In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” He would answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.” Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.” And Absalom would add, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice.”
Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him, and kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.
At the end of four [a] years, Absalom said to the king, “Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the Lord. While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: ‘If the Lord takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron.’”
The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So, he went to Hebron.
Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’”
Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so, the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing.
A messenger came and told David, “The hearts of the people of Israel are with Absalom.”
Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin on us and put the city to the sword.”
The king’s officials answered him, “Your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses.”
The king set out, with his entire household following him; but he left ten concubines to take care of the palace.
So the king set out, with all the people following him, and they halted at the edge of the city.
All his men marched past him, along with all the Kerethites and Pelethites; and all the six hundred Gittites who had accompanied him from Gath marched before the king.
The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come along with us? Go back and stay with King Absalom. You are a foreigner, an exile from your homeland. You came only yesterday. And today, shall I make you wander about with us, when I do not know where I am going? Go back and take your people with you. May the Lord show you kindness and faithfulness.”
But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be.”
David said to Ittai, “Go ahead, march on.” So Ittai the Gittite marched on with all his men and the families that were with him.
The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on toward the wilderness.
Zadok was there, too, and all the Levites who were with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving the city.
Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. But if he says, ‘I am not pleased with you,’ then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him.”
The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Do you understand? Go back to the city with my blessing. Take your son Ahimaaz with you, and also Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You and Abiathar return with your two sons.
I will wait at the fords in the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”
So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and stayed there.
But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered, and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up.
Now David had been told, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “Lord, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.”
When David arrived at the summit, where people used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite was there to meet him, his robe torn and dust on his head. 33 David said to him, “If you go with me, you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, ‘Your Majesty, I will be your servant; I was your father’s servant in the past, but now I will be your servant,’ then you can help me by frustrating Ahithophel’s advice. 35 Won’t the priests Zadok and Abiathar be there with you? Tell them anything you hear in the king’s palace.
Their two sons, Ahimaaz son of Zadok and Jonathan son of Abiathar, are there with them. Send them to me with anything you hear.”
So Hushai, David’s confidant, arrived at Jerusalem as Absalom was entering the city.
Some people embark on a journey to who, not a journey to where
They have no destination, but they have a person in mind whom they choose to chase and perhaps catch, but beyond that, they have no other plan. They commit money to it, they garner support, they swear oaths and burn incense. Theirs is not a plan or an ideology, but a resolve to journey till they get to who.
Such people believe that the “who” is the problem in their life, and if they can eliminate the “who” their problems in life will be over. Millions of people think this way about their friend, boss, husband, wife, and parents. When you hear such people speaking, you will wonder how they manage to stay alive despite their obviously malfunctioning brains.
Sometimes the “who “is someone in their family, in their father’s house or mother’s house, an old friend, or a colleague. They see this person as the one to catch up to, or measure up to, or bring down to their own level.
Several factors could condition a grown adult’s thinking in this manner. Hatred does a fine job, so does the quest for vengeance, jealousy, bitterness, and envy. When you see people who are driven by all or any of the three emotions listed above, know that such a person is making use of only half a percentage of his or her brain, and all he or she is focused on is destroying the perceived subject of their devotion.
Absalom was the brother of Tamar. He was a very handsome man, and his sister was a very beautiful lady. Their mother was the daughter of the King of Geshur, a very small kingdom in Bashan, very close to Israel. The marriage between David and Maacah was a political alliance between Geshur and Israel.
In those days, weaker kingdoms made treaties with stronger ones so that they would not be attacked in the time of battle. Geshur was a tiny kingdom, and the king made peace with Israel by offering the most beautiful princess to David as a wife.
Maacah gave birth to Adonijah, Absalom, and Tamar. The three children were royalties, but with a big but…
Their mother was not a Jew, and therefore, they were very likely not going to sit on the throne of David in the future. The best David can do with these children would be to trade them off with other kingdoms to forge alliances with Israel.
