The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 435

I. ALIENATION OF Jil!:ART AND LOSS OF THE GENUINE FEELING OF SONSHIP. Absnlom had known a time whon, in the assertion within hie own spirit of self-hood, he virtu- ally ceased to be a truo son. This was hie fall, The old child-affection became weak; 11n aversion sprang up; father was no longer regarded as a. father should be, and child ceased to be genuine child. Thie was the secret of a.II. It was a sort of morn] death. The schism was more than political. Virtually he bad said, "I will be free and do o.s I wish," Thie ie also the essence of our sin a.ga.inst God. Adam lost somehow the eonebip feeling. Self-will asserted its power. God became one, and he another. Union was gone. 'l'his is our Saviour's teaching in the parable of the prodigal son. The young man was weary of his father, and wanted to do ILl! he likeJ away from him. If we examine our hearts, it will be found to be the same with our- selves. Sin is, negatively, destitution of the sonship feeling; positively, the assertion of self-hood as age.inst God. In this lies its desperate evil, its incurable ,ice, its secret of doom. II. A PERVERSION OF GIFTS, As soon as Absalom's heart was gone, he began to use up his beauty, his eloquence, his scheming, every faculty of his nature, to render himself happy in his self-hood, and to be able to dispense with his father's favour. Iu human nature all gifts flow in the line of one master-feeling. Hence when the dominant feeling is alienation from God, the entire man goes away, aud all powers a.re me.de subservient to self as against the rightful dominion of God. The prodigal son used his patrimony a.way from bis father. Sinners use up their patrimony for self, and not in harmony with God. Kindness is abused. III. A RESOLVE TO GET RID OF AUTHORITY. For a time Absa.lom simply cherished the feeling of alienation and knew the misery of a lost love. But evil is a force, and we cannot remain as we are when it once enters the soul. The wretchedness of a lost love put him on the way to get rid of the authority which existed in spite of his loss ofloving delight in it. Thought begetsthougbt, and so in due time positive rebellion arose, The royal father must be formally dethroned. There is a corresponding phase in the life of many a sinner. It is misery to be loveless and to know at the same time that God lives. Hence, thoughts flow in suggesting how, by what scepticism, or disbelief, or defiance, or desperation in vice, he can he dislodged from the comcience. Possibly the war becomes violent. No more welcome thought to some men than that God is not. Lost love means in the end antagonism. IV. THERE IS FOR A WHILE AN APPEARANCE OF SUCCESS. Unhappy Absalom found abett_ors and flatterers. His independent spirit accorded with the temper of others. His endeavours to live without his father's love and blessing seemed most successful, for neiver did men make so much of him as now when he bas shaken off the yoke of dependence and has gone in for a free !ife. His "strength was firm." 'l'be aim of his ambition seemed within reach. Wise and astute men encouraged and helped him, and forces were placed at his disposal. So all seems to go well for a while with those who are alienated from God the Father. No visible punishment comes on them. They a.re free from restraints to which once they submitted. They "become as gods, knowing good and evil." Others, some of them wise and learned and astute, encourage them in their mode of lire· and join in their aims. 'l'he forces of wit, learning, science, worldly sagacity, combino to enable them to put down the authority to which they ought to submit. These are the wicked who prosper in the world. V. THERE ARF. THE BEGINNINGS OF REVERSE. Absalom finds his forces scattered by a force the strength of which he did not expect to meet. The mighty array of power on his side receives a check (vers. 6-8). He has to learn that the authority despised can make itself felt. And in the course of Providence there are times when events remind sinners that God still rules over forces which they cannot resist, that powers are at work before which they have to bow. Sickness, bereavement, adverse conditions of life, ruin of wicked helpers, pangs of conscience, and personal wretchedness, come and beat down the proud array of wit, learning, jovial companionship, and stoutness of will, as the rebel army was beaten down in the wood of Ephraim. Wicked men have intimations of destruction before it falls on them. The conscience sees, as with prophet's eye, the dark shadows of the future in passing events. VI. VALUABLE GIFTS HASTEN Dr:STRUCTIO~. The pride of Abs.llom·s person w::is the means of hastening his death. 'l'he hair which had been so much a.dmirtd, which  444 TRE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL, [cJt. icvtn. 1-33.