For a great series on Proverbs 31 (I know, your first instinct is not to go there, cause who can compete with the Proverbs 31 woman, but believe me - this series is worth it!!) check out Nancy Leigh DeMoss from Revive our Hearts.
Today I wanted to discuss Gamaliel's advice to the Sanhedrin. Was it biblical?
Consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. Acts 5:35b-39
So, was this good advice? Was it biblical?
It sure sounds like good advice, on first glance.
"Consider carefully what you intend to do to these men." Yep, that was good advice ;)
Next, he gave two examples of leaders whose movements died off when they did. In the second example he gave, he misrepresented things a bit. Judas' followers became the Zealots - so leaving things alone wasn't quite as effective a strategy in that case as he would lead us to believe.
"if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Now that is bang on! As Christians, we may (in fact we will) lose some battles, but we win the war. We already know that! Our victory is certain. Fighting against God will ultimately result in defeat. So, he's absolutely correct in that advice.
But what about this part.....?
"For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail."
Nope, not biblical, not true.
If it were true, than anything that is successful would be from God and that is clearly not the case.
There are millions of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and athiests in the world. I'd say that's successful right there. But God certainly has nothing to do with any of that!
If we're going to determine God's pleasure and blessing based on success, then that would mean God is pleased with Playboy, Labatt Blue, Vegas strip clubs and casinos. Clearly, not so.
It sounds right, but it's not right. And isn't that exactly the way Satan likes to try to trip us up?
How are we to determine if someone's advice is good? We determine whether or not it's good by determining whether or not it's biblical.
That's what Gamaliel should've said. He should've said - let's examine the Law and the Prophets and find out if what the apostles are preaching is true. And if it is, we will believe it wholeheartedly! THAT would've been biblical advice!
And that's what we need to do. We cannot blindly accept advice as good advice - no matter how well-meaning it is, or even who it's from. The only advice we should accept as good advice is advice that lines up with scripture.
Just one more reason to read, study and memorize the Word!
Tomorrow's passage: Song of Solomon 1-3, Acts 6
4 comments:
Good points Tammy. So true that we often measure success as God's blessing on something, but that's not always the case (ie - Playboy!) One verse that also stood out for me was after the apostles were flogged "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." It was not a deterrent at all for them to be punished, instead it fueled their fire for Christ. Admirable and desireable for sure.
Could not agree more. The ONLY way to recognize when something isn't right even though it sounds good, is to KNOW our Bibles. I've definitely noticed improvement in this area in my life, and I owe it largely to having to actually STUDY my Bible to participate in this blog!!
Great post, Tammy ~ and thanks again for having the idea to start this blog!
Amen... AMEN!... to your post, and also to the comments before mine.
Excellent post. It made me think about all the advice that Kiandra received for her birthday book. There was one particular person that submitted song titles that I felt were not appropriate for Kiandra now or in the future. (You'd think having to asterisk some songs with "explicit lyrics" might be a clue that it is not appropriate for a 13 year old. But, that page reminded me that not everything piece of advice, from friends and family or strangers, is going to be good advice. Being aware of that is also an important learning piece. I left the letter in, but cautioned Kiandra in the introduction that not all advice will be advice she should follow.
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