October 26, 2020
Ahithophel
David’s Judas
II Samuel 15:12, 31; 17:23
God forgave David, both for the seduction of Bathsheba and for the slaughter of Uriah. God forgave him, but Ahithophel never did. Ahithophel died by his own hand, cursing David, but with crimes on his conscience far exceeding anything David had on his. He died on a gallows in Giloh. He died nursing a malice and hatred for David that beggars description, And thereon hangs a tale.
We are prone to think of David as a type of Christ, and rightly so, for he was a type of Christ in many ways, especially in his early years when he was “a man after God’s own heart. But there was another side to David, as there is with all of us. And it is this other side that is brought so sharply into focus in his contacts with Ahithophel. There are three aspects to the story.
We begin with David’s friend. In one of his great psalms, David describes Ahithophel as “mine own familiar friend, in whom | trusted, which did eat of my bread” (Ps, 41:9). In another psalm he calls him “a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company (Ps, 55:13—I4). It was no accident that David chose this man to be his primary counselor, for Ahithopel had a great deal to contribute to David. He was the cleverest man in the country; and, at times, hts advice was little short of inspired.
Moreover, he was not only David’s counselor, but he was also David’s companion. They would walk together to the house of God. He was also David’s confidant. David would share his secret dreams and desires with him, his plans for the future of the kingdom.
But then, Ahithophel became David’s foe, his bitterest, most malignant and formidable foe. Absalom’s rebellion would never have got off the ground had not Ahithophel gone over to Absaloms side. Ahithopel had two main objectives in mind when he went over to Absalom. He wanted David’s wives, those left behind in Jerusalem, to be publicly seduced by Absalom on the rooftop of the palace, before the public gaze (2 Sam.
16:20—23). His goal was to make sure that the alienation between David and Absalom was beyond reconciliation. His second, if not his primary goal, was to kill David. When David was in full flight from Jerusalem, Ahithophel pleaded with Absalom to let him take a band of soldiers on a swift expedition to corner and kill David before David could organize his own forces (17:1—3). Such was the fierce hatred that now burned in the heart of Ahithophel toward the man to whom he had once professed love and loyalty.
16:20—23). His goal was to make sure that the alienation between David and Absalom was beyond reconciliation. His second, if not his primary goal, was to kill David. When David was in full flight from Jerusalem, Ahithophel pleaded with Absalom to let him take a band of soldiers on a swift expedition to corner and kill David before David could organize his own forces (17:1—3). Such was the fierce hatred that now burned in the heart of Ahithophel toward the man to whom he had once professed love and loyalty.
But why the change? The answer lies in David’s folly. It was folly for David to loll around the palace when his soldiers were off to war. It was folly for David, when he caught a glimpse of Bathsheba in her bathrobe, to venture a second look. It was folly for him to seek an introduction to the woman and to cultivate the acquaintance, especially when he discovered she was married, and married, no less, to Uriah, one of his personal bodyguards. It was folly supreme to seduce her and criminal folly to kill her husband in order to marry her. Bathsheba’s grandfather was Abithophel.
One does not need to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, to tmagine how Ahithophel took the seduction of his granddaughter and the murder of her husband. He did his best to pay David back with seduction, and he succeeded. He did his best to murder David and very likely would have succceded if Absalom had been anything like a general.
We know what David said when news of Ahithophels treason was brought. He asked God to turn Ahithophel’s counsel to foolishness, But we wonder what he said to Bathsheba, when news came to him of the suicide of Ahithophel, his old friend, his valued counselor, and Bathsheba’s grandfather. What did he say? What will we say when our sins thus terribly find us out?