1 Samuel 9

Chapter 9. AbsalomIs the young man Absalom safe? (2 Samuel 18:32) How could he be safe! How could any young man be safe with such a character and life as his! Vainglorious, worldly minded, disobedient and disloyal to his loving father, passionate, vindictive, self-indulgent and shameless in his profligacy, full of duplicity and deceit and utterly destitute of moral principle or real godliness—how could even a father’s love save such a boy from inevitable ruin! The only good that such a life can do is to be a beacon upon the shores of danger, warning other men from his terrible mistakes and fearful destruction. A Sad Picture A king and father sat in the gates of Mahanaim, waiting for tidings from the neighboring battlefield. All day long the fight had raged in the woods of Ephraim, while on one side Amasa led the hosts of Absalom, the army of the rebellion and on the other hand Joab commanded the trained veterans of David as they fought for their king and their country against the treacherous legions who gathered to the standard of the usurper. Fierce and long the battle waged, but as the sun began to wane the veterans of David’s army prevailed, and the hosts of Absalom began to melt away in retreat and terrible slaughter. Pressing hard in close pursuit Absalom himself was overtaken in the forest He was found by one of Joab’s followers hanging from an oak by his splendid tresses of flowing hair, which had caught in the thicket and suspended him while he was still alive, so that he was helpless to extricate himself. Joab needed no further notice to strike the fatal blow which removed at once the head and cause of the rebellion. With three darts flung by his own hand he pierced the heart of the wretched man and then left him to his soldiers to cut to pieces and bury under a heap of stones in the wilderness. When they found that Absalom was dead the pursuit was recalled and the battle ceased. Then Joab sent a swift courier to bear the tidings to the king. They had with difficulty restrained him from taking part in the battle. Well they knew that his fondness for his foolish boy would probably risk the victory to save his son, and they persuaded him that his life was worth 10,000 and must not be rashly ventured. But he gave them the tenderest charges for the security of Absalom and waited eagerly to hear the earliest tidings from the field. As the sun was sinking in the west, he looked across the country, and lo, in the distance a cloud of dust betokened a swift runner. Sweeping forward to the gate of the city came Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, David’s friend, and throwing himself upon his face upon the ground he quickly told the story of the victory of David’s army. But the king was as though he heard not, and with eager heart he cried, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” (2 Samuel 18:29). Ahimaaz’s heart was too tender to tell the truth, and so he gently avoided the question. Meanwhile another runner was described swiftly following the first, and as he came near him shouted out the story of the triumph, too. But again the king with bursting heart asked the tender question, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” (2 Samuel 18:32). Cushi, who was not as thoughtful as the other, but whose only idea was to tell the message in all its meaning, let out the dreadful secret as he answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man” (2 Samuel 18:32). That answer broke the father’s heart. Hurrying to his chamber he burst out in bitter wailing: “Oh my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33). His grief was inconsolable, and at last even Joab had to go and remonstrate with him about the dreadful shadow he was throwing upon the hearts of the brave men that had risked their lives to save his life and kingdom. “Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead” (2 Samuel 19:5-6). This was sufficient to arouse the king from his stupor of agony, and he came back to his palace and rallied the scattering forces who had already begun to steal away. But that weight of sorrow never left his heart. Well might he groan for the foolish boy whose life had gone out that day in darkness and despair, which none better knew in all its meaning than the godly king, who understood better than Absalom the meaning of eternal retribution, whose own hands had written the solemn words, “The ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough” (Psalms 49:8). Let us pause while still we may receive and profit by the warning of this ruined life, and look at the secrets of his failure and the lessons of his terrible example. The Fall of Pride

1. The first and most predominant feature in Absalom’s character was his vanity and self-conceit. His personal appearance was strikingly beautiful. He was the handsomest man in Israel, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet there was no blemish in him. This, instead of a blessing, became, as it often does, a bane, and led him to center his life in himself, and he became conceited, vainglorious and utterly selfish. Personal vanity is weak and sad even in a woman, but in a man it is contemptible. Beauty loses its charm when the possessor becomes conscious of it. Personal appearance ceases to attract us when the possessor is manifestly aware of it. To spend one’s life in making a good appearance, in studying the latest fashions in garments, neckties and society manners, is an occupation too small for an immortal being created to resemble God and to live for high eternal things. Even the Greek language, in the name it chose for man, “anthropos,” expresses the idea of a being looking upward, and yet how very far from this idea is the character and manhood of men of today! Personal conceit, however, is not only silly, but it is dangerous. It is the handmaid of sinful companionship, extravagance, worldliness and godlessness in all its forms. It led Absalom to ruin, and it is weaving a silken snare for thousands of young lives today. Absalom’s vanity displayed itself in his equipage and style of living. He got himself chariots and runners to run before him and announce that Absalom was coming. He posed as the foremost prince in all the land, and showed