Road Rules: Wise Counsel

Proverbs 15:22 

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

Self-counsel. It will get you into trouble every time. Left to ourselves, we can rationalize just about anything…even sin. Here are some examples of self-counsel that did not end well. 

• Running from Saul and exhausted, David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 27:1 NIV). Don’t do it, David! Joining forces with the enemy is never a good idea. To make a long story short, the whole episode ended with David’s men almost stoning him to death.
• In the turmoil following Solomon’s death, Jeroboam, who was contending for leadership, thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.” To keep this from happening, he built golden calves for the people to worship instead of the living God. Not a good idea (See 1 Kings 12:26-33 NIV).
• Haman, whose plan was to eliminate the Jews, thought he would receive high honor from the king. So he said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” But, instead, it turned out that Haman was “honored” with his own hanging (See Esther 6).
• Jesus told a parable about a rich fool with more crops than storage space in his barns. So, the man thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” He solved the problem by tearing down his barns and building larger ones, but God had other plans for the man. “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (See Luke 12).

Self-counsel. I am sure each one of us could add a story or two to the list. But then again, just because we’ve relied on our own self-counsel in the past doesn’t mean we need to repeat the pattern.

Father, may we be wise enough to learn from the mistakes of others without making their mistakes our own. Lord, may we be wise enough to learn from our past mistakes and not repeat them.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.