and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid; and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and I will bring back all the people to thee. The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned all the people shall be in peace.
Ahithophel's advice to Absalom is short, cold and surgical: one man dies, and a whole nation changes sides overnight. Behind the military logic sits an older grudge. Behind that stands God, steering the outcome.
Ahithophel plans for speed, and for one target only.
Ahithophel saw clearly that if Absalom was to win any victory over David he had to strike quickly. Satan knows that the only way to establish the antichrist in power is to destroy the true Christ. So Ahithophel asks for 12,000 men — David had only a few hundred with him — to chase David that same night. He reasons well: such an attack would scatter David's men and leave David alone and unprotected, so that they could kill him. So he says, "I will bring all the people back to you," as though the people had left Absalom! (v.3). Wickedness can succeed only by striking quickly. It cannot afford to wait for calm, careful thought.
Ahithophel's name and his wording both say more than he knows.
But Ahithophel is, after all, "brother of foolishness." He does not see that the wheel, swung round so far, will come up again for David. God has glorified Himself in view of David's sin, and He did it openly. So He can now appear for David, as soon becomes clear, and as Ahithophel finds out. Everything would then be secure. Once "the man whom you seek" is put to death, it is "as if all returned" — speaking as if these had wandered from their loyalty, rather than Absalom's men.
(Older translations read "the man whom you seek is as if all returned." The ESV pictures the same return: "as a bride comes home to her husband.")
This adviser was trusted like an oracle, and he had never forgiven David.
The conspiracy comes to a head, and Absalom sends for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counsellor (2 Sam. 15:12). "Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God" (2 Sam. 16:23). How was it that Absalom had the nerve to send for David's trusted counsellor? This was another sorrowful bit of reaping from former sin. Ahithophel appears to have been Bathsheba's grandfather. We can well understand that he had never forgiven David for the way he treated his granddaughter. (Compare 2 Sam. 11:3 and 2 Sam. 23:34.)
Rossier sees the same method at work in a much larger conflict.
In verses 1 to 4 we discover the enemy's hidden design: he wants to get at David. He is right to calculate that if David is gone, everything will fall apart and the people will become Absalom's prey… This is how the prince of darkness works. All his efforts are aimed at Christ. So he stirred up the world against Him. But at the cross he did not win the conflict. He lost, and his power was broken.
David's own people reach the same conclusion as Ahithophel, but out of love instead of hatred.
The people love David, and they understand something even better than Ahithophel did. This false prophet hated David, yet he knew it perfectly well: "I will strike down only the king… you seek the life of only one man." On both sides there is the conviction that everything depends on David. Only, on the part of the people, faith is active; for them David absent from the battlefield counts just as much as David present.
The plan was well aimed. It failed anyway, and Scripture says why.
Ahithophel's counsel was aimed at the person of David only. He wanted David killed, so that the death of one man would bring all Israel back. But Ahithophel had not reckoned with David's Lord. That Lord loved David, and through all the chastening David had to pass through, He was still his Lord and his Keeper. It was not Hushai who defeated the counsel of Ahithophel, but the Lord. "For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring harm upon Absalom."
- One man. Ahithophel's plan rests on one idea: kill David, and the whole nation comes back.
- One grudge. The cold logic hides a private motive. As Bathsheba's grandfather, he had never forgiven David — and David is reaping what he sowed.
- One lie. "Bring back all the people" treats Absalom as the rightful king and David's men as the deserters.
- One target. Commentators see the enemy's constant method here: aim everything at the King Himself. At the cross, that ended in the enemy's defeat.
- One Keeper. Hushai got the credit, but Scripture says the LORD had ordained that this counsel would fail. The truth Ahithophel used in hatred, David's men held in faith.
And the saying was right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
Ahithophel has just laid out his plan. Strike David that same night, kill the king alone, and bring the nation back. Absalom and every elder in the room approve it at once. This is the moment the rebellion looks certain to win, and the moment God seems furthest away.
The plan was a good one, and its strength was speed. One writer traces the thinking behind it:
Ahithophel saw clearly that if Absalom was to gain any victory over David he must strike quickly. Satan knows that the only way to put the antichrist in power is to destroy the true Christ. So Ahithophel asks to take 12,000 men with him — against the few hundred who had gone with David — and to chase David that same night. He reasons well that such an attack would scatter David's men. David would be left unprotected, and they could kill him alone. So he says, "I will bring back all the people to you," as though the people had left Absalom! Wickedness can only succeed by striking fast. It cannot afford to wait for calm, careful thought. This counsel pleased Absalom and his men, because it was the plan most likely to succeed.
The room was reacting to the man as much as to the plan:
Verse 23 assures us that people held Ahithophel's counsel in the highest respect, as though he had the wisdom of God behind him. David had valued his advice, and so did Absalom. Of course, he was not speaking as God's mouthpiece. But he gave his advice with unusual insight into what would best serve the kingdom, because he saw his own interests as tied up with it.
Absalom approved the plan, then called in a second adviser and changed his mind. One writer asks what was behind that:
Ahithophel's advice "seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel" (v. 4). They were convinced that the plan this man was proposing was excellent. How was it then that Absalom decided to call in Hushai the Archite as well, to hear his advice? How is it that after hearing Hushai, Absalom and all the men of Israel say, "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel" (v. 14)? It is because God directs everything — the circumstances, the decisions of men, and even their opinions — as He wills, to carry out His purposes. On the surface it looks as if God does not care what is happening. Evil is winning. Evil is ruling. Men go further than their own hearts had imagined. But God is hidden behind the scenes. Nothing can resist God: even Satan serves as His instrument.
Every elder in the room had voted for the plan, yet it failed. One writer names the reason:
Ahithophel's counsel was aimed at the person of David only. He wanted David killed, so that the death of one man would bring all Israel back. But Ahithophel had not counted on David's Lord. That Lord loved him, and through all the discipline David had to pass through, He was still his Lord and his Keeper. It was not Hushai who defeated the counsel of Ahithophel, but the Lord.
Ahithophel got the opposite of what he was working for:
Ahithophel thought he was strengthening Absalom's hand. In fact he only carried out God's word, moved His purpose closer to its goal, and hurried on the restoration of the man he meant to destroy. This wicked man will soon be caught in his own snare. Ahithophel seems to have had no motive for doing evil except the desire to do evil. He ends like Judas, whom he resembles. This "close friend," who lifted up his heel against David (Ps. 41:9), hangs himself and dies.
One writer turns Ahithophel's end into questions for the reader:
What a lesson to us all! What good was anything to Haman while Mordecai sat at the gate? Is there anything we have that, if it were touched, our life would be touched? Or is our life so bound up with Jesus that we could stand the loss of everything else? What treasures are we laying up day by day? Where is the ruling passion fixed? Where is the heart's current flowing, and what is it hurrying towards?
- Sound — the advice was the best plan on offer. That is why it won every vote in the room.
- Respected — people took Ahithophel's word as if God had spoken, though he was not speaking for God.
- Hidden — God looked absent while evil ruled. All that time He was directing the circumstances, the decisions and even the opinions of men.
- Reversed — ten verses later the same men threw out the plan they had just approved. Hushai did not defeat it; the Lord did.
- Ruined — Ahithophel was caught in his own snare and died like Judas. His end asks us where our own treasure lies.