Loyalty and Betrayal

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Don Filcek; 2 Samuel 16:15-17:14 Loyalty and Betrayal

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You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak is preaching from his series,
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The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel. Let's listen in. Welcome everybody to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and I am so glad that we have the opportunity to gather together here this morning.
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It amazes me every Sunday how God draws together people from various walks of life, from various contexts and histories, to come together in this place to worship him, and that just knocks my socks off.
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That's amazing that he brings us together in a way that probably we wouldn't necessarily have a ton of affinity to everybody else in the room except for Jesus Christ.
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What we participate in this morning, I want to remind you, is just a sliver of the big picture of what
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God is doing around the world. We're just a little part of that, and yet the awesome thing is that this small gathering here in Matawan, Michigan is a powerful tool that God is using to bring about more faith, more community, and more service in us, through us, and beyond us.
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He is a God who is running the universe. Can you think about that? And yet he also is the
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God who meets with us here in little old Matawan, Michigan. That should be mind -blowing to us.
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The text of Scripture we're going to be looking at here this morning is found in the book of 2 Samuel. We've been marching through this
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Old Testament book chapter by chapter, verse by verse. It's interesting because I think that in some ways
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I'm experiencing this, and I guess if I'm experiencing it, I think you probably are too, and that's that it seems like this section of the book of 2
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Samuel begins to slow down a bit. And I'm even trying to take off some larger chunks, and it seems like it plods a little bit, but it plods with intention.
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Because I really believe that this time of David's life plotted. I don't think it was all glitz and glamour and a lot of enthusiasm.
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I think it was a hard time in his life. So if you're experiencing this sermon series and going, man, this is kind of a down time.
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This is kind of a little bit slower and a little bit more laborious. That would match the tenor of the author.
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That would match the mood of the text. The text of Scripture is 2
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Samuel, and we're in a section of the life of David that I've really found it intriguing. Actually, back when
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I was in college, my pastor at Ada Bible Church, Jeff Mannion up in Grand Rapids, while I was going to Cornerstone, he preached through the book of 2
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Samuel. And so it's kind of interesting that now that I'm older, be going back and preaching through a passage that really stuck out to me or passages that stuck out to me when
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I was in college and were formative in my life. But this is a season in David's life where the promises of God seem a bit iffy.
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The promises of God occasionally in our lives will feel a bit iffy.
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Kind of like, is this really going to happen? I say this because I'm convinced that David experienced these days and these months and these years that we're covering in this section of 2
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Samuel in that way. Is God really going to stand by his promises? Should God stand by his promises?
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Do I deserve God to stand by his promises? And if you've asked that question and you've been in stages of life where you've gone like, yeah,
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I mean, I'm not sure that God should stand by his promises toward me. I'm not sure that I'm worthy of that.
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I'm not sure that that makes sense. I'm not sure that's a good use of his resources to continue to hold me up.
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If we're honest, I think most all of us in this room have gone through a season like that. We've gone through seasons where we've sinned either so much or so grievously that we wondered if God's patient covenant of love has run out or should run out on us.
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Have you ever asked the question, how could God still love me? How could he save someone like me?
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This section of the life of David is that section. It's that time of his life. It's that period of time, that type of living that can be really hard, that can be like a slog to wake up in the morning and do it all over again.
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God anointed him, remember, as king over Israel. He pledged to work through him. He pledged to keep him.
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He promised that David's kingdom would not be torn away from him like Saul's kingdom, his predecessor.
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Not like Saul's kingdom was torn away from him. God says, I'm not going to do that to you, David. And in our text this morning, it looks a lot like David's kingdom is about to be torn away from him.
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That's where we find David. God says, I'm not going to tear your kingdom away from you, and it looks like it's about to happen.
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David, of course, in context, before we read this, I'm kind of setting some of the context, and then we're going to sing some songs, but David has sinned egregiously.
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God has pledged consequences to that sin that included strife and evil rising up within his own household.
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And that prophecy, through the prophet Nathan, after he sinned, he's been caught, God saw it.
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Nobody else, he's made a big cover -up, but God saw it. And Nathan included some specific consequences of very specific sexual sin that would occur within his own household as a result.
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Those consequences are going to be fulfilled in this very passage. And yet, by the end of this passage, we will see that God has not given up on his promises to King David.
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God is at work to bring to nothing the betrayal of his son, Absalom, who it looks like is going to be king in his place.
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The point being, in our darkest moments of life, we will find loyalty, and we will often find betrayal.
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And in our text, we see the distinction between those two in the lives of two men, and we see God as sovereign over all of it.
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So let's open our Bibles, or your devices, or your scripture journals. You can navigate to the app and click on the
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Faith tab at the bottom. Click on Sermon Notes there, and you've got a place to take notes, and the passage itself will come up.
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But we're going to read a little bit larger chunk of scripture than we usually do. 2 Samuel 16, verse 15.
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So 2 Samuel 16, verse 15. We're going to read all the way over into the next chapter, chapter 17, verse 14.
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I think that the guy who sat down in the Middle Ages and divided scripture into chapter and verses did a really good job.
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And how many of you are grateful that he did that, so that you can kind of reference it really easy? But occasionally, it's like, bro, this all goes together.
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So I wish that there was not a chapter break at 17, but we're going to read that together.
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So again, recast God's holy word. Awesome that we have the privilege of reading this together out loud.
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Please follow along. Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.
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And when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, long live the king, long live the king.
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And Absalom said to Hushai, is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?
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And Hushai said to Absalom, no, for whom the Lord and his people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his
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I will be, and with him I will remain. And again, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son?
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As I have served your father, so I will serve you. Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, give your counsel, what shall we do?
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Ahithophel said to Absalom, go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all
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Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.
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So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all
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Israel. Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one had consulted the word of God.
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So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed by both David and by Absalom. Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, let me choose 12 ,000 men, and I will arise and pursue
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David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee.
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I will strike down only the king, and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband.
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You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace. And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel.
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Then Absalom said, call Hushai the archite also, and let us hear what he has to say. And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him,
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Thus has Ahithophel spoken. Shall we do as he says? If not, you speak. Then Hushai said to Absalom, This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.
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Hushai said, You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field.
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Besides, your father is an expert in war. He will not spend the night with the people. Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place.
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And as soon as some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, There has been a slaughter among the people who follow
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Absalom. Then even the valiant man, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt with fear.
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For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are valiant men. But my counsel is that all
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Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person.
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So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found, and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground.
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And of him and all the men with him not one will be left. And if he withdraws into a city, then all
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Israel will bring ropes to that city, in which you'll drag it into the valley, and not even a pebble is to be found there.
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And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the
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Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the
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Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this gathering.
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I thank you for the privilege that we have to come together in your name. I recognize that we're here for a whole grab bag of motivations.
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Some maybe are here for the first time. Some have been here from the very beginning. Some are here because it's the thing that our family does on Sunday morning.
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Some are here because they're desperate to hear from your word. Father, wherever we're at this morning, I pray that you would meet us here.
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I pray that those who are discouraged and despairing, that they would find new revelation in life through your word, and through the gathering of your people this morning.
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For those who are abusing others in sin, are completely angry at others, and need to repent,
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I pray that you would bring about repentance through your word this morning. I pray for those who maybe here are far from you, that they would be drawn close to you in this gathering this morning.
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We rejoice that we have salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the cross that gives us hope.
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We thank you that wherever we're at in life, we can come back to that place, a solid foundation, where we know we have been loved.
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We know that our sin is gross in your eyes, so far that you had to send your son to die for us, but you chose to do that out of love.
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And so Father, I pray that that would release us to worship you with glad hearts, with gratitude and thankfulness this morning.
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I pray that that would be the spirit with which we sing these songs, that we would not be mindful of others in the room, but we would be mindful of you as we sing these songs to you this morning.
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I thank you for your love. I thank you for your grace. And I thank you for the unity in these that you've brought together here this morning in Jesus.
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And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. All right, you can go ahead and be seated.
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But like I say, every Sunday, if you need to get up and get more coffee, juice or donuts, I'm well -supplied to last back there.
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And then also, just reopen your device or your Bible to 2 Samuel 16, verse 15.
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And we're going to march through that section that I read earlier. There's an obvious structure to our text this morning, so we'll jump right in.
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I'm kind of outlining it. It simply goes like this, Hushai, Ahithophel, Ahithophel, Hushai.
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There you go. There's your outline. Or you can call it loyalty, betrayal, betrayal, loyalty. It may be tempting then to think that the application and the conclusion from that order is going to be something like loyalty wins the day or something like that.
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Make sure you surround yourself with loyal people or something like that. But we're going to see by the end that there's something else at work here that wins the day for David.
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And so the outline is directly this. Fill that out because that's not super helpful. So Hushai's acceptance, verses 15 through 19.
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Ahithophel's domestic counsel, verses 20 through 23. Ahithophel's military counsel, chapter 17, verses 1 through 4.
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And Hushai's military counsel, verses 5 through 13 of chapter 17.
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So if you're taking notes, there's your outline right there. Except for one thing. There is a fifth point.
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A single verse point that's going to win the day. And it is simply this. God wins, verse 14.
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So we have all of this structure, all of this organization, all of these schemes, all of these plots, all of these things. God wins.
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So why didn't he just say that? Well, you'll see that how many of you know that your life just doesn't work that way, that God just goes right to the end.
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But he has a journey. He has a place that he wants to take you. A lot of the reality of our lives and the benefit in a relationship with God is entrusting him in the midst of hard times and difficulties.
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So we're going to start here with Hushai's acceptance, verses 15 through 19. A little bit of history, a little bit of background.
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Absalom has declared himself king over Israel. Now this is the son of David. Israel already has a king, though.
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King David is the anointed by God, chosen by the people, king of Israel. But his son says, no,
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I don't like your rule, dad. I'm going to take over here. And he's actually trying to put to death his own father.
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In verse 15, Absalom came into Jerusalem with all of his loyal insurrectionists marching in. And in their number is a man named
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Ahithophel, who was the former close advisor to his father, king David.