his princeliness by his pompous display. This, too, is one of the perils of modern society, to belong to the smartest set, to have the finest equipage, to make the greatest social impression, to give the finest entertainments, balls and receptions, to have the most showy and expensive mansion and style of living, to have the acquaintanceship of the most notable people, to be the guest or host of kings or queens or princes—all this is the goal to which multitudes to whom God has entrusted beauty, position and wealth, are pressing forward in the silly strife at which angels must blush and smile as they look ahead to the crumbling castles of human pride, to the corruption and the worm that is so soon to take the place of all the splendid pageant of what men call society. How very sad that on a single ball in our metropolis every winter enough money is often spent to send a thousand missionaries to the field and stud the crown of Christ with 10,000 immortal jewels in the form of redeemed souls. But still more sad and terrible, Absalom’s vanity did not even stop short of the grave itself, for one of the brightest ambitions of his life was to build a splendid monument in the beautiful valley of the Kedron, known as the King’s Valley. And there between Mount Olive and Mount Moriah he reared a beautiful structure, which is known to this day as Absalom’s Tomb. But true to the irony of fate he never slept in his beautiful sepulcher. His bones were buried in the woods of Ephraim, and his monument remains to this day as a derision and scorn at which every Jew, as he passes by, pitches a stone as an expression of his contempt and abhorrence. And even this is still repeated among the extravagances and follies of the selfish world. All around us men are spending fortunes on piles of stones that will not make their selfish dust sleep more easily, while the poor and hungry are crying for bread and the heathen are dying without the gospel. His Selfishness
2. Absalom was the slave of selfish and worldly ambition. His supreme object was to make for himself a splendid position and attain the very highest place, even the throne itself. For this he unscrupulously risked everything, and at last lost honor and life. He had become intoxicated with the cup of pride. He had become fascinated with the dream of fame. He had set out in the race, which multitudes are running still, for earthly power and greatness. It is a very sad and usually hopeless struggle. Even when the prize is won it is not worth its cost. What did Bonaparte get for all his victories but a disappointed ambition, a lonely exile and a death without a single ray of hope? What could be more sad than the dying words of Gambetta, the hero of the French Revolution, who, dying in the highest place that the country could give him, left these sad words, “There is no use denying it, everything is lost.” How few of the men that have struggled in our own lifetime for political preeminence have got anything out of it to pay them for the cost. The men that triumphed for a time as political bosses were turned out at last by successful rivals, and their very names are soon forgotten. The man who enters the White House at the beginning of a term amid praise and honor steals out of it at the end with none to do him reverence, having disappointed his political friends and won the derision of his enemies, and even failed perhaps to please himself. These are the apparently successful ones, but what of the myriads who fall in the struggle and lose not only the object of their pursuit but everything else as well as the prize? God save our young men from the demoralizing and disappointing struggle for political preeminence and worldly honor. With all its perils and risks, even the strife for wealth is less degrading. No man can be safe in such a contest. He is bound to compromise with evil. He is sure to be associated with ungodly men. He must trample under his feet God’s holy day as he holds himself at the bidding of political caucuses and the calls of politicians. Honor, principle and godliness must often be sacrificed, and it will be a great miracle of grace if he shall not miss winning the whole world and at the same time lose his own soul. There is a better ambition. There is a safer hope. There is a nobler aspiration. There are crowns and kingdoms to be won by the sacrifice of self and sin. Let us nobly enter these high contests and let the world go by. His Unbridled Passion
3. Absalom was a man of passion. His passion was of two kinds, as it usually is. It manifested itself first in the form of vindictiveness and retaliation, and afterward in a shameless disregard of morality and purity in the sight of all the land. The first outbreak of his over-strained nature was the murder of Amnon, his own half-brother, because of the cruel wrong he had done to Absalom’s sister, Tamar. There was something natural and perhaps chivalrous in the indignation of Absalom at this abominable crime, but there was a better way to deal with it. Absalom’s course was bloody and treacherous. Let us not forget that the blood we shed will come back to us and demand our own. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Violence and self-avenging are altogether wrong, and the high-spirited young men of our day who delight in these things will find in the end that there is a nemesis of retribution that follows surely the bloody track of the murderer to the bitter end. But Absalom stooped to deeper depths of indulgence and crime when he openly debauched the very household of his vulnerable father, and in the sight of all the city and in the very light of the sun dishonored both himself and his father’s name by the most shameful of open excesses. It may be said that he did this thing as an act of policy, and did it at the advice of his crafty counselor. He did it in order to be detested by David’s friends and to alienate them more fully from him. This only makes vice the more abominable when it is used as the handmaid of policy. The saddest thing about the vice of our times is that it has become shameless, too. There are thousands of well-bred and well-educated young men who betray no blush of shame when exposed in the most disgusting orgies of licentiousness. There