STUDIES IN SAMUEL No. 57

2 Samuel 16:5-17:29

February 3, 2002

Text Comment

I am omitting the first four verses of chapter 16 because we already considered those together with the other texts that tell the tale of David's relationship with Mephibosheth and his servant Ziba. They reveal, as you remember, a David who has lost his insight into the words and deeds of other people and his former commitment to justice. David should have seen through Ziba's lie but, instead, was easily deceived, and later on, when Mephibosheth's innocence was proved, he should have seen to Ziba's punishment and Mephibosheth's complete vindication, and he did neither.

v.8 For Shimei, of course, David's misfortune has nothing to do with the murder of Uriah but rather with his having usurped the throne from the house of Saul and, probably, for the murders of Abner and Ish-bosheth. No doubt there were others who had remained loyal to the house of Saul and were rejoicing in the misfortune that had befallen their nemesis, David the king.

v.9 For the sons of Zeruiah, violence was the answer to every problem! The fact that Shimei was willing to play this dangerous game - for clearly there were men with David who could easily have killed him - is evidence of the depth of pent-up emotion and hatred that was driving the man.

v.12 Even if Shimei may not understand why this calamity has, in fact, fallen upon David, even if he has his facts wrong, David has no doubt that he is in fact suffering God's judgment. It would be wrong for him, then - the antithesis of the spirit he expressed in 15:26 - to do harm to a man who was cursing him. What is more, when David's own son was seeking his life, it was not remarkable that old enemies should come out of the woodwork. Finally, David argues, if I bear with meekness the miseries that have come upon me, if I do not struggle against them but accept them as my just deserts, perhaps the Lord will show mercy to me. You notice that David used the same word "repay" that Shimei used in v. 8. David hopes that the Lord's "repayment" will be more merciful than that contemplated by David's enemies. Once again, David shows true penitence and humility in the most authentic way possible.

v.13 The narrator wants us to picture this scene, David and his entourage wearily trudging along, with Shimei above them throwing dirt and stones. This is what has become of David the king because of his sins.

Now that David and his party have arrived at the Jordan and relative safety, the scene shifts to Jerusalem and Hushai's attempt to overturn the schemes of Ahithophel, whose insight into affairs is the real strength of Absalom's revolt.

v.16 Remember "David's friend" is a technical term for "royal advisor." One commentator points out that Hushai does not say "Long live King Absalom!"

v.19 There is understandable suspicion at Hushai's sudden reversal of loyalties and so he piled on what Robert Gordon calls "pious flummery." [Com, 278]

v.22 The apparent logic of this advice is that by doing what Athithophel suggested, Absalom, and so all who had declared for him, would have passed the point of no return. They would have to carry the revolt through to a successful conclusion, or they would pay for their failure to do so. After this, obviously, no one will think that Absalom and David will somehow make peace and come to terms. [Alter, Com, 295] My Latin students have been reading the opening chapters of Caesar's Gallic Wars. There we read of the migration of the Swiss who were seeking lebensraum. In order to ensure that their own people didn't lose heart when the going got rough - after all, the only way to acquire more room for themselves was to take it from other tribes - they burned their own fields and villages so that there would be nothing for the faint-hearted to return to. This seems to be a similar idea.

Of course, whatever Ahithophel and Absalom's intention, this was also the direct fulfillment of the curse that the Lord had pronounced on David and his house through Nathan the prophet. David had taken another man's wife and now a member of his own family would take his wives.

Apparently, Absalom committed this sexual betrayal on the same roof from which David had first viewed Bathsheba bathing.

v.23 Obviously Hushai has his work cut out for him if he is going to overturn Ahithophel's considerable prestige.

