Isaiah 28:28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart… Bread-corn is bruised. Tribulation must thresh our lives. And when the chaff is separated from the wheat, then the corn must be bruised and broken. It is not the outwardly peaceful, comfortable life that has in it the elements of ministry. The Savior was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He is brought near to us as being not of the seed of angels, but of the seed of Abraham. How were those sensibilities of his nature bruised with the hardness, coldness, and neglect of men! How even his disciples hurt him, forsaking him, and not even watching with him one hour! "Bread-corn is bruised." "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." I. THE BEST LIFE MEANS PAIN. Bruised! Corn is not enough. It must be made into bread. It is thus that true affection comes out when we suffer for others. So also is it with true humility. It is the bruised heart that has medicaments in it for others out of its own castings down. II. THE BEST LIFE MEANS USEFULNESS. We stand in constant relationship to others. Man may be to his brother bread of thought, through long hours of mental struggle and agony. He may be bread of compassion too. We are to be "meet for the Master's use." Thus we learn that to be mere quietists or pietists is not enough. We must not light the lonely lamp of incense before the altar, and remain in rapt meditation or even devotion, always. No. The disciples had to come down from the ecstatic moments of the transfiguration to the common earth and to homespun duty. III. THE BEST LIFE MEANS OPPOSITION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. "Save us from being bruised," is the cry of men of this world. "Give us comfort, ease, health, outward prosperity." And so these are protected at every point. Sorrow is never welcomed as an angel. Discipline is never thought of as a molder of character. IV. THE BEST LIFE MEANS GOD'S OWN CHASTISEMENT. This is divinely appointed and delicately ordered. It means wisdom and forethought and adaptation; ver. 27, "For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod." Yes, that is it, there is a hand at work - a Father's hand. V. THE BEST LIFE MEANS HEAVEN. "Because he wilt not ever be threshing it." No. Discipline, however painful, ends in the grave. The beauty of spiritual perfection begins when we are with the saints in light. "These are they which came out of great tribulation. They hunger no more. They thirst no more. There shall be no night there." - W.M.S. Parallel Verses KJV: Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. |
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