Scripture Daily

Context No. 866 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 16:15-23: in context

15Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. 16When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, had come to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” 17Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?” 18Hushai said to Absalom, “No; but whomever the LORD and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, I will be his, and I will stay with him. 19Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so I will be in your presence.” 20Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.” 21Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” 22So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. 23The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the inner sanctuary of God. All the counsel of Ahithophel was like this both with David and with Absalom.

David has fled Jerusalem, and his son Absalom has walked in as king. This passage shows two counselors at work. Hushai, David's friend, arrives and greets Absalom with Long live the king, playing the double agent to protect David. Then Ahithophel gives the counsel Absalom follows: go in to your father's concubines publicly, on the roof, in the sight of all Israel, so the break with David is total and cannot be undone.

The advice is deliberately ugly. Ahithophel is not being crude for its own sake; he understands that Absalom's followers need to know there is no going back, that the son has burned the bridge to the father, so they will commit fully. And it fulfills, to the letter, the judgment Nathan spoke over David after Bathsheba: your neighbor will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. What David did in secret with Uriah's wife is now done to him in broad daylight, on the same roof from which he first saw Bathsheba. The text adds that Ahithophel's counsel in those days was treated as if a man had inquired of God himself, which makes the scheming all the colder. This is the bible, and it does not spare David the harvest of what he planted.

Where have I told myself a private sin stayed private, when scripture keeps showing that what is done in secret comes into the daylight?

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