The Torah Network

3 yrs

SERIES K --- ISRAEL’S GOLDEN AGE --- LESSON 09

ABSALOM’S PLOT

From 2 Samuel 15:1-6; 21:1-14

When Absalom was back in his father’s favour, he began a program to win the hearts of the people. First, he bought a beautiful chariot with horses and had fifty men run before it as footmen. Every morning he would go to the gate of the city and stop people who were coming to see the king for matters of justice. ‘Where are you from?’ Absalom would ask. The person would tell him where he was from and what his problem was. ‘Well, it looks to me that you’re right!’ Absalom would say. ‘It’s too bad that I am not a judge so I could do something for you.’ Of course, the people began to wish that Absalom were king instead of David. Absalom also won the people’s hearts by refusing to let people bow before him. Instead, he would embrace them and give them a kiss of greeting. Gradually all Israel began to change its allegiance from David to Absalom. About this time a famine swept the land, causing great hunger for three years. David prayed much about this, trying to find the cause. At last Adonai told him that it was because of the sin of Saul and his family, because they had killed some people of Gibeon. Shortly after the time when Joshua and his people invaded the land, intent on killing all of the people who lived there, the Israelites made a foolish vow to protect the Gibeonites. Later, Saul became zealous for his nation and tried to destroy them anyway, killing some of them and thus breaking Israel’s vow. David explained the situation to the people of Gibeon and asked, ‘what may I do for you to make up for this sin that Saul did against you? I want you to ask YHVH to bless us.’ ‘We do not want money,’ they answered. ‘And we do not want other Israelites killed to avenge our people.’ ‘Then what can we do?’ David asked again. ‘Give us seven of Saul’s sons,’ the people of Gibeon asked. ‘Let us hang them in Gibeon before Adonai.’ David gave them seven of Saul’s sons. These included Armoni and Mephibosheth [not Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth], who were both sons of Rizpah, Saul’s wife and the daughter of Aiah, as well as five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whose husband’s name was Adriel. These five sons had actually been raised by Saul’s daughter Michal, David’s own wife. The people of Gibeon hanged the seven men on the mountain before Adonai. This happened in the early part of the harvest time, when the barley was beginning to be harvested. Rizpah, the mother of two of the men, camped beside the bodies of her sons, sitting in sackcloth night and day, preventing the animals and birds from eating the bodies of her sons. She stayed there throughout the time of harvest, until the rainy season began. When David learned what she had done, he gave orders for the bones of Saul, Jonathan and the men who had been executed to be buried in the grave of Saul’s father Kish at Zelah. The bones of Saul and Jonathan were at Jabesh-gilead, for the people of that city had stolen the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them after the two died in battle on Mount Gilboa. David made a special request of the people of Jabesh-gilead to give up the bones of these men so that Saul’s family could be buried together. When all of this took place YHVH answered the prayers for the land and caused the famine to end.

COMMENTARY

DAVID AND HIS SONS

David loved his sons very deeply. He constantly forgave them even when they did damaging things and took great advantage of him. What happened with Absalom is a good example of that, David’s heart went out to Absalom even though he had murdered Amnon, David’s oldest son, after five years David forgave him and received him back into the royal court. Once he had returned to favour, Absalom tried to weaken his father’s reign. He collected the symbols of wealth and authority in the form of chariots, horses, attendants and concubines. He used David’s neglect of government affairs to his own great advantage. Absalom believed he could do better and he said so. He even claimed that if he were king, he would receive as an equal everyone who came to him. Small wonder, then, that he gained such wide support among the common people. Even then, when Absalom had organized an army against his own father, David gave instructions to his commanders to treat him kindly. David seemed unable to recognize that his sons were capable of doing wrong. Even after they had, his love and compassion did not diminish. Rather than a bad trait, this might be the sign of a good one: David recognized his own capacity for sin and weakness and therefore judged his sons less harshly for theirs.

Comment

Discover Posts

The King's Heart in Proverbs 21:1

Rhy Bezuidenhout

Soil from Stone: On Which Thought Counts