Who was Absalom?

The third son of David, by Maacah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. He was remarkable for his beauty and his luxuriant hair. 2 Sam. 14:25-26. Because of his putting his half-brother Amnon to death he fled from his father and remained at Geshur three years. By the instigation of Joab, Absalom was recalled, but not admitted into the presence of his father until a later period. (This reconciliation was effected at the expense of righteousness, and without any repentance on Absalom's part — a total contrast to God's ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:18-20; etc.) It was declared to David that his successor was not yet born. 2 Sam. 7:12 This was told to David by Nathan the prophet, and probably became known to Absalom. Amnon being dead, and perhaps Chileab, his two elder brothers, he might naturally have thought that the throne should have descended to him, and this may have led to his treason. By artful acts of condescension he stole the hearts of the people, and then at Hebron he claimed to be king, and met with much encouragement. The rebellion was so strong that David fled from Jerusalem. Absalom entered the city and was joined by Amasa and Ahithophel. The latter advised Absalom to go in publicly to the concubines of David who were left at Jerusalem, that all hopes of a reconciliation might be abandoned — though this had been foretold as a punishment to David. 2 Sam. 12:11. By the advice of Hushai the further counsel of Ahithophel of an immediate pursuit was set aside, and David had time to collect an army, and reach a place of safety. A war followed, and Absalom in riding through a wood, was caught by his head in the branches of an oak, and was there put to death by Joab. David's grief was extreme, but he was recalled to his duties by Joab. We read that Absalom had three sons and a daughter, 2 Sam. 14:27, yet that because he had no son left he raised up a pillar in the king's dale, to keep his name in remembrance: it was called ABSALOM'S PLACE or monument. 2 Sam. 18:18. A building in the valley of the Kedron partly rock-hewn, is called Absalom's tomb ; but it can have nothing to do with the above 'pillar' unless it has been much added to with comparatively modern architecture. Josephus says that in his day there was an object called Absalom's 'pillar' about 2 stadia from Jerusalem. Apparently Absalom is called ABISHALOM in 1 Kings 15:2; cf. 2 Chr. 11:21.

We need not particularly consider the circumstance which is made to introduce Absalom to us. The sin of Amnon, and the sorrows of Tamar, had their purpose, and could well have been used in God's grace to keep poor David in lively recollection of his own sin and sorrow. It was a voice "in his own house" that must have spoken in thunder to him. Blood and uncleanness were staining his own children under his own eye. Tamar's virgin garment was now rent, a sore remembrance of the stain upon himself; and Amnon's blood was shed, awakening the voice of Uriah's blood in his ear from the earth. But we need not more particularly look at this. Absalom was Tamar's brother, and the son of David by a daughter of the king of Geshur (2 Sam. 3:3) but we have nothing of him till now, when he appears at once before us its the subtle and wilful one, whose heart and eye were full only of their own devices and objects to reach which appears to be all his care. Amnon's wrong to his sister had raised a deadly fire in his heart, which two full years had no power to quench; but his crafty soul must find the happiest way to let out his rage on its victim. The fire burns as though it had been kindled but yesterday, and his subtlety devises a sure passage for it. It is all of Satan. The guile of the serpent ministers to the fury of the lion, and Absalom plots the matter of the sheep-shearing that he may get the blood of Amnon. David has some misgivings. How indeed could it be otherwise? Must he not, after all that he had done and all that the prophet had said to him, have feared every stir in the house? For one of his own house was to bring the evil upon him. He does not like this sheep-shearing feast which Absalom proposes. But he is pressed about it, and Amnon then goes, and falls before the treachery and sword of his brother (2 Sam. 13).

Absalom by this had defiled the land, and forfeited his life. (Num. 35:33.) All that he can now do is to fly to strangers, for the land had no city of refuge for such an one. The avenger of blood might claim him of Bezer or of Kedesh. He had shed his brother's blood, and this cried for vengeance. But David was a man of affection. He had a heart that sought its indulgence in the relations and sympathies of human life, and, being the man after God's own heart, he would have found his joy rather in the ministrations of grace than in the exactions of righteousness. But Absalom had fled, for he was now debtor to that law of which David was the guardian, for David held his throne on the terms of reading the law continually. (Deut. 17.) What then can now be done? David may mourn for the son slain, and for the son banished, but are not both equally lost to him?

David's third son was Absalom, meaning "Father of Peace", which tells us the longing of David's heart for peace, after the long weary years of war and wandering. But who was Absalom's mother? Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. This was worse and worse. Not only did David multiply wives, but in order to find wives of royal birth, he turned to the heathen nations about him. This was also in express disobedience and defiance of God's oft-repeated command that they were not to take wives from the heathen nations around them. How could David expect a blessing from the offspring of such a match? It was little use giving the son of this wife a name with such a beautiful meaning, when he was born of a marriage made in deliberate disobedience to the clear Word of God.

