2 Samuel 15

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2 Samuel 18:16-19:43

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And Mike, you want to open us up with prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together as we gather around your word.
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We thank you for our brother as he's prepared this week. We thank you for giving us your word to study as well as we come together.
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And we pray, Lord, that you would teach us from your word, that you would use it, that we would be made more like your son, that we would have a mindset that is right and righteous, and that you would have us to be your people in that, that we would love you more, first in Christ.
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Let me pray. Amen. Alright, we're going to read the whole chapter and skedaddle through it today.
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That's a big one. Thirty -seven verses. Yeah. Thirty -seven.
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Now it came about that after this that Absalom provided for himself a chariot and horses and fifty men as runners before him.
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Absalom used to rise early and he would stand beside the way to the gate. And when any man had a suit to come to the king for judgment,
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Absalom would call to him and say, From what city are you? And he would say, Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.
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Then Absalom would say to him, See, your claims are good and right, but no man listens to you on part of the king.
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And moreover, Absalom would say, Oh, that one would appoint me to judge in the land, and that every man who has any suit or any case would come to me and I would give him justice.
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And when a man came near to prostrate himself before him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him.
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In this manner Absalom dealt with all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.
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Now it came about that at the end of forty years that Absalom said to the king,
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Please let me go and pay my vow which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I was living in Gesher and Aram, saying,
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If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. The king said to him,
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Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying,
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As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom is king in Hebron.
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And the two hundred men went with Absalom from Jerusalem, who were invited and went innocently, and they did not know anything.
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And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gileanite and David's counselor from his city
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Gilo, while he was offering the sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong, for the people increased continually towards Absalom.
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Then a messenger came to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. And David said to all of his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, Arise, let us flee, for otherwise none of us would escape from Absalom.
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Go in haste, or he will overtake us quickly and bring down calamity on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.
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Then the king's servants said to the king, Behold, we are your servants, and we are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.
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So the king went out, and all the household were with him. But the king left ten concubines to keep the house.
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The king went out, and all the people were with him, and they stopped at the last house. Now all his servants passed on besides him, the
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Cherethites, the Pelethites, and the Gittites. Six hundred men who had come with him from Gath had passed before the king.
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Then the king said to Ittai, the Gittite, Why will you also go with us?
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Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner. You are also in exile. Return to your own place.
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You came here only yesterday, and shall I today make you a wanderer with us while I go wherever I will?
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Return and take back your brothers. Mercy and truce be with you. But Ittai answered the king and said,
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As the lord lives and as the lord the king lives, surely whatever my lord the king may be, wherever he may be, whether for death or for life, there also shall your servant be.
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Therefore David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. So Ittai the Gittite passed over with all of his men and all the little ones who were with him.
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While the country was weeping, with a loud voice, all the people passed over, and the king also passed over the brook
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Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. Now, behold,
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Zadok also came, and the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar came until all the people had finished passing from the city.
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And the king said to Zadok, Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the sight of the lord, then he will bring me back again and show me both it and its habitation.
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But if he should say thus, I have no delight in you. Behold, here I am. Let him do to me whatever he seems good.
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The king said also to Zadok the priest, Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace with you and your two sons,
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Ahimaaz and Jonathan and the son of Abiathar. See, I am going to wait at the fords of the wilderness until the word comes from you to inform me.
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Therefore, Zadok, Abiathar, returned the ark of God to Jerusalem and remained there.
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And David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives and wept as he went, and his head was covered, and he walked barefoot.
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Then all the people who were with him each covered his head and went out weeping as they went.
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Now someone told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.
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And David said, O Lord, I pray, make the council of Ahithophel foolishness.
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And it came about, it happened as David was coming to the summit where God was worshipped.
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There behold, Hushite the archite met him with his coat torn and dust on his head. David said to him,
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If you pass over with me, then you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant,
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O king, as I have been for your father's servant in time past, so I will now be your servant.
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Then you can thwart the council of Ahithophel for me. Are you not
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Zadok and Abiathar the priest with you there? So it came about, and it shall be, that wherever you hear from the king's house, you shall report to Zadok, Abiathar the priest.
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Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaz and Zadok's son
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Jonathan and Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send me everything that you hear.
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So Hushite, David's friend, came also to the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
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We've got some new characters introduced into this old narrative. As we walk through this, we probably won't go every verse like we normally do, so we can try to get through it today.
