I’ve seen it happen a thousand times, and every time I see it, I scratch my head in amazement, all while I thank the Lord for the opportunity it presents me.  Whether it’s getting in line at Sam’s to get gas or driving down Franklin Boulevard in Gaston County, like a bug drawn to light, people seem to just migrate right into the longest line available!  It makes no sense to me at all, but I don’t complain because sometimes it presents me with the incredible opportunity to pull right up to an empty gas pump or get in a lane with almost no cars in it and drive right down the road unimpeded!

Nonetheless, the nonsensical nature of it all has left me bewildered, trying to understand why, in the world, anybody would intentionally choose the longest line when a shorter one is clearly available.  Even though it has played to my advantage on many occasions for decades, it ironically also created some sincere mental frustration for me because no matter how hard I tried to explain it, I couldn’t, that is, until a phrase started running around our society that finally shed some light on it—FOMO (The Fear Of Missing Out).

It turns out that throughout human history, FOMO has been a predictable human behavior in almost every culture! Some people have it really bad, and others only mildly, but all of us have it in some measure. It causes us to be drawn into whatever we perceive to be increasing in popularity or influence, even if it’s something of no benefit to us or even problematic to us!

It’s why marketers and professional branding consultants know the pathway to success isn’t necessarily linked to the quality of the product, service, or person they are hired to promote but rather the perception of importance and popularity they can create about that product, service, or person.  It’s why we now have millions of dollars of products sold through the recommendations of social media “influencers” who may or may not have any idea about what they are telling people to purchase.  Most consumers never even stop to consider if the person should be trusted, but rather, if they are a good communicator, have cool social media posts, and, most importantly, have a big following, they must know what they are talking about.   As such, marketing companies and branding consultants are hired to create a perception of popularity and/or trust where there isn’t, so even if there’s no logically objective reason for there to be; it becomes so!

But as I stated, it’s not a new phenomenon. It’s as old as humanity itself, and it’s precisely the predictable human behavioral pattern that Absalom will use to overthrow his father and try to become king of Israel.

If you’ve been with us over the last few weeks of our study in 2 Samuel, you’ve noticed the dark turn in the story of Israel’s greatest King.  In chapter 11, David covers up an affair by arranging the death of the husband of the woman he had an affair with.  However, after David repented in chapter 12, it seemed like the story would get back to all the really cool victories and accomplishments Israel experienced under their greatest King; after all, chapter 12 ended with David once again successfully leading the army of Israel in battle.

But, the story of David’s leadership got even darker in chapter 13 when one of David’s sons, Amnon, raped one of David’s daughters, and David did nothing to bring about justice or even minister to or provide for the daughter who got raped.  Two years of David’s continual refusal to do the right thing opened the door for another one of his self-centered, deceitful sons to use the opportunity to project himself as the true alpha male in the family.  Absalom took matters into his own hands and got his other brothers to execute Amnon, then fled to his grandfather’s house, a Syrian King, to avoid having to stand before his father and be judged for unethically doing what David ironically refused to ethically do.

Absalom remained in his grandfather’s house for three years, and during those three years, David did nothing to own up to his fault in the matter nor make any attempt to bring about Biblical reconciliation.  Finally, Joab, a man who was sincerely loyal to David, devised a plan to help David realize he needed to bring Absalom home and put this mess behind them, only to see David do nothing again.  David sent Joab to get Absalom but then wouldn’t let him into his presence, leaving him functionally exiled from the society David was now forcing him to live in.

Then, after two years of living as an outcast in the same city as his father, Absalom pulled a foolish stunt that could have devasted the Jewish economy to forcibly get Joab to make arrangements for him to try and get his father’s forgiveness, and it worked.  Absalom threw himself at the feet of David, and David kissed him, which publicly stated that David had totally forgiven Absalom and, as such, restored all his rights and privileges in society as a Jew and as a son of the King.

If you stopped reading the Bible at the end of chapter 14, you would think the dark days of David’s Kingship were finally over.  In accepting Absalom’s appeal to be reconciled, David appears to have finally forgiven himself for rebelling against God in the case of Bathsheba and Uriah and, as such, got over the guilt that seemingly left him unable to lead his home.  But it didn’t.

Even though David fully reconciled Absalom back into the family and society, David still refused to do his job as the head of his household and confront Absalom’s clearly divisive motives and behavior, and the results were devastating. However, on a positive note, the horrendous trial David is thrown into by his passivity also seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back to get him out of it.  In chapter 15, there’s no resolution for the outward disaster that erupts, but there seems to finally be a stirring in David’s heart that fully reignites his relationship with the Lord and causes him to start leading his family and Israel the way he was both gifted and called to do it!  Specifically,

2 Samuel 15 lets us see two contrasting scenarios of David’s life and leadership.

 The first scenario is dark, pessimistic, and hopeless.

