Biblical Counseling

Counseling

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Counsel, Counselor)

Advice; adviser, especially on legal matters (such as a lawyer).

In Bible times a counselor in a king’s court was like a U.S. cabinet member today.

A counselor might at times have been in line to succeed the king.

A wise person seeks counsel when making plans:

“Without counsel plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed” (Prv 15:22).

Types of counselors

Parents:

Proverbs 1:8 (NET)

Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father, and do not forsake the teaching from your mother.

Older people:

Ezekiel 7:26 (NET)

Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders.

Prophets:

2 Chronicles 25:16 (NET)

“While he was speaking, Amaziah said to him, “Did we appoint you to be a royal counselor?

(Royal Counselor derives his or her counsel directly from the Word of God)

Stop prophesying or else you will be killed!” So the prophet stopped, but added, “I know that the God has decided to destroy you, because you have done this thing and refused to listen to my advice.”

Wise men:

Jeremiah 18:18

“Then some people said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Friends:

Proverbs 27:9

“Ointment and incense make the heart rejoice, likewise the sweetness of one’s friend from sincere counsel.”

-The Latin version has “the soul is sweetened by the good counsels of a friend.”

-D. W. Thomas suggests, “counsels of a friend make sweet the soul”

(“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VT 15 [1965]: 275).

-G. R. Driver suggests, “the counsel of a friend is sweeter than one’s own advice” (literally, “more than the counsel of the soul”). He also suggests “more than of fragrant wood.”

(See G. R. Driver, “Hebrew Notes,” ZAW 52 (1934): 54; idem, “Suggestions and Objections,” ZAW 55 (1937): 69–70.)

-The LXX (Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament, translated between 250–100 BC) reads “and the soul is rent by misfortunes.”

-The MT (Masoretic Text (the traditional rabbinical text of the Hebrew Bible dating from the medieval period) for want of better or more convincing readings, may be interpreted to mean something like “[Just as] ointment and incense brings joy to the heart, [so] the sweetness of one’s friend [comes] from his sincere counsel.”

Self:

Psalm 42:5 

Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.

Luke 12:19 

And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”

Evil counselors:

Proverbs 12:5

“The plans of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.”

Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Counsel, Counselor,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 527.