2 Samuel chapter 17 and verse 1. Moreover, Ahithophel said unto
Absalom, let me now choose out 12,000 men, and I will arise
and pursue after David this night. And I will come upon him while
he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid. And
all the people that are with him shall flee, and I will smite
the king only. and I will bring back all the
people unto thee. The man whom thou seekest is
as if all returned, so all the people shall be in peace. And
the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
Then said Absalom, call now Hushai, the archite, also, and let us
hear likewise what he saith. And when Hushai was come to Absalom,
Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after
this manner. Shall we do after his saying?
If not, speak thou. And Hushai said unto Absalom,
the counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest
thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they
be chaffed in their minds as a bear robbed of her whelps in
the field. And thy father is a man of war,
and will not lodge with the people. Behold, he is hid now in some
pit, or in some other place, and it will come to pass, when
some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth
it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow
Absalom. And he also that is valiant,
whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt. For
all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which
be with him are valiant men. Therefore I counsel that all
Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba,
as the sand that is by the sea for multitude, and that thou
go to battle in thine own person. So shall we come upon him in
some place where he shall be found, and we shall light upon
him as the dew falleth on the ground, and of him and of all
the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as
one. Moreover, if he be gotten into
a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and
we will draw it into the river until there be not one small
stone found there. and Absalom and all the men of
Israel said, the counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the
counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had appointed to
defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. Then said Hushai unto Zadok and
to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel
Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and thus have I counseled. Now therefore send quickly and
tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the
wilderness, but speedily pass over, lest the king be swallowed
up and all the people that are with him. Now Jonathan and Ahimaz
stayed by Enrugal, for they might not be seen to come into the
city. And a wench went and told them,
and they went and told King David. Nevertheless, Alad saw them and
told Absalom. But they went both of them away
quickly, and came to a man's house in Balthurim, which had
a well in his court, whither they went down. And the woman
took and spread, and the woman took and spread a covering over
the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon, and the
thing was not known. And when Absalom's servants came
to the woman to the house, they said, where is Ahimaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them,
they be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought,
they could not find them, they returned, and could not find
them, they returned to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, after they
were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went,
and told King David, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly
over the water, for thus hath Ahithophel counseled against
you. Then David arose, and all the
people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan. By the
morning light there lacked not one of them that was gone over
Jordan. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed,
he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house,
to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself,
and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. This man, Ahithophel, had been
an advisor to David, but had quickly gone over to Absalom's
side when the rebellion in Israel took place. He was a wise man,
and he was smart enough to know that David remained a danger
while he lived. He advised Absalom to let him
take 12,000 men to pursue David at once and to overtake him before
he crossed the River Jordan and slay him while all the people
were weary in their journey. The fact that Ahithophel could
talk about taking 12,000 of the troops of Absalom gives
us some indication of the number of men that Absalom had at his
disposal at this time. And it has been suggested that
that was indicative of a thousand from each tribe to show that
all of Israel was now rallying to Absalom's cause. Ahithophel's
advice was good advice. Pursuing David now would have
trapped the king with his back against the river and likely,
very likely, resulted in his capture and his death. Furthermore,
all those around Absalom approved of the plan. How quickly men
will turn on a leader for their own self-interest. Here was David. Up until recently he had been
king before Absalom's rebellion. And now all of these people had
just completely changed their allegiance and were supportive
of Absalom. These were men that sought their
own promotion and their own ambitions. It seemed all that was required
was for Absalom to give a nod of approval and Ahithophel's
advice would be carried out and the deed against David would
be done. And then something strange happened.
Absalom decided to ask for Hushai's opinion. Now why he did this
is not at all clear. Hushai was David's friend and
he ought not to have been depended upon to give good advice. and yet Absalom sought him, he
asked for his counsel, and then even more surprisingly, he chose
to follow it. Hushai played for time. He described David and his soldiers
as mighty men of great courage and long experience in warfare. He added that David and his soldiers
would be angry and they would be eager for a fight. If David
won a small skirmish, then the people of Israel would fear his
return and they would begin to abandon Absalom. Hushai argued
that David would not be so foolish as to be easily trapped and he
wouldn't even be in the camp with the rest of the people.
So while Ahithophel's troops may reach the people, they wouldn't
find David anyway because he would be hidden somewhere else. He acknowledged, Hushai acknowledged
that Ahithophel was a good counsellor. But he says on this occasion
Ahithophel was mistaken. If his advice was followed, Ahithophel's
advice was followed and failed, then Israel would blame Absalom
and the rebellion would fade away. Better it would be, said
Hushai, to be patient, to gather an army from all over Israel,
with Absalom at its head, and beat David and his troops in
the open field in battle, so that all Israel would know that
Absalom was the victor and the rightful heir to the throne.
