September 27, 2023 • 26 mins
What might life look like if you had the unshakeable faith of Hezekiah, standing firm even when faced with a formidable Assyrian army? What if you could experience miracles in your life, just like Hezekiah did when his faith in God led to a miraculous victory? Join us as we pull back the layers on the biblical stories of Hezekiah and Abraham, exploring what true faith and trust in God looks like. We'll highlight the power of obedience and trusting God during times of hardship, enabling us to thrive in our spiritual journey.
As we journey through Hezekiah's battle against Assyria, you'll learn about the power of trust and faith during trials. You'll discover how Hezekiah’s unwavering faith in God led him to stand firm, even when things felt impossible. We'll also draw a parallel between the deceptive message from the King of Assyria and the worldly temptations we often face, emphasizing the importance of maintaining our faith in God even when the odds are stacked against us.
Let's dive deeper into the significance of building trust and experiencing miracles. We'll share personal experiences, challenges, and powerful biblical stories that underscore the importance of faith and trust. Together, we'll work on building our trust muscles, enabling us to not only hear and follow God's voice but also thrive in our spiritual walk. Don't forget to subscribe and share your thoughts and experiences to join us on this remarkable journey of trusting and relying on God.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dan Schilling (00:07):
Hey, welcome to the Feed Sheep podcast, where we
help you hear God's voice,follow His lead and thrive as a
disciple.
I'm Dan Schilling and I'll beone of your guides.
Now let's get into today'stopic.
Hey, welcome to Feed Sheeppodcast.
Thanks for joining us.
We're back again today.
Michael man, it's always goodto be with you, you too.
Michael Blue (00:26):
Great to get to dive in again and keep looking
at trust.
Dan Schilling (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, well, we're going to continue.
We've been really just saying,God, show us how you continue to
help us on this journey, totrust you and to look at your
word, and so we've been lookingat a number of passages.
We started a couple of sessionsago talking about the
Deuteronomy 8.
(00:51):
And really, again, what we'retrying to accomplish through our
time is how do we hear God'svoice, follow His lead, thrive
as disciples and recognizingthat trust is a big issue?
And last time we started todive into the area of trust and
some of the things that Hezekiah, king Hezekiah, was processing
(01:13):
through, and we talked aboutfaithfulness.
That faithfulness is one ofthose first keys that Hezekiah
said in 2 Kings 18.
This was in verse five and thiswas our verse that Hezekiah
trusted the Lord.
There was no one like Him amongall the kings of Israel, either
of Judah, either before orafter His time, and he remained
(01:33):
faithful to the Lord andeverything.
So the goal for us is how arewe going to encourage one
another daily in this journey?
How do we look at what thescriptures say about this area
of trust?
And so we're going to dig alittle deeper into this topic
today.
Michael Blue (01:47):
So can't wait, looking forward to it.
Dan Schilling (01:50):
Yeah, we'll play for us.
Michael Blue (01:52):
Yeah, let's do it.
God thanks so much for thisopportunity that we get to come
before you and we get to humblysubmit and listen and learn, and
so I just pray that you wouldteach Dan and I, and you would
teach the listeners, what itmeans to trust you, and that we
would have the confidence tostep out in trust as we seek to
(02:12):
know you more deeply and,ultimately, we seek to thrive in
relationship with you.
Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Dan Schilling (02:19):
Michael, I remember a few times ago we were
talking about the trust musclesand that's really the focus of
our time today and about how wetalked about how we're doing the
P90X and how that was one ofthose things that really
stretched us physically at thatpoint in time and I wouldn't try
it again, not at this stage oflife.
I don't have enough time.
(02:44):
I don't think I have thewillingness to be in so much
pain that I can't even walk togo to the bathroom.
Hardly that hurt so bad oh yeah, yeah and yeah.
Michael Blue (02:56):
We don't need to go down there on a trip.
Yeah, I couldn't do it againtoday.
Dan Schilling (03:03):
But the muscles.
I believe the God wants us,whether physically our muscles
are in shape now, but definitelywhat he wants for us are these
what we're calling trust musclesto be built.
And recognizing that, like manyother aspects of our physical
muscles, if we continue to keepourselves isolated and not
(03:25):
putting ourselves open, handedlyin the hands of our good, good
father, who's always trying tocontinue to mold us and fashion
us, shape us more into the imageand likeness of Jesus, and
recognizing that many times,that's going to put us in a
place where we need to trust him.
And that place of trust bringsus to one of the things we're
(03:46):
going to look at today is aplace of humility and say, okay,
you know this isn't going to beeasy, but I trust you.
And one of the other aspectsthat, in the midst of this
journey, that he wants thesemuscles to be built is so that
when this time of testing comes,we see and know him as a good,
(04:10):
good father and we know thathe's going to provide, he's
going to take care of us and notjust the material things of
life.
But when we get into the gym wewere just talking about a
scenario, something I've got todo tomorrow with someone that
really struggling in theirjourney and it's probably gonna
be a pretty hard time, aconversations and things around
it that I'm gonna need to trusthim and so to have wisdom and
(04:34):
insight and provision and trustthat God's gonna protect me and
watch over me and give me wisdomand counsel in the midst of
that situation, so ready thatour trust muscles are ready, so
that when God calls us tosomething, we're not like oh you
know like, but we recognizewho's the source, who has the
authority, whose authority we'reunder and where that's gonna
(04:55):
lead us.
So what are your thoughts?
Michael Blue (04:58):
Well, it's appropriate.
Yesterday I had the opportunityto preach at my church, yes,
and we're talking about Hebrews11, which is, you know, the hall
of faith, so-called right, andI was looking at really, 13
through 22,.
But in 17 to 19 is where ittalks about Abraham and Isaac
and God testing Abraham as hetold him to, commanded him to go
(05:23):
and sacrifice Isaac.
And as we looked at it, theword test there is really
strengthened, and so you know,there's this idea of
strengthening.
That happens in obedience andso you know, as I studied it and
thought about it and throughour conversations, I kind of
created a diagram.