16:4 This is, clearly, what Absalom should have done. The narrator himself admits that this was good advice (in v. 14). Ahithophel's plan would have led to a sudden end of the revolt without the need for a protracted civil war. The "elders of Israel" are probably the leaders of the northern tribes whose support Absalom absolutely had to have and so they were invited into the council of war.

v.5 Hushai had not yet been admitted into the inner circle.

v.7 Hushai shrewdly acknowledges that Ahithophel's advice is usually reliable.

v.8 What Hebrew scholars point out is that Hushai used language taken from earlier moments in the story of David's rise to power. He is evoking the reputation of David as a legendary war hero. Interestingly the idea that he would not spend the night with his troops contrasts with what we have seen recently of David, sleeping away the afternoon in Jerusalem when the troops were in the field, sitting motionless in his palace while his children struggle bitterly against one another.

v.10 Hushai realized at once that Ahithophel's plan posed grave danger to David, small and disorganized as his company was. The advantage was with Absalom at this early stage, before David had opportunity to organize resistance. Hushai shows us that even really bad advice can be made to sound sensible, even unassailable.

v.13 Hushai's plan would take Absalom days, even weeks, to implement, which was Hushai's entire strategy. Skillfully, Hushai invites Absalom to imagine himself at the head of a great army and of a smashing victory that leaves him unquestionably Israel's king. Nothing was so likely to sway a vain young man as visions of himself as a great conqueror!

v.16 Apparently, Hushai was excused from the war council before a decision had been reached. In case Ahithophel's advice was followed, David needed to be warned. So Hushai sent word through the network that David had provided for him.

v.18 The man and his wife in Bahurim were clearly known to be loyal to David. David had just passed through Bahurim on his flight from Jerusalem (16:5), so this couple would have had opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty. What is clear is the impression of a divided populace with some remaining loyal to David and others favoring the pretender.

v.20 Another example of the "dutiful lie," not unlike Rahab's lie to protect the spies who hid in her home in Jericho. Of course, this was war and the ethics of war are not the same as the ethics of peace. That does not mean that anything goes, of course, as the Bible makes clear; only that certain adjustments in conduct are appropriate in war. It does not solve all ethical questions to say this, of course, but President Bush is certainly correct in his assertion, say with respect to the treatment of prisoners or the dissemination of information, that the existence of a state of war alters the conduct appropriate for a nation and its military.

v.22 While the reader knows that there is no danger from Absalom because he took Hushai's advice, David did not know this and took steps to ensure the safety of his force.

v.23 The far-sighted Ahithophel realized that, once his advice was not followed, the revolt was doomed and that, once David had dealt with the rebels, he would execute Ahithophel, "the evil genius of the rebellion." [Gordon, Com., 282] Ahithophel is a precursor of Judas, a traitor who also committed suicide.

v.24 Mahanaim had been Ish-bosheth's capital during his short reign after the death of his father, Saul, and so would have been fortified at least to some extent.

v.25 In other words, Absalom's army had been placed under the command of a relative of Joab.

v.26 Gilead was the territory just north of Mahanaim.

v.29 The Lord sees to David's needs by bringing these foreigners to help David and his people.

You may remember the ending of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. After some 28 years on the island where he was shipwrecked, a ship suddenly lay offshore and some sailors brought a boat to land. They were mutineers and had in their custody the captain and several others. Crusoe and Friday delivered the prisoners and, eventually captured the mutineers and, in this way, provided for his safe return to England. You know that Daniel Defoe wrote a very Christian book and that the great theme of this first great English novel was the redemption of man by the gospel of Christ and the truth of the Word of God. All one has to do is compare Robinson Crusoe to the modern film Castaway to see how poorly the unbelieving world can tell the tale of a man shipwrecked on an island.

In any case, Robinson Crusoe, at one point, reflects on the strange circumstances that brought his deliverance to pass.

"I told [the Captain], I looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to me a chain of wonders; and such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and the evidence that the eyes of an infinite power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased; nor did I forget to return thanks to God for all his mercies." [233]

What a surprising way for his exile to end: a mutiny he had nothing to do with, the attempt of the mutineers to kill or abandon the captain of the ship, Crusoe's being in a position to rescue him, and so on. Well, that is precisely what we are taught in this narrative of the unraveling of Absalom's rebellion and the deliverance of David and it is precisely the state of mind that we are summoned to, all of us, who observe the providences of God in our own case and in the cases of others.

