The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 384

"For it is not an enemy, etc. But thou wast a man on e.n eqnality with me, l\lly companion e.nd familiar friend," etr. (Pa. Iv. 13--15.) Tbo motives of Abithophel are not expressly stated; but they were probably: 1. Dislilce of the religious earnestness and theocratic policy of David. 2. Ambition to be the sole udviser and prime minister of Absalom. "There may have been jealousy of Jonb, or the nntural tendency to worship the rising instead of the setting sun, or the impntience of n hypocrite at the round of religious services in which he was compelled to bear a part, affecting a devotion he did not feel, Ps. Iv. 13, 14" (Plumptre). 3. Revenge "for the dishonour done to his family in the person of Bathsheba, which no subsequent marriage could repair or efface" (Delany). "He was urged by the desire of punishing David's greatest crime, if he were not at the bottom of the movement. It is but reasonable to trace in the conspiring Ahithophel one of the intricate methods by which the judicial providence of God works out its own ends ; suffering a great offender, notwithstanding his penitence, to eat the fruit of his deeds; yet reserving for treachery in time its reward" (R. Williams). "This text is a glass wherein God's justice is plainly to be seen. David had formerly forsaken Uriah, and now God suffers Ahithophel to forsake David. (1) Let us learn, when our friends forsake us, to enter into a serious scrutiny with our own souls. (2) The most politic heads have not always the faithfullest hearts. (3) False friends will forsake thee in times of adversity" (1'. Fuller). "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook," etc. (Job vi. 15; Jacox, 'Stray Side-Lights on Scripture Texts'). II. GREAT GIFTS ARE SOMETIMES PERVERTED TO UNGODLY USES. "That oracular wisdom which made his house a kind of shrine (eh. xvi. 23) seems to move the spirit of the sacred writer with an involuntary admiration" (Stanley). "His great crimes were enhanced by his immense talents, of which God gave him the use and the devil the apµlicaLion." His criminality appears not only in (1) his sanctioning and promoting rebellion against the authority of the king; but also in (2) his lawless and shameless advice against his honour (eh. xvi. 21, 22), whereby he sought to make reconciliation and compromise impossible in the view of all, and to gratify his revenge in the most effective and significant manner (eh. xi. 2, 4, 11); becoming, consciously or uncon- sciously, an instrument of retribution. "This cursed policy showed him rather an oracle of the devil than of God" (Matthew Henry). (3) His malicious and crnel proposal to take away his life (eh. xvii. 2). None but a man devoid of all moral and religious principle could have given such counsel. A powerful intellect is, alas! too often united with a depraved heart. "It is onen found true by experience that persoos of superior penetration and wisdom are of bad intentions; they see further than other men, and are under a temptation to turn their minds to the overreaching of others, and effecting mischief; their ability in accomplishing wickedness is a snare and a temptation to them; they find they can do it, and therefore are ready and willing to do it" (W. Jones, of Nay land). "This man, while he was one of David's deep counsellors, was one of David's fools, that said in their hearts, 'There is no God;' else he could not have hoped to make good an evil with worse, to build the success of treason upon incest." "Oh the pruicy of this Machiavelli of Israel, no less deep than hell itself! Oh the wisdom of the Almighty, that can use the worst evils well, and most justly make the sins of man his executioners I" (Hall). IIT. Goo IS ABLE TO FIIUSTil.ATE THE CRAFTIEST COUNSELS. "Turn,n etc.," either infatuo.te him, that he may give foolish couusel; or, let his counsel be rejected as foolish, or spoiled by the foolish execution of it" (Poole). "He taketh the wise in their own crafLiuess," etc. (Job v. 13; 1 Cor. iii. 19). Of this David was persuaded from: 1. His supn•me and infinite wisdom, in comparison with which the highest human wisdom is foolishness. 2. His abundant and varied resources for the direction and control of men's purposes and actions, so that they are made of none effect, or turn out contrary to whaL was intended and expected. 3. His freq,uent aud extraordinary interpositious for that end. History is full of such instances (Acts iv. 28). So are individual lives (1 Saru. xxi1i. 24-28). "'!'hough Ahithophel spoke as au oracle of God (as we often see statesmen wiser than priests), yet ns he turned to treachery his counsel turned to foolishness."  390 THE SEOOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. [OR, XV, 1-87.