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Some of that is pretty self -explanatory, is what has taken place. I do want to make the statement here right at the beginning, where it says that Absalom provided for himself chariots and horses and 50 men as runners before him.
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It was something that back in, I think it's chapter 8 of 1 Samuel, when we were doing that, when we were all together in the other room.
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If you remember, what was one of the warnings that Samuel told them when they wanted a king? If you remember, he gave a list of warnings.
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Hey, you want a king, this is what he's going to do. He's going to take your vineyards, he's going to take this, he's going to take that, he's going to take this and that, he's going to make your women bakers, he's going to take your vineyards.
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And he did say, right there towards the close of it, and he's going to make chariots and he's going to make your men run before him.
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And first of all, what good is a chariot in Jerusalem? Think about the terrain. What good is a chariot?
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It really is no good for that purpose. And if you think about also when David was capturing, remember when he was going out and he was recapturing the land, do you remember what he did?
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He took all the chariots and he chopped them up and he burned them. Now he did keep some of them for wartime.
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What was a chariot for? It was a tent. Basically, yeah. It was a war machine.
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He hamstrung them. And he hamstrung the horses so they couldn't gallop. Another thing that we should make note of is he didn't get him a donkey.
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What did he get him? A horse. And what were horses for? War. War. Yeah. He's not coming to make peace.
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If he's got 50 men running ahead of him, we often see in old medieval movies or stuff like that, you see the runners going before them on the knights and all that.
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Pomp and circumstance. Yeah, pomp and circumstance saying, hey, man, the man's coming here so they run ahead and clear the way.
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Well, that's basically what Absalom has done is he has tried to clear the way for him to come.
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It said, Absalom used to rise up early and he would stand beside the way to the gate and when any man had a suit that would come to the king for judgment,
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Absalom would call to him. So here it is. He's got his pomp and circumstance. He's got his basically a chariot and he's got these horses.
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He looks like he's ready to make war. That's not looking very peaceful.
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And as we get through this, we get to verse 13 where it starts David's assessment of it.
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David sees that as well. So as those people are coming into the city, wherever that gate was, whether it be the
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Damascus gate or here at the bottom, wherever it is, whatever gate they're coming in, he's basically intercepting them so that he can say, hey look, dad ain't going to hear what you've got to say.
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I don't even think he calls him dad anymore at this point. The king doesn't want to hear anything you've got to say.
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So why don't you give your grievances to me and see if I can't handle it for you. That's basically what he's doing. I do wonder, was
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David aware of the intercepting of these people that were coming in for judgment? And once again, if he did and he did nothing about it, then once again that would be a failure on David's part to cut his son off from doing that which was evil.
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He had not been given the authority to do what he was doing. How David would have given him the authority, chapter 15 of 2
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Samuel, if David would have given him the authority to do that, it would have been different, but he is trying to usurp the authority.
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So it says he would talk to each man that would come in, that would give their grievances, and he would say, oh if it would only be
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I, if I was appointed judge, then I could see to it that every man's case had justice. And then he also does this, it says in verse 5, that as they were near to prostrate himself, he would put out his hand and take hold of them and kiss them.
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So look, as they're coming down to bow down to him, he's basically grabbing them by the hand, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that.
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I'm just one of you. Yep, I'm just one of you. I will say this though, there is a part of this that is reminiscent of David.
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Do you remember when David early on, after he killed Goliath, he went out, he came in and out with the people.
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He was one of the, hey David had the ability to go hang out in the court, he was one of the valiant men for Saul, and what did
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David do? He put himself among the people to show that he was not elevated to any other, a place that was better than them.
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Well in this case, Absalom's doing it, not out of humility, but out of manipulation.
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We do know that he is a great manipulator. He goes on to say that in this manner, this is verse six, in this manner he dealt with all of Israel who came to the king for judgment.
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Once again, they came to the king for judgment, Absalom's cutting them off, and by doing so, the statement is,
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Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel, and that is exactly what had happened. Ultimately, who's doing this?
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God's doing it. Yeah, God's doing it. God's doing it. This is part of the judgment that God had given
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David for having relations with Bathsheba, and the sword was not going to depart from his house.
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Now there's division. Not only did he bring back the one, remember the lady from Tekoa, and the parable, he brought him back to try to keep peace, now the very one that brought him back,
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Joab, has now caused more division amongst the family than he did good, and I do believe that Joab's intentions were good.
