Context No. 2492 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 15:7-13: in context

7At the end of forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the LORD, in Hebron. 8For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If the LORD shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.’” 9The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose and went to Hebron. 10But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’” 11Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything. 12Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom. 13A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.”

Absalom launches his rebellion under a cloak of piety. He asks his father David for leave to go to Hebron and pay a vow he says he made to the LORD, and David, suspecting nothing, sends him off in peace. But the vow is a lie. In Hebron, Absalom has spies posted to proclaim him king at the trumpet blast, and two hundred men from Jerusalem go along with him in their innocence, knowing nothing of the plot. The conspiracy grows.

Two things are worth marking. First, the coup is dressed as devotion, a vow to the LORD used as cover for naked ambition. Religious language can be the perfect disguise for a grab at power, and it fooled even David. Second, two hundred honest men are swept into treason without realizing it, invited to something that looked ordinary and turned out to be rebellion. Both are cautions. My own ambitions can hide behind spiritual words, even from myself, and I can be pulled into someone else's scheme simply by not examining what I am being drawn into.

Am I ever dressing my own ambition in spiritual language, or being swept along in something I have not honestly examined?

Sources

2 Samuel 15:7: Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the LORD, in Hebron.
2 Samuel 15:11: Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn't know anything.
2 Samuel 15:12: The conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom.