David and Absalom
Sungwon A/G Church
Pastor Hong Chul ki
Friday Night, March 1, 2024
2 Samuel 12
10 The sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
11 I tell you, I will bring evil upon you from within your own household, and I will give your wives to those closest to you before your very eyes. He will humiliate you in broad daylight.
12 You have done it secretly, but I will do it in broad daylight before all Israel.
When he fell in love with Bathsheba, the wife of his subordinate general Uriah, and brought her to the palace and committed adultery, he murdered Uriah as well and married Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. Because of this, God becomes angry and the sword does not stop at David’s family.
David’s eldest son, Amnon, raped his half-sister Tamar, and in anger, he took Amnon’s life. David was shocked by his children’s fight, but he thought that Amnon’s mistakes were comparable to his own, so he tried to ignore the incident by telling Absalom to stop being angry.
But he becomes even more angry at the fact that no action was taken against Amnon for violating his sister. Anger towards his father was growing in his heart. When the female wolf dies, he takes on the task of listening to the people’s lawsuit on behalf of the king. When the king judges, he is in charge of high-ranking and important cases, and when he judges the commoners, he steals the hearts of the people.
After gathering his forces, under the pretext of going to perform a sacrifice, he went to Hebron, which was the base before Jerusalem, and invited many powerful people from the tribe of Judah, including David’s counselor Ahithophel. Ahithophel was brilliant and worked as a strategist in David’s reign. He was Bathsheba’s grandfather.
Ahithophel was very dissatisfied with David who forcibly took his granddaughter. After inviting many powerful people, Absalom declared himself the king of Hebron. When the strategist Ahithophel said he had joined hands, more and more people began to gather.
In particular, the fact that the tribe of Judah, the birthplace of David, turned away means that times are changing. Moab proposed to rule over Israel centered around the tribe of Judah, but David said he must take care of Saul’s blood relative, Mephibosheth, and did not forget his oath to Jonathan and showed favor to Saul’s family. While the tribe of Judah was still waiting for this, they heard that Absalom had founded a country and looked for a new monarch. So Absalom called himself king of Hebron.
The commander of the Moabite army suggested attacking Absalom, but when he said that the situation was not right now, he had to leave Jerusalem, and at that time, David received many insults from Shimei.
With David fleeing Jerusalem, Absalom was able to easily take over Jerusalem. Bathsheba’s grandfather, Ahithophel, a strategist, devises a plan to make sure that the nobles and people who are conflicted on David and Absalom’s side are on Absalom’s side.
He tells Absalom what happened to his granddaughter: to rape David’s concubines in broad daylight in front of the people. This meant that Absalom would become king by taking the concubine that belonged to the king.
He rebelled in revenge for what happened to his younger brother, and he did the same thing himself. Ahithophel advises Absalon that he must form a pursuit army and completely subdue David before he gathers his forces. However, with God’s help, Hushai, who expressed a different opinion from Ahithophel, said that David was very angry at his current state and would exert more power than usual, and that strong troops were stationed around him, so he suggested that we go in after we had prepared our battle line more properly. In fact, it was the remains of Jerusalem according to David’s command.
Because David’s troops were not located in Jerusalem but were evenly distributed among the 12 tribes, it took time for David’s men to come to help. Due to Hushai’s persuasiveness, Absalom’s attack was delayed, and the entire country’s troops were gathered around David.
2 Samuel 17:21
21. After they had gone, two men came up from the well and went to King David. They said to King David, “Get up and go over the water quickly, for Ahithophel has planned such a plan against you.”
22. Then David arose and passed over the Jordan with all his people. There was not a single person who had crossed over the Jordan until dawn.
23. When Ahithophel saw that his plan was not working, he saddled his donkey and got up and returned to his hometown. When he came to his house, he put his house in order. Then he hung himself and was buried in his ancestors’ tombs.
David crossed the Jordan River, arrived at Mahanaim, and began to properly equip his troops around Joab. He subdued the rebels led by Joab, Ittai, and Abishai, who had been at war with him all his life. He ends up asking Joab to watch his son.
The confident Absalom marches into the forest of Ephraim and engages in battle with David’s army. Although he was the commander of the army and always bowed his head to himself and treated himself like a prince, he was such a master commander that no one could compete with Joab on the battlefield. The army of Joab, a master craftsman, was no match for Absalom’s army because it was an army of the highest caliber. Absalom’s army lost 20,000 men, and Absalom, who was leading the army from behind, was surprised by the strength of David’s army and fled on a mule, but was attacked because of his long hair, which he was usually proud of. On his galloping horse, his head gets caught in the branch of an oak tree, and the mule runs off alone, leaving him alone to hang on to the tree. A soldier passing by found Absalom hanging on a tree and ran to Joab to report that Absalom was over there. If he had killed Absalom, he would have been given a first-class special promotion, so he reprimanded him and asked why he did not kill him. He went directly to the oak tree and killed Absalom.
King David is crying, and Joab scolds David by asking him what good the successful soldiers who subdue the rebels will do. This is proof that Joab’s position in Israel is comparable to that of David.
After Absalom’s rebellion was suppressed, David, in the process of reorganizing the country, dismissed Joab and appointed Ama as commander of the army. Amasa is Joab’s half-brother (aunt’s son) and King David’s nephew. (Verse 17:25) Amasa was initially a member of the rebel army. But when he found him at Mahanaim, he forgave him and made him commander in place of Joab.
What I learned while reading the Bible
Absalom was a prince with flawless beauty from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. In particular, his hair weighs 200 shekels (about 23 kilograms), which reminds me of Samson’s hair. The strength comes from his head, and both Samson and Absalom die because of it. On the other hand, when David was fleeing Absalom, he went down the Mount of Olives, covering his head and weeping.
2Sa 15:30 As David was going up the way to the Mount of Olives, he covered his head and went away barefoot, weeping. And all the people who went with him went up weeping, each one covering his head. 31. Then someone told David, “Go with Absalom.” “Ahithophel is among those who rebelled.” David said, “Lord, please, make Ahithophel’s counsel foolish.” (A brief prayer)