David’s passivity facilitated Absalom’s selfishly ambitious marketing strategy to lead a coup and replace David as King. 

 Note: We are going to come back to this later, but what’s baffling in all this is that David literally didn’t lift a finger to confront Absalom's obvious four-year effort to deliberately undermine his integrity and build momentum for himself to be king.  For four straight years, Absalom actively implemented a textbook political marketing strategy to undermine the public love and trust for David, all while marketing himself as the one they should truly love and trust, and David literally did nothing about it!

 There are six historically standard marketing steps that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king:

 Step One – Look the part!

As a reminder, his fame as a dashing, debonair young man with a picture-perfect body and family has been spreading over the past two years of his exile in Jerusalem.

25 Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26 And when he cut the hair of his head (for at the end of every year he used to cut it; when it was heavy on him, he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels by the king's weight. 27 There were born to Absalom three sons, and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman. (2 Samuel 14:25-27)

So, as soon as David publicly kissed him and, as such, publicly reconciled him as a fully favored son of the King, Absalom capitalized on the royal perception people already had of him and added to it.The Bible says,

 1 After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.

 The runners were essentially royal bodyguards who surrounded his chariot and horses while he traveled.Imagine the presidential motorcade and Secret Service agents that get out and jog behind, in front of, and alongside the limousine (now known as the beast) when it slows down enough for the President to engage with people and potentially even stop to get out and shake hands.  Historically, the needed security entourage for the President of the United States not only guards against assassination attempts but also projects the prominence and power that we, as U.S. citizens, feel is distinctive about our nation.

In a similar fashion, H.A. Hoffner noted this about Absalom’s chariot and security entourage,

“Ironically, although he owns a chariot and runners, he is not said to have battle experience. He was like an actor who fancied himself a military genius because he once played a general in a movie. Absalom’s chariots and armed escort bespeak the power of the crown. We know from 2 Sam 13:29 and 1 Kgs 1:44 that all of David’s sons also had the royal privilege of riding on mules. And although Absalom later rode on a mule while accompanying his forces in their pursuit of David (2 Sam 18:9), the chariot and horses provided a more flamboyant symbol of royal leadership in time of battle…. The chariots used by Absalom … were not ordinary functioning war chariots, but luxury and ceremonial vehicles, probably trimmed with gold or other precious materials.”¹Hoffner, H. A., Jr. (2015). 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 2, pp. 568–571). Lexham Press.

Gordon Keddie explained the purpose of Absalom’s charade,

 “… Absalom created for himself the image of the king he wished to become (15:1). This is one of the most basic techniques of self-advancement in modern society: project yourself with confidence in terms of your personal goals in such a way as to impress those who can be the means of your advancement. … Absalom understood the mystique of monarchy. He gave the people a glittering parade whenever he went out in public.”²Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (pp. 140–141). Evangelical Press.

 So, step one, if you want people to think of you as a King, then you need to look like one, and that’s exactly what Absalom made sure people viewed him as.

 Verses two and three capture the second historically standard marketing step that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king.

Step Two – Create incorrect perceptions about the King’s 

 One might argue, although I don’t believe rightly, that David was justified in laughing off Absalom’s obsession with looking the part; after all, at this point and time, Absalom is clearly the most gifted and influential leader among his sons (Solomon is likely still just a boy or young teenager), so he indeed might very well be King one day.However, there is no way that anyone could objectively argue that what happened next shouldn’t have brought a swift rebuke and clear consequence from David.  The Bible says,

 2 And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, "From what city are you?" And when he said, "Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel," 3 Absalom would say to him, "See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you."

There are a couple of things that are really important for us to not miss in this. First of all, in ancient times, city gates not only served as a passageway in and out of a city, but they were also the place where businessmen would meet to make deals and where you could interact with government officials to address whatever issue you might have.  However, in Jerusalem, there was an official palace gate that David would go in and out of, and where you would expect to interact with official representatives of his government.  This is NOT where Absalom sets up shop!  Absalom rose early in the morning and paraded through the city with his entourage to set up shop at a gate where no other government official would be, so that no one was there to contradict what he was saying, and thus interfere with his plan. This leads to the second thing that can’t be missed.