It's not that profound, but Ithink that trust and faith start
in obedience and that's kind oflike the lifting right and so.
(05:46):
But what happens when I obey isthat I actually see that God's
faithful, I see that he doesfulfill his promises.
You know, Abraham was in thatconundrum of how in the world
can you fulfill this promisewhen you're asking me to kill
the seed of the promise, Like?
Dan Schilling (05:59):
that doesn't work .
Michael Blue (06:01):
And so you know even when we can't see it.
Dan Schilling (06:03):
It's counterintuitive, right.
I mean like something like thatdoesn't make sense yeah.
Michael Blue (06:09):
They can't reconcile, they're
irreconcilable to us, like Godhad a way, obviously.
And then, as we see God befaithful, it helps us, increase
our faith or increase our trust,increases our longing to
experience that nearness to God,in that trusting, which then I
think leads us, which we see inJacob's life, at the end of his
(06:30):
life, is that he's bowing overthe head of his staff in worship
, right as he's blessing thesons, and so it leads us to
worship, and then it leads us Imean we have like this cycle of
obedience and God's faithfulnessand increase.
We worship and we just continueto grow in this and we do this.
Testing or this strengtheningoccurs in these steps of
(06:50):
obedience that can seem really,really hard, where we can't see
a way through, but when we stepinto them, god has seen a way
through and we see that he'sfaithful to take us through.
Dan Schilling (07:00):
Yes, amen, amen.
Well, one other quick storyhere is this past year my wife
is actually gonna be on here ina couple of weeks on the podcast
here and I were talking thispast week of just something the
spirit of God had been workingin her, helping her hear God's
(07:21):
voice and follow, and she felt,you know, this past year of
school not this current year ofschool, but the past year that
the time for homeschooling wasover.
Now we've homeschooled, youknow are all seven of the boys
so far have all beenhomeschooled, some of them all
the way through Now the olderguys, the other ones.
So she's been doing this foralmost 20 years and sometimes
you get going in that samepattern.
(07:42):
But she knew inside somethingshe's now a piece, and it was
actually.
It was starting to become moreburden, you know.
It wasn't fulfilling anymore,and so we started at the
beginning of this early of thisyear, in January, february
started looking at Christianschools and started looking and
saying, okay, god, show us.
And so, long story short, wegot makes a way, he provides.
(08:04):
You know, I'm thinking how arewe gonna pay for this?
And then God provides all thesedifferent opportunities and
scholarship and everything.
So it's like okay, god, thankyou.
But here's kind of the big thingwas we were standing.
I was standing talking to a guyoutside of the school I had
just met in conversation.
(08:24):
He said well, you know that weturned away 700 families this
year and that you know, likethose moments where like wait
what?
Like 700 families and Iclarified it with the wife later
, I said I want to make sure Iheard you.
You said she said yes, not 700people, 700 families, like
multiple children per household,and we had just been in
(08:45):
conversation with another guy.
I said wow.
He said I can't believe thatyou got all four of your boys in
here.
No-transcript, there's peopleeven at this church that can get
their kids in here.
Like that's really amazing.
And it's like you have thatmoment.
You're like, wow, god, you, youprovided something that makes
no sense.
But my wife just kept believingthis is what God was leading
(09:08):
and that he was, she wastrusting him.
You know cause?
You're like we don't have themoney for that, we can't do this
, we can't do that.
And we're going to look at astory today about Hezekiah when
it's like we're going to likewe're in trouble here.
You know, god, we, there's noway this is going to work out,
and so I feel like for us, itwas just one of those moments
like a, a holy moment of like,oh my gosh, god, you, you
(09:31):
provided in a way there's no waythat could happen, but you
doing that when there's there's1400 people, there's two kids in
each family, you know, gotturned away.
Michael Blue (09:42):
So, yeah, I didn't even know the miracle that it
was no.
Dan Schilling (09:47):
I mean, that's the cool thing sometimes, right.
Like and then when God revealsit just in conversation, you're
like, oh my goodness God, and Ireally sure and I both said you
know, when David in the secondChronicle says who am I and who
are my people, I mean you would,you'd take care of us, like
this.
I mean that really was ourposture of our heart, Like, oh
(10:08):
my goodness, Lord, thank you somuch.
So I just I think it's againthis journey that we're on and
to encourage one another.
Right is God has a purpose, hehas a plan, and when we submit
to him and we put our hope andtrust in him to lead us, to
guide us, even when it's like,well, I just can't, it ain't
(10:28):
gonna work out, Like, trust me,just faithful, today, take the
next step, take the next step.
And so we're going to look atthat story today as well.
Good let's do it All right.
So let's bring this up.
We're going to give a littlecontext here.
We talked last time aboutHezekiah.
Again, he trusted the Lord.
(10:48):
He has a great heritage of amom who was Abijah.
We talked a little bit ago thatAbijah.
I looked this up.
She's the daughter of Zachariah, high priest.
Her name actually means myfather is the Lord, so Zachariah
names his daughter this myfather is the Lord, who she
(11:10):
probably again as we said lasttime disciples, trains up
Hezekiah in a way of loving andtrusting and knowing God as his
heavenly father, which is prettycool.
Yeah, that's good.
And then we see here where we'regoing to pick up.
I get this to scroll down here.
We're going to pick up today.
You and I were talking a littlebit about if folks you want to
(11:32):
read this and you can make yourown decision here about Hezekiah
strips the temple of all thethings, sends it to King
Sinachrib.
It's still not enough.
And we're going to pick up herethen in verse 17, after
Hezekiah is trying to do what'sright he's trying to keep the
kingdom kind of together andwe're going to see here how the
(11:56):
king of Assyria responds andthen kind of pick up and see
what Hezekiah and how heresponds in the midst of that
trouble.
So let's start there.
Good Verse 17.
Michael Blue (12:05):
Yes, verse 17, chapter 18.
Nevertheless, the king ofAssyria sent his commander in
chief, his field commander andhis chief of staff from Lake-ish
, with a huge army, to conqueror to confront King Hezekiah in
Jerusalem.
