2 Samuel Lesson 70
Hushai: David’s spy – 2 Samuel 16:15-17:22
We continue the 2 Samuel section of the Absalom revolt; remember that
David faces a situation where his son, Absalom has taken over the throne. This section of 2 Samuel runs from chapter 15
through 19; seven years, and the issue is the discipline of David versus the
Davidic Covenant. In other words, David
has a top circle and he has a bottom circle.
The top circle includes the promise that God has given to David. The top circle is God’s plan for David’s
life; the top circle includes things that are not seen, for example, his
successor or his seed, the man who will sit on the throne, the proper crown
prince. Who that crown prince is, though
you know from retrospect, David did not know at this time and that is the
mystery that works out in 2 Samuel. Who
is David’s successor. And so this seed
is an unseen seed, and if David is to move in fellowship with the Lord, it
depends on whether he can use the faith technique to apply his position to his
experience on a moment by moment basis.
This means that when everything is breaking lose, when he faces
political catastrophe of the dimension that he faces here, when David sees
absolute chaos prevail in society, the unity of the twelve tribes itself
breaking apart, when all of this happens, David’s only alternative is to stay
in the bottom circle, trusting in God’s plan for his life. So 2 Samuel is actually a picture of using
the faith technique.
Now we’re going to study beginning in
2 Samuel 16:15. You recall the
characters in the drama include Absalom who is the human viewpoint politician;
Absalom who seeks office without divine approval, you recall that the king
under the Mosaic Law had to be picked by a prophet. The prophet was the king maker, this is why
the four Gospels begin, not with Jesus, but with John the Baptist. Jesus could not pick Himself to be Messiah,
He needed a prophet to do that; John the Baptist was the king-making prophet. So every king needs a king-maker and the
king-maker at this time in history was Nathan.
Absalom did not have the king-maker’s approval; Absalom followed his own
desires. As a result we find Absalom a
very religious person. He was the kind
that everybody would vote for because Absalom didn’t use four-letter words, he
was all nice on the outside and inside filled with human viewpoint. If there were a few legalistic
fundamentalists around in Absalom’s time I’m sure he would be their hero
because he was such a nice boy, but he was a phony.
Now David is being thrown out, by this nice boy who made a religious
vow, and he is encamped on the west bank.
This is approximately the location of David,
Beginning at verse 15, “And Absalom, and all the people, the men of
And Ahithophel is the only thing that Absalom has going for him. Absalom has a group of people, a mass that he
got to vote for him because he stimulated their self-pity, like politicians
today get votes by crying to certain minorities, I’ll help you and I’ll do this
and I’ll do that for you, if you vote for me.
And all it does is encourage self-pity.
Ahithophel is the man with wisdom, he is the man with chokmah; Absalom is a young man and he
does not have wisdom, he’s been out of fellowship for years, he’s in compound
carnality and he’s out of it. So
Ahithophel is his trump card. And that’s
put in there by the Holy Spirit to let us know that this is going to form the
focus of what’s going to happen. The
whole drama from this point forward is going to surround Ahithophel.
“And Absalom, and all the people, and the men of
Verse 16, “And it came to pass, when Hushai, the Archite, David’s
friend, was come to Absalom,” now recall that when David evacuated out the east
side of Jerusalem and he moved his troops eastward, he went up on the Mount of
Olives, and as he was going up in this mountainous area he learned that
Ahithophel had gone and defected to Absalom.
And this was very bad news for David, so David prays a prayer as he is
still walking up the side of this slope: Lord, You have got to do something
about Ahithophel, and no sooner does he get up to the top but this man, Hushai,
who is another aged advisor, shows up on the scene, wanting to know what do you
want me to do David, anything, you name it, I’ll do it. So David said okay, I want you to go back and
I want you to set up an espionage system inside the administration of
Absalom. In other words, he is going to
bug his headquarters. And this is going
to be done with the knowledge of the Lord.
I want you to notice how David operates.
He is using what we will chokmah, he is using wisdom; he is not sitting
around waiting for God to strike him with lightening to tell him what to do. David is going to use the [can’t understand
word] principles of wisdom and we are to use those, and you’ll see this again
and again in the narrative. David is cut
off, for some reason, from direct revelation.
All during this we never find David contacting the Urim and Thummim. We never have a prophet come to direct
David. You see, there are three parts of
Scripture, and this is where you always want to stay balanced or you’ll be in
trouble. There is the priestly part of
Scripture, that has to do with praise, worship, confession of sin. That’s a whole mass of sanctification
doctrine, all to do with the priestly aspect of sanctification. Confession of your sins, presenting your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable
unto God, service in other words. The
priest is service, so when you think of service or confession of sin, that’s
the priestly area of sanctification.
But the Bible also has another area of sanctification and that is the
prophetic; now the prophetic area of sanctification is when God breaks into your
life with a new truth; now it’s done through the canon of Scripture; at this
time it was done through living prophets.
