the
cause was not His but God's, and that there was no reason for getting
angry with those who were contending against God; just as David said of
Shimei: "Let him curse, because the Lord has said unto him, Curse
David."--_Secondly_, in the circumstance that instead of availing
himself of the excitement of the aroused masses, He charged them that
they should not make known His miraculous deeds ([Greek: kai epetimesen
autois hina me phaneron auton poiesosin], ver. 16), being convinced
that He did not need to seek to draw attention to himself, but that, by
the secret and hidden power of God, His work would be accomplished.

Ver. 3. "_The bent reed shall He not break, and the dimly burning wick
shall He not quench; in truth shall He bring forth right._"

Here, too, the antithesis to the worldly conqueror who, without mercy,
"Cometh upon princes as mortar, and as a potter treadeth the clay"
(chap. xli. 25), whose mind is bent only upon destroying and cutting
off nations not a few (chap. x. 7), who does not give rest until he has
fully cast down to the ground the broken power. The Servant of God, far
from breaking the bent reed, shall, on the contrary--this is the
positive opposed to the negative--care for, and assist the wretched
with tender love. Just thereby does He accomplish the object of His
efforts. The confirmation of the character here assigned to Christ is,
by Matthew, found in His healing the sick ([Greek: kai etherapeusen
autous pantas], ver. 15), as prefiguring all that which He, who has
declared the object of His coming to be to seek all that which was
lost, did and accomplished, in general, for the misery of the human
race. There cannot be any doubt that the bent reed and the dimly
burning wick are figurative desig