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So Ahithophel is a betrayer in our text. Ahithophel knows David. He's considered one of the wisest strategists of the kingdom.
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And according to verse 23 in the text, you can kind of look forward a little bit, the counsel that Ahithophel gave was considered like scripture, as if God has spoken.
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When Ahithophel says, invest in this, you invest in this. When he says, pull your money out of that, you pull your money out of that.
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Ahithophel was that kind of advisor that was just on top of everything. And when he gave advice, you followed what he had to say.
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He was wise, and it was deemed like scripture. David had trusted him implicitly, and now
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Absalom also, it says, esteems his counsel. So what you need to understand is that Ahithophel was considered one of the wisest men.
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He knows David in and out. He has been out planning and strategizing battle on behalf of David.
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Now he is strategizing and planning battle against David. This is a significant betrayal.
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This is like somebody who knows every playbook and has watched you coach all your life, turning to the other team.
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He knows your playbook. He knows how you respond when it's fourth down and two. He knows how you respond in all kinds of situations.
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He knows when you fake punt and when you don't. He knows all of the ins and outs. That's Ahithophel to David, now turning to his son
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Absalom. But we know from back in chapter 15 that David had sent a fifth column of spies into Jerusalem when he heard that Absalom was marching up from the south.
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He got out of Dodge and headed east, but he sent men back into Jerusalem as this fifth column to seek to thwart
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Absalom's plans. And one member of David's fifth column was Hushai.
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When David heard that Ahithophel had defected to his son, he shot up a prayer to God asking
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God to turn the counsel of Ahithophel to foolishness. Our text today is showing God answer a direct prayer that David prayed and just kind of shot it up to God.
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Oh my goodness, Ahithophel is against us. We're in trouble. God, would you please intervene? Our hope is in you.
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The only hope is that you would somehow thwart the counsel of this guy or he's going to get the better of us.
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And so then also, right when David finished that prayer, another counselor, a lesser counselor, one that's not said his words were like the words of God, not that everybody trusted, but his name is
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Hushai, a close friend of David, another counselor and advisor. And David sent him in to do whatever he could to disrupt the counsel of Ahithophel.
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And so that's where we're at. Hushai arrived, Absalom came into town, and we're going to start seeing the first meeting between the two of them.
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And we see Hushai being vetted by Absalom in verses 16 through 19, the acceptance of Hushai here.
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As you can imagine, Absalom would be leery of anyone who had been loyal to his father, ought to be leery of anybody who was loyal to his father
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David. But Hushai proactively went to Absalom. He doesn't have to be called into his presence. He goes, it says, and declared immediately a shout of pledge of loyalty.
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He says, long live the king, long live the king. This is a phrase that was adopted even back in the Middle Ages for kings.
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And throughout the Bible, this is often declared with the name of the king to clarify who you want to live long, who are you pledging your loyalty to.
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So it would be long live Jeconiah, long live Jeroboam, long live Hezekiah, and all of these kings' names, and you would add the name, but Hushai leaves it off.
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And scholars kind of point to that as being a pretty significant thing here. I think it's pretty significant. He doesn't declare which king he wants to live long.
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Remember, he's loyal to David, but he's here trying to get in good with his son
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Absalom to be a spy for him. And I don't doubt that when he says, long live the king, his heart is screaming
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David. May David live long. May my friend and the one that I'm loyal to. So when he exclaims this, long live the king,
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Absalom accepts this as speaking about himself and is okay with that, but Absalom remains a bit skeptical.
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So in verse 17, he asks about Hushai's loyalty. Is this how you express loyalty,
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Hushai? What about your friend David, he says in verse 17? Why don't you go out with your friend and flee the city with him?
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And again in verse 18, Hushai wisely answers in a vague declaration that I think he still is thinking about David, but he's couching his terms carefully.
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He says, he will support and serve the one whom the Lord and the people have chosen to be king. Why wouldn't
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I support that one, says Hushai? Of course, we know that the Lord and the people have chosen who to be king over Israel?
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David. They've chosen David. God chose David to be king. So when he says, I will support the one that God chose and I'll support the one that the people chose, we know that the
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Lord and the people have chosen King David and nothing has changed that. Now I believe that what
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Hushai is doing here in this opening section is using Absalom's arrogance against him.
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Absalom thinks himself to be chosen by God. He thinks he has the loyalty of all the people.
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So who else could Hushai be speaking of except him? Of course, he's talking about me. So Hushai goes on to give veiled support for David in verse 19 saying, and paraphrase, why wouldn't
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I serve the son of my best friend? I will serve you as I have served your father. This is apparently a sufficient defense for Hushai has been effectively and quite easily inserted into the inner circle of the young insurrection.
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This all is happening simultaneous with last week's message about David's exodus from Jerusalem.
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Remember, he was heading down to the Jordan Valley last week and we left David resting for the night there on the western side, the
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Jerusalem side of the Jordan River. But these events are happening earlier that same day according to the timeline.
