Chapter 72—The Rebellion of Absalom, David’s Son
This chapter is based on 2 Samuel 13 to 19.
“He shall restore fourfold,” had been David’s unwitting sentence upon himself, on listening to the prophet Nathan’s parable. Four of his sons must fall, and the loss of each would be a result of the father’s sin. {EP 528.1}
The shameful crime of Amnon, the firstborn, was permitted by David to pass unpunished. The law pronounced death upon the adulterer, and the unnatural crime of Amnon made him doubly guilty. But David, self-condemned for his own sin, failed to bring the offender to justice. For two years Absalom, the natural protector of the sister so foully wronged, concealed his purpose of revenge, but at a feast the drunken, incestuous Amnon was slain by his brother’s command. {EP 528.2}
The king’s sons, returning in alarm to Jerusalem, revealed to their father that Amnon had been slain. And they “lifted up their voice and wept: and the king also and all his servants wept very sore.” But Absalom fled. David had neglected the duty of punishing Amnon, and the Lord permitted events to take their natural course. When parents or rulers neglect the duty of punishing iniquity, a train of circumstances will arise which will punish sin with sin. {EP 528.3}
It was here that Absalom’s alienation from his father began. David, feeling that Absalom’s crime demanded punishment, refused him permission to return. Shut out by his exile from the affairs of the kingdom, Absalom gave himself up to dangerous scheming. {EP 528.4}
At the close of two years Joab determined to effect a reconciliation between father and son. He secured the services of a woman of Tekoah, reputed for wisdom. The woman represented herself to David as a widow whose two sons had been her only comfort and support. In a quarrel one had slain the other, and now the relatives demanded that the survivor be given up to the avenger of blood. And so, said the mother, “will they quench my coal which is left, and will leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the face of the earth.” 2 Samuel 14:7. The king’s feelings were touched and he assured the woman of royal protection for her son. {EP 528.5}
She entreated the king’s forbearance, declaring that he had spoken as one at fault, in that he did not fetch home again his banished. “For,” she said, “we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person; yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him.” This tender and touching portrayal of the love of God toward the sinner is a striking evidence of the familiarity of the Israelites with the great truths of redemption. The king could not resist this appeal. The command was given, “Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again.” {EP 529.1}
The Sad Results of David’s Sin
Absalom was permitted to return to Jerusalem, but not to appear at court or to meet his father. Tenderly as he loved this beautiful and gifted son, David felt it necessary that abhorrence for such a crime should be manifested. Absalom lived two years in his own house, banished from the court. His sister’s presence kept alive the memory of the irreparable wrong she had suffered. In popular estimation, the prince was a hero rather than an offender, and he set himself to gain the hearts of the people. {EP 529.2}
His personal appearance was such as to win the admiration of all. “In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.” David’s action in permitting him to return to Jerusalem, and yet refusing to admit him to his presence, enlisted in his behalf the sympathies of the people. {EP 529.3}
David was weak and irresolute, when before his sin he had been courageous and decided. This favored the designs of his son. {EP 530.1}
Through the influence of Joab, Absalom was again admitted to his father’s presence. He continued his scheming, sedulously courted popular favor, and artfully turned every cause of dissatisfaction to his own advantage. Day by day this man of noble mien might be seen at the gate of the city, where a crowd of suppliants waited to present their wrongs for redress. Absalom listened, expressing sympathy with their sufferings and regret at the inefficiency of the government. “O that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him.” {EP 530.2}
Rebellion Grows Underground
Fomented by the prince, discontent with the government was fast spreading. Absalom was generally regarded as heir to the kingdom, and a desire was kindled that he might occupy the throne. “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” Yet the king suspected nothing. The princely state which Absalom had assumed was regarded by David as intended to do honor to his court. {EP 530.3}
Absalom secretly sent picked men throughout the tribes to concert measures for revolt. And now the cloak of religious devotion was assumed to conceal his traitorous designs. Absalom said to the king, “I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord, in Hebron. For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur, in Syria, saying, if the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord.” {EP 531.4}
The fond father, comforted with this evidence of piety in his son, dismissed him with his blessing. Absalom’s crowning act of hypocrisy was designed not only to blind the king but to establish the confidence of the people, and thus to lead them on to rebellion against the king whom God had chosen. {EP 531.1}
Absalom set forth for Hebron, and with him “two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called, and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything.” These men went, little thinking that their love for the son was leading them into rebellion against the father. At Hebron, Absalom summoned Ahithophel, a man in high repute for wisdom. Ahithophel’s support made the cause of Absalom appear certain of success, attracting to his standard many influential men. As the trumpet of revolt sounded, the prince’s spies throughout the country spread the tidings that Absalom was king, and many of the people gathered to him. {EP 531.2}
David Finally Aroused
Meanwhile the alarm was carried to Jerusalem. David was suddenly aroused to see rebellion breaking out close beside his throne. His own son had been plotting to seize his crown and doubtless take his life. In his great peril David shook off the depression that had long rested upon him and prepared to meet this terrible emergency. Absalom was only twenty miles away. The rebels would soon be at the gates of Jerusalem. {EP 531.3}
David shuddered at the thought of exposing his capital to carnage and devastation. Should he permit Jerusalem to be deluged with blood? His decision was taken. He would leave Jerusalem, and then test his people, giving them opportunity to rally to his support. It was his duty to God and to his people to maintain the authority with which Heaven had invested him. {EP 531.4}
