After Seeking Advice


Jeroboam thought to himself that “the kingdom, will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam. After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. 1 Kings 12:26-28

Advice is good. Bad advice is, well, bad. How can you tell the difference between the two? In the case of the passage above, Jeroboam knew what he was doing but wanted his counselors to sanction it. Kings and powerful leaders throughout history have surrounded themselves with "yes men." Followers learn quickly what to say and what not to say around their king. Often their lives depended on it. So too was the case with Jeroboam. He knew what he wanted, probably let his counselors know it too and wanted verification that he was doing right.

We do this in a more subtle way in our lives. We really really want to do something. The thing we are thinking about may be a very good thing. We think and believe in our minds that God must be in it since it's the only thing we've been thinking about for days and why would he put this in our minds for such a long time if it wasn't from Him? Then you ask God to sanction (bless) it when you actually go through with it.

The lines are often blurred between what we want and what we believe God wants. Too often we let our emotions get in the way. Too often what we want is not at all what God wants but we're afraid of letting go for fear of losing something we really really wanted. What's worse is when this applies to relationships we know deep down aren't healthy or right for us. We continue in them anyway and ask God to bless something that is flawed and unhealthy from the start.


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