40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 2 Samuel 17:1-29 (Episode 280)

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

Absalom receives opposing advice from Ahithophel and Hushai. David's friend wins out and buys him some time. A woman hides messengers trying to reach David. And Ahithophel goes the way of Judas. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. The Christ Key Book 1517 Podcast Network Regional Event in Las Vegas 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast, check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out the events page so you can come hang out with Chad and me and a whole bunch of other people in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 15th and 16th. It's only $65 to come hang out with us and include your lunch on Saturday. We're going to be talking about assurance in Christ. So if you are in the Southwest or anywhere else and you're willing to make the trip, come hang out with us for two days in Vegas. It's going to be

a good time. Chad, this week we are in 2 Samuel 17. We're going to see David's friend do some work. He's going to go and compete for the job of top advisor by trying to come up with plans that Absalom thinks are better than other plans. And this is a pretty tall order that he's got because he is trying to get Absalom to listen to him over somebody that everyone thinks he really should listen to yeah imagine going into a situation where okay you know you're gonna have to convince a guy to go with what you propose but the other guy who's going to be convincing him to go another route that his counsel is as the word of god yeah that's a pretty pretty tall order that uh that hushai has and that's the exact same that exact situation that he's in so

we left off the end of 16 with absalom going into jerusalem and he was counseled by ahithophel who is the guy whose word is basically like god speaking he was counseled by him to set up a tent on the top of the palace roof and to bring his dad's david's 10 concubines he left behind into the tent and to have intercourse with them and by so doing basically let all of israel know hey i'm the guy now i'm the king i'm the one in charge if you're on the fence you better get off the fence because neutrality is no longer an option so that's the way that that 16 ends now uh we got to figure out or absalom has to figure out what the plan of attack is going to be david and his supporters have fled the city they're moving eastward they went down the the brook kidron

they crossed the brook kidron they went up the mount of olives and went over the mount of olives and they have worked their way basically to the western side of the Jordan River. They haven't crossed the Jordan yet, but they're close to the Jordan River. They've camped there, and they're waiting basically to figure out what they're going to do. So you may remember that David did leave behind some supporters who are going to be his eyes and ears in the city. He's got a couple of the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and then their two sons are involved in this,

and most importantly, as we're about to see, he left behind a guy named Hushai. And Hushai is going to basically try to get Absalom to go the route that is actually going to be in David's favor. So that's what we're going to read about at the beginning of 17. Two different proposals, two very different plans of attack against David are going to be proposed. And we'll see which one he chooses and why he chooses the one that he does.

So first of all, we're going to have Ahithophel. he's the one whose voice is like the voice of God, this very trusted advisor, very, very wise man. And as we're about to hear, the plan of attack that he proposes makes a lot of sense. I mean, there might be some weaknesses in there, but overall, it sounds like it's a very good, going to be successful plan of attack.

He says to Absalom, let me choose 12,000 men, and i will arise and pursue david tonight i will come upon him while he's weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic and all the people who are with him will flee i'll strike down only the king and i will bring all the people back to you now the esf has i will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband that's actually following the septuagint translation the greek translation the hebrew is hebrew is just kind of a little bit muddied here that's it's hard to make sense of exactly what it what it means literally it's as return all the man which

of course doesn't doesn't make any sense so you will have some translations that go with this kind of imagery this simile of a bride coming home to repress but maybe it's right maybe it's maybe it's wrong but anyway that's uh that's kind of beside the point his proposal is he's going to bring all the people back to Absalom. That's the idea. By taking only David out, then he will bring all the people back to Absalom's side. You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace. So it's very straightforward, very brief. It's not rhetorically enhanced, this very flowery speech or anything like that it's kind of black and white right to the point here's what we need to do go now and take him out it makes it makes sense it's really simple like hey david doesn't

