Wise Counsel

Maybe you're an old testament buff, maybe you're someone who rarely flips to the front half of your bible. Some people feel like all that old stuff is just too hard to read and, well boring, but as I was studying through 1 Kings this past week I got really excited. Why, well because in a lot of ways it felt like I was reading an early script from one of the Lord of the Rings trilogies. Kings, wars, prophets, false gods, and an all powerful God showing up at just the right time to prove himself over and over again. Now admittedly I'm not the super intellectual type, but I do believe the Lord has used my time in this book to enlighten me and win my heart back to some serious personal studies of these "older" books!! Don't get me wrong I'm no stranger to the stories of King Solomon, and the prophet Elijah, but like a lot of people I know, I tend to start skipping sections when I see a chapter about a guy named Zimri (1 kings 16:15), King of Israel for all of 7 count em' now, 7 days. What's interesting is that the back stories of all these seemingly unimportant people are the very things that make the Lord's movement in later chapters, sometimes even in later books, so powerful.

For instance, Zimri was succeeded by a King named Omri who was an evil man that bought a hill called Samaria, turned it into the new capitol of Israel and led his people to false gods, doing more evil than any before him. Now fast forward to Luke chapter 33 and you hear Jesus talk about the good Samaritan… WHAT??? The good Samaritan?? Are we talking about the same godless Samaria that was bought and built by Omri in 1 Kings?? Yep we are, and suddenly the story in Luke isn't just about a good person, but about a person of a shamefully godless decent showing the true nature of a follower of Christ. Isn't it just like Jesus to use the least of these?? How cool is it that God's plans stay in tact even when we mess them up with our sinful nature? Maybe these Old Testament books aren't useless after all huh??

Ok now that this book isn't a waste of our time how about we get down to the point. The theme that kept jumping out at me in this book is the theme of WISE COUNSEL. We're focus in on 1 Kings chapter 22. Jehoshophat was the king of Judah and by all accounts a pretty alright guy, he followed after the Lord in all his ways. Now Jeho (we'll call him that for short) had a friend named Ahab who was the king of Israel for 22 years. Ahab wanted to take back a city he thought belonged to him and he asked his friend Jeho to go to war with him. Jeho's reply was, as long as you ask the Lord and He says go, I will go. So Ahab brought together 400 of his false prophets and asked them to prophesy over the war and of course they fed his ego… telling him to go. Jeho wasn't impressed and told Ahab that he wanted a prophet of the Lord to prophesy and with some reservation Ahab brought in the only prophet he knew to town. Michaiah prophesied to the Kings telling them that they would not win the war, but Ahab decided to go anyway and Jeho, in a not so smart move, went with him. They went to war and Jeho was almost killed because he was mistaken for Ahab in the battle. As Michaiah had prophesied Ahab was killed and that, my friends, is the long and short of it.

Jehoshophat knew full well that he was walking into a situation with a evil king named Ahab, and though he tried to be the accountability for his friend, he still followed him knowingly into a situation that God had told him not to go near. He was sitting in the same room with King Ahab when Michaiah told them that they would surely not return victorious. And as Ahab's blind ambition led him to his death, it nearly cost Jeho his life.

Now I don't know where you are today or what you are facing, but I know this… there are times when we decided to trust a gut feeling (ie. ourselves), or to ignore wise counsel all together to follow our ambitions. I've even seen people follow others that they don't even agree with because they are afraid of the conflict that disagreement brings. I've even seen that happen with Church staff members at times. Why do we not run to Jesus and listen to the wise counsel that he sends our way?? Is it because you don't have wise counsel? Is it because you can handle this life and it's challenges all by yourself? That is a voice that sounds eerily similar to one King Ahab. Brothers and sisters I would challenge you not to trust yourself, but to seek the Lord in all that you do.

Let me ask one more question, are you a follower of Jesus who has found it hard to speak up when your boss, co-workers, pastors, friends etc. have asked you to follow them into something that you don't feel aligns with the Lords will for your life/ministry. I would love to challenge you as well to recognize that God wouldn't have you to ignore the warning signs that He's throwing at you, and He wouldn't have you remain silent as you face these challenges. I'm not saying anything other than this, Jeho knew full well that Ahab was walking him into a disaster, and he decided to follow a blinded leader instead of becoming the leader he was meant to be and stand up for the truth.

You are powerful people, powerful beyond measure…. and at some point you have to decide that the only voice in your life that you will listen to is the voice of God. I encourage you to surround yourself with wise counsel that will help you to discern His voice and be willing to step up to the plate should you be the one that God is calling to be the counselor.

Many Blessings,
Jason from B429