Proverbs 11:14
Where no counsel is, the people fall:
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
To define this passage, we need to invite the many counselors of other passages. We need them to help us weight and align verse with verse, precept with precept, line with line. We also need to summon linguistic counselors.
Divine Scripture leaves us with differing examples concerning the question of human advice. Jeremiah and Micaiah were both prophets who challenged a whole court of prophets and were right. King Solomon lost the kingdom by listening to his wives and his son Jeroboam divided it by listening to the wrong people. Most of the prophets were lone voices against an opposing majority, and the apostles followed suit by challenging every human authority around. In fact, anyone who would be used of the Lord cannot be swayed by the opinions of others.
Where no counsel is, the people fall:
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
To define this passage, we need to invite the many counselors of other passages. We need them to help us weight and align verse with verse, precept with precept, line with line. We also need to summon linguistic counselors.
Divine Scripture leaves us with differing examples concerning the question of human advice. Jeremiah and Micaiah were both prophets who challenged a whole court of prophets and were right. King Solomon lost the kingdom by listening to his wives and his son Jeroboam divided it by listening to the wrong people. Most of the prophets were lone voices against an opposing majority, and the apostles followed suit by challenging every human authority around. In fact, anyone who would be used of the Lord cannot be swayed by the opinions of others.
One with God is a majority.
Where does the issue of ‘multitude of counselors’ come in then? Common sense tells us that if I need counsel on how to bake bread, the mechanic may not the one to tell me. In the same manner, if I need to know how to serve God, I need to surround myself with counselors who are sincere unadulterated servants of the Lord; I need the right kind of counselors. ‘
Where does the issue of ‘multitude of counselors’ come in then? Common sense tells us that if I need counsel on how to bake bread, the mechanic may not the one to tell me. In the same manner, if I need to know how to serve God, I need to surround myself with counselors who are sincere unadulterated servants of the Lord; I need the right kind of counselors. ‘
Multitude’ seems not to be the key word here, but ‘counselors’.
In fact, the appearance of the word ‘multitude’ in this passage may even be dubious. In the Hebrew original, if the word ‘multitude’ indeed was there, ‘counselors’ should have been pluralized but it is not. The Hebrew word translated as ‘multitude’ is ‘rav’ and also means ‘great’, therefore the verse could be read, ’in a great counselor there is safety’, thus reuniting the adjective with its noun, and most of all, putting the emphasis on the ‘Counselor’, not on the ‘multitude’, as God seldom works with majority rule.
Let us ponder on these things and make sure that no matter the number of our human advisors, we get our counsels from the Great Counselor of all: Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; from the God who challenged and defeated the kings and armies of whole nations through the obedience of lone men who decided to abide by His counsel in spite of that of the multitudes before them.
In fact, the appearance of the word ‘multitude’ in this passage may even be dubious. In the Hebrew original, if the word ‘multitude’ indeed was there, ‘counselors’ should have been pluralized but it is not. The Hebrew word translated as ‘multitude’ is ‘rav’ and also means ‘great’, therefore the verse could be read, ’in a great counselor there is safety’, thus reuniting the adjective with its noun, and most of all, putting the emphasis on the ‘Counselor’, not on the ‘multitude’, as God seldom works with majority rule.
Let us ponder on these things and make sure that no matter the number of our human advisors, we get our counsels from the Great Counselor of all: Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; from the God who challenged and defeated the kings and armies of whole nations through the obedience of lone men who decided to abide by His counsel in spite of that of the multitudes before them.
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