have that many supporters doesn't have that many people give me this amount of guys should be more than enough we'll go in there and we're going to be smart about this because we don't want to kill a bunch of people's husbands or brothers or sons or anything like that uh so what we'll do is we'll go in there, try to get everyone to run, and we're just going after David so that you can have peace. Then we can say whatever we want about David, right? Like, hey, we had to take him out because of this, that, and the other thing. We didn't want to take out any of the warriors of Israel. We didn't want to take out any of the sons of Israel. We weren't going to do any of that. You're a good king. You're king for all Israelites. And so, you know, you wouldn't want to

punish people for believing the lies of David. However, David convinced you to go with him. we understand that you were those things weren't true and of course dave is not there to defend himself and this is pretty straightforward and honestly if you were doing if you were going to try to do what absalom's doing this is probably what you should do yeah yeah and i really i i think that's kind of it's between the lines but that's kind of what is implied is that if you were an objective observer you would think yeah that's that's precisely what absalom should do, and had Asim actually followed this, and we'll see, of course, if he does not, then this whole history would have been different. A couple things about this, too, that are interesting,

at least suggestively interesting. He says, let me choose 12,000 men. Of course, 12 is iconic of the tribes of Israel, and this is sort of a hint that this is kind of Israel against Israel. This is who's going to be the ruler of Israel, who's going to be the true Israel, who's going to be the true king. And then secondly, notice that in contrast to what we're about to see Hushai propose, Ahithophel puts himself kind of at the head of these men. He says four different times, I will. I will arise and pursue David. I'll come upon him while he's weary. I'll strike down only the king. I'll bring all the people back to you. Now, whether he thought this would appeal to Absalom or not, this is going to be very different from what Hushah is going to propose, because

Hushah is going to say, hey, Absalom, you need to be the guy who's leading the charge. You need to be the tip of the spear. But in this case, Hithophel is saying, no, I'll take care of it. And maybe he's trying to basically say to Absalom, listen, I know you're the king and all that, but David's your dad. He's still your father. And so why don't you let me do the dirty work? I'll be the one who brings the troops out i'll be the one who strikes down the king that way you know you're not gonna be accused of killing your own your own father i'll take care of this and then one other kind of interesting thing about this basically what he proposes and singling out david kind of separating him from the rest of everybody else is precisely what david plotted to do to uriah yeah yeah david's

like heck i want you joab to separate uriah from everybody else and i want you to take him out and only him out. So there is sort of an ironic twist here where Ahithophel proposes the very same thing that David himself had once proposed to take out his enemy. Well, anyway, that's so in three verses, you've got the proposal. And then what was people's response? Verse four says the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel. So you might think, okay, well, we're done. He proposed, they accepted, they're going to go out and do it. but verse 5 says that Absalom decides he wants to get a second opinion so Absalom said call Hushai the archite so Hushai of course was David's spy basically call Hushai the archite and let's hear

what he has to say so Hushai comes to Absalom and Absalom says to him thus has Ahithophel spoken So he just, you know, summarizes what Ahithophel had proposed. And he says to Hushai, basically, is this, do you agree? Is this what you think we should do? And if not, well, then you tell me. And Hushai says, and you can't see this in the, you can't see this English translation. So the ESV has, Hushai says to Absalom, quote,

this time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good. So the not good is at the very end of the sentence. But in Hebrew, not good are the first two words at the beginning of the sentence. So if you're kind of picturing yourself there and you're Absalom or you're one of his counselors and listening to Hushai, the very first words out of Hushai's mouth are not good. What do you think of this, counsel? Hushai's like, well, ain't good. Not good.

Not good. Not good this time. I mean, I know, I know that Ahithophel has, you know, quite a rep. He's, you know, his voice is the voice of God. You should always listen to Ahithophel. And generally speaking, that is true. However, this is an exception. In this case, Lotov.

