2 Samuel 15:1-12

The shady side of human nature.

The facts are:

1 . Absalom sets up a large domestic establishment with a semblance of royalty.

2 . Rising early in the morning of each day, he is first to meet the suitors for judgment at the gate of the city, and seizes the occasion for insinuating that there is defect in the king's provision for the administration of justice.

3 . He also professes to manifest sympathy with suitors by expressing the wish that he were in a position to do them justice, and gives outward evidence of his concern for them by taking each one by the hand and kissing him.

4 . These plans being in progress, he next asks permission of David to go to Hebron, on the plea that he desired to redeem a vow which he had sacredly made to God while in exile; and David granting his request, he sets out for Hebron, with a company of men ignorant of his design.

5 . Meanwhile he sends spies throughout Israel, so that on a given signal they might simultaneously make the announcement, "Absalom reigneth in Hebron."

6 . He moreover gains to his side Ahithophel, David's counsellor, and so advances his cause among the people. The narrative gives us in brief form the scheme, the principles, the methods, and early form of Absalom's conspiracy. He knew his own mind, and was set on the overthrow of his father's authority, from sheer vanity and lust of power. The outline of his method was clearly defined:

I. THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF UNJUSTIFIABLE REBELLION . Rebellion against existing authority may perhaps be right under special circumstances. People do not exist for governments, but governments for the people; and it is possible that the rights of the people may be so utterly trodden upon that it is the duty of self preservation to rebel. Even parental authority must be resisted when it comes into direct collision with conscience and with Christ ( Matthew 10:33-38 ). But rebellion is wicked when, as in this case, it springs from a blending of conceit, dislike of constituted authority, and lust for power. This may characterize rebellion originating in an individual or in a restless people. Talk of oppression, justice, kindness and consideration for the oppressed, may be but a cloak for a selfish aversion to restraint and a love of self-will. Even where there is justification for resistance to an evil rule, it is wicked to have recourse to flattery, deceit, hypocrisy, and low cunning to accomplish the end in view. In times of turbulence and agitation it is important that men scrutinize the secret motives of their actions. As a rule, injustice in rulers can be best resisted by the calm, sober protest and passive resistance of conscientious men. Faith in God, and in the force of true principles, with patient persistence, will in the end accomplish more than can be secured by violence; and where injustice exists only in the imagination of the restless, and the evils of life spring from their own habits and practices, then rebellion is one of the greatest crimes of which man is capable.

II. INCIDENTAL REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER . The character of a man lies primarily in the main principles and passions that are deep down in his nature, and which in course of years shape his outward conduct. Absalom's real character was in existence long before it came out to the eye of the public in the form of rebellion against his father's authority. Probably David discerned its incipient form, and hence his extreme slowness in recalling him to a position of prominence. The setting up by Absalom of a large princely establishment, with chariots and horses and runners, was really an incidental revelation in palpable form of a character internally maturing. It was a sign to such men as David and Nathan of what they had believed to exist—a vain, proud, ostentatious spirit. So in course of time men generally do something in their domestic arrangements or business developments which, if the world will only read aright, brings into public view tendencies and tastes which hitherto have been kept under restraint. Our visible acts and creations are the successive revelations of our condition. A man's dress, his handwriting, his domestic establishment, his bearing before the public, his mode of transacting business, is a manifestation of the hidden man—the indicator of the elements entering into the permanent character. The outward aspects of a man's life may be studied with a view to a knowledge of the habits and tastes of his mind.

III. EVIL TENDENCIES IN CONGENIAL ENVIRONMENT . The evil tendencies of Absalom were somewhat pronounced when he set up his pretentious establishment, but by his own act those tendencies were placed in the midst of circumstances eminently calculated to strengthen and develop them further. The heart of man can devise things out of its own tastes and propensities which become at once food on which those tastes and propensities grow to further power. A man of pleasure out of his own desires creates occupations and pursuits which become the nourishers of the passion for pleasure. The same holds of dreadful vices and blessed virtues. There is a self-promotive power in the forces that dwell within our moral nature. Intellectual and physical forces are not so recuperative of themselves by means of what they create as are the moral. We are to ponder the path of our feet, forevery step increases the momentum in the road, be it good or bad.

IV. LUST OF POWER MINUS FITNESS FOR ITS EXERCISE . Absalom set his heart on being King of Israel. The vision of a throne and a submissive people had great attractions for him. The princely establishment, With chariots and horsemen, was only the first instalment of a splendour soon to be won. Like all such men, he had unlimited confidence in himself. He could administer justice! He could win the people and hold them in subjection! And yet this vanity, this low cunning, this love of outward show, and mean lying flattery of the people, disqualified him for ruling as a king. Morally speaking, he was a handsome fool, and knew it. not. The lust for power is common, and often very strong in men. As manifested in bad men, it is an abnormal development of a love of mastery over what is not self. The possession of power over man is safe and good only when there coexist with it justice, generosity, considerateness, and honesty.