In humility and sorrow, David passed out of the gate of Jerusalem. The people followed in long, sad procession, like a funeral train. David’s bodyguard of Cherethites, Pelethites, and Gittites, under the command of Ittai, accompanied the king. But David, with characteristic unselfishness, could not consent that these strangers should be involved in his calamity. Then said the king to Ittai, “Wherefore goest thou also with us? ... Thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.” {EP 531.5}
Ittai answered, “As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” These men had been converted from paganism, and nobly they now proved their fidelity to God and their king. David accepted their devotion to his apparently sinking cause, and all passed over the brook Kidron, toward the wilderness. {EP 532.1}
Some Are Loyal to David in the Crisis
Again the procession halted. “And lo Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God.” The presence of that sacred symbol was to the followers of David a pledge of deliverance and victory. Its absence from Jerusalem would bring terror to the adherents of Absalom. {EP 532.2}
At sight of the ark, joy and hope for a brief moment thrilled the heart of David. But soon other thoughts came. As the appointed ruler of God’s heritage, the glory of God and the good of his people were to be uppermost in his mind. God had said of Jerusalem, “This is my rest” (Psalm 132:14), and neither priest nor king had a right to remove therefrom the symbol of His presence. And David’s great sin was ever before him. It was not for him to remove from the capital of the nation the sacred statutes which embodied the will of their divine Sovereign, the constitution of the realm and the foundation of its prosperity. {EP 532.3}
He commanded Zadok, “Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation: but if He thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him.” {EP 533.1}
When All Looks Dark, David Prays
As the priests turned back toward Jerusalem, a deep shadow fell upon the departing throng. Their king a fugitive, themselves outcasts, forsaken even by the ark of God—the future was dark! “And David went up by the ascent of Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” Again David was forced to recognize the results of his own sin. The defection of Ahithophel, the ablest of political leaders, was prompted by revenge for the wrong to Bathsheba, his granddaughter. {EP 533.2}
“And David said, O Lord, I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” Upon reaching the top of the mount, the king bowed in prayer, casting upon God the burden of his soul and humbly supplicating divine mercy. {EP 533.3}
Hushai the Archite, a wise and able counselor, a faithful friend to David, now came to cast in his fortunes with the dethroned and fugitive king. David saw, as by a divine enlightenment, that this man was the one needed to serve the interests of the king in the councils at the capital. At David’s request, Hushai returned to Jerusalem to offer his services to Absalom and defeat the crafty counsel of Ahithophel. {EP 533.4}
With this gleam of light in the darkness, the king and his followers pursued their way down the eastern slope of Olivet, through a rocky and desolate waste toward the Jordan. “And when King David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of King David. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.” {EP 533.5}
In David’s prosperity, Shimei had not shown that he was not loyal. He had honored David upon his throne, but cursed him in his humiliation. Inspired by Satan, he wreaked his hatred upon him whom God had chastened. {EP 534.1}
David had not been guilty of wrong toward Saul or his house. Much of his life had been spent amid scenes of violence; but of all who have passed through such an ordeal, few have been so little affected by its hardening, demoralizing influence as was David. {EP 534.2} David’s nephew, Abishai, could not listen patiently to Shimei’s insulting words. “Why,” he exclaimed, “should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.” But the king forbade him. “Behold,” he said, “my son… seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.” {EP 534.3}
David Knows This Trouble Is the Consequence of His Sin
While his faithful subjects wondered at his sudden reverse of fortune, it was no mystery to the king. He had often had forebodings of an hour like this. He had wondered that God had so long borne with his sins. And now in his hurried and sorrowful flight, he thought of his loved capital, the place which had been the scene of his sin. As he remembered the long-suffering of God, he felt that the Lord would still deal with him in mercy. {EP 534.4} David had confessed his sin and had sought to do his duty as a faithful servant of God. He had labored for the upbuilding of his kingdom. He had gathered stores of material for the building of the house of God. And now must the results of years of consecrated toil pass into the hands of his reckless, traitorous son? {EP 535.1}
He saw in his own sin the cause of his trouble. And the Lord did not forsake David. Under cruel wrong and insult he showed himself humble, unselfish, generous, and submissive. Never was the ruler of Israel more truly great in the sight of heaven than at this hour of his deepest humiliation. {EP 535.2}
In the experience through which He caused David to pass, the Lord shows that He cannot tolerate or excuse sin. David’s history enables us to trace, even through darkest jugdments, the working out of His purpose of mercy. He caused David to pass under the rod, but He did not destroy him. The furnace is to purify, not to consume. {EP 535.3}
God Does Not Give Absalom Wisdom
Soon after David left Jerusalem, Absalom and his army took possession of the stronghold of Israel. Hushai was among the first to greet the new-crowned monarch, and the prince was gratified at the accession of his father’s old friend and counselor. Absalom was confident of success. Eager to secure the confidence of the nation, he welcomed Hushai to his court. {EP 535.4}
Absalom was surrounded by a large force, but it was mostly composed of men untrained for war. Ahithophel well knew that a large part of the nation were still true to David; he was surrounded by tried warriors commanded by able and experienced generals. Ahithophel knew that after the first burst of enthusiasm in favor of the new king, a reaction would come. Should the rebellion fail, Absalom might secure a reconciliation with his father. Then Ahithophel, as his chief counselor, would be held most guilty; upon him the heaviest punishment would fall. {EP 535.5}
To prevent Absalom from retracing his steps, Ahithophel counseled an act that would make reconciliation impossible. With hellish cunning, this unprincipled statesman urged Absalom to add the crime of incest to that of rebellion. In the sight of all Israel he was to take to himself his father’s concubines, thus declaring that he succeeded to his father’s throne. And Absalom carried out the vile suggestion. Thus was fulfilled the word of God to David by the prophet, “Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor. For thou didst it secretly: but I will d