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The Beginning of the End
hellish cunning, this unprincipled statesman urged Absalom to add
the crime of incest to that of rebellion. In the sight of all Israel he
was to take to himself his father’s concubines, by this act declaring
that he had succeeded to his father’s throne. And Absalom carried
out the vile suggestion. This fulfilled the word of God to David
by the prophet, “Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from
your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and
give them to your neighbor. ... For you did it secretly, but I will do
this thing before all Israel, before the sun.” (
2 Samuel 12:11, 12
).
God did not prompt these acts, but He did not exercise His power to
prevent them.
Ahithophel was totally without divine enlightenment, or he could
not have used the crime of incest to make treason a success. Peo-
ple who have corrupt hearts plot wickedness as if there were no
overruling Providence to disrupt their schemes.
Having succeeded in securing his own safety, Ahithophel urged,
“Now let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue
David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and weak,
and make him afraid. And all the people who are with him will flee,
and I will strike only the king. Then I will bring back all the people
to you.” If this plan had been followed, David would certainly have
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been killed. But “the Lord had purposed to defeat the good advice
of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on
Absalom.”
Hushai had not been called to the council. But after the meeting
was over, Absalom, who had a high regard for the judgment of his
father’s counselor, submitted Ahithophel’s plan to him.
Hushai saw that if the plan were followed, David would be lost.
So he said, “The advice that Ahithophel has given is not good at
this time,” said Hushai, “for you know your father and his men, that
they are mighty men, and they are enraged in their minds, like a
bear robbed of her cubs in the field; and your father is a man of
war, and will not camp with the people. Surely by now he is hidden
in some pit, or in some other place.” If Absalom’s forces were to
pursue David, they would not capture the king; and if they suffered a
defeat, it would discourage them and greatly harm Absalom’s cause.
“For,” he said, “all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man,
and those who are with him are valiant men.”