FBC Morning Light – May 20, 2023

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We are in 2 Samuel chapters 9 and 10 this morning, and in chapter 9 of 2

Samuel, David is looking to do something nice for anyone who is a descendant of Saul, and he finds the

Jonathan's son, who is the only one apparently left alive, Mephibosheth, and brings him in and has this young man at his table, or may not be so young of a man at that point, but at his table and makes certain that he has bread to eat from his table the rest of his life.

And so in that spirit of doing nice to others, in chapter 10,

David hears that the king of Ammon has died, king of the people of Ammon died, and Hanun, his son, reigns in his place.

So David decides to do something nice for Hanun and sends a delegation to offer comfort and support because his father, the king of Ammon, had done nice and regarded

David well. And so when he gets there, or when this delegation gets there, or before they get there,

Hanun takes counsel with his...I

don't know what to call it, his leadership, his advisors, and they say, oh,

I wouldn't trust this David guy. He's probably going to spy on you with these people.

And so this is what it says. It says, and the princes of the people of Ammon said to Hanun, Hanun, their lord, do you think that David really honors your father because he has sent comforters to you?

Has David not rather sent his servants to you to search the city, to spy it out and overthrow it?

Therefore Hanun took David's servants, shaved off half of their beards, cut off their garments in the middle at their buttocks, and sent them away.

When they told David, he sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed.

And the king said, wait at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.

So David is attempting to do something nice here, but because of the very poor advice that Hanun receives, he does something that makes the

Ammonite people just a horrible sight to the

Israelites. And so it actually causes a battle where the

Ammonites hire the Syrians and things don't go well for the Syrians or the

Ammonites from that point forward. But the point of this is that the bad counsel had very negative results.

It reminds me actually of 1 Kings chapter 12.

And so let me set the stage here very quickly. 1 Kings chapter 12,

Solomon has just died and his son Rehoboam is being appointed to the throne to be the king over the undivided land.

And so the Israelites led by Jeroboam go to Rehoboam and say, hey, your father taxed us very heavily.

Could you please lift that burden? And Rehoboam says, give me three days.

And in three days, he consults the advisors to Solomon, his father, and they say, you know, if you do well with these people, you treat them well, they're going to be your people forever.

And then he consults the young men that he grew up with, and they say, no, don't do that.

And be harsh to them so that they know they're supposed to follow you kind of thing.

And so what the advisors to Solomon said, they said, if you will be a servant to these people and serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.

That was the good advice. But it says that Rehoboam rejected the advice which the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.

And he said to them, what advice do you give? How would you answer this people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke, which your father put on us.

Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him saying, thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you saying, your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us.

Thus you shall say to them, my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist.

And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke.

My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges.

So he's saying he's going to make things much worse. And well, to make a long story short here,

Jeroboam then rebels with 10 of the 12 tribes against the leadership of Rehoboam, and the nation of Israel is divided into the northern and southern kingdoms for the rest of the

Old Testament. So what's the point here? None of us are likely to be kings at any time soon, and so let me give you four areas of caution when it comes to who you should be listening to.

And there are four areas where I want to give just quick caution where you can have bad ideas come from.

The first place is your internal thoughts. You don't always want to just assume the worst of someone or in any situation, but try and base what your thoughts are based on what the truth is.

You say someone didn't say hello to you, or you have some picture you think they're upset with you.

Go and ask. Don't assume that something is wrong. Sometimes your friends can be your worst enemies.

Do you get together with friends to complain about how things are going at church, or with the preaching, or with the way the world is going, or what

God has done or not done for you? Those friends can sometimes be your worst enemy.

That's the second area. Third area, if you are in a church situation where they have rejected either outright or have a functional denial of the authority of Scripture, maybe it's that they don't preach the

Word, or maybe it is that they openly teach things that aren't true from Scripture, that they take other sources of authority as at a level of Scripture.

That would be a bad place to be in, and you will receive bad advice. And finally, this was more common in our day.

This wouldn't have been a problem 20 or 30 years ago, but internet discernment ministries, they have their place, but they should not be the place where you feed most often.

All right, I'll leave those things to you to ponder today, and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the examples we have of people receiving very bad advice, and we see that the bad advice leads to bad thoughts that lead to bad decisions that lead to bad results.

Help us in our lives today to recognize through the truth of your

Word when we are receiving or listening to these bad thoughts and the bad advice.

May you be glorified in us. Help us to walk with you this day. It's in your Son's name,

Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.