This is not, this is not good. Yeah, it's weird that he has to qualify it, right, with this time. This time, yeah. I think he knows he can't get away with going in and be like, this guy's advice is terrible. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. You have to sort of acknowledge this man's track record and say, this one time, in any other circumstance,

I can't think of any other advice that he's ever given that I would think was not the right advice. But this one time, I think this is probably not good. Yeah, yeah. Because he would have distorted his credibility if he just said, oh why would you listen to that fool yeah you just you can't that would be a bad strategy so he starts out good he's got a good strategy now a little uh a little detail here that i don't think we i've ever pointed out before but uh this is kind of interesting thing the way that that hebrew

dialogue works not just hebrew just it's kind of the old custom dialogue works so if you if you do happen to be following along in your bible or if you're just listening so this is what this is the way it's presented. Hushai says to Absalom, this time the counsel isn't good. And then there's no recorded response of Absalom. We're just told next, Hushai said. So there's two times that we encounter Hushai said. Hushai says this to Absalom, no response. And then we're told again, Hushai said. This is actually a common feature of Old Testament dialogue, where if person A says something to person B, and the person B doesn't respond, then we are told, again, person A said such and such. And most of the occasion where this happens, the first thing

that the person says kind of takes the other person aback, like they don't have a response to it, like they're shocked, they're surprised, or they don't have any way to respond to this. And so what Hebrew will do is it will repeat the name of the person speaking again. So it's like there's a gap here, which is indication that, that Absalom, when he, when he heard Hushai said not good, he was like, whoa, what, how could you say this is not good? So anyway, verse eight says Hushai said, or he continued his speech. And this is a, this is quite the speech. So when, when I read it here, just a few verses long, listen to all of the, the metaphorical language, the kind of the rhetorical flourishes and contrast it with how different it is from what Ahithophel

said, his kind of straightforward speech. Hushat said, you know that your father and his men are mighty men and that they are, well, ESV has enraged. Literally, it's bitter of soul. They're bitter of soul, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is an expert in war. He won't spend the night with the people. Look, even now he's hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears of it will say, there's been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom. Then even the valiant men whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and that those who are with him are valiant men. So it kind

of lays all that out. He hasn't really told yet what he wants to do, what he proposes, but he kind of paints this whole picture in front of Absalom. Then he goes on to verse 11. Here's my counsel. My counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba. You know, that's kind of a standard idiom in the Old Testament for the entirety of the country. Dan in the north, Beersheba in the south. From Dan to Beersheba as the sand by the sea for multitude. And now get this. You go to battle in person. So he wants Absalom out there. So we shall come upon him in some place where he's to be found and will light upon him as the dew falls on the ground. And of him and all the men who are with him, not one will be left. And if he withdraws into a city,

then all Israel will bring ropes to that city and will drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there end of speech that's quite a speech there's a there's a there's a lot of these kind of images that uh that he puts forward now it's kind of funny in some ways because you know if you've been listening along these last few chapters about david david now the current david the old david that like the post uriah post bathsheba david does not match any of this right he's like the old man who sleeps on his couch until noon then he gets up and walks walks around on the roof so uh it that just kind of strikes me as humorous because everything hushai says was true of david what 10 20 30 years before whenever however david

however old david is now but it does not by any stretch of the imagination fit the current david so it's kind of like hushai is he's pulling upon all these uh these legends about david oh yeah david you know he's like he raised as a shepherd he used to fight lions and bears to protect his flock he was a mighty man a valiant warrior expert with all kinds of military uh experience not a guy you ever want to meet in the battlefield that's david of course those were all the legends And Absalom grew up here in these legends like everybody else did. So Hushai is kind of, he's pulling from David's past. And he's presenting this before Absalom is like, oh, yeah, you know, don't forget who you're dealing with here.