The Assyrians took up aposition beside the aqueduct
that feeds water into the upperpool, near the road leading to
the field where cloth is washed.
(12:25):
They summoned King Hezekiah,but the king sent these
officials to meet with themEliah Kim, son of Hokaia, the
palace administrator, shabna,the court secretary, and Joah,
son of Asaph, the royalhistorian.
Dan Schilling (12:42):
All right, so just a little story.
So you say, ok, king of Assyriasends not just a few dudes, but
he sends this as a huge army.
So we're going to see a littlebit of how big huge is to some
extent.
So so he sends this huge armyand they're coming to
essentially say you know whatwe're, we're going to show you
(13:06):
for what you didn't.
You know you weren't payingtribute money essentially on
time and doing some things.
And he tries to make itretribution, but apparently not
enough.
And then they call him out buthe doesn't even go out to meet
and he sends some kind of hiskey guys to go out and meet with
the messengers from KingSinakarib.
Michael Blue (13:29):
So we think, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got the
commander in chief, the chief ofstaff, you got the his best
right coming at you and maybe,yeah, yeah, and you know, I
imagine there's something goingon with Hezekiah here too is not
going out to meet, right, theking of Assyria didn't come, I'm
not going to go out.
(13:50):
So there's, you know, he's,yeah, a jockey.
Dan Schilling (13:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So let's see what he has to sayAll right.
Michael Blue (14:02):
So then the Syrians, king, king's chief of
staff, told them to give thismessage to Hezekiah.
This is what the great king ofAssyria says.
What are you trusting in thatmakes you so confident?
Do you think that mere wordscan substitute for military
skill and strength?
Who are you counting on that?
You have rebelled against me onEgypt.
If you lean on Egypt, it willbe like a reed that splinters
(14:22):
beneath your weight and piercesyour hand Farrow.
The king of Egypt is completelyunreliable.
But perhaps you'll say to me weare trusting the Lord, our God,
but isn't he the one who wasinsulted by Hezekiah?
Didn't Hezekiah tear down hisshrines and altars and make
everyone in Judah and Jerusalemworship only at the altar here
(14:43):
in Jerusalem?
I'll tell you what strike abargain with my master, the king
of Assyria.
I will give you 2,000 horses.
If you can find that many mento ride on them With your tiny
army, how can you think ofchallenging even the weakest
contingent of my master's troops, even with the help of Egypt's
chariots and charioteers?
What's more, do you think wehave invaded your land without
(15:07):
the Lord's direction?
The Lord himself told us attackthis land and destroy it.
Dan Schilling (15:13):
OK, things are not looking good.
That's smack talk right there.
That's like next level smacktalk.
We live in a culture a lot ofsmack talks is like, ok, here we
go, right, that's my love, theOld Testament, like, come on,
this is a great story.
Like this is going on stilltoday.
People are doing stuff likethis, right, like, oh yeah, I'll
show you.
So again, we look at this andAssyria come on, says, like you
(15:38):
know, first of all, who do youthink you guys are Like, who are
you putting your trust in?
You know, are you going to, youthink you're trusting in what?
Egypt?
You know, like your big brother, you think he's going to take
care of you?
Like we've already destroyedthem, so you don't have to, you
can count on them.
Are you trusting in God?
(15:58):
Oh, you're one of those youknow trusting in God.
Huh, isn't you know Hezekiah,the one who, kind of you know,
made everybody a little ruffledof feathers?
You know, get them tearing down.
We talked about last time theshrine, the altar, the share,
the share poles, like I don'tknow about that.
And, by the way, you know whoactually sent us to come kick
(16:19):
your butts?
God himself told us to come andtake care of you guys.
So I tell you what you get somehorses, and you probably don't
even have 2000 guys to put onthem.
I'll send you 2000 horses soyou can try to fight us.
Your tiny little army.
We brought our huge army.
You got your tiny little army.
Little bunch of grasshoppersLike what are you thinking here?
Michael Blue (16:41):
So, yeah, that's a , you know, in the picture of
the gods of that time and howthey even viewed it, right, I
mean, there was, you know, tothem, a plurality of gods, was,
was, no, was what everybodypretty much believed.
And so you know their God,israel's God, the gods of the
(17:02):
shrines, you know one and thesame at the end of the day, yes,
right.
Dan Schilling (17:08):
Another little Jobu doll on the On the on the
shelf right yeah lots of them.
Michael Blue (17:14):
Yes oh yeah, and you're got text to us too.
We talked.
Dan Schilling (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, which .
As I was reading through this,I thought you know what, when
you, when we're gonna see whathere goes on the rest of the
story, god may have told him togo do it.
Sure, right, trap, yeah, likeoops, you know?
Like, oh, shoot, we thought wewere coming because we were
gonna and talking trash andwhatever About it.
(17:40):
Like, oh yeah, I had you comeout of your pride and out of
your arrogance and yourfoolishness, thinking you're
gonna come Right, take home andyou're mocking them.
But really you're not mockingthem, you're mocking me.
But you know what?
I already knew that.
That's why I invited it down,thinking that you're coming to
attack and destroy them.
Michael Blue (17:58):
Yeah, I'm like.
Dan Schilling (18:00):
Okay, so I let's, let's pick up in 26 and
continue on the story.
Michael Blue (18:05):
Yeah, this classic response then, like him, son of
Halkia, shabna and Joa said tothe Assyrian chief of staff
Please speak to us and Aramaic,for we understand it.
Well, don't speak in Hebrew,for the people on the wall will
hear.
That's good.
He's like hey, stop scaringeverybody.
Dan Schilling (18:29):
Everybody's gonna wet their pants here if you
keep talking like that.
Just you know knock it off.
Michael Blue (18:34):
You're insulting us and, and they realize it, yes
, but Sennacheribs chief ischief of staff replied.
Do you think my master sentthis message only to you and
your master?
He wants all the people to hearit, for when we put this city
under siege, they will sufferalong with you.
They will be so hungry andthirsty that they will eat their
own dung and drink their ownurine.
Dan Schilling (18:56):
Now you talk about next level.