There is a great danger, of course, in attempting to interpret the providences of God, as many Christians do who attempt to secure guidance from their circumstances. They imagine that because this or that happened as it did, God wants them to do this or that. I'm not talking about that! But I am talking about the observation of God's providences and the seeing of his hand in our affairs. I saw God's hand as clear as day this past week in his providences and it was a great encouragement to me! And I have had many, many occasions to notice God's hand in my life and affairs or in those of others, indeed, in your affairs, though it would be impolitic of me to mention cases.

I have often told you, though not recently, of how the Lord provided for us when Florence and I arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland. One of the afflictions borne by congregations whose pastors remain for many years is that they are required to hear the same stories over and over again! How little we knew, how little we understood what we would need to live there for three years. We thought Florence could get any job, clerk in a store or wait tables and we would have enough to live on. It was not so, not by a long shot! What is more, in those days, whether or not one could work without a work permit depended entirely on how the customs agent at the airport where you entered the country stamped your passport. We didn't know that either. Florence had never applied for a job or been an employee in her life. The only thing she had ever trained to do was to teach violin. The second Sunday we were in Gilcomston South church we met Drew Tulloch, a young man who taught piano in the Aberdeen public schools. He told Florence that there was an opening for a violinist and arranged for her to interview and play for the position. She was offered the job, we discovered that no work permit was required, and for three years she not only worked at her chosen art, assimilated Scottish culture, and made good friends, but made enough money for us to live on and some more. Through our three years in Aberdeen there was never another opening for a violinist. We saw God's hand there and that happy providence, with some others, has taken a fixed place in my mind and heart as a reminder of how God cares for us and how, in caring for us, he has his helpers everywhere.

Now, if on that second Sunday, we had concluded from our having met Drew Tulloch and hearing of the opening, that God intended for us to have that job, that would have been a mistake and a misuse of God's providence. We cannot read God's will from our present circumstances. Many Christians make such mistakes. But, looking back on the event in its aftermath, it is plain that God had ordered things and strikingly so to provide us such a job we did not then know we needed, in a way we would not have known how to seek, in a field we hadn't dreamed a job was possible. It is true, as was once said, God's providence is like Hebrew, it must be read backward. But, it must be read! Reading backwards in this case, the Lord's hand was plainly seen. And seeing it we were greatly blessed and encouraged then, and in remembering it, I have been strengthened in times of worry many times through the years.

As Samuel Rutherford put it,

"The book of holy providence is good marginal notes in His revealed will in His Word, and speaks much to us, could we read and understand what he writes, both in one and the other [i.e. both in the Bible and the providence of God]." [Cited in Andrew Thomson, 59]

The decisive contest in the civil war between Absalom and his father, David, occurred, in fact, within Absalom's own war counsel in Jerusalem. No one saw it at the time, except Hushai and Ahithophel, but once Absalom made the fateful decision to accept Hushai's advice instead of Ahithophel's, the die was cast. The narrator's explanation of this turn of events is given in v. 14: "For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom." Nothing else, of course, accounts for the fact that Hushai's counsel was sought even though Ahithophel's advice was regarded as equivalent to the Lord speaking through an oracle and even though the advice Ahithophel had given had seemed, at first, good both to Absalom and to the elders of Israel. In fact, there is great irony here. The straight-talking and clear-thinking Ahithophel gives sound advice to a usurper, an evil man, telling him how to consummate his rebellion. The deceiving secret agent gives terrible advice but in the service of the rightful, legitimate king. [Alter, Com, 299] Only God could have made this work to David's advantage!

Not here, as in Joshua, miracles and supernatural interventions, to bring victory to those who trust the Lord, but just as certainly, through these entirely human means - argument and persuasion in a military counsel - the Lord orchestrates the outcome. The Lord did it! But he did it by this strange means of Hushai's bad advice being accepted instead of Ahithophel's good advice.

Christian history bristles with such strange and wonderful providences by which the Lord blessed and saved and helped his people. Once on a vacation in Scotland, the great English preacher, Charles Simeon of Cambridge, was riding with a friend and his horse went lame. They took refuge with the minister of the nearby town, a man they had never met. When Dr. Alexander Stewart, their host and the village minister, found out who his guests were, he invited Simeon to preach for him on the morrow, it being Sunday. Simeon wasn't prepared and was in Scotland to rest, but he did his best. That evening in the manse Simeon and Stewart fell into heart-to-heart conversation. Dr. Stewart, who like many Scottish pastors of that day was a scholar but not a true gospel minister, admitted to Simeon that he was discouraged and that he did not have real personal faith in Christ. We don't know precisely what was said, but later Alexander Stewart wrote of that night,

"Their visit has been blessed to me more than any outward dispensation of Providence that I have met with… Ever since the blessed period of Mr. Simeon's visit, my thoughts have continued more steadily fixed on divine things; and my communion with God has been much more lively, by many degrees, than I remember to have experienced before."

And, later, he wrote to Simeon,

"I wish I knew how to express my filial regard and attachment to one whom I have every reason to consider as my spiritual father… O my dear Sir, praise the Lord on my behalf, who hath given me to perceive something of his glory and his grace as displayed in Christ Jesus…" [H.E. Hopkins, Charles Simeon, 138-139]

And all because of a horse's sore foot! But we are not done. The result of Dr. Stewart's personal revival was a spiritual revival in the parish church. As he preached the power of the gospel and the love of God, his spiritually dull congregation took fire. One of the young families touched by the saving grace of God in that happy time was the Duffs. Later their son, Alexander Duff, would become a famous and very influential missionary to India. The evangelization of India, you may remember, was one of Charles Simeon's great interests and a number of young men who sat at his feet while students at Cambridge University, went to India as missionaries, the celebrated Henry Martyn among them. Alexander Duff and all the Indian men and women who became Christians through his ministry and all the schools that were established as a result of Duff's passion for spreading the influence of the gospel through education - his schools were the foundation of the university system in India - all because Charles Simeon's horse had a sore foot!

And we are still not done. Forty years after Simeon's unplanned visit to his parent's parish a young Alexander Duff, back from missionary work in India, was touring England speaking on behalf of missions in India. At one point he was invited to Cambridge by William Carus, a fellow of Trinity College, who happened to be Simeon's associate at Holy Trinity Church. Carus would later be Simeon's successor to that pulpit and his first biographer. In any case, through Carus, Duff was able to meet the aged Charles Simeon just a few months before he died and to tell him, what the great man had not known before, that it was his ministry to his father's minister years before that led to the chain of events by which Alexander Duff was serving the gospel in India.

We say of that, as this narrator said of David's deliverance from Absalom, "the Lord did it." And we can see his hand doing it. A converted or renewed minister, whose renewed preaching leads to the conversion of one of his parishioners, who, as a devout Christian father, raises a son who becomes an influential missionary to India. All because a horse developed a sore foot. And David stayed the king of Israel all because Absalom listened to Hushai when there was no real reason to or expectation that he would.

We cannot remember too often, you and I, or take too seriously the fact, for fact it is, that God rules this world and everything in it down to the hairs on your head and the birds in the trees. We encounter his will at every turn but usually do not think about it or notice it because we cannot discern the Lord's will or mind in what we see occurring. But every now and then the Lord shows himself to us to prove his sovereign rule and to assure us that he has his helpers everywhere and can come to help us in ways we would never imagine or ever plan ourselves.

I know that many of you, almost all of you if you think about it, can think of any number of times when the Lord's orchestration of events in your life was striking and had significant consequences: you were caught in a sin you might have thought would escape notice; you met your wife and wouldn't otherwise have ever crossed paths with her; you heard a sermon or read a book you wouldn't have thought to hear or read and it had a great impact on you; in a strange or unexpected or unplanned way you came across a person who influenced your life in some significant way. Every Christian has such stories to tell. And when we look back we see them for what they are, the hand of the Lord momentarily appearing above the surface of our lives to teach us that it is always there beneath us, even when we cannot see it at all.

And when we see God's hand orchestrating events in our lives, it is ours to treasure those moments and store them up in memory as testimonies the Lord has given to prove himself to us. He will not give us too many of those testimonies - he has determined that we should live by faith not by sight - but he will give us some.