Choosing Truth

I was working for the tech support department in a school district. My assistant was quite competent and I had a few years of experience under my belt. Our boss, a curriculum specialist, had to make an important tech decision but He simply did not know what to do. He asked for input from the entire tech department, but we were divided: Software guys (my assistant and me) and the hardware guys. Technically, it was a split decision, but because there were four hardware guys and only two software guys, my boss saw it as 4 to 2. Which was best/true?

Just think of his difficult dilemma. He really did not know and had to rely solely on his tech team which was not unified in their advice.

My boss’s decision was an operational tech decision, not an important financial decision that a might cost the district. Jobs were not at stake. It was not like a king making a critical decision with lives at stake. But just think, there have been kings who have come to pivotal crossroads wondering what to decide; listening to advice and wondering, “How do I decide? How do I know the truth?”

King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, brought his advisors together. His decision would determine the fate of his kingdom. The wisdom of the older advisors was rejected and the kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms. Why listen to his younger, contemporary advisors? It was not a ‘strength-in-numbers’ kind of thinking in which the majority rules. He followed the younger advisors simply because he wanted to. They told him what he wanted to hear. (Read about it in 1 Kings 12.)

In the book of Daniel we read of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who desired to know the meaning of a troubling dream. He required that his advisors tell him the content of his dream AND interpret it. The text hints that the advisors had previously interpreted dreams according to their perception of what the king desired, and that the king knew this. On this occasion, he wanted to be sure that he was given truth. If they could tell him his dream, then he would be sure that the interpretation was not something made up (Daniel 2). He really desired the truth.

King Ahab of Israel preferred the word of the majority when consulting the prophets. Yet, he knew that Micaiah was a prophet who always told the truth. Even so, he listened to the majority because he liked what he heard...and his defeat and death followed. (1 Kings 22)

King Jehoiakim of Judah literally took the scroll that contained the words of the prophet Jeremiah, cut it into pieces with a knife and threw it into a fire (Jeremiah 36). That was not what he wanted to hear.

Leaders who stood at a crossroad, needing advice, needing truth: one content with the majority; some despising truth, one who insisted on the truth.

How do you make important life decisions? Do you love truth? How do you find truth?

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching; but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings.
—2 Timothy 4:3 (RSV)

That time has come!

Is the way YOU see things satisfying? Do you prefer to trust the majority? Does the research of man override God’s revealed word?

Be bold...Choose to be a truth seeker.

Choose truth revealed—God’s word.

Mark Stinnett