Yeah, this seems like he's trying to tell him that this other council has made the mistake of possibly underestimating what David can do. Just the other day, I was playing basketball, and there was a bunch of guys. And all of us older guys somehow ended up on the same team, which is not good because we're old. And we were playing against all these young guys. I said to one of the guys, I was like, well, it's old guys against young guys now. But don't worry. We don't have to be as good as we once were. We just have to be as good once as we ever were.

and i think that's sort of what he's telling him here like david you know david might be able to pull something out of his back he might be able to be as good as he ever was one more time this is like a toby keith country song yeah and by the way we were and we won but uh hey there you go you can dig deep you can dig deep and be like all i have to do i just have to do it once like i I don't have to be this good all night. I just need to be this good one game. I just need to be as good as I ever was. And it seems like the advice here is like,

yeah, I know he's all this stuff, but what if he's got one more in him? And that could go badly. So maybe you should go instead of being like, we'll just go and his men will flee and we'll just kill him, his old man or whatever, and that'd be fine. Yeah, that might not be the way that goes down.

You might want to just get everyone together and just go stomp that out. You might want to be certain. And the advice is a little different than the other advice, too, because you have advice that you can sort of do this in secret as opposed to really actually you should stomp this out in public. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And another difference is that, well, a couple differences.

He wants, Hushai wants Absalom to be out there, right? I want you to go in person. And, of course, this is kind of a two-pronged strategy here On the one hand, he wants Absalom out there because Hushai wants Absalom dead. He wants him in or at least able to be captured. He doesn't want him staying behind in Jerusalem safe. He wants him out there in the battle. So that's the one thing going on here.

Secondly, he's appealing to Absalom's vanity. I mean, oh, come on, guy. You don't you don't want to let Hithophel go out there and fight your battles for you, do you? I mean, look at you. You're a valiant warrior yourself. I mean, look at your hair. Look at your appearance, you good-looking, strong, warrior-like man. You need to be out there in the midst of the battle. And then secondly, I think he's also appealing to Absalom's, I don't know, kind of maybe a bloodlust or something like that, because he doesn't say,

I want you to just take David out. so him and all the men who are with him not want to be left so this is like a this is not a very uh a pinpoint strategy we're just going to take out the one guy but no we need to we can't just take david out i mean everybody who's going to david's side needs to be decimated we need to just annihilate all of the opposition at at once and you know if okay suppose he goes into a city no problem we're gonna have so many people we'll throw ropes over that city wall and drag it and we'll be a pebble left in that city so it's kind of this a whole this whole speech just kind of oozes with exaggeration and for some reason that uh well we know the reason we'll be told in just

a minute that this appeals this appeals to to absalom and i imagine that this sort of like yay this other council might be underestimating your father a little bit i mean because the one thing you don't want to happen you don't want to go out there and lose oh no absolutely yeah you can't have that you can't have that and so you would be like man why is he trying to get him to bring more people out there well he's really just trying to get absalom out there that's what he's trying to do and to and it's a it's a delaying tactic too yes so you're right time to right so you gotta takes time to assemble this many people to do this he wants to get absalom out there so He's buying time, and he's trying to get Absalom out on the battlefield.

But he's saying something that is also true, which is you kind of got one shot. If this goes badly when you go to do it, if you lose because you underestimated your father, it's a horrible outcome. So you should really make sure that that doesn't happen. You have to put together an army that even David in his prime could never defeat. Yeah. Yeah. So that's proposal A.

of Ahithophel. Proposal B of Hushai. So which one's going to work? Well, we are told in verse 14, right at the end of the speech, Absalom and all the men of Israel said, the council of Hushai the Archite is better than the council of Ahithophel. Probably the first time that anything like that had ever been pronounced with regard to Ahithophel. Nobody ever said so-and-so's Advice is better than Ahithophel's advice. But that's what not only Absalom, but his men agreed with. Now, interjected into this narrative and this dialogue and these speeches and all of this is a theological verse. Sometimes you'll come across these, kind of like we did at the end of the whole mess with David and Bathsheba.

through that whole story there was no mention of god or what he thought about it until you get to the very end and it said the things that david had done was evil in the eyes of god so that was inserted there as a way of course to understand what was going on from god's perspective same thing here at the end of verse 14 we read for so why did why did they go to the council of hushai For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. So, you know, in case you missed it, this is the author's way of confirming to us that behind the scenes of all of this was God orchestrating the events so that in the end, his will would be done. Yeah, I mean, if you read these two pieces of advice side by side, Hushai's advice makes sense.

