Same Place, Different Decision

Has there been a time in your life when the situation was bigger than you and you simply did not know what to do? You are looking towards God, you believe He will make a way, but nothing seems to be changing. You know you need to wait, yet everything inside you wants to do something.

I have been there.

Many years ago, I lost my job. It was an uncertain time, and I was worried about what would happen next. During that season, I heard God put in my heart that it would take three months and I needed to wait. Three months sounds quite reasonable when you have a job but when you don’t have one, three months feels very different.

I couldn’t wait.

I became so restless that I decided I needed to do something. So I went on LinkedIn and posted a note publicly that I had lost my job and was looking for help. I could not make ends meet and I’m desperate for a job.

Even today, I consider that one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. It wasn’t because there is anything wrong in asking for help. The embarrassing part was that people who didn’t even know what was happening in my life suddenly knew. My brother called me and others as well. It was as if I pushed myself into a very vulnerable position where sympathy or empathy might work. People reached out and tried to help but nothing happened.

The post hadn’t changed my situation. I was still waiting.

Years later, while reading Isaiah, I came across two kings who taught me something about that struggle.

 

Looking back, LinkedIn wasn’t the problem or asking people for help wasn’t the problem either. My problem was much simpler: God had told me to wait, and I could not be still.

In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz was facing a crisis. Syria and Israel were coming against Jerusalem, and Scripture says that the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken like trees moved by the wind. God sent Isaiah to meet Ahaz at a very specific place: the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

And God’s message to this frightened king was:

“Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted.”
— Isaiah 7:4

In other words, be still.

But Ahaz could not be still. He needed a solution he could see. Instead of trusting what God had said, he turned to the Assyrian empire for help. In 2 Kings 16, he sent silver and gold to the king of Assyria and asked him to come and save him.

Assyria did help him.

Then I reached Isaiah 36 and noticed something I had not paid attention to before.

Years have passed. Ahaz is dead, and his son Hezekiah is king. Now Assyria, the very nation Ahaz had looked to for deliverance has become Judah’s threat.

Interesting, do you know where the Assyrian commander stood, when he comes to threaten Jerusalem?

At the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

The same place.

I don’t think Isaiah gives us this detail accidentally. A father and son, years apart, are brought to the same place of crisis. Ahaz had stood there afraid of his enemies and had been told by God to be quiet. Now Hezekiah’s people stand there while Assyria mocks them, threatens them and questions whether God can save them.

Rabshakeh keeps talking. He wants everyone on the wall to hear. He wants his words to induce fear in them but Hezekiah gives his people a command: “Do not answer him.”

And Scripture says:

“But they held their peace and answered him not a word.”
— Isaiah 36:21

At the same place where Ahaz had been told to be quiet, the next generation actually became quiet. Being still does not mean Hezekiah did nothing.

Isaiah 37 tells us that Hezekiah tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. Then another threatening message came from Assyria. Hezekiah took the letter, read it and spread it before the LORD.

That image immediately took me back to my LinkedIn post.

I had spread my problem before people. Hezekiah spread his problem before God.

Again, there is nothing wrong with sharing our struggles with people or asking for help. God often uses people to help us but I knew what had happened in my own heart that day. God had asked me to wait, and because I could not bear the uncertainty, I tried to make something happen.

Perhaps that is why the words of Psalm 46 now mean something different to me:

“Be still, and know that I am God.”
— Psalm 46:10

We often imagine “be still” as a peaceful verse, something to read when everything is quiet but Psalm 46 isn’t quiet at all. The earth is moving, mountains are shaking, waters are roaring, nations are raging and kingdoms are being moved.

That is when God says, “Be still.”

Being still is easy when there is nothing threatening us however being still becomes faith when the enemy is standing outside the door.

Ahaz and Hezekiah stood at the same place, but they made different decisions. Ahaz could not wait and reached out to Assyria while Hezekiah faced Assyria, refused to answer its threats and reached out to God.

Sometimes we may even find ourselves back at a familiar place because of decisions made before us. Someone else’s wrong does not require another wrong from us. The same place does not have to produce the same decision.

And being still does not necessarily mean doing nothing. Hezekiah prayed. He sought Isaiah. He went to the house of God. He spread the letter before the LORD. His stillness was not inactivity. It was refusing to let fear decide where he would run.

I learned that lesson the uncomfortable way. I thought I needed to make something happen because waiting felt unbearable but all my activity could not produce the answer I was waiting for.

Sometimes the hardest part of trusting God is not believing that He can do something.

It is being still long enough to let Him do it.