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So these are happening that day. David is not yet resting at the Jordan when these things are happening. He's still on the road, on the way out of town.
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Hushai is loyal to David, so loyal that he's put his life on the line to enter Jerusalem as a spy.
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There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if Hushai gets found out that he's spying on behalf of David, his life is going to be cut short quickly.
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He's going to be executed by Absalom and his men and they're going to be like, he's loyal to David and that's the end of it.
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Now there's a minor point of application here at the beginning of this and it's really centered on loyalty in the
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Lord, loyalty in relationship to others and God. Hushai was, in the text, an example of a loyal friend.
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He doesn't duck and run when his friend is being attacked but rather stands with him. He goes into battle with him.
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I think many of us spent the last couple of years, if I'm just being honest, I think that it's affected all of us in varying degrees of course, but we've spent a couple of years unlearning friendship and community and togetherness.
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Everything in our culture has warred against those types of connections and it is time to get back to what is meant by the word friendship.
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You see the word in the text. Hushai is David's friend. It is good to have your people.
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It is good to do life together with others. And at the risk of sounding self -serving,
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I'm going to suggest to you that you should have your people in your church. You should have people here. I have people come to me all the time and say,
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I've got fellowship outside of here. I've got connections outside of here. Why? Why aren't you connecting here?
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Why aren't you loving here? This is the body with which you gather on Sunday morning to sit under the teaching of the word and to hear and to sing together.
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Why not connect here? And if it's a problem of having been burned in the past or a problem, and I get that.
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I think probably if I asked you to raise your hand, if you've been hurt by the church or hurt by people in the church, I bet all of us would raise our hand.
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At some level there have been heartaches and pains, but God calls us to fellowship together.
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He calls us to connect and to bear with one another and to lift each other up and to bear each other's burdens.
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And I think all of us know that when things go bad, that's when we miss it, right? It's like, oh, okay, when life is down and I've got nowhere to turn and it's like, okay, everything's melting away from me, where's the connection to people who in Christ are going to uphold me, are going to lift me up, are going to pray for me, are going to bring meals to you and are going to really love on you and let you know that they love you and they care for you.
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It's good to do life together with others. I mean, the community group sign -ups are out there, and it's unashamed to put a plug in for that, only in as much as those are vehicles and tools to actually forge real genuine connections and community here.
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We're all designed to need shoulders to lean on, church. We all like to think of ourselves as independent.
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We're Americans, aren't we? But even the mighty King David, remember who this guy is.
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He's the one who ran out with five stones. I always think it's funny because he didn't just take one, he took five, but he ran out with five stones going,
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I'm going to take down this giant, and who was beside him? Who was running out with him? No one.
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Everybody else was kind of like sitting back going, I don't know how this is going to work out, but hiding. Like, what's going to happen?
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Had nobody else to lean on in those moments, but he went through seasons of significant dependence upon the loyalty of friends.
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That's what we see going on in his life here. He's not standing alone in the middle of the field right now. He is dependent on others.
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We all need others. The second movement in the text is Ahithophel's domestic counsel.
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This is the gross part. This is the ugly part. Scripture does not shy away from showing us human history, which always requires us to look at the grotesque moments of sin.
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Do you know what I'm talking about? That's the funny thing about our biographies is our biographies rarely get into the depth of people's brokenness.
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I don't want anybody to write a biography that includes all of my crap and my crud.
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But Scripture is honest. It's true to us. The back and forth of this text is meant to show us dueling counsel between Ahithophel and Hushai, and we start with Ahithophel's counsel here.
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And the end is going to show us the reason that one of them is winning or will win. But Absalom seeks counsel from Ahithophel.
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What should we do first? What should be our first plan of attack? They're there in Jerusalem. They've marched in. They've declared Absalom king.
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Now what? What do you recommend, you counselor, whose words are like the words of God, the one who, when you speak, it's infallible, and we should just always do what you say?
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And the advice is shocking and scandalous and even maybe a bit sickening to us when we hear it, when we read it.
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I call it domestic counsel because what Ahithophel counsels has more to do with loyalty to Absalom within the country than it has merely to do with his military exploits.
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The counsel in verse 21 is direct, and so I will speak directly. The Hebrew, the translation, again, scholars don't always love to translate things directly, and so they don't necessarily love the language, but it says in the text, go have sex with your father's concubines, whom he left to keep the house in order.
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David, when he was departing, it said in the text, earlier in chapter 15, he left 10 concubines in charge of the household to maintain things until he returns.
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And I just want to point out that the whole thing from beginning to end reeks of sin and sexual deviance.
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From beginning to end, that's what we're looking at. Just looking up the definition of concubine results in feeling gross.
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I just look up that definition and you're like, oh, really? A concubine was an ancient relationship by which a woman was brought into the household as less than a wife, but still had the status of sexual partner.
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So in our text, to be clear, in verse 22, Absalom is being counseled by Ahithophel, a very wise guy, to have sex with 10 women that his father had arranged to have sex with, likely for the primary purpose of multiplying the royal offspring.