If Absalom took aim at David and missed, then Israel would
abandon both him and the rebellion. This was Hushai's advice. And against all odds, this timid
approach was agreed upon by Absalom and his counsellors and accepted. Hushai's counsel prevailed and
Ahithophel's was rejected. How is this possible? Ahithophel's
arguments were good. Hushai's arguments were preposterous. It should have been obvious to
Absalom to strike now, to overtake David and to kill him. How was it possible that this
advice of Ahithophel would be relegated and Hushai's given
prominence? For this reason, The Lord had
appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the
intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. You see, the Lord was in this
matter. Hushai's plan gave David time
to escape and to regroup and to prepare for battle, while
Absalom gathered a large army to himself from all over Israel. Hushai secretly sent news of
these plans to David via the sons of the priests so that David
was all the time kept appraised of Absalom's plans for a large-scale
battle. And what of Ahithophel? When
he realized his advice had been rejected, he saddled his ass
and he returned to his home in Judah. There he put his house
in order and he took his own life by hanging. He was too proud
to be passed over for advice and too fearful that Absalom's
cause would now be lost and he be captured by David and put
to death. It seemed to Ahithophel better
to die than live in such a world as this. Here are some lessons
that we can take from this passage today. The first one is this. Our God rules in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth and he brings to
pass That the living may know that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and
setteth up over it the basest of men. That's a little reference
from the book of Daniel. And what it's telling us is this,
that God allows sinful men to take places of prominence in
order to accomplish His will and purpose. In fact, it even
says that God sets them up Himself. God sets up these base men. He gives the kingdom to whomsoever
He wants in order that Men and women, and especially his people
and his church, will know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men. God gave Absalom the city of
Jerusalem for a little while. He let him sit on David's throne
for a little while. But the Lord's will was to frustrate
Absalom's ambitions and to return the throne to David according
to his covenant promises to his servant. Therefore it is said
in the verses that we read together, the Lord had appointed to defeat
the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. Sometimes you and I worry about
what is happening around about us. I guess you do. I certainly
do. And whether that's politics,
at a national or an international level, or just trouble at school,
or trouble in our family, or trouble amongst our friends,
we sometimes think that everything is out of control. But here the Lord tells us that
for his own reasons and his own purpose and for our good, he
sometimes allows strange things to happen for a little while
in order to bring the plans of man to nothing and cause the
counsel of God to succeed. Little verse in Job chapter five
says, I want us all young and old, to remember that
our God is sovereign. And just because we don't understand
what is happening doesn't mean that the all-wise, all-good God
of this universe is in any way taken by surprise. Here's another
thing that we can learn from this passage. Ahithophel was
a proud and yet he was a cowardly man. He was an opportunist. He thought he could take advantage
of this rebellion, this Absalom's rebellion against David. He thought
that he might gain promotion. He might gain more prominence
in the land if he could be the lead counselor to Absalom. And he was ready to take advantage
of the situation and to gain his own promotion. But he was fearful when it seemed
that he was not valued and not appreciated. Absalom set Ahithophel's counsel
aside. because the Lord caused Ahithophel's
wise advice to be overruled and the foolish advice of Hushai
to be accepted. I suspect that Ahithophel realised
that everything was lost. Even then, he was such a clever
man that he realised this isn't going to go well, this isn't
going to go right. Ahithophel appreciated both that
he had been demoted and his personal ambitions had been thwarted,
and also that the likelihood was that Absalom would be defeated. Whatever his reason, We're told
that he went to his own home and there he committed suicide.
And I want us to know something about that. Killing yourself
is a terrible thing to do. And I hope that no one who is
listening to me today ever considers doing such an awful thing. committing such a terrible sin
against themselves and against God. Suicide is self-murder. It solves no problems. It leaves
a terrible sense of guilt and sadness and shame and self-blame
in those who are left and it takes the precious soul of the
suicide immediately to judgment. We're going to speak a little
bit later about the bodies of God's people being the temple
of the Holy Spirit and being precious. Our bodies are precious
and we must never harm those precious bodies. We must never
harm that temple. We must never inflict self-harm
on our own bodies and our own flesh. God says, thou shalt not
kill, and that includes yourself. Proverbs tells us, he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. If we were to kill ourselves,
we would be wronging our own soul and we would be saying that
we hated God. In the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is hope for those who feel hopeless. There is life for those who are
considering death. There is happiness for those
who feel the world has become so sad that life is no longer
worth living. The Lord Jesus gives hope and
health and happiness to all who come to him for life. Your circumstances
are never as bleak as they appear. And the Lord Jesus Christ will
receive all who come to him for grace and for forgiveness and
for life and joy and peace. He died. He died that we should
live. He suffered that we might go
free. Proverbs chapter 3 says, be not
wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from
evil. Don't ever think that you are
without a friend. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Ask the Lord Jesus for faith
to trust him and he will answer you. And here's the third point
I want to leave with you and then we're done today. How quickly
all the leaders of Israel turned on David. How quickly all the
leaders of Israel turned on the Lord's anointed and chose Absalom
in place of David. It's really quite shameful when
we read it and find all these leaders in Israel supporting
Absalom. But does this not remind us of
how the Lord's own nation, the Jews, turned against him and
hounded him to death? The Lord Jesus Christ was the
Lord's anointed, just like David. David is a picture of the true
anointed one, the Messiah. Here we see that the Jews pursued
Messiah. Ahithophel, he said, let me kill
David. Let me kill the king when he
is weary and when he is weak. And this is how the Jews spoke
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, this is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. And in John chapter 18 verse
14 we read, And that's what Ahithophel had said about David. Let me
kill David. That's all that needs to die. And that's what Caiaphas
said about Christ. Let us kill Christ. He's the
only one who needs to die. Caiaphas thought that the Jewish
nation would be safe from the Romans if Jesus were slain. But really, he spoke wiser words
than he realised. It was indeed expedient, it was
indeed suitable, it was indeed proper that Christ should die
for all those whom the Father loved and committed into Christ's
care. He became our substitute. He died in our place. And by
his stripes, by the stripes of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are
healed. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.