2 Samuel, Chapter 17 (part 1) - The Power of One Prayer | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of 2 Samuel chapter 17 brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. My name is Ari Abramowitz and I'm here with Jeremy Gimpel. Shalom Jeremy. Today we arrive at one of the most suspenseful chapters in all of Tanakh and it was just so rich that we're going to take two days to walk through it. So this is part one, chapter 17 part one. So Jeremy, I want you to picture the most dangerous night in the life of King David. He's no longer in his palace. He's fled Jerusalem on foot, barefoot, his head covered, weeping as he climbed the Mount of Olives. His own son Absalom now sits on his throne and the man advising that son against him is Ahithophel. The single greatest political mind in all of Israel, counselor [clears throat] whose word the text tells us was treated as if a person had inquired of God himself on the Urim and Thummim. Right, David is outnumbered and exhausted and he's heartbroken and the wisest man in the kingdom is now pointing all that wisdom at his throat. So before we open the chapter, remember what David did two chapters ago. As he climbed the mountain in tears, he stopped and whispered one strange little prayer, Hashem, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. It was just one sentence. There was no army behind it, just a fugitive king asking God to scramble the mind of a genius. Well my friends, it's pretty clear that chapter 17 is the answer to that prayer and watch how it gets answered because the way that prayer is answered gives us a very valuable insight about how God works, not only in history, but I also believe in our lives. So, the chapter [clears throat] opens with Ahithophel's plan, verse 1. Vayomer Ahithophel el Absalom, and Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me choose 12,000 men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight." And honestly, it's a brilliant plan. Ahithophel deserves his reputation here. Tonight, not tomorrow, not after the coronation celebrations, tonight, while David is wary and weak. Hit him before he can regroup. And part of the wisdom of the plan, I think, is how surgical it is. Ahithophel says, "Kill only the king. Just David, then bring all the people home in peace. One death, no civil war, no rivers of Israelite blood. This will end the war and fortify your rule in Israel." It's fast and precise, and the scary part is that it most likely would have worked. David was exhausted, his people were scattered and demoralized. Ahithophel read the moment perfectly. But there's a layer underneath all of this, the part that makes this even more personal. Ahithophel wasn't some stranger who wandered into Absalom's court. He was David's own counselor, his teacher, his friend, one of the closest confidants David ever had. When David writes in the Psalms about the betrayal that shattered him, he isn't describing an enemy, he's describing a companion, an equal, a man he once walked beside on the way up to the house of God. And tradition teaches us that Ahithophel was actually, and Jeremy, I want to know if you knew this, he was actually the grandfather of Bathsheba. Remember Bathsheba? The wife of Uriah the Hittite who David saw from the rooftop and fathered a child that the sin from which all of this is happening? That Bathsheba. Ahithophel was her grandfather. I actually did a deep dive here. We actually see in chapter 23 that Ahithophel was the father of Eliam. And chapter 11 tells us that Eliam was the father of Bathsheba, making Ahithophel her grandfather. How interesting is that? Right? Because suddenly that surgical little detail kill only David, just the one man, may stop sounding like pure strategy. We may be watching the greatest mind in Israel pour every ounce of his genius into settling a private family wound. And by the way, this isn't a lesser plan because it's so personal. It doesn't appear that his personal grievance tainted its brilliance or insight in any way. In some ways it seems even more dangerous because of the degree of personal animosity and even premeditation which may be in it. >> You know, Ari, I just with your permission, I just want to stop here for a second and I want to bring it to my own heart. Because one of the things I love about the story of David's life are David's mighty men. I mean, they started when David was just a young growing leader. They gathered around David when King Saul was chasing David. And just David's glorious battle with Goliath, it triggered Saul's jealousy and they were chased, hunted, hungry, living in caves. They went to battle with David against the enemies of Israel before David was even king. And when David became the king, they became the backbone of his army, his elite commando unit, the most loyal soldiers his entire life. And I think about them now. David was the most powerful man in the world. He was the king of Israel with a palace in Jerusalem, and now he's barefoot and alone escaping Jerusalem humiliated being cursed all alone, and once again running away from an unworthy king or a king wannabe trying to kill him. And his mighty men are right there with him. So loyal, such brotherhood. And we've spoken about this before, but David's mighty men are a prophecy for the future. There will be a time when righteous men break away from the mainstream and come together as soldiers of the king. And what I find so meaningful here is that even when King David seemingly falls from his throne, even when he appears weak, they stand with King David. And now Israel, they may look weak. The Jew hatred is on the rise around the world, but I see it as I travel around teaching. I see it on the Arugot Farm when visitors come from around the world. This is the time that David's mighty men show their loyalty and who they really are. And as they stand with Israel and fight for the king and for Jerusalem, even when Israel doesn't look so strong, that's when it counts. >> Yeah, Jeremy, it's amazing how these ancient stories speak to our