2 Samuel 18:29 And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, and me your servant… Let us gather up some of the lessons of this narrative: — I. GOD'S RESTRAINING AND OVER-RULING HAND AMID THE PLANS OF WICKED MEN. Absalom was free to act upon the sagacious (albeit cruelly unfilial) advice of Ahithophel; but he rejected it. He was free to reject the plausible advice of Hushai; but he chose to act upon it. "For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel. to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom." But the Lord's appointment worked not counter to, but through, the free choice of Absalom. Human freedom is a fact of individual consciousness. We know we are free, and vet we also know, from the Scriptures of truth and the teachings of history, that, in spite of all opposition, "the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Through the very folly and sin of men God is working out His own great, pure purpose, and yet man is none the less guilty. II. WOMEN'S WORK IS DAVID'S PRESERVATION. A female servant — a woman can go unsuspected to En-rogel, the Fuller's well — "went and told them." She was a faithful messenger; quickly, silently went and returned, and kept to herself the matter. Presently the young men were seen, suspected, and pursued by Absalom's servants: tracked to the man's house in Bahurim," where in a dry well they were hiding, and where, but for the woman of the house, they had doubtless been detected. She "took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known." And with evasive answer she baffled and sent away the pursuers. Had it been otherwise in the conduct of these women, it had been doubtless greatly otherwise with David's safety. Women have played no unimportant part in the needed revolutions of nations; and, more valuable still, in the extension of Christ's kingdom. They ministered to the Lord of their substance during His life on earth. When men were faithless they were faithful to Him. In all time since they, loyal to His throne, have been hastening His kingdom. How many are doing it to-day! Women, of whom the world knows little if anything; mothers among their children; servants at their lowly toil; within the narrow walls of home. or but a little way beyond them, found faithful, and so by every pure true word. every kindly deed, speeding the universal answer to their daily prayer, "Thy Kingdom come!" III. THE END OF WOUNDED PRIDE. That Ahithophel was a sagacious man is clear. That he was a proud man is equally clear. But when preference was given to Hushai's advice his pride was cut to the quick. So home went the angry, bitter man. He "put his household in order," and then, the first of recorded suicides, "hanged himself." Stupendous folly to think more of the "order" of his household — leaving all his affairs carefully arranged — than of the safety of his soul. Unbidden, his sins upon him, he rushed into the presence of his Maker. "Pride goeth before destruction" — in his case self-destruction. It must be destroyed if the soul is to live. IV. THE DOOM OF UN-FILIAL INGRATITUDE AND REBELLION. Sudden, irresistible, as bolt from clear skies, came his doom. Such a doom l What thoughts must have thronged him in his last awful moments! Alas for the young man Absalom! Let young men and women remember that punishment for disobedience to parents is inevitable. Many today axe bearing it in silent, unutterable remorse. Would that they could recall the dead! Would that in some little way, by present love and tenderness, they could show repentance for the unfilial past! But the dead come no more! V. HOW PARENTAL LOVE APPEARS IN PARENTAL ANXIETY AND SORROW! The heart of David is made bare to us in this narrative. It is all tenderness towards Absalom. He sees him in the light of many a beautiful memory. The child Absalom! The youth! The faultless loveliness of form! The luxuriant and splendid locks that crowned him! The fond words when the young prince had nestled in his arms! It all lives to David. His one anxiety is for Absalom's safety. Victory will be blurred into defeat if he should perish. All day long waits the king for the battle-news; all the news shrunken to this, "What, what of Absalom?" And when the news is known, the king creeps out of sight of men, weeping, weeping as he goes, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" Oh! the sad, sad cry! Heard, alas! to-day, where homes mourn over the lost, and parents' hearts break. There is no far nor near, There is neither there nor here, There is neither soon nor late, In that Chamber over the Gate, Nor any long ago To that cry of human woe, O Absalom, my son! From the ages that are past The voice comes like a blast, Over seas that wreck and drown, Over tumult of traffic and town; And from ages yet to be Come the echoes back to me, O Absalom, my son! Somewhere at every hour, The watchman on the tower Looks forth, and sees the fleet Approach of the hurrying feet Of messengers, that bear The tidings of despair. O Absalom, my son! But David's voice dies into silence. We hear another — a greater — the greatest of all. "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (G. J. Coster.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. |
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