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I don't think that Joab knew that, hey, if Absalom comes back, he's going to try to usurp the authority of his dad.
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I think he was thinking, hey, I bring him back, as David gets older, this will be the next in line. Remember, he was a kingdom guy.
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He was a politician. He was looking out for the best interest of the throne. So you need a king. Gotta have one.
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Yeah. You gotta remember, if there's no king, there's no kingdom, and the kingdom's always related to how that king is.
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So now verse 7, it says, now it came about at the end of 40 years that Absalom said to the king, y 'all say 40 years as well?
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Here's the, go ahead. It gives you a footnote. It reads four.
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So what you have to do, the Masoretic text, which is what most of ours is done by, is the historical, authorized, basically the authorized
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Hebrew version. They kept the authenticity of the 40. All we have to do is the math.
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That's all you have to do. Now, I can't, well, I'm gonna trim.
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Yeah, but this is where people flip out. Oh, there is an error in the
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Bible. Well, we all agree that the Bible was without error, doctrine, theology, and spelling in its original, we would have, in its original autographs.
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But if I remember correctly, I'm gonna transliterate it because the Hebrew looks all crazy. I want to say it was like this.
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If you wrote it in English, it was an, for 40.
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For four, all you would have to do, it was just a, in a
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Hebrew word. This is in Hebrew, okay? I'm just letting you know, I'm gonna show you in Hebrew how they did
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Moses and Moshe. You remember we were doing that part in Judges? That one little, one little mark, vowel point, because remember, there's no vowels in Hebrew.
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So if they put one vowel point by accident, or they didn't have erasers, they didn't have whiteout, they didn't have, and that is what we believe took place.
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But to keep the authenticity of the Masoretic text, that's how it's been translated. The Septuagint does say 40.
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I think the Peshitta and the Targum both say four. I'm sorry, the Septuagint says four, and I think the
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Peshitta and the Targum, which is the Aramaic translation of the
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Old Testament, both say four. So that would make more sense time -wise, just how long this had taken place.
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Not 40, because how long did David even was on the throne? 40 years, okay?
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So, please let me go and pay my vow, which
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I have vowed to the Lord. As we read through that, and we're dealing with Absalom, does that not strike you?
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This is the first time that Absalom speaks of the Lord, and how does he use his, and what does he do?
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He takes the Lord's name in vain. He takes the Lord's name in vain. He says, please let me go pay my vow, which
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I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron, for your servant vowed a vow while I was living in Jeshua, and I am saying, hey, if the
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Lord indeed will bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. Hey, Absalom don't care nothing about the
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Lord. Nothing. This is the only time we hear him speak about it. He didn't care anything about the
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Lord when he set up to kill his brother. I'm not saying that he didn't have some things in his life that were, hey man, sharp looking guy, talks good, looks good, all of that.
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We're not talking about that. We're talking about here, he has now, knowing I can say this to my dad, the king, and he's going to give me the permission to leave because I will use the
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Lord's name. He knew that David cared about the Lord. Hey, if I was David, hey, you're just telling me now that you made a vow when you were here?
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How long, if this has been four years, how long had he been in, how long had he, this has been four years, right?
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About 40. Came about at the end of those four years. Nine years, right? Seven. Three years he was back.
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Three, two. Three, all right. And then he was in there two years, so it would be six. Six to seven.
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Two years he was there and he never even came to see the king, right? Remember? Two years. And he set
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Joab's field on fire. And he says, hey man, I've been here two years and you haven't let me see the face of the king.
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So now we'll just take, two and four is at least six. Six years and you're just now telling me,
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I'm saying from David's perspective, you're just now telling me, you know, six years ago when you were.
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When you were with grandpa. Yeah, when you were with grandpa that if you, you know, you were going to go and if he brought you back to Jerusalem you would go back to Hebron.
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Why would he go back to Hebron? Anybody got any ideas? Where was he born at?
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Hebron. Remember he had his first wives before he came to Jerusalem.
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All those were born. Amnon, Daniel, Kiliab, Absalom were all born in Hebron those seven years he was there.
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So he's going to go back to hometown. Why would he go back to hometown? Because it'd be easier for him to raise up his forces there than to try to do it in Jerusalem.
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And why not? Because I do believe that Joab would have probably struck him down then.
