2 Chronicles 12:10
Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house.
Rehoboam seemed to always fall on the wrong side of decisions. He seemed to have a faulty decision-maker. When he first became king, he made the wrong decision to follow the young counselors over the older ones. When he felt his kingdom was established, he forsook the law of the LORD. When the king of Egypt invaded the land and took the treasures of the king’s house, the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the golden shields, Rehoboam chose to make shields of brass instead of gold.
Rehoboam’s decision-maker seemed to be at fault in every one of these bad decisions. What was it that caused him to have a faulty decision-maker? When you look at what made him make such bad decisions, you can always point to his associations. It was his associations that caused him to forsake the counsel of the older men when he was first anointed king. He associated with the wrong women in whom he married. He seemed to have a loose standard on the crowd he chose to associate with, and that crowd is what gave him a faulty decision-maker.
There are many preachers who seem to have faulty decision-makers, and every bad decision they make can always be traced back to their associations. It is not that all of their associations are bad, but it is that some or one of their associations are bad. Who you choose to associate with always affects the decisions you make. You cannot have bad associations and it not affect your decisions. I think of men who are good men, but they take a long time to make a move away from bad positions and bad associations, and the reason they take such a long time to move away is because they have one or two bad associations they don't want to sever ties with because of friendship.
Your decisions dictate your outcome. It only takes one bad decision to change your future for the worse. Because every decision is critical to your future, it is critical to make sure every association you have is a right one. One bad association can influence you to make one bad decision to the detriment of your future.
Moreover, your decisions affect others. Rehoboam was not just affecting himself with his decisions, but he was affecting those he influenced with his decisions. It doesn't matter if you are influencing one person or hundreds of people; one bad decision affects those you influence. That one you influence may influence hundreds; therefore, you must make sure your decisions are right, which means you must make sure your associations are right. I would hate to think that my poor choice of associations influenced me to make one bad decision that influenced the one person I influenced for wrong, which caused them to influence the hundreds they will influence for wrong.
It may be hard to sever a wrong association because you have been a friend with them for so long, but we are not to be loyal to friends over truth, but we are to be loyal to truth over friends. Yes, severing a bad association often makes you the bad guy in the association’s mind, but by severing the bad association, you are making a good decision that will influence others for right. Keep your associations right and you will keep your decision-maker working properly.
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