PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 KJV).

Where are there no good and wise counsel? The company break room is one place. A bar is another. There is no proper counsel at the lodge club. To be honest, there really isn’t any place where you’ll find good, godly, and wise counsel other than your local church. And there is like to be no good counsel from any other than your faithful pastor who has been serving up the Word of God to you and your family for a long enough time that you know that his understanding is a grounded wisdom from God.

This is, for me, the best argument for attending a church with no more than a hundred or so members, or less. When a church becomes too big, the pastor becomes less and less visible except for when he is preaching. If a man needs wise counsel, he is generally sent to a co-pastor or a Sunday school teacher. When churches reach a certain threshold, perhaps it is time to start a new work on the other side of town. A pastor needs to be accessible. The sheep don’t go around looking for a shepherd, their shepherd is constantly looking after them.

Now, this is not to say that a Sunday school teacher can not offer wise counsel, or another faithful brother in Christ, but the pastor should be consulted when a problem is too big. Yet, we are told of a “multitude of counsellors.” That would be at least three, maybe more. But before even going to the preacher, perhaps we should start at the same place where he would begin—the Word of God. Within the Bible you will receive the counsel of a great God. Often, men like David will offer their wisdom, even if it is seeing how they handled a situation wrong—but has similarities to something you might be contemplating.

Paul has much doctrinal advice, James will offer his practical advice. There are forty men in the Bible that have something to say and are worthy to be consulted. We can speak to our Lord Jesus Christ, and often the solution to our problems may just be an application of His cleansing Blood for forgiveness accompanied with a cleansed heart and renewed conscience. And, thankfully, we have our constant teacher residing within: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (I John 2:27 KJV).

Father, we thank You for the Word which is a lamp in a very dark world, and a light which removes all darkness and guides us through the night. We thank You for not simply saving us and then leaving us to fend for ourselves, but that You instruct us moment by moment as we walk with You, to keep us from falling and provides safety to us and our loved ones. Amen.

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