I'm talking it's getting even,it's getting worse right like
not only are we gonna destroyyou, not only we gonna, you're
gonna be so bad, so Decimated,you're gonna eat and drink your
own waste.
Michael Blue (19:13):
So that's pretty bad, yeah.
Yeah, I wonder, and I mean Iprobably shouldn't wonder in the
middle of a podcast dance.
I apologize, but that this manspeaks Hebrew, yes.
I mean the trade language wasaromatic and so that was the
common language, that that mostpeople would speak to one
another from different countries.
(19:34):
And Hebrew wasn't.
They weren't a big people.
Yes, I mean the chances of this.
Perhaps it was a sojourner inthe land of Hebrew.
Perhaps you know he had a nannyyeah, the chances are.
Maybe he was Hebrew, maybe hewasn't Israeli who had, you know
, defected more or less toAssyria.
Yeah and here he is.
Dan Schilling (19:56):
Yeah, right, because that's happened right.
I mean you, you have thatthroughout different times that
they've been Sent away and undersiege and under whatever else
right.
Michael Blue (20:07):
Very well, just stayed behind.
Like you know what these peopleare.
Dan Schilling (20:10):
Yeah, if he was intelligent like you think, like
Daniel Meshach, they wereintelligent, right, they were
smart, they were whatever andthey were put in charge and
doing different things.
So you know, chief of staffsmart guy, yeah, I.
So, yeah, all right, so thetalk's getting worse.
Let's continue on thediscussion here.
What's what's what's coming?
Michael Blue (20:32):
next.
All right.
Then the chief of staff stoodand shouted in Hebrew to the
people on the wall.
Listen to this message from thegreat king of Assyria.
This is what the king says.
Don't let Hezekiah deceive you.
He will never be able to rescueyou from my power.
Don't let him fool you intotrusting in the Lord by saying
the Lord will surely rescue us.
This city will never fall intothe hands of the Assyrian King.
(20:55):
Don't listen to Hezekiah.
These are the terms the king ofAssyria is offering.
Make peace with me, open thegates and come out.
Then each of you can continueeating from your own grapevine
and fig tree and drinking fromyour own.
Well, then I will arrange totake you to another land like
this, when the land of grain andnew wine, bread and vineyards,
olive groves and honey chooselife instead of death.
Dan Schilling (21:20):
Yeah, it's so interesting when you think about
how the ways of the world,things of whatever, like you
know not only you know are youfoolish, for you know, thinking
that Hezekiah is going toprotect you.
And again, you have tounderstand the Assyrians were
the world dominating culture atthe time and so, like everybody,
(21:42):
was being decimated by theAssyrians and we're going to see
it again in a minute like thesize of their army, the size of
what their power and theirauthority and everything was
going on.
So you know, when the biggestbully in town says, hey, give me
your lunch money and you don'tlike, hey, you know you're going
to take one of the worstbeatings out back here in just a
(22:02):
minute, you know.
And so don't don't let thelittle pipsqueak dude start
piping up telling you how you'renot going to get beat up and
I'm going to speak in your, yournative language here Like this
is what's going to happen.
So don't be fooled and youthink about this.
Bring this back into our ownlife sometime Again.
We have an adversary whoobviously is always trying to
(22:25):
steal, kill and destroy right,assault us, always tell us that
God's not trustworthy, you'renot whatever.
But we also sometimes havepeople around us when God calls
us to something.
And you have to remember, inthis story, hezekiah broke a
long standing tradition ofdisobedience, and so it's not
(22:49):
like this was they had somegenerational turn toward
obedience, and so these guysknow so like they're trying to
play on some of that as well.
Right, and there's sometimes inour life where people around us
you know like, hey, you knowyou can kind of do your own
church thing, but don't take ittoo far, like don't take this
trusting in God so far Don't.
And I know you and I both havemade some decisions in life, and
(23:12):
I know there's people even inour life that are close to us to
kind of look us like I don'tknow, that doesn't sound like
God to me.
You know they're Christians,they're well-wisher, but they're
not understanding.
You know what I got, this iswhat God's asking me to do.
And I think there's times likethis, as a Kaya is standing for
righteousness, wanting to dowhat's right, and these guys,
(23:36):
you know the outsider's comingand saying you're stupid, we're
going to, we're going todemolish you for this.
But I tell you what you know,we'll just, we won't beat you up
completely.
So just walk out, surrender,right, you know, open the gates,
come on out, here's the termsand and we won't have to
(23:56):
completely decimate you We'lltake you somewhere else that you
can start over and have goodthings, but don't be trusting
God.
You try to put your trust in inthe ways of the world, ways of
man Right.
Michael Blue (24:07):
Right, yeah, I mean, I think you get, you get
to in there, you get the promise.
I mean, and this is such theway that that, I think, happens
when we have this temptation totrust in other things and to
look at other things is thepromise that that God makes is,
you know, abducted by the otherpeople.
(24:28):
So you have this promise ofyour own great vine and fig tree
Right, this is a phrase thatyou see in scripture sitting
under your own vine and fig tree, and it's a, it's a picture of
safety, it's a picture ofprovision.
Yes, and whatnot?
Right, but it's a provisionfrom God, you know, giving us
each our vine and fig tree tohave fruit and food and shade.
(24:51):
And you know all of these,these things, and you're saying,
look, you want these things,come find them here, like it
will give them to you.
Your God can't give them to you.
Yes.
Dan Schilling (25:01):
Yeah, right, it's all is a well.
You got water, you're going tohave grain, new wine, bread,
vineyards, olive groves, honey,and to me, this big, interesting
cause Deuteronomy also has thesame.
You know, I said before yourlife and death, choose life, or
(25:22):
do guys say this one time islike God gives you a multiple
choice test and then gives youthe answer I said before your
life and death, choose you know,like a life a life.
Be deaf, you know.
Choose a, you know, and yetwhat happens is the majority of
us still choose be, which is I'mgoing to do it the way the
world or do it.
Hey, thanks for watching theFeedSheep podcast we're going to
(25:46):
.
