Absalom’s Downfall (Level 3 | 116)

0:00Everything had gone according to plan. Absalom was keen and his father was deposed. First he'd won the hearts of the people, then he'd staged a coup, and finally he'd moved into Jerusalem. Into David's house, with David's concubine wives. Absalom's plan had worked, perhaps better than even he had expected. He surely thought that he might have to take the fortified and nearly impenetrable city of Jerusalem by force, but not a drop of blood was shed. He had walked in and taken over without any show of force by his father. For all his mighty reputation is a mighty warrior. His father hadn't even been able to stand against his son with little experience in battle. Absalom was triumphant in his flawless plan, but it still had one more step.

1:00Absalom still needed to spill the blood of his father. An alive David was a threat to Absalom's rule, and the only solution was a dead David. Thankfully for Absalom, he had advisors who could tell him just the way to defeat his father. He especially liked a hithophel, David's former advisor, who had a reputation as the wisest man, perhaps in all Israel. His advice would surely yield success, and a hithophel was quick to give it. Soon after their entrance into Jerusalem, a hithophel asked permission to execute a quick maneuver on the former king. We read this in 2 Samuel 17. A hithophel said to Absalom, let me choose 12,000 men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged, and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband.

2:00You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace. And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel. A hithophel wants to move quickly. He knows that time is of the essence of David is to be defeated by his son Absalom. He surmises that David is off balance and ill-equipped to fight, having just fled from the city. Further, a hithophel knows that the longer David has, the more prepared he will be to fight any aggression from Absalom. Time is the friend of Absalom, but wait too long, and time would become his enemy. For his part Absalom likes this idea, but perhaps enjoying his place of authority over many advisors, he sends for another advisor to get his take. This advisor is Hush-I, the friend of David, and David's loyal spy in the court of Absalom. When Absalom said, call Hush-I the Archive also, and let us hear what he has to say. And when Hush-I came to Absalom, Absalom said to him,

3:02Thus has a hithophel spoken. Shall we do as he says? If not, you speak. Then Hush-I said to Absalom, This time the counsel that a hithophel has given is not good. Hush-I said, You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides your father is an expert in war. He will not spend the night with the people. Behold even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of your people fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom. Then even the valiant men, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt in fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are valiant men. But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba, from north to south, as the sand by the sea from altitude, and that you go to battle in person.

4:03So we shall come upon him in some place where he has to be found, and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground, and of him and all the men with him, not one will be left. If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there. An Absalom, and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of a hithafel. For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of a hithafel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. Hushai eloquently provides advice contrary to a hithafel's. He buys David time instead of cutting it short. Rather than immediate pursuit of David, Hushai suggests a long drawn out unification campaign. He says that Absalom should recruit an army of innumerable multitude, and only then should he pursue David. No matter what, David's force could never fight against such a large army from all of Israel.

5:07You can imagine Absalom seeing this with his mind's eye. Absalom leading his great army to war against his father. The total devastation he could bring upon the forces of David, trampling them down with the sheer numbers of his army. Absalom liked this idea, and it fed into his growing ego. He decides to take Hushai's advice instead of a hithafel's. A poor tactical move by this new ruler over Israel. Time would become his enemy. But don't miss the last comment in the text. It says that, the Lord ordained to defeat the good counsel of a hithafel so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. This is such an important comment in the text because it keeps us from making a grave error about God and his use of people like Absalom. Remember God had said to David that he would raise up an adversary from within David's own house. And Absalom was that adversary. God raised him up against David as a judgment on David's sins.