is a little passing talk, and a slight sensation in the channel of public opinion and a decent protest against it by a portion of the press, perhaps a threatened suit at law. But then it all quietly passes over and the same men are received into society without a blush and claim the hands of pure and gentle girls who would be driven from every social circle if their names were even distantly suspected in similar connections. And yet there are men who, in the popular literature of our times, are trying to excuse the license which is permeating our society as justifiable, and are telling us that God has endowed men with these passions and how can He blame them for acting according to the nature He has given them. There is no doubt but that the greatest peril to young men today lies in the direction of social immorality and license. How can such young men be safe? The same law that follows the murderer to his doom will pursue the adulterer, not only to his grave, but to the horrors of an eternal retribution. There are great laws in the human soul which bring their own punishment. You may conceal from the public eye your wrongdoing, you may hide your shame from man, but there is a phonograph which God has put within your breast which has recorded the story of your crime, and will tell it over again, if not to other ears, to your conscience and memory forever. There is an hour and there is a place where faces will look into yours and the cursing maledictions of ruined lives will be your tormentors. You will need no bitterer hell than for God to send you away with the companions of your vices and say to you, “Son, remember” (Luke 16:25). Sometimes these things overtake men in this life, and the iniquity of their heels compasses them about until life becomes intolerable and the world is the only door of escape from the horrors of an accusing conscience and a tormented life. Young men, be warned and beware. “Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death” (Proverbs 7:27). A Disloyal Son
4. Absalom was a disobedient and disloyal son. He cared not for his father’s love. No, he plotted against David’s very life as well as his throne. With cold and heartless indifference he schemed with his evil counselors for the surest way to secure his life and to ignominiously destroy his kingdom. He was unnatural, ungrateful, unfilial and utterly unfaithful. How could such a young man be safe? God has written the law of the fifth commandment in human nature, and the sons and daughters that dishonor their parents will find themselves pursued to the end of life with a certain retribution. It is said that perhaps the reason that the Chinese nation today has outlived all others is that above all other people they honor parental relation. Be kind and gentle to your father and mother even if they are wrong and treat you wrongly. Meet them in the spirit of filial respect and tenderness. Of course there is a limit. We dare not let them control our conscience in the things of God. Even there you can do it so gently that your example will speak to them more loudly than your words, and God at last will give you the blessing of the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). A Traitor
5. Absalom was deceitful, false and treacherous. His course was one of deep artifice and studied duplicity. He secured his recall from banishment by the deepest cunning. When he returned he set himself by the arts of flattery to captivate the hearts of the people and to undermine the influence of his father. He sat in the gates of Jerusalem meeting all that were in trouble, listening to their grievances and telling them how he would treat them if he was king, until gradually their hearts went after him and he had laid the foundation for his rebellion. How could such a young man be safe? The deceiver sinning against the nature of things. Truth is just reality, just a law of God’s order, and the man who sins against it sins against the very law of nature. It must react against him with fatal rebound and destroy him. Truth is essential to morality, and falsehood in every form must end in disappointment, exposure and defeat. Young man, be true. It is not necessary that commercial business should be based upon a tissue of falsehood and misrepresentation. Unscrupulous Finally, Absalom was unscrupulous, unprincipled and ungodly, and in his own character lay the secret of his ruin. And so, on the other hand, the secret of character is godliness. It is not by natural endowments that we can be true and pure. It is only possible by union with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and by receiving into our hearts that blessed Man who is preeminently the pattern for young men and the ideal life for them to live. Not only had He once lived and walked before us as our pattern, but He comes to live again in every true heart that will receive Him, and to lift us up to His own ideal of holy, eternal manhood. Jesus Christ is forever a young man, and He wants to lead young manhood up to the high place where He has risen, our Leader and Head. Oh, let us receive and follow Him! The contrasted picture of our text presents not only the folly and failure of Absalom, but the beautiful example of David’s life. It is the love of the father’s heart who gladly would have died for his ruined son. It is also the picture of a more loving heart, even that heavenly Friend, who not only would have died for us, but has died for every man who will accept His blessed sacrifice. He is pleading with you, young man, and saying, “Why should you die? Why should you be lost? Even if you have sinned and grieved Him and ruined yourself like Absalom, I have died for you, and I will teach you how to live and lift you up from that self-inflicted misery and make you to be even as I.” Oh, receive Him, and never let Him have to weep over you in heaven as He once wept over Jerusalem, saying, “I have longed to gather [you]… but you were not willing” (Luke 13:34). Never let Him have to say for you, my brother, “Oh, Absalom, my son, why have you let me die for you in vain?” “Is the young man Absalom, safe?” Brother, send back the answer, as you close this page, “Yes; he is safe because he is saved through a Savior’s dying love.”