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I'm not agreeing with what Joab does. But Joab was in no way, shape, form, or fashion going to let somebody put their hands nor try to overthrow
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David. And as we go through this you notice that when David goes to leave we don't even hear anything about Joab, do we?
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Like, dude, this is this guy's bodyguard the head of the Secret Service. And where is he?
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You know, is he out fighting battles? We don't know. It's interesting that he doesn't he's not interjecting into any of this narrative here.
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Go ahead. He could be off fighting a battle somewhere.
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Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Now you get to he says, he tells him to go in peace in verse 9.
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He sends him on his way. Hey, the king, David, basically, I love you, son. Go do whatever it is you need to do.
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I think this is the last time this is the last words they have to each other that's recorded.
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So he sends him on his way. And then Absalom sent spies throughout the tribes of Israel saying, hey, right here it is.
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We know that what he said was a bold -faced lie. He goes to Hebron to raise up whatever.
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And what does he do? He sends spies back in to figure out what's going on. He says, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet
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Absalom's king in Hebron. He didn't go back to pay a vow. He went back to set himself up as king. And it's interesting.
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He goes right back to the very same place that David set up his first kingdom. Remember when
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David started? He started in Hebron. Yeah. Well, you got to remember that's where the patriarch started too.
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That's where Abraham got the promise was there. So he goes there.
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And here it is. The conspiracy begins. Not only did he have 50 men running before him.
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It says in verse 11, now there's 200 men that went with Absalom from Jerusalem. And I do like how they were invited and they did not really know what was going on.
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Did you all say innocently as well? In their simplicity. Simplicity. Yeah, they had no idea. You know, here it is.
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This is the crown prince. They're just doing what the crown prince said to do. Hey. And he did have a way of getting people to obey him.
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Think about twice. Hey, when my brother's drunk, kill him.
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Okay. I told you to do it. Yeah. I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it. Be valiant. Be courageous.
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Kill him. And then when Joab wouldn't come see him, what did he say? Hey, you take the head of the
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CIA's food and torch it. Okay.
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Them guys were good soldiers. They were just doing what they were told. And in this case, they left and they went innocently.
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Then in verse 12, Absalom sent for Ahithophel. Now, anybody know who this guy is?
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That's... That's David. Yeah, it is David. It is David Counselor. It's Bathsheba's granddaddy.
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Who? Bathsheba? Helium. Bathsheba's... Her dad was
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Helium. He was one of the valiant men. And then Ahithophel was... Or Ahithophel.
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Ahithophel was a counselor for David, the grandfather of Bathsheba.
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I do believe that this is his opportunity to get back at David. For what he did to...
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Yeah, and to the family. To the family. He has the opportunity at this point now to go, okay, however long this has been, he still obviously...
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He didn't like the fact that God had extended grace, so he was going to take it upon himself to see to it that David paid for his crime.
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You may disagree with how I come to that conclusion, but you're going to see what he tries to do.
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Not this week, but next week, where he tries to get David killed.
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Matter of fact, he even tries to do it himself. He'll go get him at night. And he says, I'll do it myself.
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How old was that guy? I don't know. He actually had the ability to kill somebody?
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Let's just say he was in his 60s. You've got to remember, these guys would be 70 years old still going to war. When King Saul died...
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We'll just take King Saul. When he died in battle, he was 70 to 72 years old. Still going to battle.
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Joshua and... Joshua, Caleb. Caleb. Caleb. Hey, even when
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Moses died, it says his power had not faded, nor his eyes had not faded, nor his strength abated when he walked up to Mount Nebo and God struck him dead.
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So, these guys, for whatever purpose... Think about Joab. Joab's probably got to be getting up to 60.
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You know? They've got to remember, this has been 20 years. So, let's just say...
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These guys... Yeah, you know, you've got to remember. All right, they've been... This is 30 years into David's reign, and they were, you know, 20 to 25 years old, men of war.
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They're 55 to 60 years old at this point. David certainly is in his mid -50s to 60 years old at this point.
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I would even say he might be a little older, because you get toward to here, they basically... You see that for the first time, he's weary.
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And I think we get into chapter 19, it says he's weary. So, Ahithophel the
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Gileadite, David's counselor. So now, we've got someone who is now turning their back on David, and they're going to go with Absalom.
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Why would they go with Absalom? Well, one, he's the new and upcoming guy.
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He's young, he's sharp, he's pretty, the people love him. You know, he's not a coward by any stretch of the imagination.
