2 Samuel 17

Egypt on the south, to the Euphrates River on the north, and on the east he conquered Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and on the north defeated the Arameans and the Syrians, including Hamath. Because of God’s gifts and help, David undoubtedly became Israel’s greatest king and greatest military genius. He was blessed with courageous men like Joab and Abishai, plus his “mighty men” (2 Sam. 23; 1 Chron. 11:10–47).

When General Douglas MacArthur spoke before the United States Congress on April 19, 1951, he made the famous statement, “In war there is no substitute for victory.” But more than one military expert has maintained that armed forces can only win battles and that in the long run, nobody really wins a war. Why? Because the price is too high. For every word in Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, 125 people died in World War II. In view of modern atomic weapons, nobody would “win” World War III.

David’s army and Absalom’s army were about to engage in battle in a civil war that neither father nor son could “win,” but both sides could lose. If David won, it meant death for his son Absalom and his friend Ahithophel; if Absalom won, it could mean death for David and other members of his family. In modern terms, it was a “catch-22” situation; in ancient terms, it would be a “pyrrhic victory.”

Absalom was trusting his charm, his popularity, his army, and the wisdom of Ahithophel, but David was trusting the Lord. “Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Ps. 61:1–2 nkjv).

What did David experience during those difficult days?

Having achieved his first purpose and taken over the royal authority, Absalom now had to deal with the second matter and make sure that David and his followers didn’t return and take back the kingdom. The solution was simple but drastic: he had to find his father and kill him. For guidance, Absalom turned to his two counselors for help.

Hushai’s counsel prevailed (vv. 1–14). Humanly speaking, if Absalom had followed Ahithophel’s plan, David would have been slain and Absalom’s problems solved. But David had prayed that God would turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness (15:31), and God used Hushai to do just that. Note that Ahithophel put himself front and center by using phrases like “Let me now choose … I will arise … I will come …” and so on. He wanted to be the general of the army because he wanted personally to supervise the murder of his enemy King David. His plan was a good one: use a small army that could move swiftly, attack suddenly at night, and have David’s death as the one great goal. Ahithophel would then bring back David’s followers and they would swear loyalty to the new king. It would be a quick victory and very little blood would be shed.

Hushai wasn’t in the room when Ahithophel outlined his plan, so Absalom called him in and told him what his favorite counselor had said. Directed by the Lord, Hushai took an entirely different approach and focused on the ego of the young king. Hushai’s reply isn’t a series of “I will” statements about himself but rather a series of statements about the new king that couldn’t help but ignite Absalom’s imagination and inflate his ego. Hushai laid an effective verbal trap, and Absalom fell into it.

First, Hushai explained why Ahithophel’s counsel wasn’t wise “at this time,” although it had been wise at other times (vv. 7–10). As for focusing only on the murder of David, Absalom knew that his father was a great tactician and a mighty warrior, surrounded by experienced soldiers who feared nothing. All of them were angry because they’d been driven from their homes. They were like a bear robbed of her cubs. (Hushai is a master of metaphor!) Furthermore, David was too smart to stay with the troops; he would hide in a safe place where he couldn’t be trapped. His men would be on guard and would set ambushes and kill anybody who came near. David’s army was too experienced in war to be unprepared for a sudden attack. A sudden attack by a small army would not work. If the invading army were repulsed, word would spread that Absalom’s forces had been defeated, and then all his men would flee. Absalom would then begin and end his reign with a military disaster.

Then Hushai presented a plan that overcame all these difficulties. First, the new king himself must lead the army, and it must be the biggest army he could assemble “from Dan to Beersheba.” This suggestion appealed to Absalom’s inflated ego, and in his imagination he could see himself leading the army to a great victory. Of course, he wasn’t a seasoned military man, but what difference did that make? What a way to begin his reign! Absalom didn’t stop to consider that it would take time to gather his forces “from Dan to Beersheba,” time that David could use to cross the Jordan River and “get lost.” Hushai, of course, was interested in buying time for David so he could “get lost.”

With such a large army at his command, Absalom didn’t have to depend on a difficult surprise attack but could “fall on” David’s men over a wide area, like the morning dew that falls on the ground. Wherever David’s men fled, they would see Absalom’s forces and there would be no escape. Instead of sparing David’s forces, Absalom’s army would wipe them out so they couldn’t cause trouble in the future. Realizing that Absalom might be worried about the time element, Hushai answered his objections in verse 13. If during the delay in rounding up his troops Absalom heard that David had taken his men into a walled city, the task would be even easier. The whole nation would obey their new king and work together taking the city apart, stone by stone! What a demonstration of power!

