To Encourage You

2 Samuel 16:20-23 “Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, ‘Give your counsel. What shall we do?’ . . .  Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom.”

The Bible is clear that we should not go through life as if we know it all. Each and every one of us needs the counsel and help of others in many ways.  The wisdom of Solomon tells us that “In abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14).  As life goes on and the responsibilities we shoulder grow ever greater, we should seek counsel and take advantage of others who are perhaps older and wiser than us.  Young parents would do well to seek the counsel of others who have already “been there and done that.”  Supervisors in a work setting should seek the counsel of others who have led well.  Governmental leaders need the counsel of many advisors in order to govern well.  Governors and presidents don’t know it all. There are experts in such fields as the military, economics, and education that they must trust and lean on. Presidents have cabinets that are composed of such people. It’s always been that way, as we see from the passage above from 2 Samuel.  

Here the person seeking counsel is Absalom.  He’s attempting to usurp the throne of his father David.  As he enters Jerusalem after David has fled, he needs counsel as to what to do next.  And so he turns to Ahithophel.  Ahithophel had a reputation of knowing the right thing to do.  He had demonstrated this to David when he counseled him. In fact, he had a reputation that “the counsel he gave was as if one consulted the word of God.”  But he had become a traitor against David, and now he was offering his services to Absalom, whom he presumed would become the new king.  His counsel? He encourages Absalom to sleep with the concubines David had left behind when he had fled.  He counsels him to do it in a way that all of Israel would know about it. Why? So that “all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”  

Ahithophel’s counsel was that Absalom so dishonor his father that there would be no turning back.  It would be a means of “pulling out all the stops” if you will, in his efforts to get his own way by usurping his father’s throne.  And so Absalom followed the “wisdom” of Ahithophel, and in so doing started down a path of his own doom.  

You see, although the Bible tells us to seek counselors, it tells us to be very careful about who those counselors are. Psalm 1 puts it this way, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, or stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”  In other words, it is the counsel of God given to us through the Holy Spirit, that should be our ultimate guide.  Every Christian has a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and as such, every Christian has a resident teacher with Whom they can consult. It is and awesome privilege and wonderful safeguard against being led astray.  

I’m reminded of the Christians at Berea whom the Bible holds up as a model in this regard. It calls them “noble” because “they received the word (from Paul and Silas, no less) with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).   They didn’t just swallow everything they heard, even if it was given to them by the leaders of the early church.  In fact, Paul himself had written to the Galatian believers that “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). No believer should just take as “gospel” what others say to them, no matter who they are.  Although receiving counsel is prudent, that counsel should always be evaluated against the backdrop of the Word of God.   

Absalom didn’t do that. He sought counsel but that counsel was in how to oppose God’s anointed king, not in how to serve him. And so he was doomed from the start.  Psalm 33:10 tells us that “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples,” i.e., He will always, in one way or another, bring the counsel of those who are opposed to Him to a bitter end.  But to those who love Him, to those who will “acknowledge him in all their ways,” our Lord promises to wonderfully and faithfully, “make straight (their) paths” (Proverbs 3:6).  

Oh, that our governmental leaders would turn to counselors who love the Lord to receive counsel rather than to those who counsel in ways that are anything but.  But no matter what they do, no matter what anyone else does, even if they serve as leaders in the church of Jesus Christ, may God help us to examine all that they say in the light of the Scriptures, for that’s the only place we can receive the perfect and unadulterated counsel of God.