Because this discussion was sorich and encouraging to Mike on
our both, we decided that weshould break this into two
episodes, and so next time, whatwe're going to do is give you
several things to think about inyour journey and building your
trust muscles.
As we've seen in the story ofHezakiah, we're going to
continue on and see what Goddoes, and what he wants for us
(26:09):
is to experience that type ofmiraculous event in our life
where we see God intervene, andso I just want to encourage you
to tune in.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the YouTube
channel or to your favoritepodcast platform, leave us a
comment If you would as well.
It always helps us, encourageus.
(26:29):
I want to encourage you on yourjourney to hear, follow and
thrive.
God bless you.
Hey, welcome to the Feed Sheep podcast, where we
help you hear God's voice,follow His lead and thrive as a
disciple.
I'm Dan Schilling and I'll beone of your guides.
Now let's get into today'stopic.
Hey, welcome to Feed Sheeppodcast.
Thanks for joining us.
We're back again today.
Michael man, it's always goodto be with you, you too.
Michael Blue (00:26):
Great to get to dive in again and keep looking
at trust.
Dan Schilling (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, well, we're going to continue.
We've been really just saying,God, show us how you continue to
help us on this journey, totrust you and to look at your
word, and so we've been lookingat a number of passages.
We started a couple of sessionsago talking about the
Deuteronomy 8.
(00:51):
And really, again, what we'retrying to accomplish through our
time is how do we hear God'svoice, follow His lead, thrive
as disciples and recognizingthat trust is a big issue?
And last time we started todive into the area of trust and
some of the things that Hezekiah, king Hezekiah, was processing
(01:13):
through, and we talked aboutfaithfulness.
That faithfulness is one ofthose first keys that Hezekiah
said in 2 Kings 18.
This was in verse five and thiswas our verse that Hezekiah
trusted the Lord.
There was no one like Him amongall the kings of Israel, either
of Judah, either before orafter His time, and he remained
(01:33):
faithful to the Lord andeverything.
So the goal for us is how arewe going to encourage one
another daily in this journey?
How do we look at what thescriptures say about this area
of trust?
And so we're going to dig alittle deeper into this topic
today.
Michael Blue (01:47):
So can't wait, looking forward to it.
Dan Schilling (01:50):
Yeah, we'll play for us.
Michael Blue (01:52):
Yeah, let's do it.
God thanks so much for thisopportunity that we get to come
before you and we get to humblysubmit and listen and learn, and
so I just pray that you wouldteach Dan and I, and you would
teach the listeners, what itmeans to trust you, and that we
would have the confidence tostep out in trust as we seek to
(02:12):
know you more deeply and,ultimately, we seek to thrive in
relationship with you.
Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Dan Schilling (02:19):
Michael, I remember a few times ago we were
talking about the trust musclesand that's really the focus of
our time today and about how wetalked about how we're doing the
P90X and how that was one ofthose things that really
stretched us physically at thatpoint in time and I wouldn't try
it again, not at this stage oflife.
I don't have enough time.
(02:44):
I don't think I have thewillingness to be in so much
pain that I can't even walk togo to the bathroom.
Hardly that hurt so bad oh yeah, yeah and yeah.
Michael Blue (02:56):
We don't need to go down there on a trip.
Yeah, I couldn't do it againtoday.
Dan Schilling (03:03):
But the muscles.
I believe the God wants us,whether physically our muscles
are in shape now, but definitelywhat he wants for us are these
what we're calling trust musclesto be built.
And recognizing that, like manyother aspects of our physical
muscles, if we continue to keepourselves isolated and not
(03:25):
putting ourselves open, handedlyin the hands of our good, good
father, who's always trying tocontinue to mold us and fashion
us, shape us more into the imageand likeness of Jesus, and
recognizing that many times,that's going to put us in a
place where we need to trust him.
And that place of trust bringsus to one of the things we're
(03:46):
going to look at today is aplace of humility and say, okay,
you know this isn't going to beeasy, but I trust you.
And one of the other aspectsthat, in the midst of this
journey, that he wants thesemuscles to be built is so that
when this time of testing comes,we see and know him as a good,
(04:10):
good father and we know thathe's going to provide, he's
going to take care of us and notjust the material things of
life.
But when we get into the gym wewere just talking about a
scenario, something I've got todo tomorrow with someone that
really struggling in theirjourney and it's probably gonna
be a pretty hard time, aconversations and things around
it that I'm gonna need to trusthim and so to have wisdom and
(04:34):
insight and provision and trustthat God's gonna protect me and
watch over me and give me wisdomand counsel in the midst of
that situation, so ready thatour trust muscles are ready, so
that when God calls us tosomething, we're not like oh you
know like, but we recognizewho's the source, who has the
authority, whose authority we'reunder and where that's gonna
(04:55):
lead us.
So what are your thoughts?
Michael Blue (04:58):
Well, it's appropriate.
Yesterday I had the opportunityto preach at my church, yes,
and we're talking about Hebrews11, which is, you know, the hall
of faith, so-called right, andI was looking at really, 13
through 22,.
But in 17 to 19 is where ittalks about Abraham and Isaac
and God testing Abraham as hetold him to, commanded him to go
(05:23):
and sacrifice Isaac.
And as we looked at it, theword test there is really
strengthened, and so you know,there's this idea of
strengthening.
That happens in obedience andso you know, as I studied it and
thought about it and throughour conversations, I kind of
created a diagram.
It's not that profound, but Ithink that trust and faith start
in obedience and that's kind oflike the lifting right and so.
(05:46):
But what happens when I obey isthat I actually see that God's
faithful, I see that he doesfulfill his promises.
You know, Abraham was in thatconundrum of how in the world
can you fulfill this promisewhen you're asking me to kill
the seed of the promise, Like?
Dan Schilling (05:59):
that doesn't work .
Michael Blue (06:01):
And so you know even when we can't see it.
Dan Schilling (06:03):
It's counterintuitive, right.
I mean like something like thatdoesn't make sense yeah.
Michael Blue (06:09):
They can't reconcile, they're
irreconcilable to us, like Godhad a way, obviously.