Amnon, the crown prince at the time raped Tamar. Absalom acted as the avenger of blood and killed Amnon. After killing Amnon, he fled to his grandfather’s kingdom to seek refuge.
David found his escape convenient as he wouldn’t have to judge and kill another son or wash his dirty linen in public.
He knew what happened was the fulfillment of a prophecy that was issued to him as a verdict after he impregnated Bathsheba, who was Uriah’s wife, and killed her husband.
Absalom stayed at Geshur for many years, but it was a small kingdom, and he was not commanding the kind of attention that befitted his ambition there.
Absalom wanted to return to Israel and resume his royal duty as a prince. He, however, had no guarantee of safety if he did this. Without a guarantee of safety, he could be arrested and killed for the murder of Amnon by the king.
He decided he needed to seek an audience with one of David’s most trusted and respected lieutenants.
Joab was not only influential in the Kingdom of Israel, but he was also David’s cousin and Absalom’s uncle. Absalom sent emissaries to Joab and asked him to please speak to the King on his behalf. Joab promised to do so, but didn’t do so because he knew the topic could upset the king. Absalom sent the emissaries back to Joab, but this time with a mafia-style message. They burnt down his farm and promised to do him more harm if he did not deliver the message of their master to the king.
(If you know any man with the character and nature of Joab, you will know that this was a big mistake. JOAB was a choleric leader who did not forgive a slight and would seize any opportunity to defeat a perceived enemy, either honorably or dishonorably.
Joab, however, was powerless to do anything to Absalom because he was a prince. Joab went to David to present Absalom’s case. David heard it and agreed that Absalom should be allowed to return to Israel. Absalom returned and began to parade himself around the palace in a royal chariot with a well-dressed entourage every day, creating a spectacle and causing a buzz in Jerusalem.
People love entertainment, and fickle people often don’t see the illusory role it plays in subtly creating a narrative of fantasy and deceit around the truth.
(As someone who observes leaders, I have seen so many people hang around leaders in this manner. *This is called positioning. *
Narrow-minded people do it a lot to create a perception of influence in the minds of the people. People assume that since they see someone whispering in your ears, sitting close to you, riding in your car, exchanging bants with you and laughing with you, the person has a special place in your heart or you have a soft spot for the person, this is what INFLUENCE is in its basic form.)
Those who desire to get anything done but are too timid to approach a leader directly would often go to these sorts of characters who hang around a king and present their issues so that the king can consider them and assent to them.
No leader can escape the pilot fish and their influence over those he is leading. With a combination of showmanship and sweet words, Absalom won the heart of the people and eventually found a way to crown himself as King over Israel. This is the ultimate aim of a conspirator.
To take what another person has built because he or she cannot build his or her own. The problem with wanting what belongs to another person is not in taking it, but in having the ability to keep it.
After assuming the throne of Israel, Absalom realized there was more to it than the title. He needed to make destiny-altering decisions in a split second, and this required the use of counselors. Within a few hours of becoming “King,” he made his most fatal decision by ignoring the counsel of Ahitophel and accepting the counsel of Hushai. He didn’t know it, but David had planted Hushai in the palace to misdirect him, and he fell for it.
This ultimately led to David’s escape with his men and the defeat of Absalom some weeks later. Joab killed Absalom, and David was restored to his throne.
PS: Be mindful of those whose fuel is hatred, unbridled ambition, envy, jealousy, vengeance, and bitterness. Their paths are dark, and all roads end at who and not at what. They have no plan other than pulling somebody down or killing somebody or defeating somebody.
Once they achieve that, they have no further agenda or plan. They don’t take their leaders on a journey into the future; the road before them stops at the door of their “target.”
Judas couldn’t see beyond betraying Jesus. Brutus had no plan beyond stabbing Julius Caesar. Amnon had no plan beyond sleeping with Tamar (he eventually had to rape her). Absalom had no plan beyond taking the throne of David (He was killed within a few weeks after).
Beware of those driven by hatred and bitterness. Beware of those whose journey in life is always to whom and never to where.
–GSW–