Awaken Bible Prophecy Update: 4-5-23 – Good Counsel, Bad Counsel

It makes a difference who we listen to.  This is true whether one is a king or a peasant, someone living in ancient times or an individual today.  If people give us suggestions, what kind of discernment do we have to understand whether what is said is actually good counsel or bad counsel?  What is the only means we truly have in order to determine this?  Obviously, we should filter their words through a Biblical and prophetic lens.  Only by using Scripture as our plumb line can we know whether people speak truth or not.

We have many examples in God’s Word regarding this.  The Lord has not left us bereft of His guidance, i.e. His good counsel.  He makes it quite clear on the pages of Holy Writ that when we follow that which has a Godly moral basis, positive results occur.  The other side of the coin shows that when guidance comes from a place other than God, the odds are that trouble is in the offing.

The two chapters of 1 Kings 12-13 provide a wealth of illustrations in this regard.  What I’ll do today is show this and reflect on the outcomes.  In the same light, I’ll point out a few instances today where good and bad counsel have shown up in the public sphere.  Unfortunately, because the bad has outweighed the good for far too many years, this is a major reason for our downward trajectory as a people and a nation.  Worse, it’s why the church has become no different than the world.

 

 

Transcript:

It makes a difference who we listen to.  This is true whether one is a king or a peasant, someone living in ancient times or an individual today.  If people give us suggestions, what kind of discernment do we have to understand whether what is said is actually good counsel or bad counsel?  What is the only means we truly have in order to determine this?  Obviously, we should filter their words through a Biblical and prophetic lens.  Only by using Scripture as our plumb line can we know whether people speak truth or not.

 

We have many examples in God’s Word regarding this.  The Lord has not left us bereft of His guidance, i.e. His good counsel.  He makes it quite clear on the pages of Holy Writ that when we follow that which has a Godly moral basis, positive results occur.  The other side of the coin shows that when guidance comes from a place other than God, the odds are that trouble is in the offing.

 

The two chapters of 1 Kings 12-13 provide a wealth of illustrations in this regard.  What I’ll do today is show this and reflect on the outcomes.  In the same light, I’ll point out a few instances today where good and bad counsel have shown up in the public sphere.  Unfortunately, because the bad has outweighed the good for far too many years, this is a major reason for our downward trajectory as a people and a nation.  Worse, it’s why the church has become no different than the world.

 

We’ll dig into this in a moment.  First, we’ll pray and read from God’s Word.

 

<PRAY>

 

Scripture

 

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

 

 

 

Good Counsel, Bad Counsel

 

  • Following the reign of King Solomon, the nation of Israel went downhill very quickly
  • Because of King David’s dalliance with Bathsheba and the even worse iniquity of killing her husband Uriah to hide that liaison, God decreed to David through the Prophet Nathan that He would tear the kingdom apart after his son Solomon sat on the throne
  • The reality is that this tearing began taking place even while Solomon ruled
  • Just as so many before and after him, Solomon neglected to teach his own son the ways of the Lord
  • Also, despite many positive reviews of how Solomon oversaw the kingdom with justice and equity, it appears that not all was kosher in the land
  • Solomon in his vast wisdom betrayed God who had given it to him
  • He foolishly married and consorted with pagan women of heathen nations – more than any of us today can even comprehend
  • He was a very busy fellow, to say the least
  • These foreign women turned his heart away from the Lord – exactly what God had warned His people against
  • It’s why during the Conquest Years, God had the Israelites kill all the pagan women who had lain with a man
  • Only the virgins were allowed to live in certain instances
  • The intent behind this was because these women would have already been set in their worship of other gods through their relationships with the men of their nations
  • Regardless, along comes Solomon disregarding and disrespecting what God had commanded His people
  • Added to this was what can only be termed a discontent among the many foreign peoples living in Israel
  • We first get a hint of this in 1 Kings 4:6, which tells us:

 

Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

 

  • Notice: in one form or another, Israel had forced labor
  • Next, we see in 1 Kings 5:13 that:

 

King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men.

 

  • In other words, there was a lot of forced labor
  • What was it used for?
  • We see this in 1 Kings 9:15:

 

And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer . . .

 

  • The picture begins to come together
  • The forced labor was put to good, but heavy, use in building the temple and Solomon’s residence
  • Who were these people put to work in this manner?
  • This is where we really gain insight
  • Look at what 1 Kings 9:20-22 tells us:

 

 

All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

 

  • My goodness!
  • All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites
  • These were the people – among whom were giant Rephaim at one point, i.e. descendants of the Nephilim – that Israel was supposed to root out completely from the land but failed to do so
  • We’ll see momentarily that this failure – this disobedience – had drastic consequences
  • Think ahead to the story of Esther
  • Haman was Mordecai’s arch enemy because he was a Jew
  • Who was Haman?
  • He was an Agagite, a descendant of King Agag – an Amalekite – one of the Rephaim giant tribes whom the Jews had destroyed at God’s command
  • Haman had it in for the Jews because of this long-past offense
  • So it was also with all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites
  • The bottom line here is that the forced laborers were people who likely hated the Jews because of how they’d destroyed their nations and tribes in the past
  • They were now subjugated to obeying their masters’ orders rather than themselves ruling over the Jews as they probably felt was their right
  • Forced labor equated to slavery
  • God had given permission to make slaves of foreign peoples – per Leviticus 25:44-46
  • But that doesn’t mean these people were necessarily happy
  • They saw that the people of Israel were free and not made slaves, so they likely resented this fact
  • That brings us up to date
  • Because of Solomon’s turning from God, along with the vow God had made to David, the Lord anointed Jeroboam as the man who would be king over part of the soon-to-be divided nation
  • This was a strong anointing, in that God promised Jeroboam the following in 1 Kings 11:38:

 

And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

 

  • All Jeroboam had to do was obey God, and He would give all Israel over to him
  • When Solomon heard this, you can imagine that he wasn’t too thrilled
  • Thus, he sought to kill Jeroboam who had to flee to Egypt for his life
  • Solomon subsequently died, and his son Rehoboam began to reign
  • He went up to Shechem to be proclaimed as king
  • In hearing about this, Jeroboam returned and became a man of the people
  • Apparently, the forced labor comprised of these foreign tribes congregated around him as their representative
  • As such, he presented the demands of these people to the newly crowned King Rehoboam with the infamous statement of 1 Kings 12:4:

 

“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.”

 

  • Here’s where the title of this message begins coming into play
  • In 1 Kings 12:6 we read that:

 

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

 

  • Wisely, with good counsel, they told Rehoboam that if he was a servant king and treated these people right, they would in turn serve him in peace
  • Although Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, he retained his irresponsible childhood buddies and listened to their bad counsel as recounted in 1 Kings 12:8-11
  • Their bottom line that Rehoboam followed was that he should make life more difficult for these people – just to show them who was boss
  • In verse 11 Rehoboam says to them:

 

And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

 

  • Having followed the brilliant advice of the young men around him, Jeroboam and all those following him rebelled
  • What we see in this circumstance is that it was orchestrated by the Lord to accomplish His purposes, namely the division of the kingdom
  • God’s prophetic Word always comes to pass
  • The way it came about naturally dealt with this contingent of forced labor
  • We saw earlier that a man named Adoram was in charge as their taskmaster
  • Rehoboam sent him to them, and they stoned him to death
  • Thinking he had to quickly quell the rebellion, Rehoboam mustered his troops in Jerusalem
  • However, 1 Kings 12:22-24 brings a halt to that
  • A man of God directed by the Lord comes to Rehoboam and counsels him not to take any action because all this was from Him
  • Amazingly, Rehoboam listened to this good counsel and stood down
  • On the other side of the divide, Jeroboam began his epic fail by disregarding the Word God had told him earlier
  • In order to keep the people loyal to him, he thought it would be a good idea to make two golden calves for the people to worship
  • He didn’t want them going up to Jerusalem for fear they’d be influenced against him, so he built these calves and placed them in the Northern Kingdom cities of Bethel and Dan
  • He took this radical step because – guess what! – he had taken counsel to do so as 1 Kings 12:28 reveals
  • This was the beginning of the end for this Northern Kingdom of what continued to be called Israel – the end before it even really began
  • For his foolish actions against God, all future kings after him would follow the same trajectory of worshiping foreign gods with their pagan idols
  • This became famously known as “the sins of Jeroboam” and was a death knell for all who repeated his iniquity
  • Adding to Jeroboam’s heeding bad counsel was listening to his own deceitful heart as 1 Kings 12:33 notes
  • Not only did he build these pagan altars of golden calves, he then worshiped at the one in Bethel and sealed the deal, i.e. his complete apostasy from God
  • Once someone gives his believing loyalty to a false god, he is in serious trouble
  • God demands our complete believing loyalty just as the 1st and 2nd Commandments declare in Exodus 20:3-6:

 

“You shall have no other gods before me.