And then, as we see God befaithful, it helps us, increase
our faith or increase our trust,increases our longing to
experience that nearness to God,in that trusting, which then I
think leads us, which we see inJacob's life, at the end of his
(06:30):
life, is that he's bowing overthe head of his staff in worship
, right as he's blessing thesons, and so it leads us to
worship, and then it leads us Imean we have like this cycle of
obedience and God's faithfulnessand increase.
We worship and we just continueto grow in this and we do this.
Testing or this strengtheningoccurs in these steps of
(06:50):
obedience that can seem really,really hard, where we can't see
a way through, but when we stepinto them, god has seen a way
through and we see that he'sfaithful to take us through.
Dan Schilling (07:00):
Yes, amen, amen.
Well, one other quick storyhere is this past year my wife
is actually gonna be on here ina couple of weeks on the podcast
here and I were talking thispast week of just something the
spirit of God had been workingin her, helping her hear God's
(07:21):
voice and follow, and she felt,you know, this past year of
school not this current year ofschool, but the past year that
the time for homeschooling wasover.
Now we've homeschooled, youknow are all seven of the boys
so far have all beenhomeschooled, some of them all
the way through Now the olderguys, the other ones.
So she's been doing this foralmost 20 years and sometimes
you get going in that samepattern.
(07:42):
But she knew inside somethingshe's now a piece, and it was
actually.
It was starting to become moreburden, you know.
It wasn't fulfilling anymore,and so we started at the
beginning of this early of thisyear, in January, february
started looking at Christianschools and started looking and
saying, okay, god, show us.
And so, long story short, wegot makes a way, he provides.
(08:04):
You know, I'm thinking how arewe gonna pay for this?
And then God provides all thesedifferent opportunities and
scholarship and everything.
So it's like okay, god, thankyou.
But here's kind of the big thingwas we were standing.
I was standing talking to a guyoutside of the school I had
just met in conversation.
(08:24):
He said well, you know that weturned away 700 families this
year and that you know, likethose moments where like wait
what?
Like 700 families and Iclarified it with the wife later
, I said I want to make sure Iheard you.
You said she said yes, not 700people, 700 families, like
multiple children per household,and we had just been in
(08:45):
conversation with another guy.
I said wow.
He said I can't believe thatyou got all four of your boys in
here.
No-transcript, there's peopleeven at this church that can get
their kids in here.
Like that's really amazing.
And it's like you have thatmoment.
You're like, wow, god, you, youprovided something that makes
no sense.
But my wife just kept believingthis is what God was leading
(09:08):
and that he was, she wastrusting him.
You know cause?
You're like we don't have themoney for that, we can't do this
, we can't do that.
And we're going to look at astory today about Hezekiah when
it's like we're going to likewe're in trouble here.
You know, god, we, there's noway this is going to work out,
and so I feel like for us, itwas just one of those moments
like a, a holy moment of like,oh my gosh, god, you, you
(09:31):
provided in a way there's no waythat could happen, but you
doing that when there's there's1400 people, there's two kids in
each family, you know, gotturned away.
Michael Blue (09:42):
So, yeah, I didn't even know the miracle that it
was no.
Dan Schilling (09:47):
I mean, that's the cool thing sometimes, right.
Like and then when God revealsit just in conversation, you're
like, oh my goodness God, and Ireally sure and I both said you
know, when David in the secondChronicle says who am I and who
are my people, I mean you would,you'd take care of us, like
this.
I mean that really was ourposture of our heart, Like, oh
(10:08):
my goodness, Lord, thank you somuch.
So I just I think it's againthis journey that we're on and
to encourage one another.
Right is God has a purpose, hehas a plan, and when we submit
to him and we put our hope andtrust in him to lead us, to
guide us, even when it's like,well, I just can't, it ain't
(10:28):
gonna work out, Like, trust me,just faithful, today, take the
next step, take the next step.
And so we're going to look atthat story today as well.
Good let's do it All right.
So let's bring this up.
We're going to give a littlecontext here.
We talked last time aboutHezekiah.
Again, he trusted the Lord.
(10:48):
He has a great heritage of amom who was Abijah.
We talked a little bit ago thatAbijah.
I looked this up.
She's the daughter of Zachariah, high priest.
Her name actually means myfather is the Lord, so Zachariah
names his daughter this myfather is the Lord, who she
(11:10):
probably again as we said lasttime disciples, trains up
Hezekiah in a way of loving andtrusting and knowing God as his
heavenly father, which is prettycool.
Yeah, that's good.
And then we see here where we'regoing to pick up.
I get this to scroll down here.
We're going to pick up today.
You and I were talking a littlebit about if folks you want to
(11:32):
read this and you can make yourown decision here about Hezekiah
strips the temple of all thethings, sends it to King
Sinachrib.
It's still not enough.
And we're going to pick up herethen in verse 17, after
Hezekiah is trying to do what'sright he's trying to keep the
kingdom kind of together andwe're going to see here how the
(11:56):
king of Assyria responds andthen kind of pick up and see
what Hezekiah and how heresponds in the midst of that
trouble.
So let's start there.
Good Verse 17.
Michael Blue (12:05):
Yes, verse 17, chapter 18.
Nevertheless, the king ofAssyria sent his commander in
chief, his field commander andhis chief of staff from Lake-ish
, with a huge army, to conqueror to confront King Hezekiah in
Jerusalem.
The Assyrians took up aposition beside the aqueduct
that feeds water into the upperpool, near the road leading to
the field where cloth is washed.
(12:25):
They summoned King Hezekiah,but the king sent these
officials to meet with themEliah Kim, son of Hokaia, the
palace administrator, shabna,the court secretary, and Joah,
son of Asaph, the royalhistorian.
Dan Schilling (12:42):
All right, so just a little story.
So you say, ok, king of Assyriasends not just a few dudes, but
he sends this as a huge army.
So we're going to see a littlebit of how big huge is to some
extent.
So so he sends this huge armyand they're coming to
essentially say you know whatwe're, we're going to show you
(13:06):
for what you didn't.
