Bad Advice

Todays Reading – 2 Samuel 10 – 12

I will resist the temptation this morning to discuss chapters 11 and 12 regarding David, Bathsheeba, and Urriah.  I have spoken much about these passages in times past; and I am sure that most of the people reading this are well familiar with that tragic period in David’s life.  Instead, I would like to focus on chapter 10.  David sincerely wants to shew a kindness to his neighbor to the east, Hanun, the King of the Ammonites.  Apparently Hanun’s father was a friend to David, and David wanted to continue the friendship through Hanun. 

When David sends some of his servants into Ammon to see Hanun, no doubt bearing gifts and sending a message of comfort from David regarding the death of Hanun’s father, the advisors of Hanun are distrustful of David’s intentions; and convince the king that David is their enemy.  The Ammonites then do a stupid thing: they humiliate David’s men by shaving off half of their beards and making them go back to Israel naked.  Remember, at this time Israel is the big kid on the block.  Now because of his stupidity; and because of the bad advice he receives, Hanun is facing an all out war with David.

None of this had to happen.  Hanun acted impulsively because he had counselors around him feeding him with bad information.  We need to be careful about the people we allow in our lives.  We need to be careful about the influences in our lives.  Bad counsel leads to bad decisions.   Let’s surround ourself with balanced, godly people who will be careful to offer only biblically based and prayerful advice to us.

PS – One thought on chapter 11 (I couldn’t resist.)  Among all of the other things that helped cause David’s sin with Bathsheeba, I thought about his lack of accountability.  David had nobody close to him that could stand up and say, “David, what you are about to do is wrong, and I won’t let you do it, or get away with it.”  There were obviously people (servants, etc.) that knew what David was doing, yet nobody challenged him.  We need people around us who will stand for the truth even at the expense of going against us. 


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Sara Scates
Sara Scates
13 years ago

Pastor, I agree 100% with the comments you made. I remember a quote that was often used when I was a student in public schools. It was, “You are the crowd you hang with.” In my naivety, I didn’t buy into it and thought I could HANG with a crowd but not BECOME that crowd. I was so wrong. The quote was so right. One step at a time, I became just like the rest of the crowd- caught up in sin and heading the wrong direction. The thing about this crowd though, in everything that they did wrong- they did some things very right. Crowds like these, in my experience, are very accountable to eachother. They are filled with counselors and people willing to give advice. The crowd wants to keep the crowd intact so they do whatever it takes to keep others within. The crowd also wants to see their crowd grow, so they do what it takes to bring others in. The people of the crowd are right in all these things that they do to keep the crowd growing and keeping the others going in the same direction that they are. But, they are going the wrong way. They are advocating to do the wrong things. The advice that they give is a path to destruction. This is what we, as Christians, should be doing within our crowd: actively seeking new people to add to OUR crowd, reaching out to those within to offer friendship and encouraging words, or lending an ear, showing love, and giving spirit-filled counsel when one may be straying away from the crowd. I love what Pastor said at the end of his thoughts: “We need people around us who will stand for the truth even at the expense of going against us.” Imagine how our crowd could grow if we simply did these things! I know for myself, even after I got saved and had been attending church for a while, it was hard to leave my old crowd behind. I was convicted about the things that they did and the worldly ways they stood for, but it was still hard to part ways with them. It wasn’t until people in the church began to offer their friendship and began to welcome me into their crowd, that I felt ‘safe’ to discontinue the fellowship with the old crowd. At that point I was glad to start turning to my new ‘Christian’ crowd for counsel and direction rather than the garbage the people of the world had to offer me. I think I’d be safe to say that I’m not the only one that has or will experience this, especially among the teen or singles-type crowds. Keeping God as the center, we can all do a little better at developing the crowd around us.

Gary Geiger
Gary Geiger
13 years ago

Interesting point this “crowd” you speak of Sara. I have witnessed good crowds do both bad and good and bad crowds do both good and bad. I think about the “crowd” that followed Jesus, the crowd that yelled: “Crucify Him” and the “crowd” that was at the cross. Crowds are made of people and from time to time people will let you down. People will forsake you. People will choose what benefits them. I have been sued by christian people, mocked by christian people, lied to by christian people, betrayed by christian people and left by the wayside by christian people. I wounder if Jesus ever felt exactly as I do about the “Crowd”???

Sara Scates
Sara Scates
13 years ago

Gary, strangely I also very much agree with you. When writing, the crowd that often surrounded Jesus of course came to mind but for the sake of not letting my comment get too long I didn’t even touch on that. Trust me when I say that I am also very much aware of what a Christian crowd is capable of. To all the things you mentioned, except being sued, I could say: me too, me too, me too. Evenso, I still find it important to be in fellowship with other believers that are heading in the same direction that you are. I suppose the main point of my comment could be found in the last sentence. “Keeping God as the center, we can all do a little better at developing the crowd around us.” It was meant as an encouragement to Christians reading to be mindful of the crowd we associate with and how we can help to keep the crowd we’re in moving closer to the Lord. Like Pastor spoke of, in just this short passage of Scripture, there are several examples of how accountability could have prevented ruin. Man is evil and sinful by nature, but if we all could strive to be more Christ-like individually and toward eachother- how much greater our ‘crowd’ could be.

stephanie ciliberto
stephanie ciliberto
13 years ago

I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone for the prayers for Roman. Roman did have a little bit of a rough night last night from being sore after surgery but otherwise he is doing well.This and other trials I have experienced lately have shown that God really has his hand over my family and I. At times its very hard to put all your trust in the Lord ecspecially being a person like myself who hasn’t been saved a very long but once you do it feels so much better and the end result is Gods will whether it be good or bad. The trials I have encountered lately have did two things in my life and that’s pull me closer to God and the need of being more obedient in the walk of the Lord.Again thankyou all and we love you.Roman is sound asleep in his own bed tonight 🙂 Praise the Lord!

Gary Geiger
Gary Geiger
13 years ago

Thank you Sara. Accountability is a whole different ball of wax. It involves risk between two people because in order for it to work trust must be formed between both people, that means having to let go of pride and be willing to be open and honest to each other. It is not so one person can judge the other person or have a ruleing spirit over another person. I do agree that Christ must be the center of all. Honestly, though, I personally have hidden many sins from God. (I know he see’s them) but I have not been willing to be open and honest with God or myself for a long time. I currently am looking for an accountability partner. If there is anyone out there who wants to help let me know? Thanks

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