「我要安靜，在我的居所觀看。」－以賽亞書18:4
神靜靜的在祂的居所裡向下觀看，讓太陽依舊普照他們；但不過頃時之間，尚不到收成時節，耶和華的使者轉眼消滅張狂的亞述大軍，好像農夫用鐮刀俐落地修剪枝葉。
這是件奇特的事，神竟然靜默不語，在祂的居所裡觀看。
然而，祂的無聲不代表默許，祂的緘默也不代表同意。祂乃是在等待時機成熟，然後迅速起身興起。祂讓惡者的圖謀眼看就要成功之際，起來用災禍毀滅他們。
當我們見到這世上的邪惡，想到惡人通達順遂，自己卻被踩在底下掙扎痛苦時；讓我們記得這件事：神正安靜觀看。
我們還可以從另一個角度來觀看主耶穌處事的方式。
一天夜裡，祂不動聲響，在黑暗中觀看暴風中的門徒們在海面上搖櫓甚苦。當拉撒路病危時，祂遙遙遠眺伯大尼哀聲不絕，忍心等候拉撒路一天天邁向死亡，甚至入棺下土。
祂總是等到最後一刻，才作最有效的處理。
親愛的，神是否也對你的處境默然不語呢？
祂並非不留心關切，祂正在旁靜觀一切。祂的手正輕壓你的脈搏，靜靜細數它的跳動起伏；當祂認為時候到了，祂自然就會出面拯救。
－每日靈修集註
"I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place" (Isa. 18:4, RV).Assyria was marching against Ethiopia, the people of which are described as tall and smooth. And as the armies advance, God makes no effort to arrest them; it seems as though they will be allowed to work their will. He is still watching them from His dwelling place, the sun still shines on them; but before the harvest, the whole of the proud army of Assyria is smitten as easily as when sprigs are cut off by the pruning hook of the husbandman.
Is not this a marvelous conception of God--being still and watching? His stillness is not acquiescence. His silence is not consent. He is only biding His time, and will arise, in the most opportune moment, and when the designs of the wicked seem on the point of success, to overwhelm them with disaster. As we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of wrong-doing; as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us, let us remember these marvelous words about God being still and beholding.
There is another side to this. Jesus beheld His disciples toiling at the oars through the stormy night; and watched though unseen, the successive steps of the anguish of Bethany, when Lazarus slowly passed through the stages of mortal sickness, until he succumbed and was borne to the rocky tomb. But He was only waiting the moment when He could interpose most effectually. Is He still to thee? He is not unobservant; He is beholding all things; He has His finger on thy pulse, keenly sensitive to all its fluctuations. He will come to save thee when the precise moment has arrived. --Daily Devotional Commentary