You know you weren't payingtribute money essentially on
time and doing some things.
And he tries to make itretribution, but apparently not
enough.
And then they call him out buthe doesn't even go out to meet
and he sends some kind of hiskey guys to go out and meet with
the messengers from KingSinakarib.
Michael Blue (13:29):
So we think, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got the
commander in chief, the chief ofstaff, you got the his best
right coming at you and maybe,yeah, yeah, and you know, I
imagine there's something goingon with Hezekiah here too is not
going out to meet, right, theking of Assyria didn't come, I'm
not going to go out.
(13:50):
So there's, you know, he's,yeah, a jockey.
Dan Schilling (13:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So let's see what he has to sayAll right.
Michael Blue (14:02):
So then the Syrians, king, king's chief of
staff, told them to give thismessage to Hezekiah.
This is what the great king ofAssyria says.
What are you trusting in thatmakes you so confident?
Do you think that mere wordscan substitute for military
skill and strength?
Who are you counting on that?
You have rebelled against me onEgypt.
If you lean on Egypt, it willbe like a reed that splinters
(14:22):
beneath your weight and piercesyour hand Farrow.
The king of Egypt is completelyunreliable.
But perhaps you'll say to me weare trusting the Lord, our God,
but isn't he the one who wasinsulted by Hezekiah?
Didn't Hezekiah tear down hisshrines and altars and make
everyone in Judah and Jerusalemworship only at the altar here
(14:43):
in Jerusalem?
I'll tell you what strike abargain with my master, the king
of Assyria.
I will give you 2,000 horses.
If you can find that many mento ride on them With your tiny
army, how can you think ofchallenging even the weakest
contingent of my master's troops, even with the help of Egypt's
chariots and charioteers?
What's more, do you think wehave invaded your land without
(15:07):
the Lord's direction?
The Lord himself told us attackthis land and destroy it.
Dan Schilling (15:13):
OK, things are not looking good.
That's smack talk right there.
That's like next level smacktalk.
We live in a culture a lot ofsmack talks is like, ok, here we
go, right, that's my love, theOld Testament, like, come on,
this is a great story.
Like this is going on stilltoday.
People are doing stuff likethis, right, like, oh yeah, I'll
show you.
So again, we look at this andAssyria come on, says, like you
(15:38):
know, first of all, who do youthink you guys are Like, who are
you putting your trust in?
You know, are you going to, youthink you're trusting in what?
Egypt?
You know, like your big brother, you think he's going to take
care of you?
Like we've already destroyedthem, so you don't have to, you
can count on them.
Are you trusting in God?
(15:58):
Oh, you're one of those youknow trusting in God.
Huh, isn't you know Hezekiah,the one who, kind of you know,
made everybody a little ruffledof feathers?
You know, get them tearing down.
We talked about last time theshrine, the altar, the share,
the share poles, like I don'tknow about that.
And, by the way, you know whoactually sent us to come kick
(16:19):
your butts?
God himself told us to come andtake care of you guys.
So I tell you what you get somehorses, and you probably don't
even have 2000 guys to put onthem.
I'll send you 2000 horses soyou can try to fight us.
Your tiny little army.
We brought our huge army.
You got your tiny little army.
Little bunch of grasshoppersLike what are you thinking here?
Michael Blue (16:41):
So, yeah, that's a , you know, in the picture of
the gods of that time and howthey even viewed it, right, I
mean, there was, you know, tothem, a plurality of gods, was,
was, no, was what everybodypretty much believed.
And so you know their God,israel's God, the gods of the
(17:02):
shrines, you know one and thesame at the end of the day, yes,
right.
Dan Schilling (17:08):
Another little Jobu doll on the On the on the
shelf right yeah lots of them.
Michael Blue (17:14):
Yes oh yeah, and you're got text to us too.
We talked.
Dan Schilling (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, which .
As I was reading through this,I thought you know what, when
you, when we're gonna see whathere goes on the rest of the
story, god may have told him togo do it.
Sure, right, trap, yeah, likeoops, you know?
Like, oh, shoot, we thought wewere coming because we were
gonna and talking trash andwhatever About it.
(17:40):
Like, oh yeah, I had you comeout of your pride and out of
your arrogance and yourfoolishness, thinking you're
gonna come Right, take home andyou're mocking them.
But really you're not mockingthem, you're mocking me.
But you know what?
I already knew that.
That's why I invited it down,thinking that you're coming to
attack and destroy them.
Michael Blue (17:58):
Yeah, I'm like.
Dan Schilling (18:00):
Okay, so I let's, let's pick up in 26 and
continue on the story.
Michael Blue (18:05):
Yeah, this classic response then, like him, son of
Halkia, shabna and Joa said tothe Assyrian chief of staff
Please speak to us and Aramaic,for we understand it.
Well, don't speak in Hebrew,for the people on the wall will
hear.
That's good.
He's like hey, stop scaringeverybody.
Dan Schilling (18:29):
Everybody's gonna wet their pants here if you
keep talking like that.
Just you know knock it off.
Michael Blue (18:34):
You're insulting us and, and they realize it, yes
, but Sennacheribs chief ischief of staff replied.
Do you think my master sentthis message only to you and
your master?
He wants all the people to hearit, for when we put this city
under siege, they will sufferalong with you.
They will be so hungry andthirsty that they will eat their
own dung and drink their ownurine.
Dan Schilling (18:56):
Now you talk about next level.
I'm talking it's getting even,it's getting worse right like
not only are we gonna destroyyou, not only we gonna, you're
gonna be so bad, so Decimated,you're gonna eat and drink your
own waste.
Michael Blue (19:13):
So that's pretty bad, yeah.
Yeah, I wonder, and I mean Iprobably shouldn't wonder in the
middle of a podcast dance.
I apologize, but that this manspeaks Hebrew, yes.
I mean the trade language wasaromatic and so that was the
common language, that that mostpeople would speak to one
another from different countries.
(19:34):
And Hebrew wasn't.
They weren't a big people.
Yes, I mean the chances of this.