times so directly. I just came back today or just right now from uh filming the Israel guys up in Har Bracha, the mountain of blessing, with Hayovel, with Josh and Nate Waller. And if they aren't a modern manifestation of David's mighty men from the nations, fierce loyalty and love, then I don't know what is. You know, and just on so many levels this is speaking to our times directly. We're constantly being told what the smart move is, right? The the experts, the analysts, the foreign ministries, the whole chorus of international wisdom, they map out exactly what Israel must do and precisely why we cannot survive if we don't do those pragmatic strategic things. And it sounds airtight, right? It sounds reasonable. It sounds It sounds like Ahithophel. But I think the book of Samuel is teaching us something that we really need to hear, we need to understand in our head and infuse into our hearts, that the smartest counsel in the room is not the same thing as the counsel that wins. Because there is a hand above the room. And sometimes the most dangerous plan against Israel is allowed to be brilliant, allowed to be flawless, unanswerable, a plan that by every earthly calculation should have worked precisely so that when it fails anyway, no one can chalk it up to to to bad luck. No one can chalk it up to good luck. No one It's so everyone is forced to see whose hand actually decides the fate of Israel. Because watch what Absalom does next. Instead of acting immediately, which is the whole point of the plan, he hesitates. He says, "Let's also call Hushai the Arkite, Hushai the Arkite, and hear what he has to say." Now you and I, Jeremy, know something that Absalom doesn't. Hushai is David's man. David planted him in Absalom's court for this exact moment to be a voice inside the enemy's head. So this is the hinge of the entire chapter, the loyal friend versus the genius traitor and a kingdom hanging on which one Absalom believes. And notice that Hushai is too smart to attack Ahithophel's plan head-on. I think that he intuitively recognizes that playing one-on-one with the Michael Jordan of royal advisers is a losing strategy. Instead, he reframes the whole picture. Verse 8. And Hushai says, "You know your father and his men, that they are mighty warriors, and they are bitter of soul, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field." Do you hear what Hushai is doing here? Ahithophel spoke to Absalom's head. Hushai speaks to his fear, to his ego. He paints this picture "Your father is a man of war. He's not sleeping among the people. He's hidden in some pit waiting. And the moment a few of your soldiers fall in the first assault, the rumor will spread that Absalom's army is being slaughtered, and even your bravest men, with hearts like lions, will melt." And then he offers Absalom something Ahithophel never did. Glory. "Gather all of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, as numerous as the sand by the sea, and lead them yourself into battle at the head of the nation." Right? It's flattery dressed up as strategy. He takes what he knows, that David needs time, and turns it into a strategic imperative. And every single hour of delay really is life-giving for David. >> You know, and it's right there. That's the hook, Ari, because Hushai isn't really arguing strategy. He's reading Absalom's heart. Ahithophel offered Absalom an efficient victory in someone else's hands. Hushai offers him a parade. He's speaking to his ego. And this is one of the oldest and most well-known vulnerabilities in leadership, the desire to be seen winning. That's stronger in most people than the desire to actually win. And Ahithophel understood war, but Hushai understood Absalom. And a man who's already betrayed his own father to grab the crown as a man whose pride could clearly be turned against him. So, Hushai didn't beat the good plan with a better plan, he beat it by understanding the heart of a person that was choosing it. And again, it was the people who loved David, who were loyal to him when he was down and out, that ended up saving David. >> That's right, Jeremy. And uh and that that is exactly where we have to leave it today. What could I have left out? How could I have done this whole thing at once? Where am I guilty? >> Impossible. >> Impossible, right? So, let's just sit with that scene for a moment. Two plans now lie on the table before Absalom. On one side, Ahithophel, the greatest strategic mind in Israel, offering a fast, surgical, brilliant strike to end David this very night. And on the other hand, Hushai, David's hidden friend, offering a slower, grander vision wrapped in flattery and glory. One of them is telling the truth about war, and the other is telling a proud young prince exactly what his ego longs to hear. And the entire future of the kingdom, the whole house of David, the road to Messiah himself, now hangs on a single decision made by one vain young man in a room in Jerusalem. Which council will he believe? And remember, somewhere back on the Mount of Olives, a barefoot weeping king whispered a single sentence up to heaven. Turn the council of Ahithophel into foolishness. Tomorrow we find out how and whether that whispered prayer gets answered. And I'm telling you, my friends, the way it gets answered will change the way you read the news for the rest of your life. Chazak u'baruch. And if this daily journey through the prophets is speaking to you, come and take the next step to join our global family, the Land of Israel Fellowship. There's a lot of different tiers, a lot of ways you can join up with us. Go to the landofisrael.com. It also really strengthens us in a way that we really need it right now. So, we we are inviting you from our hearts to join us. Bezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for the second half of chapter 17, the answer to King David's prayer, an unnamed woman at a well who holds the fate of the kingdom in her hands, and one of the most chilling deaths in the book of Samuel. >> [music] >> Shalom, my friends. >> [music]