 

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

  • The incidents of good and bad counsel in these chapters continue
  • Beginning in 1 Kings 13:1-2 we learn of a man of God who prophesied to and against Jeroboam about the coming of King Josiah in the Southern Kingdom of Judah who would someday destroy the altars to pagan gods that Jeroboam had built
  • Jeroboam saw this a threat, and rather than treat this Word from God as the good counsel it was for him to repent and stop worshiping foreign gods, he tried to have the man of God arrested
  • For Jeroboam’s attempting to act against His emissary, God brought leprosy upon the king
  • Only after beseeching the man of God was the leprosy halted and healed
  • That changed Jeroboam’s tune, and he invited the man of God home with him for a meal
  • The man of God refused as noted in 1 King’s 13:9 because God had commanded him not to partake of any food or water in that place
  • The man of God initially heeded God’s good counsel, but an old prophet in the area heard of what the man of God had done and said to Jeroboam
  • The interesting aspect of this is that this prophet is not said to be a prophet of God, similar to the prophet Balaam from earlier times
  • This old prophet – more than likely a pagan prophet – intercepted the man of God as he was leaving the vicinity
  • Then he lied to him
  • The old prophet told the man of God that an angel had spoken the word of God, and that the man of God was to come back with him to eat a meal
  • This was clearly contradictory to the true Word that God had spoken to this man of God, but he listened to the bad counsel of the old prophet and accompanied him home to eat and drink
  • Just like with the prophet Balaam, this old prophet could sometimes hear the true Word of the Lord
  • God spoke to and through him now and rebuked the man of God for disobeying Him
  • The man of God was under no circumstances to remain in the Northern Kingdom and eat or drink there
  • For his transgression, God sentenced him to death
  • That’s what listening to bad counsel will do to you
  • Ironically, the old prophet understood the reason for this as seen in 1 Kings 13:26:

 

 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.”

 

  • There’s some hutzpah on the part of this guy . . .
  • He was the one who lied to the man of God, yet he also states that it was the man of God who disobeyed the Lord
  • As the chapter concludes we learn that Jeroboam becomes the source and curse of future kings in Israel for his apostasy of making golden calves and enticing the people to worship them
  • Rather than listening to the initial good advice from God that IF Jeroboam would obey the commandments of the Lord, He would bless him – Jeroboam instead followed his own heart – his deceitfully wicked heart – and his actions were forever known as the sins of Jeroboam

 

  • How does this narrative relate to today?
  • We see the results of good and bad counsel in both the world and – sadly – the church
  • Since the very beginning in the Garden of Eden where Eve listened to the bad counsel of the serpent to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Adam followed that up by heeding Eve’s bad counsel to likewise partake of it, humanity has been on a downward spiral with an ultimate destiny of eternal judgment – waylaid along the path with various other judgments for disobeying God’s Word
  • Mankind has far too often listened to Satan and his minions rather than to God
  • This has brought great misery to our wondrous creation made in God’s image
  • Unfortunately, when we decide we know better than God and heed seducing spirits, trouble results
  • Bad counsel – Biblical bad counsel anyway – seems to inevitably have judgment of one kind or another attached to it
  • And let’s not fool ourselves
  • The Jews are not the only ones subject to bad counsel and judgment
  • We Gentiles have listened to more than our fair share of it and suffered as a result
  • One of the most egregious examples is the determination by the secular world to impose a two-state solution upon Israel
  • This is in contradiction to God’s Word whereby He determined the borders of the Promised Land and the fact that it belongs to Israel alone
  • He also stated directly that anyone who attempted to curse Israel would himself be cursed
  • By trying to eliminate God’s sovereign possession of Israel through the act of handing it to the so-called Palestinians, this is bad counsel in the extreme
  • It has been extensively chronicled that when the US even discusses this from a governmental perspective, let alone act against Israel’s land, God unleashes His fury upon our land in one form or another – often through major weather-related events
  • But we never connect those dots
  • As a result, we continue to store up the wrath of God for this transgression
  • In the last several years the world has been listening to the exceedingly bad counsel of a few individuals in high places
  • Among the worst of these offenders is Dr. Anthony Fauci with his various, often contradicting, proclamations concerning all things COVID
  • Far too many people have heeded his poor advice to their detriment
  • But God inevitably allows us to make our own decisions and reap the consequences
  • As for Fauci, he will face his Judge someday and live eternally to regret his words and deeds

 

  • The church has been no better in respecting the Word of God relating to Israel (or COVID for that matter)
  • When a large swath of the church thinks it’s a great idea to support the Palestinian cause and effectively curse Israel in the process, God doesn’t stand for it
  • It’s a major reason the church has gone apostate
  • God has removed His Holy Spirit and given these churches over to their baser desires
  • What does this look like?
  • It looks very much like so many churches that embrace LGBT without calling it sin with the necessity to rebuke it and be transformed
  • It looks like churches that – of all things – invite through their doors and into their pulpits drag queens to indoctrinate little children into perversion
  • Woe to them!
  • As Jesus declares in Matthew 18:6-7:

 

“ . . . but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”

 