It seems good. But it's interesting that it says that the Lord had ordained this to happen to defeat the good advice. All right, so in reality, this advice is not better than the other advice. The stomp it out quick, get rid of it quick, practically speaking, is the better advice. this is giving david lots of time so this is not this is actually not good advice but he has said it in such a way that you're like that makes sense that makes sense he's also uh as you said

like made it to where he's played on absalom's ego a little bit here uh and so and he's put a little he maybe struck a little put a little fear in his heart about losing uh if he doesn't take this too seriously uh that sort of stuff but in reality if you're actually in this situation you would want to stomp this out immediately i mean like give me 12 000 guys right now and we'll just take and this is the better piece of advice yeah yeah that's uh of course what what's uh what was decided by absalom uh at the at the uh the the secret urging of of the lord so verse 15 what's going to what's going to happen now well the decision has been made david now needs to find out what uh has been discussed and what's been decided so we're told that hushai went to zadok

and abiathar the priest now remember zadok and abiathar had tried to leave with david in fact they even tried to bring the ark of the covenant with them and david's like no no no we don't need the ark in fact you guys go back i need you to be my spies in jerusalem along with hushai so hushai passes along the information to Zadok and Abiathar thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel and thus and so have I counseled

so he kind of puts both these scenarios before them so he says you need to send some messengers to David and tell him don't stay tonight at the fords of the wilderness but by all means pass over that is pass over onto the eastern side of the

Jordan lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up it seems to me kind of reading between the lines here that at this point hushai is not entirely convinced as to which way that absalom is going to go so he's kind of he's going to make sure that if by chance that absalom decides to go with the advice of hit the fell that david is not caught so he wants basically get some distance between you and Jerusalem because there's a chance that Absalom might actually attack tonight. So cross over to the other side of the Jordan. So that's basically the message. But he's got to get it to David, right? So Hushah tells Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, but somehow the priests

have to relay this message to David and to his men. And so that's where we pick up the story in verse 17. So Zadok and Abiathar have sons, and these two sons are named Jonathan and Ahimaaz. we've encountered them before and they're waiting at a place called in rogal so you kind of have this i kind of picture this whole string of you know husha goes to the to zadok and abiathar and then now zadok and abiathar got to go to their sons and kind of relaying this this message so they're waiting and uh a female servant was to go and tell them and they were to go and tell king david for they were not to be seen entering the city so we have the spy network set up but something falls apart verse 18 says that a young man saw them and he goes and reports this to

absalom so the spies were spied upon so what do they do this is a interesting uh backshadowing we might call it reference back to something that that happened before so verse 18 says that after this was reported to absalom both of those guys they go they go way quickly they go to the the house of a man at bahurim bahurim is kind of on the eastern side of the of the uh mount of olives this is where shimei who cursed out david this is where he's from too and this guy in bahurim he has a well in his courtyard and these two spies they go down into the well and then the guy's wife she takes something some kind of cloth covering and puts it over the mouth of the well scatters grain on top of it and basically disguises the well then verse 20 so absalom

servants they come to the house and they're like hey where are the guys where's ahimaz and where's jonathan and the woman says to them oh those two they they went over the brook of water they went that way and when they saw it and couldn't find them they returned to jerusalem now if you're listening to this uh hopefully your old testament mind is kicking into gear and you're like oh this sounds very familiar this sounds a whole lot like what happened in the city of jericho way back in the book of way back in the book of joshua and if you're thinking that you would be you'd be exactly right in both cases so this is this woman this unnamed woman at baharim is basically uh another Rahab. So she's taking two spies, just like the two spies who were in Joshua. She's hiding them,

just like Rahab hid the two spies on the roof of her house. And not only that, but when the authorities come looking for these two spies, she not only lies to them, but she points them in the wrong direction. Exact same thing that Rahab did when they knocked on her door saying, hey, we're those Israelite spies who came to your house. So it's kind of a cool, we've seen some of these before in this narrative, it's kind of a cool connection between this particular story and the earlier story in Joshua. And actually we're going to see some more of this

