In this compelling episode, we follow King David’s journey from power to uncertainty amid his son’s betrayal. Learn about the strategic minds behind the scenes, like Ahithophel and Hushai, and how their counsel influenced the fate of kings. Examine the delicate balance of intelligence and deception as David navigates his escape, highlighting his unwavering faith in divine justice despite the chaos wrought by Absalom’s insurgence.
00:00:02 Introduction to Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sometimes there is no explaining love. It just is. The love of God for King David of Israel knew no bounds, and that love persisted through some terrible times and some terrible acts on David’s part. Maybe in a vague sort of way it can be explained by the fact that David himself was a man of great emotion. He was a man himself of great love. I think that may explain his bonding with Jonathan, the son of Saul, because they bonded and it was a bond that lasted as long as either of them lived and then beyond that. It may explain David’s love for King Saul that transcended every evil thing Saul tried to do to him. And it may explain in some small way his love for his son Absalom. Oh yes, I know that fathers love their sons. But the love of David for Absalom is a little harder to explain. And it’s a good example of what I said. Sometimes there is no explaining love. It just is. Absalom was an altogether beautiful man. To call him handsome wouldn’t quite reach it. He was a determined man as well. When his stepbrother raped his sister, it took two years. But finally, Absalom took his revenge by killing Amnon. It was some three years after that that he had to live in exile because of it. And even when Joab convinced David to bring him home, he was not allowed to come into David’s presence. After all, he had killed another of David’s sons. But finally, Absalom had enough, and he demanded reconciliation. So Joab, the king’s chief of staff, came to Absalom to his house and said to him, why have your servants set my field on fire? Absalom, in order to get Joab down there so he could talk to him, actually burned one of his fields. And Absalom answered Joab and says, look, I sent to you saying, come here that I can send you to the king to say, why did I bother coming back from exile? It would have been good for me to have still been there. Now let me see the king’s face, and if there’s any iniquity in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king, and he told him. And when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom. Reconciliation is a good thing. It makes a good story. At least it would if I didn’t know the rest of the story. The story continues in 2 Samuel chapter 15. It came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. So every time he went anywhere, he had a huge retinue of men, horses, and chariots. He was a prince. And Absalom got up early, and he stood by the way of the gate. Now, the gate, you have to understand in these days, was like the court, the courthouse. It’s where people came to have their cases heard. It was so when any man had a controversy, he came to the king for judgment. Then Absalom called to him and said, Where have you come from? He said, Well, your servant is of this tribe of Israel. And Absalom said to him, See, your matters are good and right, but there’s no man deputed of the king to hear you. Now, you know, any court is going to run behind schedule. Any court is going to have trouble with its docket. And so all you need is an Absalom standing there saying, you know, you’ve got a good case here. But the courts are not set up. They’re not going to get around to your case. Who knows when they’ll get around to hearing you. Now, if I were king, if I were made a judge in the land, then every man which has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice. What a politician this guy is. I’ve said that politics is the art of the lie, and here’s a liar. Well, it was so when any man came near to him to do him obeisance, that is to bow before him. He put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. In other words, he said, hey, you’re as good as I am. He didn’t just let them bow in front of them. He actually embraced them and said, hey, I think you’re a great guy. It says, On this matter did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment, and so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. There’s nothing new in politics, it seems. Well, it came to pass after four years, four years, Absalom came to the king and said, Let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur, saying, If the Lord shall bring me again to Jerusalem, I