And then there’s a third area and that is wisdom, the wisdom part of the
Bible. See the Hebrew Bible is written
in three parts, the priestly, the prophet and the wisdom. And the wisdom means that there are certain
principles of divine viewpoint.
Illustration: the Proverbs series; remember when we went through the
five divine institutions, we said there were certain principles having to do
with volition, certain principles having to do with marriage, with family, with
nationalism, and certain principles having to do with tribal diversity. These are statements of wisdom. Now the believer, when he fails to get any
direct revelation, or when he can’t, when God is silent, the thing to use is
wisdom; in other words, common sense spiritually. And this keeps you from getting into this
mess, oh the Lord told me what pair of shoes to wear this morning. And God told me what necklace to put on. Or God told me to put on this pair of pants
and it gets ridiculous, running to God with every little thing.
Now the proof that that is unscriptural is found in Genesis 2 because in
Genesis 2 God told Adam to name the animals, and then the text very clearly
says, God backed off to see what Adam would say. Now why did God back off to see what Adam
would say? Because he wants Adam to
bring in his own creation into history.
Your life is your art work, your live is your creation and you have a
say in how you bring it to pass. If God
were standing behind your shoulders and you came to Him and you asked Him, hey
God, what pair of shoes shall I put on today?
Put on the ones that you want to, I’m not going to tell you, you have a
head on your shoulders, use it. But we
have people get in this hyper-spiritual thing that emphasize the prophetic, so
instead of keeping these three areas of sanctification balanced, they take the
prophetic like this and they have a little priestly and a little confession,
and of course confession of sin doesn’t mean anything and wisdom doesn’t mean
anything; everything is out of balance and anyone who knows Scripture is going
to see this.
So in 2 Samuel at this point David does not have the priestly, he does
not have the prophetic, he is functioning in the status of wisdom. Now let’s watch how it all works out. In wisdom he has picked Hushai to infiltrate
Absalom’s administration. Verse 16,
“…Hushai said unto Absalom, God save the king, God save the king.” More modern translations say “let the king
live, let the king live.” And that’s
because you’re looking at the King James and that expression at that time in
history in
Verse 17, “And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this thy kindness to thy
friend?” Now you can tell that Absalom
has something on the ball, because he recognize a turncoat can never be
trusted. Every person who is involved in
leadership knows you can’t trust a turncoat; don’t ever trust them. Pastors have to learn this; you can’t trust
people that church hop. They’ll be here
today, gone tomorrow. So we have Absalom
and he recognizes that Hushai is a turncoat, so he’s very cool to this
character, and he says a very cutting remark, “Is this the kindness to your
friend?” And the friend is David; the
kindness is loyalty, it’s the old Hebrew word chesed, for loyal love. He
says that’s the kind of chesed you
show, Hushai, “Why didn’t you go with your friend?”
Verse 18, “And Hushai said unto Absalom, Nay, but whom the LORD, and
this people, and all the men of Israel, choose, his will I be, and with him
will I abide.” Now this is a very, very
skillful attempt of Hushai. See, he’s got a problem; if he blows it and he
can’t get into the inner staff of Absalom’s administration, he won’t have a
chance to conduct espionage and possible sabotage. He has a dual assignment and in order to
carry out his assignment he must infiltrate.
So everything hinges on the skill of Hushai to gain the approbation of
Absalom. And in verse 18, what he says
is a perfect answer, because at this point we’re not yet clear what God’s will
is in this matter, who will be the king, at this point. So it’s a true answer, but in giving the
answer he gives up something too.
Because in verse 18 it tells us the method by which kings were chosen in
the nation Israel; there are two levels of approval; first there is an
anointing; the anointing must be done by a prophet. Then secondly there must be public
acknowledgement of this king.
Let’s see how that principle works; turn back to 1 Samuel 10:1, and out
of this, incidentally, will come a very important truth about the Messiah who
fulfills this office. See everything you
can learn now in the Samuel series about the office of king is pay dirt for
you, because every truth that you can pick up about how the office of king
functions in this book will give you a greater appreciation for Messiah, who
fills that office. When Christ claims to
be Messiah He claims to fulfill that office.
Now in 1 Samuel 10:1 you have Samuel taking a vial, pouring it upon
Saul’s head, “Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and
kidded him, and said, Is it not because the LORD has anointed thee to be
captain over his inheritance.” So there’s
the anointing; so part 1 of Saul’s acceptance is finished as of 10:1. However, in 11:11 you have Saul manifesting,
or proving himself before the people to gain public approbation. Saul must receive public acclamation here,
and so “Saul put the people in three companies,” they go into battle, and they
“slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day.
And it came to pass, that they who remained were scattered, so that two
of them were not left together. [12] And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he
that said, Shall Saul reign over us?
Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” In other words, if you don’t agree that this
man has charisma, demonstrated by his proficiency in military combat, then
you’re crazy. So public acknowledgement,
the second step in Saul’s public career, came about after he was anointed, and
it came about by him proving that he had been gifted of God to lead the
people.
The same thing happens with David.