when we get to the death of Absalom in the next chapter. It's one of these fascinating examples of what's usually called intertextuality, where this text is connected to an earlier text, or maybe it's connected to a later text, And there's this all of this kind of the constellation of stories that are mixed together into this this one particular story so that when you compare A to B and B to C, you can kind of see how one story reflects another story and sheds light on what's going on. And you might even say that because what this woman did is very Rahab, it's similar to what Rahab did, that it's almost a foreshadowing of the fact that David will be victorious. because just like Rahab shielded these two spies leading to Joshua's victory over the city of Jericho,

so this woman hides these two spies leading to what will eventually be, of course, David's victory over kind of this second king of Jericho, if you will, this Absalom character who's like the Jericho king. Yeah, and it's interesting that, I mean, they had to have known that this is a friend, right? This is somebody on their side

because this is a pretty dangerous move i mean if you get caught hiding them i'm sure that that's it yeah yeah yeah she would she and her husband probably would have lost her heads right then yeah that would have been moving all over all over for them so it's a it's a gutsy move and it shows too because as i mentioned that bahurim this little village this is where shemay lived who if you remember from from back in verse chapter 16 he was like you know throwing rocks at david He's cussing him out. He's pronouncing all of these curses against him and his men. So that guy, Shimei, lived in Baharim. And this guy who's protecting David's spies, he lives in Baharim.

So it's a reminder, I guess, that there are divided loyalties in the nation of Israel. I mean, even in this probably village of, who knows, 50 people, 100 people, relatively small place. Even there, you've got both extremes represented. so verse 21 says that these guys who had been looking for the spies they left the guys come out of the well they go on and finish their mission they tell king david what was reported to them they say to david get up go quickly over the water for thus and so has a hit the fell counseled against you now that again is to me a uh an indication that at this point Hushai wasn't for sure which direction

Absalom was going to go, because Ahithophel counseled this against you, and who knows, maybe Absalom's going to follow that, so just to hedge your bets, get across the Jordan, put some distance between you and the city of Jerusalem. I mean, you have to understand, and you're probably picking this

up as you see how this message is being relayed, but at this point, David is not that far away. Oh, yeah, he's very close to Jerusalem. It wasn't like, you know, and then And then, you know, they traveled two weeks, found David, told him to keep it. No, I mean, this message is getting there pretty quick.

And you're like, yeah, you need to get further away, man. You got to have more distance. Yeah, it's not nearly far enough. If Absalom had those kind of forces that Hithophel suggested, 12,000 men, then, yeah, you need to put a lot more miles between you and your adversary. So what happened? Well, David arose, and all the people with him, they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, not one of them was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

To pick up on what we've said in earlier episodes, this is a continuation of David's exile. It's Israel's movement in reverse. So Israel crossed from the wilderness. They went from the wilderness, crossed the Jordan River, into the Promised Land. now David is leaving the promised land crossing the Jordan River entering the wilderness so he is going into this exile

verse 23 records the end of Ahithophel when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed here's what he did he saddled his donkey went off home to his own city

he set his house in order and he hanged himself and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. This is pretty wild that this is what happens. I mean, so he basically realizes that his advice is not going to be taken. He goes and writes a will and hangs himself.

Yeah, it's a strange set of events that we aren't privy to the thoughts of what's going on inside his mind. My own suspicion is a couple things are happening here. One, it's like he's lost face. And it's like, you know, this is the first time ever that his counsel wasn't followed. And so kind of in an act in which he's responding to the shame or the loss of face, he's going to take his own life. Could also be, that's one possibility, could also be that Ahithophel realizes that since Absalom has not followed his advice, it's all going to fall apart anyway.