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So, what's that? Absalom. Absalom. Yeah, Absalom has been in no way, shape, form a coward.
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So this guy is, hey man, he'll be good for the king, for the crown. Well, then in verse 13, it says, the messengers came to David, they said, hey, the hearts of men have gone with Absalom.
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And David says to all the servants who were with him, let's get up and get out. Yeah. Now, I do believe
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David's leaving so that the city and the bloodshed against the people is not, it doesn't happen.
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Hey, David's never been scared of anyone or anything in his life. He never.
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Well, let me back that up. Two times. He was afraid of God when he struck Uzzah, and the one time with Achish.
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Remember, that was it. That was it. Any other time? That's Achish.
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Yeah, that was with Achish. Yeah, he said he was, for fear of Achish, he acted that way. And then when
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God struck Uzzah down, when they were moving the ark, it said that he was afraid of God. But other than that, that's the only time.
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And it says here, hey, if we don't leave the city, the city will be struck with the sword. So he's more concerned about the people of God and the bloodshed that would happen.
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And we do know this, if he'll kill his brother, he won't have any problem killing people he doesn't know for the crown.
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Verse 15 says, the king's servants said to him, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.
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So the king went out and all of his household with him. But the king left ten concubines to keep the house.
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That's very significant with what will take place in the next chapter. Yeah, very significant.
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The king went out and the people with him and then he gives a list of the Cherethites, the Gethites, 600 men with them from Gath and they passed before the king.
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Then you get to Ittai. And this guy comes out of nowhere.
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This guy has come from Gath. He is an exile.
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And David even says in verse 20, You came here just yesterday. Why don't you stay here?
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And who does he address as king? You see that? Absalom. He says you stay here with the king.
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He said you return and remain with the king. So David at that point, to not have bloodshed within the city, what is he saying?
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Hey man, just go back with Absalom. He's king. You see what I'm talking about, Mike? In verse 20? Okay. In 19 he said just return and remain with the king.
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So in verse 18, the same 600 men that he's had with him since...
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I don't know. I don't know. That's a good question. I have no idea. Well it says, which had come after him from Gath.
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But he had 600 before. Remember when he... Where were we at? When he came to Achish, remember, and he went to the cave of Adullam?
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He had 200. Then as he made his trek across to take his family to Moab, remember, on the other side of the
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Dead Sea? When he took them over here, he acquired some on the way.
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It could very well be the same 600. If so, that would be pretty significant that those same 600 have made it through all of these battles for 20 plus years and have remained faithful.
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But man, just once again, where's Joab? Where's Joab in this?
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Verse 20, where it says, return and take your king back? But if you go back up to verse 19, he says, return and remain with the king.
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Oh, okay. Remember, who... Okay, that's the... Yes, he's talking about go back and stay.
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The new king has been declared by blowing the trumpets. Who? Absalom.
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And he's saying, look, just go back. It'll be safer for you to go back. Just go back. You were in exile.
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Just go back and be with the king. David's actually saying, hey, he's the one that's king. Go back.
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Go back there. Live with him. Live a quiet and peaceful life. And I know that y 'all are more sanctified than me.
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But when I read what Ittai says, I think about Tombstone, the movie when when
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Wyatt Earp tells Doc Holliday when they're gonna go out and they're gonna kill all the cowboys and he's got tuberculosis.
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You remember when he says, hey, buddy, you're about to die, Doc. And he says, that's not a bad thing to say to me.
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I'm your friend and I'm gonna follow you all the way to the end. That's what he says here. Basically he says, man,
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I'm with you. Who are you to tell me that I can't go with you? I'm your friend even to death.
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Yep. And he says, I'm here with you. These are some dedicated men. He says, as the
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Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, whatever my lord the king, wherever he may be, whether in life or death, there also shall your servant be.
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That's a dedicated man. And you'll see that as we get towards the end of the book,
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Itti becomes one of the ones he sets up as one of the three generals as they set up a battle actually against Absalom.
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And he tells Itti, Abishai, and Joab, you deal kindly with my son when you get him.
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It didn't work out so well. No, it didn't. It didn't. He says, so go on over. So Itti the
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Gittite passed over with all of his men. Look at there. His little ones who were with him. So I guess instead of going back with his brother and his family, all of his kids, grandkids, whatever, are all coming with him.
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And it says, while all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over.