Turn to 16:1, here David is anointed, and you have the same cycle repeated
over again, Samuel is doing the anointing, David is young. “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long will
you mourn for Saul,” Go, “Fill thine horn with oil, and go: I will send thee to
Jesse,” so here we have David anointed.
So the anointing is first, but the public acceptance is not because
chapter 17 is the famous chapter of David and Goliath. That is where David
proves his medal, that is where he shows what God has invested into his soul,
that David has been spiritually gifted and qualifies. So again we have the second step. So Saul did that, David did that, and that’s
what Hushai is talking about. Whomever
God chooses, and the people choose. It’s
not God versus the people, or God and the people, it’s just succession; God
chooses through the king-making prophet first to anoint, then the man
demonstrates his character, then the people accept him.
Now take that principle and apply to the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who was the king-making
prophet? John the Baptist. What is the first thing you read about in all
four Gospels that Jesus does? He is
anointed by the prophet. So you have
step one, the prophetic anointing. What
is the second step? Public acceptance,
the people never accepted Christ, so so far the second the second step has
never occurred with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first one yes, but the second one has
not. And if you have a prophetic
conference this is why He will not return until His people acknowledge
Him. He cannot be king until the people
acknowledge Him also. So therefore the
Lord Jesus Christ is midway between these two points at this time in
history. He has been anointed, He is
demonstrating His character. How did
Saul demonstrate the character? By
attacking the enemy and freeing his people.
How did David demonstrate his character?
By attacking the enemy and freeing his people. How does Jesus demonstrate His character? By attacking the principalities and powers
that rule the darkness of this world, and freeing His people. So Jesus Christ, at this point in history, is
in between step one and step two.
Let’s go back to 2 Samuel 16 and continue. Hushai has said how the king is
accepted. And he says in verse 19, “And
again, whom should I serve? Should I not
serve in the presence of his son? As I
have served in thy father’s presence, so will I be in his [thy] presence.” Now
the presence is his pitch for his job assignment. By saying “I will serve in his presence,” it
means that I will serve on the inner counsel, that’s what he wants, he wants an
assignment on the National Security Council, and by serving “in his presence”
he’s trying to say hey, just like I was on David’s inner circle, I want to be
in your inner circle. Now here Hushai is
using the faith technique, because what he’s doing is he is pitching, he’s
opening his mouth, he’s putting out his resume, he’s making the contact for his
job; that’s the doing. But now you’re
going to watch the rest of this passage he’s going to be in the resting phase,
and God is wonderfully going to bless Hushai, He’s going to work everything
out, so whereas he has done something, now the next step is to rest.
Let’s see how he rests, verse 20, “Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give
counsel among you what we shall do.” Now
between verse 19 and 20 we have a break, there’s a break in time so that what
has happened is that Absalom and Ahithophel have gone inside some place, where
they talked, Hushai is left standing outside this room, you’ve got to see this
because you don’t want to miss what’s going to happen. These two men are inside the room in an inner
council, Hushai has petition that he be included, but he hasn’t been
included. So right at this point it
looks like failure because Hushai has got to get inside there to sabotage their
plans or at least spy on them. But the
text builds the tension up because he is excluded. So the meeting that’s going to go on, found
in verse 20, this meeting now is going to be without Hushai there.
All right, let’s look at the meeting.
Verse 20, “Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give counsel among you,” now
this is a plural meaning among you all.
Let’s lead into the discussion, Ahithophel will lead in discussion, and
you notice here of the priestly, prophetic and wisdom portions of God’s Word
where does Absalom get his leading from?
The wisdom section. He is not
asking for direct revelation, he is simply going and using the wisdom that God
has put into the Scripture and into the physical world around us and
functioning that way.
Verse 21, “And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, go in unto thy father’s
concubines, whom he has left to keep the house,” you recall the Holy Spirit
earlier in the text left that… there were ten women left, ten concubines were
left in the palace, “which he has left to kept ht house, and all Israel shall
hear that you are abhorred of your father; then shall the hands of all that are
with thee be strong.” Now there are
several principles that Ahithophel is using.
The first one is that to go into the king’s concubines, those of you who
don’t realize, that means have sex with them, it means that he was claiming the
throne.
Turn to 1 Kings 2:17, here is the key passage in the Old Testament that
shows that going in to the concubines equals the throne claim. We don’t understand why this works this way
but this is the way it worked in the Ancient East. This is when Adonijah tries the same
thing. “And he said, Speak, I pray thee,
unto Solomon, the king [for he will not refuse thee], that he give me Abishag,
the Shunammite, in marriage.” Now that
is one of David’s concubines. And Bathsheba shows her stupidity at this point
in granting the request. So when you
drop down to verse 22, what do you find Solomon doing? See, Solomon has had this Adonijah ask for
one of the concubines. Now does Solomon
in verse 22 just act as though he’s run off with one of his girlfriends? Not at all.
“King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why do you ask
Abishag, the Shunammite, for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also,” in other
words, you might as well ask for the kingdom.