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Hear me carefully, church, lest there be any confusion over the sexual ethics of the
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Bible on this front. The Bible's faithful to report to us what people did, but it's also faithful to tell us what they should have done.
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The law in Deuteronomy prohibits the kings of Israel from taking multiple wives, let alone concubines.
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And although this was the practice in ancient Israel, it was not according to God's design, nor was it according to God's law.
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I had a couple conversations with people this week about this passage, people who I kind of like to bounce ideas off of, and another pastor, and he just said, wouldn't it be really nice if we had really clear teaching about God not liking this?
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I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. How many of you would just love it if God said, and what they did in this time and era was wrong?
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How many of you would like that? He just declared it openly here, so that you're just like, okay, Absalom is sinning in this,
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David is sinning by having concubines, but I want to be clear. We do have clear teaching about what
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God wants from his written law, we just don't read it very well. We skip over those parts, we breeze through them, our mind kind of draws a blank when we go through the second half of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, we're just kind of like, and then get on to the next part.
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It's clear in there, it's just that it's hard to get to, because it's mixed in with all these laws about clothing and different materials and all of this stuff, and we just get bogged down and we ignore it.
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We go, I don't know if anybody can understand this. Well, you can. You can, and it's written clearly. The historical sections are there.
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These historical sections are there to show us how far away from the standard that's clearly revealed in the law, how far people stray from that standard.
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David wasn't supposed to have multiple wives, let alone concubines, and Absalom certainly was not supposed to sleep with somebody who slept with his father.
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That's clearly in the law in Deuteronomy and in Exodus. It's written there without question.
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The fact that David had concubines was against God's plan from the beginning, and yet following the pagan practices around them,
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Israel and her kings added many royal wives and concubines. Of course, David's son is going to be the one,
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Solomon, who's going to follow in his footsteps. That's kind of a spoiler alert. I thought it was going to be Absalom. No, it's not going to work out very good for him.
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Solomon is going to take this to the nth degree with 700 wives and 300 concubines, or I got that reversed,
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I'm not sure which, but over 1 ,000 sexual partners. Are you kidding me?
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And further here, Absalom practices one more common pagan practice. It's a common pagan practice for the harem of one king to pass on to the next king.
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So that's what's going on here. By pitching a tent on the roof, which I want to point out is likely, we're talking about the palace here, likely the very same roof from which
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David observed Bathsheba bathing. Likely the very place where all of this mess began, and Absalom has his servants pitch a tent there, and he sleeps with his father's concubines in the sight of all
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Israel. Of course, don't forget there's a tent. But Absalom shows the nation he is for real.
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He's not pulling any punches. He's not pretending to usurp his father's kingdom. He's not hoping to be reinstated.
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He's not leaving himself a plan B in case David comes in and conquers, and like, oh,
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I was just kidding, Dad, just joking. He's burning all of his bridges. He is planning on no retreat.
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The reason that Ahithophel counsels this is for that very reason. Show your men that you mean business.
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Show your military and show the nation that you are serious about this. You are the king.
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Take his harem. And his goal, Ahithophel's goal in the council is to strengthen the men that are with Absalom.
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They will now fight knowing that Absalom has no retreat available, and they further are implicated in this whole plan and plot.
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Absalom obviously acts on this council in verse 22. Horrendous. And it's a bit ironic when we consider
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Absalom that we see hypocrisy in him pretty clearly. We consider Absalom's severe anger and indignation at the violation of his sister
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Tamar just a few chapters ago. Super angry that somebody violated his sister. But Absalom was not.
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He shows himself here to not be against sexual abuse. He was just against someone abusing someone in his family.
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He doesn't have general moral scruples. He has a lot of self -interest, and his morality only really serves his own causes.
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That's Absalom. And let me point out an observation that's potentially frightening, but is worth identifying.
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Sexual sin is the seed that David sowed in his life and in his family.
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You see that? Nod your head if you know that. That's the sin that started all of this.
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And here we see sexual sin as one of the consequences that he is reaping in his family.
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And the apostle Paul says, do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. What a man sows is what will grow.
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You don't plant corn and expect a pear tree to grow. What do you expect to grow when you plant a kernel of corn?
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Corn! What do you expect to reap in your life and in your family if you're sowing sexual sin?
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What do you expect? What should you expect to grow if you are sowing to greed and self -centeredness and everything is materialism to you?
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What do you expect to reap? What do you think is going to grow in the soil of your family? God is not mocked.
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What a man sows is what he reaps. Now fear of repercussions, I'm just being honest with you guys, fear of repercussions has a limited value in my own walk with God.
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Fear of repercussions, I'll say that again, fear of retribution, fear of punishment has a limited value in my own walk with God, but it is indeed to be a motivator.
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Let me explain. Scripture clearly holds out the fear of consequences as a motivation to live
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God's way. We know that by living our own way things are going to go poorly and we are going to reap consequences and things are going to grow up in our life that we wish weren't there, but we know that living
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God's way will result in more peace, more goodness, more love, and more hope in our lives.
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Not necessarily better circumstances, just better internal life, more fruit of the Spirit in us.