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And the king also passed over the brook Kidron and all the people passed over towards the way of the wilderness.
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So if you... Because you don't have a... Jerusalem. Let's just say this was
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Jerusalem. This is where the king's palace and one day the temple would be.
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Kidron Valley runs. So they're going to cross over the
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Kidron Valley and the Mount of Olives will be over here. Interesting that as David gets to the
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Mount of Olives, he weeps over the city. Who else did that? Jesus did the same thing.
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Jesus did the same thing. He says, they passed over the brook Kidron and all the people went towards the wilderness.
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Now behold, Zadok also came with them and all the Levites carrying the
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Ark of the Covenant of God. Now, two ways of seeing this. I'll give you the first one which
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I don't hold to this position that David carried that out there for protection. I don't believe that's the case. I believe that...
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What's that? That would be like him treating the Ark like a towel. Well, that's what Saul did. So that's where some people come to that conclusion.
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Saul brought it out to bring it out to battle. So did Hophi and Phinehas.
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Remember the two dirt bags from 1 Samuel? They brought it out as well and it got captured.
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I understand this as David bringing that out for safety. Remember, there's no temple.
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It was in a tabernacle made of cloth probably or some makeshift tent still. So he's wanting to keep it safe so Zadok can then bring it out so that it's not captured in the way that it was.
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That's another thing that they obviously felt enough that Absalom was not going to treat the
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Ark of God with respect. So, they carry it out. Two things also we should notice.
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We have two priests. How often does that happen? We have two high priests. We have
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Zadok and we have Abiathar. Remember who... But that was not by lineage.
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That was done by Rome. Rome removed Annas and put
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Caiaphas and Jonathan and his son in its place. Somebody a little more pro -Roman
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Empire is what they did. So in this case, we have Zadok and Abiathar.
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Zadok is going to be the line of Eleazar. You remember he had four sons.
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Two of them died. You had Eleazar. And he is the line of Zadok.
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And then you remember Abiathar. When was the first time we saw him appear?
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You remember it was in 1 Samuel? When they killed Nob, who ran? When they killed all the city of the priests.
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It was him. And when he left, what did he run with? The ephod. So he is still with David.
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And he is from the line of Eli. Remember, God is going to eventually cut that line off.
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Remember what he said? And it is going to be Abiathar is going to be cut off. And that happens in 1
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Kings, around chapter 2 or 3. And it actually says this is in the fulfillment of the curse against Eli and his family.
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And actually, Abiathar is not struck dead. He says, I should kill you. Solomon.
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Remember, in 1 Kings, he gives the godfather speech.
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As I am leaving, here are some people you have to take care of. You are going to have to knock off Joab. You are going to have to kill
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Shimei. And you are going to have to deal with Abiathar at some point.
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No, he actually tries to overthrow Solomon with Adonijah.
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And that is why he kills Joab at the horns of the altar. Yeah. I don't know if you all knew that, but he kills him at the horns of the altar.
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Joab. He runs, tries to seek refuge at the horns of the altar. Because he tried to put
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Adonijah in place, Joab did. Once again, Joab did what
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Absalom is doing. He tried to put Adonijah, which would have been next in line. Just to let you know, it was
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Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah. He would have been next in line, but it had already been said that Solomon was going to be.
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He tried to put him in place. He tried to run. He told
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Benaniah, Hey man, you need to just go strike him dead. He needs to be struck dead.
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One, he tried to overthrow my dad. Two, he killed Amasa, and he killed Abner in time of peace.
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That's another thing. He didn't say anything about killing his son, but he says about Amasa and about Abner.
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He says, you've got to kill them. They killed two men at peacetime. He runs to the horns of the altar. Benaniah says,
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Hey Solomon, he's hanging on to the horns of the altar. What do you want us to do? He said, kill him right there.
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That's what they did. They struck him right there. So, the
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Ark of the Covenant brought out. David says, take it back. That's in the next paragraph.
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They take it back to the city. It remained there. David says, look, if the
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Lord is gracious to me, He'll bring me back into the city, and He'll bring me back to where His dwelling place is.
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If He does, that's great. If He doesn't, that's God's doing. And here it is in verse 30.
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David went up to the ascent of the Mount of Olives. He wept as he went, and his head was covered, and he walked barefoot.
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Then all the people who were with him each covered his head and went up weeping as well.