So taking a concubine is a royal declaration of something; this is a
serious thing and it’s not just having an orgy or something, this is a serious
political thing that Ahithophel is counseling.
Let’s go back and see what happens.
Why does Ahithophel want him to do that.
I think we can come up with at least three principles. First,
Ahithophel, being Bathsheba’s grandfather, wants to see this happen as
fast as he can because it’s his way of getting back for his granddaughter. So you can’t dismiss the fact that behind all
the nice chokmah and all the nice
wisdom Ahithophel’s jealousy and vengeance are operating. That’s one reason,
but that’s not the main one. The main
reason is he tells us right in the verse, when he says, “all Israel shall hear
that you are abhorred of your father.”
Ahithophel has stayed in that palace for year after year after year
after year and all those years he’s watched Absalom grow up. See, Ahithophel is a grandfather, he’s an old
man, an OLD man by this time. And he has
sat there day after day after day after day, year after year, watching David
treat his sons, and so far the Holy Spirit shows through the text that David
had a very sentimental relationship with his sons; he could lead men into
battle but he couldn’t seem to discipline his sons correctly. And so therefore,
Ahithophel, knowing this, is afraid that if he doesn’t break the relationship
between David and Absalom, that this thing pretty much could amalgamate later
on and he’s going to be out. So if we’re
going to get things going we’ve got to rupture the relationship between David
and Absalom, and there’s no better way to do it than this.
So that’s one main reason. So we
have the one reason, Ahithophel being Bathsheba’s grandfather, a second reason
that he wants to rupture the relationship between David and his son. Now a third reason is given also in the last
part of verse 21, “then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong.” Now that is a principle of burning your
bridges in back of you. And numerous
examples in military history can be cited where commanders have had to do this
to secure the loyalty of their soldiers.
They’ve been in a situation where they were not sure, and if you are in
that kind of a situation the best thing to do is burn every bridge behind you,
destroy all means of retreat. So guess
what, you have to fight. So this is an
age-old tactic and this is what he wants to do.
He’s going to try to make an irreversible act, once this act is done now
everybody has either got to fight with David or they’ve got to fight with
Absalom, one or the other; this thing is going to decide it.
So we find Ahithophel wanting to make a decisive move. So verse 22, “So they spread Absalom a tent
upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in
the sight of all Israel.” This was a
public demonstration. Now why was it so
public? First the tent; the tent was the
bridal tent, and by the way, I’m told that in certain Jewish weddings this is
still used, not to consummate the wedding, but to have the wedding, there will
be a canopy over it. That is the
survival of the so-called bridal tent, and it was this bridal tent that was set
up on the roof. But strange as history
works out, if you turn back to 2 Samuel 12:11 you’ll see that this literally
fulfills a prophecy, the prophecy of discipline upon David. “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up
evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before
thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives
in the sight of this sun.” So Absalom,
unknown to himself, fulfills this. But,
when he does so he violates the Mosaic Law, because while it is true that a
king in the Ancient East would go in to the concubines of the previous reigning
king, when you have a son succeed his father, it means that then he has to go
in to women who have had sex with his father, and this is forbidden.
Turn to Leviticus 18:8, and this is a demonstration that Absalom can’t
be the godly king that will succeed David on the throne. “The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt
thou not uncover, it is your father’s nakedness.” And therefore in Leviticus 18 we have a
command in the Mosaic Law that was being violated by Absalom at this
point.
Now back to 2 Samuel and see what happens. This act, though it has fulfilled prophecy of
discipline in 2 Samuel 12, has clearly revealed that Absalom can’t be that
godly seed because he takes over… the very act of taking the throne violates
Leviticus, so you wouldn’t have God working.
Now this is going to tip David off to something, and this is why Psalm 3
was written. David knows when this
happen, aha, God’s hand is not in Absalom, because David reasons that if God’s
hand is favoring Absalom, God will not get that boy on the throne by those
means. If that man is going to succeed
to the throne it’s going to be by a godly means. So this clarifies the issue right here, this
is of major importance.
Now verse 23 is kind of a minor end to the chapter, “And the counsel of
Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at
the oracle of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and
Absalom.” That’s to explain how they
knew the will of God in that day. They
knew the will of God because they went to the wisdom sections of God’s
Word. And again as I say, the Urim and
the Thummim were not used. Did they have
a living prophet around? Nathan, but I
want you to see something, it’s vital, in our day when so many people are
misinterpreting the gift of prophecy, you have a living walking, breathing man
who we know is a bona fide prophet
and yet a year goes by, year after year after year after year, and there is not
one word of prophecy, not even in a catastrophe like this. And all this chaos that’s going on, why
doesn’t the prophet say something?
Because God chooses the time and place to speak prophetically and this
isn’t the time. And if this isn’t the
time, the only other recourse one can have as a believer is to go back to what
has been written, the principles of wisdom.