V. ALIENATION FROM A FATHER 'S HEART THE CLIMAX OF EVIL . Absalom was no longer a true son. No man could have entered on such a scheme and have devised such means unless he had lost all true natural affection. To find fault with a father's administration, to expose a father to ridicule, to seek to alienate men from attachment to a father, and, in short, crush a father's hopes and life's work, could only proceed from a heart utterly alienated. And such a father! Weak and erring as David in a notable instance had been, he was the most generous, and magnanimous of men, and had brought peace and plenty and honour to Israel. Absalom's crime was one of the basest ever recorded. And all alienation from a true father's heart is utterly base and deserving the strongest detestation. There is hope for sons when they still cherish love and reverence for parents; none when these are gone. Every feeling, and act, and companionship, and habit which tend towards this awful separation of heart, should be shunned as men shun the road to death. And yet this is the real state of the human heart in relation to God. The gulf is awful; and nothing but a new creation will lead to a reconciliation ( John 3:5 ; Romans 8:7 ).

VI. PSEUDO - PATRIOTISM AN ASSUMED VIRTUE . Patriotism is strong in men whose country has been associated in memory with great deeds. To care for one's land and people, to be more concerned for the maintenance of justice and adjustment of the claims of the poor than for the form and personnel of government,—this is always commendable; and so much is this virtue esteemed that it is assumed by Absalom for his own purposes. We cannot believe in the patriotism of any man who shuts his heart against a good father. Civil virtues cannot make amends for the absence of the domestic and primary virtues. It is easy to prate about justice and the oppressed, and to speak smoothly to the populace; to keep the heart pure, loving, true toward man and God, is not so easy. There is much pseudo-patriotism in political life. Men claim virtues they do not possess, and use the claim for gaining an influence that else would be unattainable.

VII. RELIGION A CLOAK FOR EVIL DESIGNS . Absalom knew his father to be a pious man, and therefore seeks to accomplish his purpose by a profession of piety. The heartless son finds no difficulty in taking the holy name of God in vain, and concocting a tissue of lies. To the populace he can be a critic of the government; to the pious king he can be a devout man, intent on keeping sacred vows. No clearer proof of a Satanic spirit than when men dare to lay hold of the most sacred things and use them for vile and selfish purposes. Righteous, indeed, was the indignation of Christ against such "hypocrites." "Woe" from the lips of love came upon them. Manifold are the forms and degrees in which this evil appears. To worship in order to be respectable, to profess religion for the sake of trade, to utter pious phrases in order to win popular applause, are but the less repulsive forms of the very crime of Absalom. How abominable such persons must appear in the sight of the all-searching God!

VIII. TAKING UNDUE ADVANTAGE OF ANOTHER 'S DIFFICULTY . In consequence of the immense work thrown on an absolute monarch, the growing complications of a flourishing state, and the incompetence of subordinates, there would necessarily arise many difficulties in the administration of the affairs of the kingdom. In all lands people have to wait for justice when others are being served. But the evil heart of Absalom showed itself in using whatever incidental delays arose as an occasion of promoting its own wicked schemes. There is too much of this in the world. The rich have often taken advantage of the ignorance and helplessness of the poor to secure ends otherwise unattainable. In political life it is a maxim to seize the hour of weakness for a party triumph. It is the devil's opportunity with feeble souls to render more sure their destruction. Trouble in state, Church, or family affords opportunity for testing the qualities of men. Love or hate, sympathy or antagonism, will thereby be revealed. How different to others the blessed Saviour in presence of human infirmity!

IX. POPULARITY ON AN UNSTABLE AND HOLLOW BASIS . The people's hearts were won to Absalom. It seems a great triumph to win the hearts of multitudes; it is an indication of great power on the part of the conqueror or of fickleness on the part of the conquered. But in this, as in many instances, the conquest was a revelation of shallow thinking on the one side and basest cunning on the other. There is in most men a soil for receiving the seeds of discontent from the hand of a deft sower. People are easily caught by flatteries and personal attentions. A visible parade of splendour dazzles and pleases the crowd, who think modest, quiet bearing a sign of mediocrity. The dash and careless promises of a young and handsome man excite the imagination, and raise up pictures of great possibilities. The mass of men do not think; they feel, and are led by the clever orator who can stir up their feelings. It is not always a credit to "go with the multitude," and fall in with an order of things because it is popular. The vox populi maxim is often false. Of One it was once true, "Of the people there was none with him." He was "despised and rejected of men."

X. AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE MOST DREADFUL OF CONSPIRACIES . It is not necessary to endeavour to trace resemblance in all details between antagonism to the mortal king in Zion and opposition to the immortal King in Zion. But there has been and still is a plot to destroy the authority of him whose right it is to reign. Fashion, wealth, power of speech, wit, and alliances with wise Ahithophels, continue to undermine and eventually overthrow the influence of Christ over the hearts of men. The "gates of hell" take counsel against the Lord and his Anointed. Another seat of supreme influence is being set up as a substitute for that occupied by the Anointed One, and "spies" are abroad seeking to create doubt and distrust in the hearts of the faithful. As we read the account of Absalom's ingratitude, daring, and baseness, and feel for his deeds the utmost detestation, so holy beings who look on the endeavour to destroy the authority of Christ over men cannot but regard the deed as the basest, most daring, and at the same time most fatal to the perpetrators, ever attempted. The wicked may seem to triumph, but their end is destruction.