will serve the Lord. And the king said, Go in peace. So he rose and went to Hebron. Meanwhile, Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the trumpet, then you shall say, Get out in the gates, get out in the towns. He starts shouting around the streets, Absalom reigns in Hebron. Absalom had laid his groundwork well, and it was time for the palace coup. And with Absalom went 200 men out of Jerusalem that were called. They went in their simplicity. They didn’t know what was coming down. Absalom also sent for Ahithophel, the Gilonite, David’s counselor from his city, even Gilo, where he had been to offer sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom. You know, all you need is some idiot to come along and play on everybody’s natural discontent. Promise them, oh, if you’ll elect me, I’ll do a better job. And sooner or later, the fools will elect you, and you can get into power. Of course, the question then comes, can you carry out your promises? And hardly anyone ever does. There came a messenger to David saying, the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. And David said to all of his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, You’d better get up. Let’s flee. We are not going to escape from Absalom any other way. He knew enough to realize that once this thing got going, it was going to get out of hand. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us and smite the city with the edge of the sword. And David saw no reason why the city of Jerusalem should be slaughtered just to protect him. And the king’s servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and all his household afterward, but he left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house. So the king went forth, and all the people with him, quite a retinue, and they stopped for a while in a place that was way off, and he set all of his servants ahead beside him, and six hundred men that followed him from Gath passed on before the king. And the king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why are you going with us? Go back to your place and abide with the king. You’re a stranger. You’re already in exile. Here’s a guy. He’s saying, What are you dragging yourself over here with me for? You’re a stranger. You don’t have to run. You’re in exile. You only came yesterday. Should I at this day make you go up and down the hills and all over the place with us, seeing where I’m going? You’d better return, go back, take your brethren. Mercy and truth be with you. Now, Ittai was a man who had came to really respect David, answered the king and said, No way. As the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, in death or in life? That’s where I’m going to be. Such loyalty in the face, and this from a stranger, in the face of the disloyalty of David’s own son. So David said, well, go on and pass over. And Ittai passed over with all his men, all the little ones that were with him. And all the country wept with a loud voice. All the people passed over. The king himself passed over the book Kidron. And all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. They all had to head out into the desert. Zadok, and all the Levites that were with him, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of the God, and Abiathar went up, and all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said to Zadok, Look, carry back the ark of God into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he’ll bring me back again, and he’ll show me both the ark and his habitation. But if he says… I have no delight in you, David. Behold, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him. It’s an interesting aspect of David. He really trusted God implicitly. He said, basically, if God wants to do me good, he’ll bring me back. If he doesn’t, I’m in his hands. Whatever he does, I accept. So he said to Zadok, aren’t you a seer, a prophet? I want you to go back into the city in peace. Take your two sons with you. I’m going to tarry in the plain of the wilderness. We’ll delay there until I get word from you to let me know. Zadok, therefore, and Abiathar carried the ark of God into Jerusalem, and they stayed there. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up. With his head covered, he went barefoot. And all the people that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went up. Striking picture that’s drawn here of a king, a man of great power who covers his head as a sign of humility and of mourning and walks barefoot. Here’s a man who was sorry for his mistakes. a man who was trusting God. It’s an incredible story. I’ll tell you the rest of it when I come back after this short break.