And this is why, what is the book that was famous, starting the wisdom
section of the Bible. The book is the book
of Proverbs, and when was the book of Proverbs written? Under David and Solomon primarily. Now see it’s no accident, this all fits
together because during this period of history wisdom was developing.
Here’s what Dr. [can’t understand name] says, who is one of the scholars
in this particular field. “The interest
of the men who surrounded David and Solomon were not confined to politics. These men constituted the cultural elite of
the nation. And the educational system,”
and notice this, because here’s wisdom, wisdom is equated to education in the
Bible, “and the educational system by which they had been trained prepared its
peoples, not merely for a professional career but for the enjoyment of life in
all its aspects, making no distinction between ethical, social, political and
cultural, but regarding them all as comprising with the single notion of the towb, or the good.” So you have the rise of the culture, the high
culture wisdom. And that’s going on, and
that’s the note of verse 23. They relied
at this stage of history, not on prophets, they relied upon the wise men.
Now chapter 17:1, we want to get through down to the point where this
thing breaks. When we come to 17:1,
[can’t understand word/s] Ahithophel’s advice, this is, as it were, the tape
recordings of the meeting. Here’s the
inner room, here’s what happened when Ahithophel came in. After he told him to take care of the
concubines, then… this all happened in one day, by the way, you see this was a
very busy day. “Moreover, Ahithophel
said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise
and pursue after David this night; [2] And I will come upon him while he is
weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid, and all the people who are
with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only. [3] And I will bring back
all the people unto thee. The man whom
thou seeks is as if all returned; so all the people shall be in peace. [4] And
the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.”
This was brilliant advice; we see some arrogance on Ahithophel’s part,
we see the vengeance, you notice what he says, remember now he’s old enough to
be a great-grandfather, and in verse 1 he says you let me do the chasing,
Absalom. See, that’s his way, he wants
to get in on the killing. This is his vengeance,
but apart from that note, verses 1-14 are beautiful. From Absalom’s point of view this is
excellent, perfect, perfect advice, perfect wisdom. The first thing about it is that he is going
to pursue David this night. There are
various principles called the principles of war that are used by commanders in
deciding tactics and strategy. One of
these principles of war is the principle of pursuit, and in the biography of
Field Marshal Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and
Felixstowe General Sir Archibald Wavell gives a very clear picture of
the problems of the principle of pursuit.
Now General Wavell has written a biography of how Allenby, who was the
British commander in Palestine in World War I.
When the British were in charge of Palestine they had to deal with the
Turks and the Germans and so on, and here Allenby with the Arabs and certain
other allies, began to push back the Germans and the Turks. And when he did so he used the principle of
pursuit. Now that you understand why
pursuit is so critical from the military point of view I want to read a section
of this biography and then we will see why Ahithophel gave this particular
advice.
“To the uninitiated, pursuit seems the easiest possible form of war, to
chase a fleeing, presumably demoralized enemy, must be a simple matter,
promising much gain at the expense of some exertion or hardship but littler
danger. Yet the successful or sustained
pursuits of history have been few; the escapes from a lost battle, many. The reasons are partly material but mainly
moral A force retreating falls back on
its depots and reinforcements. Unless it
is overrun it is growing stronger all the time and there are many expedients
besides fighting by which it can gain time.
Ditches and roads may be blown up, [can’t understand word] blocked,
supplies destroyed. The pursuer soon
runs out of his normal resources; he may possibly be able to feed himself at
the expense of his enemies or the countryside.
He is not likely to replenish his ammunition and warlike equipment,
however, in the same way. But the chief
obstacle he has to overcome in pursuit is psychological. The pursued has a greater incentive to haste
than the pursuer, and unless he is demoralized, a stronger urge to fight. It is only natural that the soldier who has
risked his life and spent his toil in winning a battle should desire a
relaxation and safety as his need of victory.
And if a General and staff should feel a reaction from the strain, so
that while coolness in disaster is the supreme proof of a commander’s courage,
energy in pursuit is the surest test of his strength of will. Few have carried off pursuits with such
remoteless determination as General Allenby in 1917 and 1918.”
So the principle of pursuit is a very important point of war; it is that
principle that Ahithophel wants to use in verse 1. So the wisdom, the chokmah, the principles of how do you live in God’s world are being
used, and he knows he’s got to take David.
He says in verse 2, “And I will come upon him while he is wear,” why? Because David has already taken his refugees
with him. David doesn’t just have
soldiers, he has the soldiers plus their families; kids, little kids running
all around, can you imagine the thousands of them trotting around the west
bank. What is he going to do? He’s going to be hemmed in, so Ahithophel
knows this. And he says when I hit, I’ll
hit at night, a night attack, it will scare everybody.
Then at the end of verse 2, “I will smite the king only.” Second good part of advice, Ahithophel wisely
knows that the best thing to do is to avoid mass bloodshed. Politically it would be expedient just to
remove David, in fact if he could hire an assassin to get in there and kill him
that would solve the whole problem.
