Prayer: Father, may I seek the advice of elders who are plugged into You. Amen.
Reading: 2 Chronicles 10 key: vs. 6-8 “Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” They answered him saying, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he disregarded the counsel that the elders had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.” TLV
Attention: I remember a day when my paternal grandfather visited us when I was a teenager. My grandmother and he we on their return trip to Minnesota, when somewhere approaching the Cascade Mountains, they were pulled over by a state trooper. The trooper asked for his license and registration and my grandfather complied. After inspecting my grandfather’s license, registration, and plates, he asked my grandfather about having an Iowa mailing address and Minnesota plates. My grandfather confirmed that the address and plates were correct. The officer was young and had never seen two different states represented. So, he told my grandfather, “It is not possible to have a rural address in one state and plates in another. My grandfather’s response, “son, it is not only possible, but it is also the truth. You have not lived long enough.”
There is a reason that God established a system of “elders” to counsel Moses and the Hebrew nation (Exodus 3:16; 4:29). God’s system had worked for all these years and suddenly, Solomon’s son Rehoboam, decides against the counsel of the elders and for the counsel of young men he had grown up with.
His actions led to the dividing and the fracture, of the United Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam had come to Rehoboam requesting leniency on taxation of the northern tribes. His strong position of increasing the burden on the northern tribes led them to revolt under Jeroboam’s leadership.
What is the first order of business? The former united family of Israel was united by having One God, Adonai, and the entire nation traveling to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple Solomon had built. Now that they had seceded from Judah, they did not want the people of the north traveling to Jerusalem. So, new worship centers were established in northern Israel and Jeroboam appointed new priests “for the high places, for the he-goats and for the calves that he had made.” The family feud was on, the nation was divided not only geographically, but their former oneness in Adonai was forsaken.
The cost was high. Forsaking the counsel of the elders, cost Rehoboam the northern tribes and a United Kingdom.
Forsaking wise counsel, elder counsel, and embracing poor counsel, young counsel, will cost us too. Consider the counsel you are receiving. Is the counsel Spirit filled and of God? Or is it worldly counsel? The decisions we make in life apart from Godly counsel will cost us and the people we are responsible for, much grief.
Action: I choose to seek Spirit filled elder counsel for my life decisions.
Yield: I choose to submit to the Spirit in seeking His counsel and the counsel of elders.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Spirit’s help in making all of life’s decisions.
Relationship: I choose to live in intimate, holy, obedient relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, may we seek the Holy Spirit counsel in all we do and avail ourselves to Holy Spirit filled elder counsel when available. Amen.
Memory Verse: Jacob (James) 5:14-16 “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of Messiah’s community, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So confess your offenses to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” TLV
Music Video: Petra—Council of the Holy https://youtu.be/ubuvwMKiYr8?si=SrXaYcxgdb46MCwo
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”