Nor did the trouble end there. Absalom was a peculiarly handsome man: "In all Israel, there was none to be so much praised for his beauty; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him." (2 Sam. 14:25). We can well understand such a handsome boy and young man being greatly spoiled by such praises.

Absalom was King David's third son. He was handsome and vain, especially about his long, thick hair-which he cut and weighed annually-and which eventually proved his downfall. When Amnon, his half-brother, was not punished for what he did to Absalom's sister, Absalom hated him and plotted to kill him. He succeeded in this and escaped the punishment he had merited for murder.

What a contrast the Spirit shows us in Absalom, the son of King David! Outwardly attractive to men, he was inwardly a rebel against his own father’s authority. He first “stole the hearts of the men of Israel,” then he sent spies through the land, and when the trumpet sounded, it was proclaimed, “Absalom reigneth!” The rebellion was so strong that the royal father fled before the lawless son, and all the country wept with a loud voice when the king went toward the way of the wilderness, and “passed over the brook Kidron” (2 Sam. 15:23).

David's son Absalom, in callous hatred toward his father, becomes an unhappy type of Antichrist, with an attractive appearance and personality, and words as smooth as butter. God however preserves David, and Absalom comes to a humiliating end. Yet David's kingdom did not recover its vigor of earlier days.

David's family grows, but faith is not always successional, as it was in Timothy's case; and Amnon's guilty passion and crime furnish occasion for Absalom's wicked and murderous revenge. The father's weakness leaves the rights of the throne unvindicated, to his own eventual deepest anguish and sorrow. What an example David set them, through the allowance of the flesh in himself, in the awful story of Bathsheba, and Uriah the Hittite, showing us that flesh is as bad in the man of faith as it is in those who "have not faith"! The allowance of Absalom's return into the midst of Israel without righteousness being vindicated by a full confession of guilt, and submission to whatever consequences the rights of the throne demanded - his seeing the king's face, and being kissed by him, did not melt his soul, but introduces to us the person of the rebel, and the heresy which shook the nation from its centre to its circumference. He goes out from the king's presence to cherish and nourish the secret purpose of his soul, to drive the Lord's anointed (his own father) from the throne, and to seat himself upon it. 2 Samuel 14:25 gives us a description of Absalom: "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised for his beauty: from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him."

With David himself the outbreak of lust, permitted in clear violation of the law of God, had led to murder. The king, the pattern of righteousness as he should have been, became thus the oppressor. In the recompense following here, as when a stone disturbs calm water the circle loses height as it widens, so now the lust and the murder are on different sides, but both within the ordained sphere of his own house. Two of his sons are reciprocally the injured and the injurer, and David is made to feel the pain on each side, his sympathy now with this and now with that. He is distracted, torn asunder, on both sides dishonored. The mockery of their names gives meaning to the whole, and proclaims it to all: Amnon, the "faithful," violating all fidelity; Absalom, the "father of peace," the slaughterer of his brother! With what other hopes had these names long since been given!

If Joab all the while he is cooperating with David has none of this man of God's motives, Absalom's character from the beginning is that of a reprobate, morally a child of Satan who is “a murderer from the beginning.” Later all the evil instincts of his nature are unleashed to attain their object. He uses flattery and puts on an appearance of righteousness, disinterestedness (vv. 3-4), and love (v. 5) in order to steal the hearts of the men of Israel (v. 6). He deceives the simple (v. 11) and makes a pretense of worshipping and serving the Lord (vv. 7-8) in order to seize the kingdom and to take the place of the Lord's anointed, yes, of his own father, on the throne — for he hates his father; he hates everyone but himself. He allies himself with Ahithophel for this man had the reputation in the people's eyes that a prophet would have had: “The counsel of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired of the word of God” (2 Sam. 16:23). Finally Absalom exalts himself, nearly deifying himself during his lifetime (2 Sam. 18:18).

But he is still Absalom; wherever or however we see him, he is himself. His taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed, even though he had now returned from captivity (Jer. 48:11). He comes home the wilful Absalom still, the servant of his own passions and of them only. "Who is lord over us?" is the language of all his actings. His tongue was his own. "No God," says he, in his heart continually. All that can be said in any way of commendation is, like Saul before him, of his comeliness in the flesh. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him:" we have no account of him beyond this of his beauty. His acts from first to last are enough to give him his right name and place before us; for in his own personal character, and in all in which it displays itself, Absalom is still the wilful one. He is the Saul of his day, or the apostate seed of the serpent, and the agent of the dragon, the usurper, the proud one who consults only his own will, which most surely carries him forth into full and constant resistance of God and His people. Even favours have but little claim on him. He may send to Joab to whom he owed every thing a second time, but beyond that small courtesy his heart owns no debt to him.