Perhaps it was a sojourner inthe land of Hebrew.
Perhaps you know he had a nannyyeah, the chances are.
Maybe he was Hebrew, maybe hewasn't Israeli who had, you know
, defected more or less toAssyria.
Yeah and here he is.
Dan Schilling (19:56):
Yeah, right, because that's happened right.
I mean you, you have thatthroughout different times that
they've been Sent away and undersiege and under whatever else
right.
Michael Blue (20:07):
Very well, just stayed behind.
Like you know what these peopleare.
Dan Schilling (20:10):
Yeah, if he was intelligent like you think, like
Daniel Meshach, they wereintelligent, right, they were
smart, they were whatever andthey were put in charge and
doing different things.
So you know, chief of staffsmart guy, yeah, I.
So, yeah, all right, so thetalk's getting worse.
Let's continue on thediscussion here.
What's what's what's coming?
Michael Blue (20:32):
next.
All right.
Then the chief of staff stoodand shouted in Hebrew to the
people on the wall.
Listen to this message from thegreat king of Assyria.
This is what the king says.
Don't let Hezekiah deceive you.
He will never be able to rescueyou from my power.
Don't let him fool you intotrusting in the Lord by saying
the Lord will surely rescue us.
This city will never fall intothe hands of the Assyrian King.
(20:55):
Don't listen to Hezekiah.
These are the terms the king ofAssyria is offering.
Make peace with me, open thegates and come out.
Then each of you can continueeating from your own grapevine
and fig tree and drinking fromyour own.
Well, then I will arrange totake you to another land like
this, when the land of grain andnew wine, bread and vineyards,
olive groves and honey chooselife instead of death.
Dan Schilling (21:20):
Yeah, it's so interesting when you think about
how the ways of the world,things of whatever, like you
know not only you know are youfoolish, for you know, thinking
that Hezekiah is going toprotect you.
And again, you have tounderstand the Assyrians were
the world dominating culture atthe time and so, like everybody,
(21:42):
was being decimated by theAssyrians and we're going to see
it again in a minute like thesize of their army, the size of
what their power and theirauthority and everything was
going on.
So you know, when the biggestbully in town says, hey, give me
your lunch money and you don'tlike, hey, you know you're going
to take one of the worstbeatings out back here in just a
(22:02):
minute, you know.
And so don't don't let thelittle pipsqueak dude start
piping up telling you how you'renot going to get beat up and
I'm going to speak in your, yournative language here Like this
is what's going to happen.
So don't be fooled and youthink about this.
Bring this back into our ownlife sometime Again.
We have an adversary whoobviously is always trying to
(22:25):
steal, kill and destroy right,assault us, always tell us that
God's not trustworthy, you'renot whatever.
But we also sometimes havepeople around us when God calls
us to something.
And you have to remember, inthis story, hezekiah broke a
long standing tradition ofdisobedience, and so it's not
(22:49):
like this was they had somegenerational turn toward
obedience, and so these guysknow so like they're trying to
play on some of that as well.
Right, and there's sometimes inour life where people around us
you know like, hey, you knowyou can kind of do your own
church thing, but don't take ittoo far, like don't take this
trusting in God so far Don't.
And I know you and I both havemade some decisions in life, and
(23:12):
I know there's people even inour life that are close to us to
kind of look us like I don'tknow, that doesn't sound like
God to me.
You know they're Christians,they're well-wisher, but they're
not understanding.
You know what I got, this iswhat God's asking me to do.
And I think there's times likethis, as a Kaya is standing for
righteousness, wanting to dowhat's right, and these guys,
(23:36):
you know the outsider's comingand saying you're stupid, we're
going to, we're going todemolish you for this.
But I tell you what you know,we'll just, we won't beat you up
completely.
So just walk out, surrender,right, you know, open the gates,
come on out, here's the termsand and we won't have to
(23:56):
completely decimate you We'lltake you somewhere else that you
can start over and have goodthings, but don't be trusting
God.
You try to put your trust in inthe ways of the world, ways of
man Right.
Michael Blue (24:07):
Right, yeah, I mean, I think you get, you get
to in there, you get the promise.
I mean, and this is such theway that that, I think, happens
when we have this temptation totrust in other things and to
look at other things is thepromise that that God makes is,
you know, abducted by the otherpeople.
(24:28):
So you have this promise ofyour own great vine and fig tree
Right, this is a phrase thatyou see in scripture sitting
under your own vine and fig tree, and it's a, it's a picture of
safety, it's a picture ofprovision.
Yes, and whatnot?
Right, but it's a provisionfrom God, you know, giving us
each our vine and fig tree tohave fruit and food and shade.
(24:51):
And you know all of these,these things, and you're saying,
look, you want these things,come find them here, like it
will give them to you.
Your God can't give them to you.
Yes.
Dan Schilling (25:01):
Yeah, right, it's all is a well.
You got water, you're going tohave grain, new wine, bread,
vineyards, olive groves, honey,and to me, this big, interesting
cause Deuteronomy also has thesame.
You know, I said before yourlife and death, choose life, or
(25:22):
do guys say this one time islike God gives you a multiple
choice test and then gives youthe answer I said before your
life and death, choose you know,like a life a life.
Be deaf, you know.
Choose a, you know, and yetwhat happens is the majority of
us still choose be, which is I'mgoing to do it the way the
world or do it.
Hey, thanks for watching theFeedSheep podcast we're going to
(25:46):
.
Because this discussion was sorich and encouraging to Mike on
our both, we decided that weshould break this into two
episodes, and so next time, whatwe're going to do is give you
several things to think about inyour journey and building your
trust muscles.
As we've seen in the story ofHezakiah, we're going to
continue on and see what Goddoes, and what he wants for us
(26:09):
is to experience that type ofmiraculous event in our life
where we see God intervene, andso I just want to encourage you
to tune in.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the YouTube
channel or to your favoritepodcast platform, leave us a
comment If you would as well.
It always helps us, encourageus.
(26:29):
I want to encourage you on yourjourney to hear, follow and
thrive.
God bless you.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.