Take WISE COUNSEL to make the RIGHT DECISIONS
May 5
Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles Chapters 10-12
Take WISE COUNSEL to make the RIGHT DECISIONS
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before
his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, "How do you advise me to
answer these people?" And they spoke to him, saying, "If you are kind
to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your
servants forever." But he rejected
the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had
grown up with him, who stood before him. (2 Chron 10:6-8)
Rehoboam
became the king of Israel after the death of his father Solomon. We know that
Solomon had corrupted his wisdom towards the later part of his life. Unlike his
father David, Solomon did not make any attempts to teach or train his son in
righteousness or the ways of God. So, when King Rehoboam became the king of
Israel, he did not have any relationship with the God of Israel nor Shemaiah
the man of God (2 Chron 11:2). That is the reason why King Rehoboam turned to
both the elders (his father’s advisers) and the young men (his peers) in order
to make an appropriate decision.
Unfortunately,
Rehoboam rejected the good counsel of his father’s advisers and consulted his
peers, who told him he should not give an inch and in fact should increase the
pressure on the people (2 Chron 10:6–11). Foolishly Rehoboam agreed and thus
forfeited the Northern Kingdom (2 Chron 10:12–14, 16). We should however note
that the young king’s stupidity was itself playing into the will of God, who
had already decreed that the kingdom would split up after Solomon (2 Chron
10:15; 11:4; 1 Kings 11:29–39). Rehoboam’s last-ditch efforts at reconciliation
failed, and the united kingdom of Israel was torn into two parts (2 Chron.
10:19). The grandeur and glory of the days of King David and Solomon would
never return back to Israel…!!!
This
incident teaches us the importance of taking wise counsel to make the right
decisions in life. We can’t always make right decisions but with God’s help and
godly counsel we can always make decisions right. The word of God has much to
say about heeding to wise counsel:
- A wise man will hear and increase
learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel (Prov 1:5)
- Give instruction to a wise man, and
he will be still wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. (Prov 9:9)
- Where there is no counsel, the people
fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. (Prov 11:14)
- The way of a fool is right in his own
eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. (Prov 12:15)
- Without counsel, plans go awry, but
in the multitude of counselors they are established. (Prov 15:22)
- Listen to counsel and receive
instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days. (Prov 19:20)
Let us be careful to seek God and wise godly counselors when it comes time to take major decisions in life. Let us learn from the story of Rehoboam and be wise in not repeating his mistake in our lives!
