Divine Providence

2 Samuel 16:15-18:18

Sometimes God chooses to intervene for us and sometimes He chooses not to. But in both instances, He is acting on our behalf, for our good and His glory.

God chose to withhold His hand of protection towards David as a punishment for his sin. But He did not withdraw His protection completely or forever. He still had favor on David and took care of him until everything was restored back to him.

Absalom Takes the Throne - 2 Samuel 16:15-23

After David left Jerusalem, Absalom went there with Ahithophel and the rest of his supporters. Hushai reached the city at the same time and hailed Absalom as king. Knowing he was David’s friend, he asked Hushai why he wasn’t with David, stating he wasn’t a very loyal friend. But Hushai explained that was because his loyalty was not to David but to the king, the man chosen by God and the people. He was willing to serve Absalom just as he’d served his father. This seemed to be an acceptable answer to Absalom, and he accepted Hushai into his counsel.

But Ahithophel’s counsel was so highly esteemed that it was as if it had come straight from God, so Absalom asked him what his initial act should be as king. Ahithophel said he should sleep with David’s concubines to prove that he had fully broken ties with his father. This made sense to Absalom. So, he pitched a tent on the roof of David’s house and took the women in so all the people could see that he was sleeping with them. By taking his women, Absalom was demonstrating that he had taken David’s kingdom.

This fulfilled another one of Nathan’s prophecies. He told David that because he slept with Uriah’s wife, other men would sleep with his wives, and even though David’s affair with Bathsheba was hidden, everyone would see when David’s wives were taken from him (2 Samuel 12:10-12). Interestingly, this was probably the same roof where David’s temptation to sin with Bathsheba began.

Even though David’s punishment fit the crime, and Absalom took Ahithophel’s advice as if it came from God, it did not. The Lord expressly forbids a son to sleep with the same woman as his father (Leviticus 18:8) and He never tells anyone to sin (James 1:13-15). So, what actually happened is that God prophesied what would happen to David when He removed His protective hand and allowed Absalom to follow his own sinful desires and the ways of this world. When a nation conquered another in those times, the men would often sleep with the women, especially those of the king, to show that they had taken control of the country. Absalom was doing what was normal in those days for someone who had just taken over a kingdom. So, instead of protecting David from his son’s uprising or the taking of his concubines, God chose not to intervene because of David’s sin with Bathsheba.

The Battle Between Advisors – 2 Samuel 17:1-29

After this, Ahithophel told Absalom to let him lead an army of 12,000 men against his father. David would be weary from his travels, and discouraged in general, so it would be the perfect time to attack. Ahithophel said he would scare everyone else away and only kill David. He believed that the people would accept Absalom as their new leader once they saw that their king was dead. Then, Ahithophel would be able to bring them back to Jerusalem peacefully.

Again, his advice seemed right. But before he acted on it, Absalom asked Hushai what he thought about Ahithophel’s plan. Hushai disagreed. First, he reminded Absalom that his father was a skilled warrior and his men were, too. They had been fighting for David for years and were much more experienced than the men who would be fighting for Absalom. Also, David was too smart to spend the night with his army or to keep all his men together in one place. As a matter of fact, Hushai assumed that David was already hidden away in a safe place. Also, the men who followed David weren’t just fighting for him, they were fighting for what they too had lost. By being forced to flee Jerusalem, the city they called “the city of David,” they probably felt about like a mama bear who’d been robbed of her cubs. These men were fighting mad and would not run away scared as Ahithophel had said. If anyone was killed, it would only make them more aggressive in their defense and even Absalom’s bravest soldiers would be afraid.

Twelve thousand men would not be enough. Hushai advised Absalom instead to gather men from every tribe and attack David with as many soldiers as possible. He also thought that Absalom should lead the battle himself and kill everyone, not just David. Since his men would certainly stand and fight, Absalom would have no choice but to fight back. Once the killing began, it would be unwise to leave any of them alive to rise up against him later. This plan sounded better to Absalom and his men than Ahithophel’s, so he began to gather his army. God turned Ahithophel’s advice to foolishness to foil his plan against David and turn it around on Absalom, just as David asked Him to do.

Meanwhile, Hushai told the priests the plan and said they should send a female servant to the well at En-rogel with a message for their sons to give to David. Hopefully this wouldn’t raise suspicions, since she would look like she was just going there to get water instead of relaying a message to David that he needed to cross the Jordan quickly so he and his men wouldn’t be pinned between Absalom’s forthcoming army and the river. But a boy saw the men, realized what was happening, and told Absalom. But the men ran quickly and hid in an empty cistern that belonged to a man in Bahurim. This was the same Benjamite city where Shemei cursed David and threw stones. But apparently all the Benjamites didn’t hate David because a woman there spread grain over the cistern’s opening to hide the men, and when Absalom’s servants came looking for them, she said they had already crossed over the brook. So, Absalom’s servants looked for the priests’ sons. But when they couldn’t find Ahimaaz and Jonathan they went back to Jerusalem and the priests’ sons went to find David. By morning, David and his men were all on the eastern side of the river as they had been instructed.