Ahithophel’s matter-of-fact speech was forgotten as Hushai’s grand plan, punctuated with vivid mental pictures, gripped the hearts and minds of Absalom and his leaders. God had answered David’s prayer and confused the counsel of Ahithophel. Absalom would ride at the front of his army, intent on victory, but he would meet with humiliating defeat. “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:10–11 nkjv).

David’s spy system worked (vv. 15–22). David and his people were camped at the fords of the Jordan, about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and the two runners were waiting at En Rogel in the Kidron Valley, less than a mile from Jerusalem. Hushai gave the message to the two priests and told them to tell David to cross over the Jordan as quickly as possible. He was not to delay. If Absalom changed his mind and adopted Ahithophel’s plan, then all might be lost. Zadok and Abiathar told an anonymous maidservant; she took the message to Jonathan and Ahimiaaz, who immediately ran a mile south to the house of a collaborator in Bahurim. However, a young man saw them leave and recognized the priests’ sons. Wanting to impress the new king, he told Absalom what was happening, and Absalom’s guards started out after the two young men.

At this point, the account reads like the story of the two spies recorded in Joshua 2. Rahab hid the two spies under stalks of flax on the roof of her house. The wife in Bahurim hid the two runners in a cistern, covered the opening with a cloth, and sprinkled grain on the cloth. The cloth looked like it was there to provide a place to dry grain in the sun. Not obligated to assist Absalom in his evil plans, the woman sent the guards off in the wrong direction, and the young men were saved. They arrived at David’s camp, gave the king the facts, and urged him to cross the Jordan immediately, which he did. The guards returned to Jerusalem empty-handed, but Absalom didn’t see their failure as a serious problem. How wrong he was!

Ahithophel took his own life (v. 23). Why? Was it because Absalom hurt his feelings by rejecting his counsel? No, it was because he knew that Hushai’s counsel would bring about Absalom’s defeat, and Ahithophel was serving the wrong king. As a traitor against King David, Ahithophel would either be slain or banished forever from the kingdom. Rather than humiliate himself and his family in his death, he put his affairs in order and hanged himself. His suicide reminds us of what Judas did (Matt. 27:5) and points to what David had written in two of his wilderness psalms (Ps. 41:9; 55:12–15; see John 13:18). In Acts 1:15–22, Peter referred to two other psalms that concerned Judas (Ps. 69: and 109:8).

Ahithophel had been a faithful servant of the king and the kingdom until he determined in his heart to get vengeance on David for what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah. This desire for revenge so obsessed him that he ceased to be a servant of the Lord and began to serve his own sinful desires. He knew of Absalom’s ambitions but kept them hidden from David, and he cooperated with the crown prince in the palace coup. But with all of his wisdom, Ahithophel was supporting the wrong king, and the Lord had to judge him. Both Ahithophel and Absalom ended up hanging from a tree. How tragic it is when a man or woman leads an exemplary and useful life and then fails dishonorably at the end. There are old fools as well as young fools, and Ahithophel was one of them. All of us need to pray that the Lord will help us to end well.

Friends cared for David (vv. 24–29). David and his party forded the river and came to Mahanaim, the former capital of the ten tribes when Saul’s son IshBosheth was king (2:8). It was at Mahanaim (“two camps, two hosts”) that Jacob saw the army of angels God had sent to protect him (Gen. 32), but David had no such vision. However, God often uses human “angels” to help His servants, and this time it was Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai. They brought provisions for the king and his people and saw to it that they were adequately cared for. God prepared a table for David as his enemies were approaching (Ps. 23:5).

Absalom’s army was commanded by Amasa, who was David’s nephew and Joab’s cousin (v. 25). Of course, Absalom was commander in chief (17:11). How sad that son was fighting against father, uncle against nephew, cousin against cousin, and citizen against citizen. War is bad enough, but a civil war makes an even worse war. Absalom and his men crossed the Jordan, intending to meet David’s army somewhere near the forest of Ephraim, about three miles northwest of Mahanaim. The forest of Ephraim was probably named by some Ephraimites who crossed the river and settled on the western side in the region of Gilead.