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But that's only when that obedience is accompanied by the freedom of sins having been forgiven, and also when it's accompanied by the knowledge of and trust in the love of God given to us at the cross.
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We come to know that God is for us at the cross. He made a way to redeem a sinful person like me at the cross, and so now
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I can also trust that the way he wants me to live is also in my best interest, that he's good and that he only would prohibit something from me because it's bad for me.
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And I seek to obey him out of both love for the one who gave his life for me, and, and, listen, and out of fear of the discipline he promises to those who are his.
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He's faithful to give me discipline and to let things grow up in my life that are going to be consequences if I choose to sow to my flesh.
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I believe that fear has often been marginalized in our age of grace as the motivator it's supposed to be, but your life, church, your family, your work, your future is impacted by your sin.
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God will not be mocked. Miserable consequences are real, and I think many of us have faced them.
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David sowed sexual sin, and one of the consequences of sexual sin committed against him by his own son.
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So Ahithophel's domestic counsel is a terrible betrayer of the former king. I mean, Absalom, his son, wicked betrayal.
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Ahithophel, David's right -hand man and best counselor, wicked betrayal. Can you imagine one of your best friends and confidants, somebody that you've gone to battle with, somebody that you've actually worked hard with and that you've trusted your whole life, can you imagine somebody like that encouraging someone else to sleep with your wife?
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Go sleep with his wife. Go sleep with her husband. Deep and complete relationship -severing betrayal is what we're reading about here in the text.
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David is beset by enemies on every side, even those who were once loyal to him are betraying him.
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This is a dark time of David's life. The third movement of the text is Ahithophel's military counsel found in the first four verses of chapter 17.
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Wise counsel. Before we dive into it, understand, this is good counsel. It's even declared later in the text to be good counsel.
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What Ahithophel says here is the right move. Ahithophel gives solid military counsel that comes from his personal experience with David.
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He knows David. He knew David was susceptible to seasons of discouragement and weariness. And so he recommends a quick assault.
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He gets right at it. And by the way, give me 12 ,000 men and we will go out tonight and we will end this.
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That's our hope. He knew that David was a master tactician. And if he's given enough time to plot and plan, if David's allowed to select the place for the battle, and if he's allowed to muster his men and encourage them, and if he's allowed to strengthen and rebuild his own fortitude, he's a force to be reckoned with.
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But if you catch him while he's despairing, catch him while he's tired, catch him while he doesn't have time to come up with tactics and military plans.
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So Ahithophel's counsel is this. And the verbs come pretty quick during these first four verses.
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His counsel is short, it's brief, it's to the point, just like he hopes the battle will be. It says, strike hard.
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12 ,000 cracked troops. 12 ,000 chosen fighters. Let me handpick them. We'll go tonight.
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Strike fast. Pursue David tonight. Strike without risk. Don't go yourself, Absalom. Send me.
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Target your strike. We're only gunning for David. Once he's removed, everybody will go back to their homes in peace.
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And Ahithophel explains that his goal would be to return all the people back to Absalom as a bride comes home to her husband in verse three.
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He pictures this glorious kind of parade of people coming back in, pledging loyalty to Absalom.
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This is wise counsel. They know where David is. By the way, I don't know if you know the history.
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David's good at hiding. But they know where he is this night. He hasn't gotten far. David and his people are exhausted from a 20 -mile downhill trek down to the river valley below.
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Absalom sees the wisdom in the counsel of Ahithophel, as do all of his, all of the leaders and the elders of Israel.
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Now let me say at this point that there are wise people who are also evil. It's important for you to understand that.
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I think that Christians do a major disservice in implying that evil people are ignorant, that they're foolish, they're dumb.
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We have a tendency to paint every evil person in broad brushstrokes of ignorance, and they're all doofuses, or what's the plural of doofus?
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Doofusai? I don't know. But I've heard from more than one 20 -something that they were shocked to hear intelligent arguments against God and creation when they went to college.
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They were surprised by that. Why were they surprised by that? Why were they shocked that there's smart, intelligent, intellectual people who don't believe in God?
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Why would that be surprising to them? They had been told by adults, by parents, by church leaders, that only dumb people believe there's not a creator.
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We're setting our youth up. We're teeing them up for a smart professor. And how many of you know they can speak smart?
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Did you know that? We are teeing our young people up to be shocked when they hear a cogent argument against a creator.
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That's dangerous. They were set up to be surprised when they met smart people who believed in evolution and believed there is no
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God. But hear me. You see it in the text. Satan is cunning. He has his
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Ahithophels. He has his people who have knowledge and worldly wisdom that can speak articulately, that know the ins and outs of the way that the church works, who can quote
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Scripture. Ahithophel is using his wisdom to try to betray the Lord's anointed.
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And like Ahithophel, I imagine that even Judas the betrayer, hear me out church, I believe even Judas the betrayer had a pretty decent reason that he would have been able to articulate for betraying
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Jesus. We tend to see him as a bumbling oaf that was bamboozled by the religious leaders over 30 pieces of silver.
