Rebellion of Absalom
669
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;” he argued that, if Absalom’s forces
should pursue David, they would not capture the king; and should they
suffer a reverse, it would tend to 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.” And
he suggested a plan attractive to a vain and selfish nature, fond of the
show of power: “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 that thou go to battle in thine own person. 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 that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.
Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to
that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small
stone found there.
[741]
“And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai
the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” But there was
one who was not deceived—one who clearly foresaw the result of this
fatal mistake of Absalom’s. Ahithophel knew that the cause of the
rebels was lost. And he knew that whatever might be the fate of the
prince, there was no hope for the counselor who had instigated his
greatest crimes. Ahithophel had encouraged Absalom in rebellion; he
had counseled him to the most abominable wickedness, to the dishonor
of his father; he had advised the slaying of David and had planned
its accomplishment; he had cut off the last possibility of his own
reconciliation with the king; and now another was preferred before
him, even by Absalom. Jealous, angry, and desperate, Ahithophel “gat
him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and
hanged himself, and died.” Such was the result of the wisdom of one,
who, with all his high endowments, did not make God his counselor.
Satan allures men with flattering promises, but in the end it will be
found by every soul, that the “wages of sin is death.”
Romans 6:23
.
Hushai, not certain that his counsel would be followed by the fickle
king, lost no time in warning David to escape beyond Jordan without