“Rejecting Good Counsel” – FBC Morning Light (5/24/2023)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. I hope your week is going well thus far. We're halfway through.

This is another week in the month of May. Today in our Bible reading, we're reading in 2 Samuel 17 -18,

Acts 14, and the 103rd Psalm. I'm really tempted to focus on Psalm 103.

There's supposed to be words of encouragement, and I'll tell you, there's some great encouragement in that 103rd

Psalm, talking about the wonderful benefits that the Lord offers to His people.

If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes and read through the 103rd Psalm, and look at the blessings that God offers us, the blessings of forgiveness and healing and redemption, and the blessing of His steadfast love and mercy,

His good gifts that He gives us that bring satisfaction and joy to our souls.

I could spend several days focusing on some of these things, but I want to look at something in 2

Samuel 17, because it brings out a reality that, unfortunately, we are seeing all too much of in our day, in the political arena, in the governmental arena.

Why is it that good, good, wise counsel is rejected?

Why does that happen? Well, hang on to that question, and let's look at chapter 17.

Chapter 17 of 2 Samuel, we're right in the throes of the rebellion of Absalom and his usurpation of the throne.

David is on the run, and he's fled the city of Jerusalem, Absalom has come in and occupied the city, and he's got a counselor by the name of Ahithophel, who is notorious for giving good, good counsel.

So he calls Ahithophel, Absalom does, and he says, what do you think we should do here, so that the kingdom might be securely grasped in my hand?

And Ahithophel gives him some good advice. He says, I think what you should do is, let me choose out 12 ,000 men and arise to pursue

David tonight, and we'll come upon him, he's going to be weary, he's going to be tired, we'll do a shock and awe attack, if you will, and all the people who are with him, they'll flee because of our shock and awe, and I'll just kill the king.

We'll just make sure David gets executed. And then he says,

I will bring back all the people to you, when all return except the man whom you seek, all the people will be at peace.

And the saying, please, Absalom, he said, well, that's really a good plan, that's an excellent plan.

We've got fresh troops, David's men are on the run, they're tired, they're weary, they're panicking, they're feeling like they're defeated, that's a good plan.

But then he says, let me just, for the sake of argument, get the advice of another man, man by the name of Hushai.

And Hushai has been left in Jerusalem by David for the very purpose of giving counsel to kind of offset the counsel of Ahithophel, and Hushai has been effective at deceiving

Absalom into thinking that he's going to be a loyalist to Absalom. And so Absalom calls

Hushai, and Hushai comes and says, Absalom says, here's what the advice is of Ahithophel, and Hushai says, you know, that's not bad advice, but it's not good at this time.

Here's what I think we should do. Let him get away, that's okay, but what we're going to do is we're going to round up everybody in Israel, all the soldiers in Israel, and if David goes and hides himself in a city, then we'll just go and get ropes and tie ropes around this city, and we'll drag that city into the sea, and destroy that city, and David, and then everything will be firmly grasped in your hands.

And now, if nothing else, just that bravado on the part of Hushai, you know, we're going to grab this, we're going to pull this city into the river by ropes, you know, okay, sounds a little bit extreme, right?

It should tell you something. Well, anyway, verse 14 says, Absalom and all the men of Israel said, the advice of Hushai the

Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel. So they rejected the good advice of Ahithophel.

Why did they do that? Why did they do that? The next statement tells us, and it also tells us that that was good advice, here's what it says, for the

Lord had purposed to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel to the intent that the

Lord might bring disaster on Absalom. Isn't that profound?

There was something going on behind the scenes that neither Ahithophel, or Absalom, or the men who were with Absalom, the men of Israel with Absalom, or even

Hushai, none of them knew that this was going on. And what is it?

The Lord. The Lord was working. The Lord worked in the hearts and the minds of Absalom and the men of Israel to cause them to come to the conclusion that the good advice of Ahithophel was actually to be rejected and they rejected it.

All right, now let's fast forward into the year 2023. Why do you think some bad decisions get made in the halls of Congress?

Why is it that some good counsel is rejected from the

White House? Why do you suppose that is? Ponder that one today.

And so, our Father and our God, I pray that we would realize that even behind the scenes of all the affairs that are taking place in Washington, or in Springfield, or any other state capital, behind it all, there is your unseen work, and sometimes you cause good advice to be rejected because of what you want to do in the affairs of men in political power.

And so, Lord, I pray that we would trust you, we would trust you, even in the decisions and the affairs of government that take place from day to day.

Sometimes the things that cause us to shake our heads in disbelief help us to realize you're working, you're working behind the scenes, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, I hope that's an encouragement to you today to realize that the

Lord is working behind the scenes. All right, listen, have a good