18 March, 2008

The Quietness and Confidence Myth

... in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength ...

How many ways have you heard this verse stretched? It's like laffy-taffy. If someone wants you to enter into a type of prayer, or get over some heart-rending tears, or quit doubting authority, out comes the exhortation to quietness and confidence.

But what's the context?

Isa 30:12 ¶ Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

The opposite of quietness and confidence is trusting oppression and perverseness.
Doubt, or crying out to God, or even tears of anger are not opposed to quietness. Trusting sin is the opposite of confidence.


Isa 30:13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

And that sin looks like a wall, but really it's rotted at the core.

Isa 30:14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water [withal] out of the pit.

He will break that iniquity, though. The sin in which they trusted will fall apart.

Isa 30:15 ¶ For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Do you see? The ONLY quietness and confidence is to stop trusting in sin.

Isa 30:16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

They refuse to trust God. Instead, they will trust anything else.

Isa 30:17 One thousand [shall flee] at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

But when we place our confidence in tricks and subtlety, we are constantly afraid that someone might trick us. We find we are vulnerable to every little whisper and rumor and fear. We flee when no one pursues at all. (I won't pretend to get the whole "beacon/ensign" thing.)

Isa 30:18 ¶ And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD [is] a God of judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for him.

But the Lord is willing to wait. He WILL bless His children, and since their desire is to be holy as He is holy, He will bless them with holiness.

What more could we want?

2 comments:

Milly said...

I often picture us as little wind-up toys. Some one for what ever reason has wound us up with fear/anger/lust/gossip etc. . .now they set us free to run ourselves into a book of what ever might be around to stop us. Sometimes we fall right off the desk and flat onto our faces. That usually works best for me to be honest. Once I’m flat on my face I can exhaust myself not unlike that little toy on its face with its legs moving. I stopped kicking my legs after the age of two so please don’t worry. Now that I have lost the will to do it on my own I can allow Him to pick me up. How stupid of me not to allow His hand when I am up. I wonder how many times I’ve foolishly played at the edge of His hands taking it for granted that He has me and He will pick me up when I fall.

Has He put that in us? Are we so childish that we wander out into traffic without a care?
I have to wonder if God instilled it in us or if outside influences have now become a part of our DNA.

Why are we so want full for control?


>But the Lord is willing to wait. He WILL bless His children, and since their desire is to be holy as He is holy, He will bless them with holiness.

As I read this softly I heard Open the eyes of my heart Lord Open the eyes of my heart I want to see You I want to see You

kc bob said...

That quietness and confidence verseprobably works well at church business meetings :)