SPEAKER 02 :
What do you do when you reach the end of your rope? The old joke is that you tie a knot in the end and hang on. There may be more to that old saying than you think. Write for a free copy of a message called Staying Power. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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In every gang of men, whether it be in a boardroom, the executive floor of a great corporation, or even a gang on the streets, somewhere around this group, there’s going to be one person who is right more often than anybody else is. He gets quite a reputation. He’s a dangerous fellow because once in a while, He will be wrong. And the problem is you have no idea when that’s coming, and you get in the habit of listening to this person without necessarily evaluating what it is he’s telling you. Well, Ahithophel, one of the men that hung around David all the time, was one of these people. It tells us in the Bible that his counsel, his advice, was almost like asking at the oracle of God, but not quite. Someone came to David saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. That concerned David. He said, O Lord, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Well, that’s not exactly what happened, but it’s something close. It came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mountain where he worshipped God, a man named Hushai, an archite, came to meet him with his coat rent, torn, dirt on his head, And David said, if you pass on this with me, you’re going to be a burden. You’re just somebody I’ve got to carry along and feed. On the other hand, if you return to the city and you say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I have been your father’s servant before. So will I now be your servant. Then you may know for me, David said, to defeat the council of Ahithophel. He’s thinking ahead. He’s thinking, I need another person in there to tell him what to do. So he doesn’t follow what Ahithophel says. He carefully takes the occasion to see to his intelligence service. He needed to know what was happening. The details of all this is quite limited. The culture is strange to us. But the overall shape of the plot is fairly plain. You have all the palace intrigue going on, and you have people trying to maintain their intelligence so they know what’s going on in the other camp. He went on to say, Don’t you have there with you in Jerusalem Zadok and Abiathar the priests? Therefore it shall be that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king’s house, David said, you tell it to Zadok and Abiathar. Behold, they have there with them their two sons. By them you shall send to me everything you can hear. So Hushai, David’s friend, came back into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem in triumph, a new king in Israel, or so it seemed. 2 Samuel 16 When David made it a little way past the top of the hill, a man named Ziba approached him. He was a servant of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was one of the sons of Saul. He had a couple of asses saddled upon them, 200 loaves of bread, 100 branches of raisins, 100 summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. Now, just a bottle of wine is a wine skin, a lot of wine in a wine skin. And the king said to Ziba, What does all this mean? And Ziba said, The asses are for the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for such as be faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, well, where is your master’s son? Now, Ziba is an important man. He himself had risen to considerable influence, considerable importance in Saul’s household. He was really a steward of the whole thing. And he had been working for a long time for Saul’s son. And so he said, where is your master’s son? And Ziba said, Well, he stayed at Jerusalem, for he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me to the kingdom of my father. You know, it’s a funny thing about our dreams, our fantasies, our resentments, the things that build up in our minds about what we think we have coming. They can become such a big thing in our minds. that we can be so stupid as to think a man like Absalom, who had killed his own brother, who had driven out his own father and would have killed him if he’d gotten hold of him, is going to restore Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, as the king over all of Israel? And apparently, the son of Saul thought he would do just that. You better be careful about those resentments, about those fantasies, about those things you think you deserve. Because chances are, nobody else sees it quite like you do. And on this occasion, he forfeited everything. Because the king said to Ziba, I’m giving you everything that pertains to Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech you that I may find grace in your sight, my lord, O king. You know, people, when things like this happen, they start making choices. I’m going to follow this person. I’m going to support that person. And actually, Ziba wasn’t burning any bridges. He just realized who David was, what he stood for. He respected him. They even have loved him. And he wanted to help. When David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul. Here’s another of Saul’s household. His name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth and cursed as he came, and he cast stones at David and all the servants of King David. He just threw rocks at them. All the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Now, there’s something you should know about these mighty men. These were warriors of the first order, every single one of them. The term mighty man was an expression reserved for the very best warriors of all David’s army. So standing on his right and standing on his left were these large, able, fighting men. And this idiot comes up here throwing rocks at them. So Shemai cursed Ezekiel, come out, come out, you bloody man, you man of Belial, you worthless SOB, is what he was actually saying to David. The Lord has returned upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, your son, and said, look, you are taken in your mischief because you are a bloody man. Well, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, he was one of the mighty men, why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head. And when you know who this man was and you learn about his exploits, you will understand that he could have done that with a single stroke. He wouldn’t have had to go back. And the king said, What am I going to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse. Because the Lord has said to him, Curse David. Well, who shall say then, Why are