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Give me a break. That offer was standing for all the other eleven as well.
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What was it about him? I believe that Judas had a rationale for his betrayer and given a half an hour he could try to convince you to.
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And he would have if you had given him the time. And I would say a good application to this council.
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Church, study hard. Study harder. Know the word.
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I think we're entering a phase, and I'm not a prophet, but I am a preacher and I am a student of the culture and I think we're entering a time where it is more vital than ever that you know your way around this word.
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This is saturating your life. Study harder. Know the word church.
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Practice with your sword. Someone out there is practicing harder to try to destroy you and trying to destroy your faith.
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Why? Because you've been called by him and the enemy hates him. Be prepared to defeat the councils of the wicked.
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And that leads to what God does through Hushai. Hushai gives his military council in verses 5 -13, the biggest chunk here.
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Absalom is satisfied, by the way. This is what is miraculous. This is what's a shocker, and it's amazing.
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Absalom and the leadership of Israel are satisfied with Ahithophel's council and they're like, yeah, they're getting ready to say, go ahead, get your 12 ,000, go tonight, strike down David, bring everybody else back,
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Absalom will be king. But for some reason, a reason that will indeed be explained by the end of the text in verse 14,
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Absalom chooses to get a second opinion. Now if you've got the best doctor in the world doing your surgery, and he is the number one surgeon, do you go for a second opinion?
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Or do you just schedule it? You schedule it, don't you? So what in the world is going on here?
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The best counselor in Israel, and we're going to go in and we're going to get a second opinion. And guess who's called in?
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Out of all the other potential counselors, who's the one that comes in? Who's the one that Absalom wants to hear from?
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Hushai. Now this obtaining of a second opinion is set in the context of verse 23 of chapter 16.
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Everybody follows Ahithophel's advice. It's miraculous that Absalom asks for a second opinion.
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Absalom tells Hushai what Ahithophel has already counseled. This is a huge benefit.
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It's absolutely true that it's easier to poke holes in someone else's counsel than it is to start from scratch.
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Hushai doesn't have to start from scratch. He's given the counsel of Ahithophel on a platter.
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Here's what Ahithophel thinks we should do. What do you think? Hushai is given an advantage.
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He's very wise in the way he reads Absalom, the young Absalom's pride and arrogance. He disagrees with Ahithophel right off the bat.
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Who's going to get the credit for the victory if Ahithophel's advice is followed? Ahithophel says, don't go out,
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Absalom. I'll go out on your behalf. Give me 12 ,000 soldiers and I'll go take David. That doesn't sound that great as a leader.
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I want the credit for getting David. I don't want you to. That's where he begins.
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It's true that he's very wise in the way that he attacks
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Absalom at the point of his own pride. He disagrees with Ahithophel right off the bat, but he softens it with this time.
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He's not going to get very far by going, Ahithophel's a bum. Ahithophel's dumb. He never gets it right.
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He says, this one time, this one time, just hear me out, Absalom. Just hear me out, because this one time
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Ahithophel is almost always correct, but this time his counsel is not good. And he uses a lot of dramatic and fearful language here.
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Hushai's counsel is about three times longer than Ahithophel's. He speaks of David's enraged mighty men.
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I mean, all this charged language. David's enraged mighty men. He speaks of them being like bears robbed of our cubs.
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You don't want to meet one of those. He speaks of David being an expert in war, which is true, although he's down and out for the night.
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He's probably getting ready to go to sleep on the banks of the Jordan River. So Hushai disagrees with Ahithophel.
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They will not catch David unaware. They will catch him cornered and angry. And as for being able to target
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David only, you won't even find him. He's going to be hidden in a pit. He's going to be hidden somewhere, and you will have to face his trained enraged warriors before you're ever going to even identify where David is.
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And as soon as some of your soldiers begin to take casualties, the word will spread, and all will begin to fear, and even your most valiant, lion -hearted, strong, brave men will melt.
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Why? Because this is true. David is mighty, and his men are valiant too.
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So after poking holes in Ahithophel's counsel, Hushai gives his recommendation. He says, look before you leap.
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Plan ahead. Call a general muster of all the military of Israel from the furthest northern city of Dan to the southernmost city of Beersheba, and we will mass an army like the sand by the sea, and we will descend like the dew upon the earth, just coating
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Israel until we obtain David, till we corner him. And Hushai appeals to Absalom's pride, suggesting he lead the army, and so they will come upon David and wipe out all who are loyal to him.
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Hushai's counsel, why peddle around with just getting David? What about all those that are loyal to him? Don't you want them gone too?
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Why not wipe out all who are loyal to David? And regardless of where the army finds
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David, says Hushai, they will overwhelm him like a flood, attaching the ropes to the city walls and destroying that, because they will have such a large army, a large military presence to capture
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David and put him to death. This sounds like dueling counsel, right?
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Like you can kind of see, okay, a Hithophel, who's got the wiser counsel? But a student of recent history would be able to see through this method of defeating the wily king
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David. You don't have to go far into, far back into the book of 1 Samuel and 2
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Samuel to get to understand why this is not the counsel that Absalom should follow.
