“‘Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.'” (Isaiah 36:16-17)

Isaiah 36 describes how Sennacherib’s army invaded Judah, seized all of their strongholds, and surrounded Jerusalem.  The Babylonian general, Rabshakeh, mocked the beseiged Judeans, and called for their surrender.  And he also made them an offer, found here in :16-17, to give them peace and provision in exchange for their surrender: “eat each of his vine … until I come and take you away to a land … of grain and new wine …”.  Basically the offer was: trade the perilous place that your God has you in, for safety and prosperity — and surrender to the enemy.

That’s not much different from the offer that the enemy of our souls makes to many followers of Christ.  When we are walking with God by faith, we may face times of disappointment, hardship, and even danger.  Sometimes there is a little voice that would encourage us to take Rabshakeh’s “bargain” — to trade the hardships of Kingdom living, by faith, for “peace and security”, if we only give up that “radical” godly lifestyle and surrender to a compromised life.

It’s an attractive deal to many.  If our greatest desire is peace and comfort and “security” then we will “sign the peace treaty” with the enemy — but we will also never see the glory of God and what He desired to do with us.

So you have a choice: worldly comfort & security, or radical trust in God?  But you can’t have both.