Because later on in verse 3 he says, “I will bring back all the people
unto thee.” And then there’s a very,
very difficult verse, some argue that the Hebrew text has dropped a phrase out
here, but in the King James it’s awkwardly translated, it says “The man whom
thou is seeking is as if all returned;” now that doesn’t correspond to too
much, literally here’s how it looks in the Hebrew, “According to the return is
the man you are pursuing.” Now what does
that mean? It’s hard to tell what that
means, it may be well that it’s a part of that clause that’s dropped out, but
the idea appears that the return of the people depends only on one thing, get
David. And Ahithophel is right. So Ahithophel’s advice is two-fold. First use the principle of pursuit; second
avoid bloodshed, just eliminate David and you’ll bring the people back, and as
he concludes in verse 3, “so all the people shall be in peace.” So there will
be a lasting base for his political administration.
Verse 4, “And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of
Israel.” Now all this has gone on in his
closed room, with Hushai walking back and forth outside, maybe he didn’t walk,
maybe he sat down, but he was outside the room.
And he knew he had to get in that room, and before the meeting occurred,
remember what he said to Absalom, I will serve in your presence, I will serve
in your presence, he put the thought in Absalom’s mind, hoping Lord, take that
thought, keep it in his mind and use it.
[tape turns [5] Then said
Absalom, Call now Hushai, the Archite, also, and let us hear likewise what he
says. [ 6] And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke unto him, saying,
Ahithophel has spoken after this manner. Shall we do after his saying? If not,
speak thou. [7] And Hushai said unto
Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good at this time.”] … because it’s an obviously good plan
because of the pursuit.
Now verse 8 is the model of how to fake somebody out, this is the model
way of misleading someone. This guy is
skillful and skillful people can be skillful in an evil sense or in a good
sense; here it is, so to speak, in an evil sense. He is going to totally misled everyone in
that room, and you watch how he misleads.
And by the way, you will see these principles functioning in political
circles today, once you see the point.
First in verse 8 he says, “For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and
his men, and they are chafed in their minds,” and he goes on and he describes
certain things, and then he says down in verse 11, the last part, “and that
thou go to battle in thine own person.”
So the first principle he’s going to use is flattery, he appeals to
Absalom’s old sin nature. He doesn’t
want to appeal to Absalom’s conscience, good night, he’s trying to mislead him,
so when you mislead someone you try
deliberately to appeal to their flesh, to appeal to their lust of the flesh, to
mislead them. And so he is; the first
thing he’s appealing is to flatter them.
And then in verse 8 he continues, he says you know this, he says you
know your father and how he is and so on, don’t you, you know how he does those
things, “that they are mighty men, and they are chafed in their minds,” now
that is an interesting translation. It
isn’t chafed, it means they are bitter for life, translated it means they are
desperate. These men have their backs to
the wall, he says. You are dealing with
the military elite of this country, when David evacuated this city before we
walked into Jerusalem this morning, he took with him those 600 trained men that
had all that combat experience in Philistia, he walked out of this city with
half the general staff of Israel, he walked out with every major combat veteran
that this country has and they’re all down on the west bank with their back to
the wall. Are you serious? And so this part is a very plausible sounding
plan. “like a bear robbed of her whelps
in the field; and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the
people.”
See, Ahithophel’s plan was to go charging in there at night, dissipate
the refugees, get a stampede started, when you get this stampede and riot
started the soldiers can’t fight because everybody is going everywhere, and
obviously when you’re fighting with swords and spears you can’t be fighting in
the middle of Grand Central Station. So
that was the plan, sort of like Gideon pulled off, but the problem with that,
it all was grounded on one assumption.
And Hushai was smart enough to know this. It assumed that David would be in the
camp. So he questions the
assumption. Now whether or not David was
there we don’t know, apparently he was in the camp.
Verse 9, “Behold, he is hidden now in some pit, or in some other place;
and it will come to pass, when some of them are overthrown at the first, that
whosever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow
Absalom. [10] And he also who is valiant, whose heart is like the heart of a
lion, shall utterly melt; for all Israel knows that thy father is a mighty man,
and they who are with him are valiant men.”
So what’s the point that he’s doing here. Hushai brings up another military principle,
and that is that everything in the health of a unit, a combat unit, depends on
the success of their initial combat.
This is why Patton did such a miraculous thing in North Africa, he moved
in, took command of a group of soldiers, and the first time the Americans in
World War II fought the Germans in a face to face type thing was Rommel at Kasserine Pass. And the Americans were defeated, and it was a
horrible thing, and the newspapers and everything else, the American public was
downhearted, and what’s happened, we sent our soldiers over to North Africa and
they get slaughtered and here Rommel trumps them in Kasserine. So Patton goes
and has to reverse the moral of these soldiers and that’s why he was so famous
for doing that.
Now here is the same principle, in this situation he’s saying Absalom, you’ve
got a [can’t understand word] groomed set of soldiers, you send them into
battle and all that has to happen is that somewhere we’re going to be fighting
at night, and you’re going to have to reverse, when it says “some be
overthrown” he’s talking about when they have their initial contact, the first
ranks are going to get wounded or killed.
