Taking good advice is important

My first job that I took upon returning to Malaysia was a management consulting position. We were a small team, but it was going to grow into a significant entity implementing many strategic projects. The one incident I will never forget is when the Managing Director of the firm called me into his office for a general chat about my employment. He said, "be careful of what you say to clients, because they will take it as the gospel truth". I took that to mean I must make sure that I am absolutely sure of the advice, before I give it. Rehoboam started a downward spiral in relation to taking advice.

2 Chronicles 10:6
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

2 Chronicles 10:8
But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.

Two different groups and two very different advices. Which would you choose, assuming you had no hindsight. Based on an earlier prophecy, Jeroboam was obviously going to become king of 10 tribes and form a separate kingdom. The choice of advice taken led to this happening. Would history have been different if Rehoboam took the counsel of the elders? Or perhaps even better, if Rehoboam sought God for advice? This predicament started when Solomon allowed idol worship in Jerusalem. The root problem is that the leadership strayed from God.

Father, I cannot and will not stray from You. My counsel will always be with You.

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