you done so? And David said to Abishai and to all of his servants, Look, my son, which came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more then may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone. Let him curse. For the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day. Now there is something to think about. Rather than taking revenge upon the people who curse you to say, well, for all I know the Lord has bidden him to curse me, but it also may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and And he actually will do me good because of the evil that this man is speaking about me. And as David and his men went by the way, Shemai went along to the hillside over against him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him and cast dust in the air. And the king and all the people with him came weary and refreshed themselves there. And Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem and Ahithophel with him. Now they have to decide what they’re going to do next.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ll tell you what that was right after this important message. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, The Book of Samuel, Number 17. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. or call toll-free 1-888-BIBLE-44 and tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 03 :
So while Absalom, Ahithophel, and the gang stood there wondering what do we do next, in comes Hushai, David’s friend. And he said to Absalom, God save the king, God save the king. And Absalom said, is this the kind of kindness you’re showing to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend, David? And Hushai said to Absalom, No, but whom the Lord and his people and all the men of Israel choose, his will I be, and with him will I abide. And again, who should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I’ve served in your father’s presence, so will I be in your presence. And so David’s spy insinuates himself into Absalom’s gang. So now, Absalom says, what shall we do next? They’ve taken over the kingdom. Well, where do we go from here? So Absalom said to Ahithophel, give me your advice what we should do. And he said to Absalom, first go into your father’s concubines, which he has left to keep the house. And all Israel will then hear that you are abhorred of your father. Then shall the hands of all that are with you be strong. Now, this is an interesting move because what he is saying is that we need to take a step that will convince everyone that it’s over between you and your father. That all bands are broken. We need to burn all the bridges. And by going into your father’s concubines, you do precisely that. It was a symbolic act as well. Because, in fact, whoever had sex with the king’s concubines was king. It’s a funny thing to think about, but that’s what it was. Now, what’s also interesting is that this had been prophesied to David that this would happen to him. Well, they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house, and he went into his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. Right out there, as they say, before God and everybody. God had said, this is going to happen because of what he had done. That is what David had done with another man’s wife. And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was if a man had inquired at the very oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. 2 Samuel 17 Ahithophel then said to Absalom, Now let me choose out twelve thousand men. I will arise and pursue after David tonight. I will come upon him while he’s weak and weary, and will make him afraid, and all the people that are with him shall run, and I don’t have to smite anyone except the king himself. We’ll kill him. It’ll be over. I’ll bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. So all the people then can be in peace. This was smart. It was good thinking. David was tired. He was on the run. If I can catch him, if I can frighten him, if I can overwhelm them, all we have to do is kill the king and everybody else will come home. And Absalom said, well, now that’s a good thing to do. So did all the elders of Israel. But then Absalom said, call now Hushai, the archite. Remember him? David’s spy, which he placed in there. And remember David’s prayer that he would defeat the council of Ahithophel. Basically, I think David was asking that God would cause Ahithophel to give bad advice. It didn’t work that way. Ahithophel’s advice was what it was. It was good. It was wise. And the way it was defeated was in Absalom, not in Ahithophel. He said, call Hushai. He’ll know. And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner. What shall we do? Shall we do that? If not, say something. So Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given us is not good at this time. For, said Hushai, you know your father and his men. They are mighty men. They are chafed in their minds like a bear robbed of her whelps in the field, and your father is a man of war. He won’t be sleeping down there with the people. He’s now hid in some pit or some other place, and it will come to pass when some of them are overthrown at the first, whoever hears it will say, there is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. All you’ve got to do is get out there, Absalom. Have one defeat. David will still be alive. He also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall melt. For everyone in Israel knows your Father is a mighty man, and those that are with him are valiant men. They know that there are a bunch of good fighting men out there. So I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in your own person. You know, it’s hard to say what was the most effective in all of this, but I strongly suspect it was this last statement. You go to battle in your own person, and I can almost see our boy Absalom swelling up and saying, yes, that’s the thing to do. Let’s really get ourselves organized, and I will go into combat in charge of everything. Now, I don’t know who knew what. But looking on it with 20-20 hindsight, you can see that Absalom was not a man of war. He was not a good general. He was not the man to lead this battle. Ahithophel would have been a far more dangerous adversary for David. And so the situation was set up for the final fall of Absalom. In the end, it was his pride that brought him low. And if you understand human nature, that should have been predictable.
SPEAKER 02 :
From the start. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560 White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
SPEAKER 01 :
Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at born2win.net.