6:11Now what this doesn't mean is that God endorsed the rebellious behavior of Absalom toward David. It doesn't mean that he even caused Absalom's behavior. No, God took the free choices of Absalom, and you surped their intent for his own purposes. Absalom wanted to rule, but God used his desires to accomplish his own end. Absalom was truly evil in taking David's throne, but God used Absalom's evil actions to carry out a just penalty upon David. God's use of people almost always involves two intents, the intent of the person and the intent of God. God's intents always work out. It's the humans that sometimes don't, as we'll see from Absalom. God raised him up as an adversary to David, but now God would bring Absalom's downfall. After Absalom decides to take Hushai's counsel instead of a hithophels, David spies begin

7:13their mission. Hushai tells the two spy priests that David needs to quickly flee, and they in turn tell their sons who are sent away from the city with the message to David. However, as the two leave the city, they're spotted by one of Absalom's watchers. The proud ruler sends a search party after them, but hiding in a covered well they successfully escape into the wilderness to find David. Soon they find him, and the deposed king flees to a city farther north in Israel. It's after this that we see the beginning of the end for Absalom. A sad account that should prepare us for what's coming next. We read in verse 23 that, when a hithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. A hithophel had a reputation as perhaps the wisest man in Israel, and apparently in his worldly wisdom he saw the riding on the wall.

8:15If Absalom wouldn't take his advice, he was surely to fall to his father, David, and when David returned to the throne, a hithophel would find little mercy from the king. Worldly wise a hithophel had picked the wrong horse in the race, proving that wisdom isn't everything. He'd picked Absalom, and now he understood his error, an error that would lead to another error, suicide. Soon Absalom comes with his army against David, who had fled across the Jordan River to the area known as Gilead, and there they would fight it out. However, before the battle against Absalom's forces, David gives strict instructions to his men. Absalom is not to be harmed. He had had enough death in his family, and he wanted to spare his son. So the battle would commence, but Absalom was to be spared. We read this in chapter 18, starting in verse 6. So David's army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the

9:18forest of Ephraim. The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great on that day. Twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. David's smaller force soundly defeats the larger force of Absalom, and David's army especially used the forest terrain to their advantage. The forest was apparently dense and difficult to navigate, making David's smaller force formidable despite its size. It's in this forest that Absalom himself ends up having some trouble as well. Next we read this. An Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. And Absalom's head was caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it and told Joe Ab, behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.

10:25Absalom has gone from the throne in Jerusalem to suspended and mid-air between heaven and earth. Suspended most probably by his hair, one of his personally prized qualities, you can almost imagine the rather comical scene. David's men are passing by, and Absalom is just stuck up there looking at them, unable to shake himself free. The battle had ended, and Absalom was now ready to be captured and taken to the king. Well, that's what should have happened. But Joe Ab, David's lead commander, had other plans. Rather than take him back to the king, Joe Ab thrusts him through with three javelin, hitting him as he hangs in the tree. Joe Ab takes vengeance, where David had commended mercy. The rebellion has been stifled. Israel's army has fled from David's forces. Yet David still awaits news of the battle from his city hideout.

11:27David soon saw two men approaching the city with great haste, both running as fast as they could. The first man to arrive said this, Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my Lord, the king. And the king said, is it well with the young man Absalom? The man answered, When Joe Ab sent the king's servant, your servant, I saw great commotion, but I do not know what it was. And the king said, turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still. And behold, the next man came, and the man said, Good news for my Lord the king, for the Lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you. The king said to the man, is it well with the young man Absalom? And the man answered, May the enemies of my Lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be like that young man. And the king began to tremble violently, and he went up to the chamber over the gate and

12:28went. And as he went, he said, Oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would that I had died instead of you. Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. David's grief is palpable in his words, the devastating grief of a father losing a son who he loves. David had lost so much, his sin had such cost. So much death, so much pain. Yet even in this, David showed his heart. David knew his son sins, and he knew the great guilt of Absalom. Despite his sins, however, David loved his son. Loved him so much that he would have died in place of his son. Such a sentiment could only be voiced by David, but it would be realized in a greater way, a thousand years later, by David's great descendant.

13:31A man who, having done no wrong, would die not merely for his friends, but for his enemies. And a later scripture reading this, For while we were still weak, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, but perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God chose his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us. David had wished that he died instead of his ungodly son, Absalom. And in this we see yet again, David was a man after God's heart.