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Once again, we're seeing the people follow their king. If the king's sad, the people were sad.
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They were following David's lead. And then it says,
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David's told here in verse 31 that Ahithophel is among those conspirators of Absalom.
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Imagine David's stomach when he heard that. When we get into the next chapter,
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Ahithophel, his words were just like God speaking. That's how faithful his words were.
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And David's gut had to turn. And so what does he do when he hears that?
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He prays, O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Why would he pray that?
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Because he knew by and large everything that Ahithophel had said was faithful and true.
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But he's like, look, whatever He's going to tell him to do, He's basically going to... He knows me. He's going to snitch me out.
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He's going to let him know what I do and just however you work this out, Lord, will you please just turn whatever his counsel is into foolishness.
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And it's interesting that as it happened, David was coming to the summit.
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Now David's going up to the summit of the Mount of Olives where God was worshipped.
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And Hushai the Archite come out to meet him. He is another counselor. And as he came out, he had torn his clothes and dust on his head.
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What did that represent? It was mourning. What was he mourning over? That's how
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I would understand it. If he's heading out to the Mount of Olives where David's at, he's mourning over how the city has fallen to another king when he understood that David was
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God's man. And when David had not established Absalom as king yet.
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Or had never even made that thought. It said, if you pass over with me, you will be a burden to me.
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But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king. See, once again, you're going to address, who is king?
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Absalom. As I have been your father's servant in times past, so I will be your servant.
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Then you can thwart the counsel of Ahithophel. Basically, I need you to go in. I need you to be a spy.
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I need you to be a double agent. I need you to figure out what's going on. So whatever he says, they're probably going to ask you something as well.
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Because they know you're my counselor. Yep. And you're going to need to basically turn his counsel into foolishness.
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And he talks about Zadok and Abiathar. He talks about their sons, their significance.
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Hey, get these kids out of here. Ahimez and Jonathan will become the next priest.
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We don't see that until 1st and 2nd Kings, or 1st Kings. But then it says, and we'll finish here,
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So the Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
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So, he blew the horn in Hebron. He was called king.
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He has made his trek. As soon as he hears word that David's leaving the city, what does
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Absalom come and do? He comes in and he's basically, we're going to see next week, he's going to basically move into the king's palace because of what takes place.
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Any questions, comments? Yes, ma 'am. Well, I would imagine for whoever was in next to be in line for the king would still have the palace.
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So they would leave the women there to take care of the affairs. Ultimately, now ultimately, we can look back and say now we know why once Ahithophel gives him the reason, hey, here's what you need to do, we can say, hey, this is under God's providence, left them there to take care of the house, but that he would have intercourse with those women on the top of the roof.
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Now, I don't think, for one second, we can talk more about that when we get there, I think it's next week. I don't think that people watched that.
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I don't want you to think that this was some type of voyeurism. It was just basically saying, hey, when this takes place, it's going to end up on the internet and everybody's going to know.
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There's going to be no knowledge that you went in and had sex with your father's concubines.
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And the purpose of doing that was to show that now he has the authority. If you remember, it was
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Reuben who slept with Jacob's concubine. And he was cursed for it.
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Why? Because that was trying to usurp the authority. He says, hey man, you laid with my concubine on my couch.
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You tried to usurp the authority when it was not given to you. That's the counsel that Ahithophel is telling
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Absalom to do. And do you remember, why did he do that? Because God said, when you did it in the private of your home, it's going to be done on your rooftop.
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Who's shy? Ittai? Yeah, Ittai. He took everyone, even his little ones.
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He's taking his whole family. Yeah, he took everything. I would understand that he still saw
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David as the king and he didn't want his family under a non -established king. He didn't want them under Absalom.
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Absalom proved himself to be a faithful person. I mean, a guy that wants to kill his dad is kind of unfaithful.
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Let me pray for us. Most gracious heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this historical narrative,
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Father, that we can look and we can see that You are working out Your purposes even in these very tumultuous and difficult times in the life of David and in the life of the kingdom.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You that we have the privilege of opening it and reading it and having it in our hands.
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Help the words that were spoken today, Father, to be imprinted on our hearts, Father, and a reminder that we in our own hearts are no better than any one of these men,
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Father. Whether the seeds of sin are in our own hearts just as these men, Father, for greed and lust and envy and pride and power.
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It is in our hearts too, and Father, if we don't keep them in check, we can end up down the same path. Father, we love