To whom will you listen? There are the older and wiser, sages who have experience. They give advice. There are also young people, “influencers,” people who have achieved little but are beautiful or good talkers or cool and smooth and fashionable or super-funny. They too give advice.
When Gregg Matte resigned from his college ministry in College Station and took on the pastorate of Houston’s First Baptist, he shared an office suite with the semi-retired head of counseling at the church, Dr. Charles Poor. The young pastor suddenly found himself looking at budgets and all the other headaches of a church in the big city, reaching people of all ages. When it was too much, he would sit down and talk to Charlie Poor. Today I attended Dr. Poor’s funeral, and Pastor Gregg credited Dr. Poor with providing him excellent advice every time.
After a career surrounded by college kids, Pastor Gregg had the wisdom to listen to his elders.
Not everyone does.
After the death of Solomon, WISE OLD SOLOMON, his son did something foolish that cost him the kingdom.
The people came to King Rehoboam and asked him to lighten the load. Solomon had kept them in one building program after another for decades. Rehoboam asked the old counselors what to do and they agreed: ease up on the people and they will follow you forever. Then Rehoboam asked his young friends what to do, and they said something you can almost not print in the Bible:
“Tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s ________! … My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips!’” 1 Kings 12:10-11.
The Holman translation fills the blank with the euphemistic word “loins,” which somehow dulls the crude, disrespectful, and almost violent nature of the comment.
Rehoboam listened to his young friends, answered the people harshly, and they rebelled. He lost all the tribes but Judah.
At the risk of jumping to the most obvious conclusion—sometimes you really need to listen to the wisdom of the older generation. Consider both views. But Proverbs 20:29 says that wisdom comes with gray hair.
Listen to your elders.
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