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Patriarchs and Prophets
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 of
wickedness, but because of David’s sin He did not exercise His power
to prevent them.
Ahithophel had been held in high esteem for his wisdom, but he
was destitute of the enlightenment which comes from God. “The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (
Proverbs 9:10
); and
this, Ahithophel did not possess, or he could hardly have based the
success of treason upon the crime of incest. Men of corrupt hearts
plot wickedness, as if there were no overruling Providence to cross
their designs; but “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord
shall have them in derision.”
Psalm 2:4
. The Lord declares: “They
would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. Therefore
shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own
devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the
prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”
Proverbs 1:30-32
.
Having succeeded in the plot for securing his own safety,
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Ahithophel urged upon Absalom the necessity of immediate action
against David. “Let me now choose out twelve thousand men,” he said,
“and I will arise and pursue after David this night: and I will come
upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him
afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite
the king only: and I will bring back all the people unto thee.” This
plan was approved by the king’s counselors. Had it been followed,
David would surely have been slain, unless the Lord had directly in-
terposed to save him. But a wisdom higher than that of the renowned
Ahithophel was directing events. “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, and he would not intrude
himself unasked, lest suspicion should be drawn upon him as a spy;
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 proposed plan were followed, David
would be lost. And he said, “The counsel that Ahithophel hath given