And the first time you get casualties on your leading rank, the first
time those first lines pick up casualties, you’re going to start falling back,
and in the darkness and in the confusion somebody is going to start the rumor
that David’s magic, his charisma, he is winning, and he says even though we
have strong men in reserve in back of those ranks, what’s going to happen is
that you’re going to get rumor and gossip and the whole mental attitude of the
unit is going to go, and the first thing you know, we’re all going to be
running up the hill back to Jerusalem.
So these stand plausible. So far
we haven’t seen anything except the flattery principle, everything else we’ve
seen in this sabotage plan B seems to be fairly good.
But now watch what he does; so far it’s just wisdom versus wisdom. But if you’re going to appeal to people’s
flesh you have to stop somewhere with content and you’ve got to dwell in the fanciful and the emotional,
you’ve got to learn how to motivate people emotionally, and to get them to stop
thinking, to stop measuring truth by the conscience and to start getting their
emotions really going. Now he
starts. Verse 11, “Therefore, I counsel
that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, . from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand
that is by the sea for multitude;” and he uses a very strong word here for
“gathered together,” it means to be mightily gathered together. Now he starts
to paint a fanciful picture. Here’s
where he starts to lead Absalom into the fantasy world. First of all, it’s dubious he’d get all
twelve tribes for him, because he’s still got problems of allegiance
himself. But he says get all Israel
together. So we see a second principle,
not only is the third one, the fanciful one coming up, but right here he’s
gaining time for David. It’s going to
take time to gather these tribes together, this gives David time to cross the
Jordan and escape. So the second point
in the sabotage plan, he’s not only using flattery but he’s stalling for time,
he gives a good plan that appears to be good, but just enough delay to let
David escape.
Notice what happens with the metaphors now, these are all emotional
metaphors. Just follow as I read verses
12-13, “So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we
will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground; and of him and of all the
men who are with him there shall not be left so much as one,” see the
exaggeration. Then notice verse 13, “Moreover, if he be gotten into a city,
then shall all Israel,” can’t you just see twelve tribes, “all Israel bring ropes
to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small
stone found there.” Now that sounds
really good, everybody is cheering, and that’s exactly what happened—that is
exactly what happened in that counsel meeting.
Verse 14, “And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of
Hushai, the Archite, is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” And then the Holy Spirit gives us a peak at
the mechanics of how he pulled it off, and it’s all in one verb, the last verb,
“For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the
intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.” The word is “appoint,” in the Hebrew it’s
means to command a person; so Jehovah is commanding a person, but this sentence
omits the object of that verb, it’s never given. It just says “He commanded to defeat,” but
whom did God command.
Turn to 1 Kings 22:19, we have here an explanation of the unseen forces
that Jehovah, the God of hosts, Yahweh, the God of the unseen forces as well as
the visible armies, and how He pulls this off in history. Here’s Micaiah, Micaiah was let in on the
secret things and how God does this. “…I
saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him
on His right hand and on His left. [20] And the LORD said, Who shall persuade
Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another
said on that manner. [21] And there came
forth a spirit,” and this is an evil spirit, it is a demon, “And there came
forth a demon, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. [22] And the LORD said unto him, By what
means? And he said, I will go forth, and
I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And [the Lord} said, You shalt persuade him,
and prevail also; go forth, and do so.”
So the Lord gives a command to a demon to come in and infiltrate these
ranks.
Now this is what’s happened, apparently, and the Word of God just barely
touches on it because the emphasis is on the people, not on the demonic
forces. But that is not to deny that the
demon forces aren’t there working. And
what happened, apparently, you have Absalom and all his advisors here, they’re
all on negative volition, negative volition, negative volition, they’re all
operating by emotions, they are vulnerable targets to demon forces. So what God does is He apparently assigns a
whole squad of demons to blot out these people’s minds, and to whip up their emotions.
See, they love emotions anyway, they’re a good religious crowd, and they like
to get stimulated and turned on so therefore they have a little demonic help;
Absalom is just getting a little help from his friends. So in this situation notice the tremendous
mechanics that are operating, all because one man is faith-resting this
thing. He’s relaxed, he’s trusting, he
has done what he can do and he himself can’t persuade, Lord, only you can make
this advice come to pass.
And so the advice is given, and then we see in verse 15, after he walks
out of the counsel meeting, he’s not yet sure what happens. Probably the commotion and the clapping and
the cheering and so on, has pretty well convinced him which way Absalom is
going to go; is he going to go with plan A of
Ahithophel, or is he going to go with plan B of Hushai? That’s the question. Hushai doesn’t know for sure yet; in fact,
verse 14 may be somewhat anticipatory in time, but by the time verse 15 occurs
and he walks back out of that room, he immediately sets into motion the spy
apparatus. There are several other
plants in the city of Jerusalem, and the author of this passage wants to keep
us in suspense; this is an adventure story and he wants to hold our attention
that the roots aren’t clear yet because there’s a lot of other things going to
happen. Keep in mind, overall God’s
promise, that moment by moment, boy it doesn’t look like those promises are
going to come to pass. Does that sound
familiar?
