For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not, And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”— Therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride on swift horses”— Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! Isaiah 30:15-16
The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord. Proverbs 21:31
In the above scriptures, God told the Jewish people that horses were not a strategy for their deliverance because the enemy would have more swift horses. In our day and age, the swift horses would be relying on our education, ingenuity, expertise, or relationships to be the answer for our deliverance. In the proper balance, there is nothing wrong with those things, but when they take the place of relying on the Lord for deliverance, they are a cheap and ineffective substitute!
It’s difficult to be quiet, rest in God, and not have a plan. We live in a culture that everyone is expected to have a plan for their lives. Parents strategize for the kids’s future early in life. We begin asking them what they want to do in life when they are very young. By the time they are in junior high or high school, we ask them about the major they want to pursue in college and what they want to be when they grow up. Children are pressured to come up with an answer, so the adults would leave them alone! Or else, they might feel like losers with no plan or goal in life. In some ways, as parents, we don’t want them to have any down time. We are programmed to think that successful people are expected to know what they want to do and go after it with full force and speed!
It’s interesting that Jesus chose to ride on a donkey in His triumphant entry to Jerusalem. Although, He was proclaiming to be the King of the Jews, yet He did not operate like an earthly king. He did not seek to have swift horses and warriors to fight for Him. His plan and method declared that His deliverance and His strength was not coming from natural means, but it was tied to His relationship to the Lord! If it were up to His disciples, He probably would have ridden on swift horses because they did not fully understand what the His Kingdom was about. Nevertheless, Jesus was not pressured by the opposition, and neither was He influenced by His companions. He always made time to meet with the Lord and quiet Himself before Him, so He could be available to hear God’s instructions and allow the Lord to be the source of His strength and deliverance.
Our carnal nature is a like a wild horse, and it is only tamed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder that we all have a hard time to be quiet and rest! We will be restless until we give the reins of our lives to the Lord and surrender our will and our opinions at the Cross. In the above scriptures, the Lord is telling us that there are times that no plan or preparation would give us the answers we are looking for. The deliverance will come from Him when we return to him, be quiet, and be confident as children of the Most High!