Yeah, it's weird because I had that same thought about that because this is the guy whose ego is so bruised by his advice not being taken that he would go kill himself over it. And I tend to think that that's not it. I think that what is more likely is that he's so wise that he knows that they just lost. Yeah. So it's like, listen, I'm going to die. I will either be executed by David or his men for turning against him

or I'm going to execute myself I'm going to hang myself this seems like a man that is so confident in his advice that if this advice is not taken he doesn't believe that they will end up victorious yeah

there might be some other reasons those are the only two that came to my mind but either way this is his end he uh takes his own life and as we've remarked before this is a striking parallel not an exact but it's still a striking parallel to what happens in the life of the son of david this guy betrayed david and in the end he hanged himself and judas iscariot of course betrayed the son of david and ended up hanging himself as well so there is a there's an overlap between these two particular narratives that we've of course talked about uh talked about several different different

times yeah i think i think the reason also to maybe lean towards him knowing that this is over is that for the parallel to to really really work you have two people who uh are hanging themselves because they do not believe they are going to be forgiven for their betrayal ah yes that's perfect that's perfect yeah i mean that was we know we're told explicitly that judas felt remorse for what he did. But he, of course, thought that he was hopeless, literally. He did not have any hope of being forgiven of this, and so he despaired of forgiveness and for that reason took his own life. And Bethel is convinced exactly the same. There's no chance that David is going to forgive me. So he despairs of that and ends up instead taking his own life. Okay, just to wrap up these

last few verses in the time that we have remaining. What happens to David? Well, he comes to a place called Mahanaim. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because you've heard of it a couple different times before. Mahanaim is a place that Jacob stayed when he was ending his exile. So you can read about that back in Genesis. But Mahanaim was also the place that Saul's son, after Saul died, Saul's son Ish-bosheth went to Mahanaim and actually was crowned there as king over the other tribes of Israel. So it's kind of ironic that David would go to the very place where his former rival had been crowned king. But that's where he goes. Absalom crosses the Jordan with all the men of Israel. So David's going there. Absalom's coming. Absalom has set over his army

Amasa instead of Joab. Now this is a little bit confusing here. It says Amasa was a son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite. He'd married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother, so on and so forth. To simplify it, the guy that Absalom places over his army instead of Joab is the cousin, the first cousin of Joab. So Hamasa is the son of one of David's sisters. Now you remember that Joab also is the son of one of David's sisters. So both these guys, They're first cousins, Joab and Amasa, but they're also both nephews of David. This whole ordeal is one huge family mess. So anyway, Amasa is going to be the leader instead of Joab.

And then David came to Mahanaim, and we're told in those remaining verses that some guys named Shobi and Makir and Barzillai, they came out basically to help David. They brought all this stuff. They brought beds, basins, vessels, wheat, barley, flour, honey, sheep, cheese, all these provisions for David and for his men because they were hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness. So David, in his exile, is helped by these Gentiles, by these non-Israelites who come to him and actually assist him. And as we'll hear later in the story, David is going to repay them for their kindness to him. So that's kind of where we have the situation at this point.

You've got Absalom pursuing him. You've got David in the wilderness. And the question is, what's going to happen next? Because, of course, we're going to have a military confrontation coming up very soon. But we'll have to save that for next episode with chapter 18. Yeah, it seems that there are two things in this last little section here. One, obviously some time has passed because David's men are all hungry. They've been wandering around.

And also Absalom has been able to acquire this army. And so this has taken some time. It's given David the chance to get out of there, be more difficult to track down. And this is a little bit of speculation, but it does seem that this not having Joab has reentered. uh yeah we were wondering we were wondering where he was uh he has re-entered but been sort of demoted and uh this is a little speculation but it seems to me that david is uh not he does not have full trust in joab because of joab's convincing him to bring absalom back in the first place and so uh david it seems like he's in this weird spot where joab is the obvious guy to

help him win this battle but he also has this his has this pause where he's not positive that he can trust joab which by the way he can trust joab but yeah yeah just just wait to the next episode you talk about some friction between david and joab wow yeah uh i don't want to give give it away but we'll see more of that in in chapter 18 all right well chad i'll see you then see you then We'll see you next time.