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Even King Saul could not corner David like this, despite his best efforts and all the military might of Israel over two decades.
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Two decades that Saul sought David this way, in this very method.
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Let's mass all the army and let's go out and find David, and he couldn't do it. Saul came close to cornering David on a couple of times, but God always protected his man.
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I don't want to make too much of Absalom's youth or naivety, because the text doesn't necessarily attribute that, but I think there's something there.
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He clearly, he certainly is taken by counsel that is flashy and appealing to his pride.
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He is moved to believe that he will accomplish quickly what the previous king of Israel was unable to do in a lifetime.
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Okay, yeah, I'll follow your advice, because that's good. And in verse 14, Absalom and all the men of Israel appraised the counsel of Hushai as better than the counsel of a
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Hithophel. So Hushai wins the day. Hushai is the hero. Hushai is the wise.
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So go get yourself a Hushai and you can close your Bibles and there's your application. No, don't write that down as your application, because that's not where it ends.
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There's one more point to the sermon. Intentionally mind -melting point to the sermon. Verse 14.
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God wins. God wins? What was He doing in all of this?
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Where was He mentioned in any of this text? Did we talk about God at all in any of that? Or were we talking about a
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Hithophel and Hushai and David and Absalom? Where was God in any of that? The text tells us why
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Absalom found the counsel of Hushai more appealing. Why? Why does
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Absalom choose something? Well, wait a minute. Because he wanted it.
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That's not what the text says. Because of God's plans. Our minds should melt and struggle to understand how these two things can come together.
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Absalom choosing which counsel he deems best and God having ordained him to choose which counsel he sees as best in order to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel and to bring
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Absalom to harm, to defeat. Remember that David prayed back in chapter 15, verse 31 that the counsel of Ahithophel would be thwarted, that it would be foolishness.
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And God has answered. But where was God in all of this plotting and scheming and counseling and trying to come up with plans?
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Where is He when David is being betrayed by a close friend? He was there ordaining the defeat and plotting the demise of the pretender,
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Absalom. Does your God work in everyday circumstances, recast?
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Is your God working? Is He planning through your plans? Do you acknowledge that He has a will and ordains things like who accepts whose counsel?
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Absalom took Hushai over the mighty Ahithophel in our text because, verse 14 tells us, because the
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Lord was ordaining to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the end that Absalom might be brought down.
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Occasionally in scripture, not often, but occasionally we get a glimpse behind the curtains to the mind and will of God. To see what
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He's doing behind the scenes of everyday human existence and life. We know, and we even sang some songs that indicate that we know
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He has a will and a plan. There's not a day that He's not, we can't go anyplace that He's not already stood something like that in one of the lines of the songs and it struck me that this is this.
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You're not going to go anywhere that He's not already been. He has a will and a plan.
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We're just rarely given a view of what that will and that plan is in advance. And sometimes we're shocked by what we see back there behind the curtain.
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Could God have a plan to bring harm? Yep. Because the text says so.
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And when I stand up here and say that God's word is the source of our knowledge of Him and the faithful guide to how we should live,
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I mean all of it. Even these tough passages. Even the parts that would include God thwarting the counsel of Ahithophel so that harm might come to the rebellious
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Absalom. Now sprinkle the applications throughout the message, but let me end by identifying that David was not the only one betrayed by a close friend.
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When we come to communion, we should consider the word of the Apostle Paul who lets us know that Jesus on the night that He was betrayed say that again,
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Jesus on the night that He was betrayed took bread and broke it and said this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me.
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And He likewise took the cup and said this wine is a covenant in my blood a new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
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How often have we considered those opening words? On the night He was betrayed.
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If you've asked Jesus Christ to save you from your sins, let me encourage you to come to remember what Jesus endured to rescue you.
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He instituted this very remembrance on the night that He was betrayed.
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Let's pray. Father I thank you for your grace and your mercy poured out for us we who don't deserve it we who are broken we who don't honor you as we should we who in the twist and turns of life sometimes just throw up our hands and we don't know which way to turn or what to do or where to go.
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We who are buffeted and pressed down by the consequences of our own sin.
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Rightly justly. So Father I pray that as we throw ourselves on your mercy
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I pray that you would open our eyes to trust you. You are good and you are sovereign. I pray that as we try to navigate this broken world around us broken world in us broken hearts within us that we would do so with hope and remembrance of the great price paid to redeem us.
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And I do pray Father I pray that you would make us students of your word. A word that reveals the glorious hope that we have that can keep us coming back to trust keep us coming back to joy, keep us coming back to hope because of what you've done for us.
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Without that constant reminder I begin to list to the port bow and begin to sink under the weight of my own sin, the weight of our culture the weight of broken relationships the weight of so many things.
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Father I pray that you would bolster us and buoy us with your grace and your mercy. Let us be students of your word that saturates us with hope and delight and joy knowing that you have made a way for us to be redeemed by you.
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I pray that that would be the reality that we reflect on over these next few moments as we take communion together in Jesus name.