Counsler

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

COUNSLER

Prov 25:4-5

4 Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith; 5 remove the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness.

NIV

We might see this strictly in the physical sense of earthy government. If a leader has corrupt counselors, his seat of leadership will certainly be corrupt. However if those corrupt counselors are removed, as the dross is from silver, then his seat of leadership will be more righteous. This, however, is based on the condition the king, the leader is himself righteous. What we have to wonder is who is righteous among us? What man can declare himself righteous? What difference would any counsel make in the righteousness of any leader, any person? We are told in the 1^st Psalm that we are blessed if we do not take the advice, the counsel of the wicked.

Ps 1:1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

NIV

Yet who can be righteous outside of being in Christ? Who can establish any righteous leadership without taking only the counsel of the Holy Spirit? Yet here we also see that the establishment of the throne of Christ in our hearts also removes the wicked counsel from it. That is at least what should happen. If we are going to be declared righteous we have to have the throne of Christ ruling in our hearts. The idea here is who do we take counsel from. Do we pay attention to the advice of the world or of the Spirit? Worldly advice seems fairly common sense in many cases, especially when it concerns our daily lives. The world advises us every day over and over again through multiply ways that we should by gold or silver to secure our future because the market, the dollar is unstable. Store up as much as we can so we will be able to survive the pending disaster. The counsel of the world has been grab all the gusto you can, you only go around once. The counsel of the world says that as long as you are a good person you will go to heaven. We have already seen that God tests our heart.

Prov 17:3

3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

NIV

Have we gotten rid of any of our wicked counselors? Have we removed any of the worldly advice from our way of life? Although we have Christ in our heart, although we have already been declared righteous by God, we might still be looking to some wicked advisor for our daily living. What does complete trust in God look like? Sure we have to work to be able to obtain our sustenance. This was a command of God in the first place. He told Adam to tend the garden, then after being expelled from the garden he told Adam he would have to work all the days of his life for his sustenance. Working isn’t not having trust in God, it is actually obeying God. But if we, like the rich farmer who had to build bigger barns to store up his great wealth, and are not rich toward God, we have taken the advice of the wicked, rather than from God. How much attention do we pay to the world’s advice? Let us rid ourselves of these wicked advisers and then our hearts will be establish in righteousness. We cannot live with a divided heart as we have seen before. We cannot take the counsel of the Spirit for some things, and take the counsel of the world for other things. We cannot serve both God and the world. Only one counselor is right and righteous.  He is the one Jesus sent to dwell within us.