Rebellion of Absalom, David’s Son
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himself his father’s concubines, thus declaring that he succeeded to
his father’s throne. And Absalom carried out the vile suggestion. Thus
was fulfilled the word of God to David by the prophet, “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... . For thou
didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before
the sun.”
2 Samuel 12:11, 12
. Not that God prompted these acts, but
He did not exercise His power to prevent them.
Ahithophel was destitute of divine enlightenment, or he could not
have based the success of treason on the crime of incest. Men of corrupt
hearts plot wickedness, as if there were no overruling Providence to
cross their designs.
Having succeeded in securing his own safety, Ahithophel urged,
“Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and
pursue after David this night: and I will come upon him while he is
weary and weakhanded, and will make him afraid: and all the people
that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: and will
bring back all the people unto thee.” Had this plan been followed,
David would surely have been slain. But “the Lord had appointed
to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord
might bring evil upon Absalom.”
Hushai had not been called to the council. But after the assembly
had dispersed, Absalom, who had a high regard for the judgment of
his father’s counselor, submitted to him the plan of Ahithophel.
Hushai saw that if the plan were followed, David would be lost.
[537]
He said, “The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this
time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they
be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed
of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not
lodge with the people. Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some
other place.” If Absalom’s forces should pursue David, they would not
capture the king; and should they suffer a reverse, it would dishearten
them and work great harm to Absalom’s cause. “For,” he said, “all
Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with
him are valiant men.”