Verse 15, “Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar, the priests,”
they are the two plants, they are the two priests, so in this spy system you go
from somebody in the national security council which would be Hushai, down to
somebody in charge of the national shrine, which is Zadok, that’s the first
step in the spy net. And he tells them
two things, “Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of
Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.”
So he gives them the two contents of the secret plan, he says they’re
going to pick one or the other.
Verse 16, “Now, therefore, send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge
not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over, lest
the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him. [17] Now
Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel;” now what is En-rogel? Mount Zion stops at the intersection of two
valleys, the valley of Hinnom and the valley of Kidron. At the juncture of those is a spring, and
it’s at that place where the two sons of the priests stay, at En-rogel. “… for they might not be seen to come into
the city.” Now everything from the word
“and” in the middle of verse 17 to the end, when you see and a “wench”
[maidservant] in the King James, just a maid, she’s going to load the water
from this spring, “And a wench [maidservant] went and told them; and they went
and told King David.” Now the way it
reads it’s a once and for all act.
That’s not true. In the Hebrew
all the verbs shift their tense from the middle of verse 17 to the end because
that section tells that the spy net operated frequently; it’s a frequentative
tense, so it should read this way. “And
a maid would go and would tell them, and then they would always go and tell
king David.
So here’s the spy net; you go from Hushai, the national security counsel
of Israel to Zadok at the national shrine, Zadok passes the word to a maid; the
maid goes down here with her pot of water and she make contact with these two
men; those two men then take the word over to the west bank. So you’ve got this long linkage, this linkage
in this espionage system. So you think
oh boy, they’ve got it out, they’ve got the word out, but then the author keeps
you in suspense because in verse 18 what does he say: “Nevertheless, a lad saw them, and told
Absalom; but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man’s house in
Bahurim, who had a well in his court; they went down to it. [19] And the woman
took” or the wife literally, “and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and
spread ground grain on it; and the thing was not known. [20] And when Absalom’s
servants came to the women to the house, they said, Where are Ahimaaz and
Jonathan? And the woman said unto them,
They re gone over the brook of water.
And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to
Jerusalem.” They almost got caught, they
were under a sack of grain in a dirty old well.
Verse 21, “And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came
up out of the well, and went and told King David, and said unto David, Arise, and
pass quickly over the water; for thus hath Ahithophel counseled against you.
[22] Then David arose,” now watch the timing in verse 22, “and all the people
who were with him and they passed over the Jordan;” and when does it say? “by
the morning light there was left not one of them who was not gone over the
Jordan.” Now you will understand, in
conclusion turn to Psalm 3, you’ll understand a verse in that Psalm because
Psalm 3 was written when this happened or right afterwards. So all this happened in one day. You come down to the evening of that day, and
several issues have been resolved. See
all during the afternoon David wasn’t sure it was God’s will that he be
restored, now he knows it.
This is why Psalm 3 exudes such confidence on the part of David. He knows that his son has gone into his
concubines, violated in Leviticus, and therefore can’t be the replacement. He knows that the plans are now in his
headquarters, he’s got both plans, both documents right in front of him and he
knows exactly what the enemy is going to do.
Now he takes this as empirical evidence God has led him. And he concludes, not on the basis of the
Urim and Thummim, not on the basis of a special revelation from God through a
prophet, he concludes on the basis of circumstantial evidence plus God’s Word,
very similar to the way we are led.
Let’s read Psalm 3:3-6 because this Psalm is the confidence, and this is
the confidence section of David’s Psalm that he wrote that night. “But thou, O LORD< art a shield for me; my
glory, and the lifter up of mine head. [4] I cried unto the LORD with my voice,
and He heard me out of His holy hill.”
What prayer did David make?
Remember, he made the prayer when he was walking up the Mount of Olives,
Lord, fight Ahithophel, and God answered his prayer that afternoon. “I cried unto the LORD with my voice and He
heard me…” And verse 5 is what David did
that night, when everybody was evacuating and moving out, he knew there was
going to be a big battle the next day; while his soldiers from Jerusalem were
moving out, everybody is getting tired, David had crossed Jordan and was sound
asleep, resting. And this is what he
means in verse 5, “I lay down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me,”
it means when I awoke his lesser commanders had gotten everybody across the
Jordan. David was not troubled now because he knew he was running in the
direction of the will of God. And so he
went across and slept, and while he was sleeping his whole army crossed. He awoke, they were all on the other side and
so in verse 6 he prepares his mental attitude for the battle we are about to
see. “I will not be afraid of ten
thousands of people, who have set themselves against me round about.” And his petition, “Arise, O LORD; save me, O
my God,” and then in the prophetic perfect tense he says “You have already
smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek, and You have smashed their
teeth.”
Father, we thank Thee for the life of David…..