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Passive Victory

Isaiah 37:6,7
Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard— those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.  Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’"

There are times when God calls us to be active. But then there are times when God reminds us that the battle is the Lord's and has us sit back and watch Him do battle as He did at the parting of the Red Sea. "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

Isaiah records what happens next. "Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning— there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.  One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king." Isaiah 37:36-38

God's objective is not to solve all your problems in life, so one should not approach God with the presumptuous utilitarian attitude of "how can I make God to whatever I want Him to do?" But realize that God will defend His name, His honor, His reputation and maintain His covenant. Often our job is simply to not be afraid, but to call on the name of the Lord.


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