  • I tell you this
  • Those foolish people who call themselves Christians and promote this abomination will be sorely punished – the pastors leading their people into this perversion all the more so
  • More results of bad counsel in the church include embracing Marxism – in whatever form – lately in the guise of Black Lives Matter
  • This includes the social justice gospel of equity and tolerance for all
  • It means churches and their pastors foolishly equating the salvation of man in the form of a deadly so-called vaccine to the power of the Holy Spirit
  • What resulted there?
  • Many – far too many – in churches taking the mRNA vaxx and reaping its health-destroying properties
  • Finally, it includes twisting the meaning of Scripture to exalt this world and the riches in it through the prosperity gospel
  • It involves the discarding of God’s Prophetic Word such that no one reads or understands Bible prophecy
  • How does this play out?
  • It causes people to believe they can change the world and transform it so that it is welcoming for Jesus in His 2nd Coming
  • If the church takes over the Seven Mountains of Society, who needs God’s judgment on the world?
  • The church will simply make His wrath and judgment go away!
  • Where is the good counsel in any of this?
  • Completely missing
  • Why?
  • Because people don’t read the Word of God, nor do those who do read it have eyes to see what God must do
  • He cannot allow the world in its present state to continue
  • Shed blood, perversion, depravity, rebellion – all these and more – must be dealt with
  • It was sexual perversion through the worship of pagan gods that caused God to act by destroying the earth in the Flood
  • It is sexual perversion once more through our worship of the god of self that has brough this world to the verge of judgment
  • We are teetering on the cliff and God is nowhere to be seen as the rescuer of this world
  • He cannot be because He will not be
  • The only ones He’ll redeem are those who truly belong to Him through Christ Jesus
  • One more little shove and over we go!
  • At the bottom of the cliff are the rocks of Tribulation kindled by the fire of God’s wrath
  • In these last minutes prior to judgment, steep yourself in the Word of God and do all you can to show others the love of God and the disaster that awaits them if they reject it
  • I guarantee you
  • This is good counsel

9 Responses to “Awaken Bible Prophecy Update: 4-5-23 – Good Counsel, Bad Counsel”

  1. Reply Pamela P

    Well said, Gary! I also believe, along with you and many others, that we are getting dangerously close to that tipping point, and that the cup of sin the western world in particular holds is almost full.

    • Reply Gary Ritter

      I just started reading Jonathan Cahn’s book The Return of the Gods. I like the way he frames all that’s happening in our society in relation to the pagan gods I often speak about. Good book for background to help understand the world as it is today.

  2. Reply Pamela P

    Yes! That book clearly delineates the downward progression into the demonic paganism America has fallen into. A fascinating account. Two other books that were real eye openers to me as well are Spirit of the Antichrist volumes 1 and 2, written by J.B. Hixson. These 3 books clearly expose what has been happening and why we are at where we are, at this point in time. But even though on one hand it is disgusting living in this moral filth, it is exciting as well because we can clearly see Satan “setting the table” so to speak, for antichrist to sit down and start his meal.

  3. Reply Danna

    Bravo! Well done, good and faithful servant. Your recap of the immediate-post-David scenario was both thorough and smile-provoking. I like the way you manage to insert some humor and grace into serious offense. When you brought the past into 2023, you nailed it. The Bible leaps off the pages in the actions of every generation, and if we live our lives with the Bema seat front and center (Chuck Missler), we are not only much more conscious of how our sin grieves Him as Christ-followers, but also much more content to let vengeance be His, because He will do it perfectly, from the pulpit to the pew to the pits on every one of the seven mountains and in the valleys in between. Rest well…maranatha…it must be soon.

    (I am an eschatologi-phile…the shelves are laden with read fiction and non…LaHaye/Jenkins, Garcia, James, Cahn, Fructenbaum, Lindsey, Walvoord, Kinley, Graham, Jeremiah, Jeffress…but I would LOVE your recommendations for more FICTION. I’m finding it hard to find, and I’ve watched most of the movies on this subject, too. You wrote a great article for RR about the benefit of learning about the end times through Christian fiction. I agree…even though we know we now only see in part. Thank you for your scholarship and your witness for His glory and grace! A blessed Easter to you and your family.

    • Reply Gary Ritter

      Danna,
      One of the interesting things I’ve found is that I can glean a lot about the world and the times by reading secular fiction. It’s almost a necessity since there isn’t as much really good Christian fiction that pops up for me. I tend to read a lot of sci-fi and historical fiction and draw a lot of lessons from those books. That said, I did read a very interesting series last year by William Struse beginning with this book: https://www.amazon.com/13th-Enumeration-Thirteenth-Book-ebook/dp/B008QMS9VG. I think he plans a 4th book in the series which would be helpful.

      Struse also wrote companion non-fiction books on prophecy to accompany the fiction. (Go to his author page on Amazon.) I’ll tell you – agree with him or not – he has done significant research and work putting forth his ideas.

      • Reply Danna

        Thank you so much…intrigued! I love historical fiction, too…and the lens Angela Hunt used in Roanoke and Jamestown blessed me tremendously. As tough as things are now, I feel convicted about complaining…

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