The people Absalom sought out were specifically the people coming to Jerusalem to try and present their case to the King. Whether it be a land dispute, a business contract, or some other matter, they are either ignorant of the justice system in Israel or, for whatever reason, feel their case should only be heard by the King.  But instead of pointing these people to where they should have gone to present their case, Absalom takes advantage of their ignorance and lies!  Absalom told people the King failed to appoint local judges and/or commission local courts, and thus, there was nowhere for people to get justice other than from the King, which is fundamentally false.

Most scholars seem to agree that there is no evidence at all of a systemic problem with the judicial system in Israel and that David’s refusal to put Amnon on trial for raping Tamar was not indicative of the entire system. David refused to ethically deal with the horrific event in his own family, but as King, if he wasn’t going to address the injustice in his own family, nobody else could either.  However, for the rest of the nation, a clearly defined judicial process was laid out in the Law of Moses, and there is no valid reason to believe David’s government wasn’t facilitating it.  But, that doesn’t mean everybody knew how and when to access it, or were even willing to try—and thus people showed up in Jerusalem either because they felt their issue could only be resolved by the King himself or they never bothered to find out what was available for them to have their issue resolved.

Given Absalom was standing there with his ornate royal chariot, royally decorated horses, and fifty bodyguards, why wouldn’t you believe his statement … clearly he must know what he’s talking about! But here’s the deal: every time Absalom told one of these people that there was indeed nowhere else to go in Israel to get justice, without ever actually saying it, he was also intentionally sowing the seeds of an incorrect perception that David was an egomaniac control freak trying to personally control every aspect of life in Israel, so much so that he wouldn’t allow anybody else to be a judge.  Furthermore, every time he falsely suggested there wasn’t a robust judicial system in Israel, he communicated that he sincerely cared about this issue and thus sincerely cared about the person he was speaking to.

 “It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Absalom was acting as an agent provocateur in his own interest by deliberately creating the false impression that there was a fundamental deficiency in the criminal justice system of David’s Israel.”³Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (p. 141). Evangelical Press.

This then perfectly set up the third historically standard marketing step that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king.

Step Three – Present yourself as a solution. 

 4 Then Absalom would say, "Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice."

By suggesting that if he were the judge of Israel, justice would be certain, he was subtly planting the idea that justice wasn’t currently available under his father. Ironically, however, this is also a comical contradictory irony to what Absalom has already said.  He had already pushed a false narrative that justice couldn’t be found in Israel because his father was failing Israel by not making sure the judicial process was being carried out on a local level.  But he then turned right around and said that if he were the singular judge of Israel, he would be so good at it that they wouldn’t even need a local judicial system—the very thing he had just suggested his father was failing Israel by not providing!

Finally, in a monarchy, the King is the supreme judge. Therefore, by suggesting he could function as the perfect singular judge over all of Israel, he was necessarily implying that he would be the perfect King!

Keddie added insight to another layer of hypocritical irony in this verse.“The choice of judges in Israel was to be governed by certain rules: they were to be ‘capable men … men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain’ (Exodus 18:21). Not only was Absalom not qualified, but his stated views and intentions on these early morning outings gave little evidence of a real interest in justice and a large indication of his true ambitions.”⁴Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (pp. 141–142). Evangelical Press

Verses six and seven contain the fourth historically standard marketing step that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king.

Step Four – Use flattery to win friends and influence people.

 Flattery is selfishly motivated encouragement and is often, but not always, totally insincere. Watch how Absalom used it.

 5 And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

 When you came before a king, you would expect to have to at least bow down before the king and potentially be required to do something else that expressed your submission to and trust in that king (i.e., kiss the King’s ring).So, imagine how big of a deal it was for a man who had likely nervously traveled for days on end to present his case to a legendary king to immediately meet one of the king’s sons standing at one of the gates to the city in all of his pomp and circumstance (his royal chariot, horses, and 50 bodyguards)!  That alone would have been impressive.  But the awesomeness of that moment paled in comparison to what would happen next.  Imagine what a person felt as they timidly approached the first prince they may have ever met, and then as they approached that prince to bow down before them, that prince instead put out his hand not to be kissed but to embrace them and kiss them as if they were a lifelong friend and brother!  That traveler would be blown away!  This dashing, debonair, and clearly, by all these people who surround him, ultra-important man in the Kingdom, is treating me like an equal!

All this would truly be a fantastic thing if Absalom had even an ounce of sincerity, humility, or good intentions, but the fact is that he had none of it! Absalom wasn’t using his royal perception to benefit his father’s throne or Israel, but the opposite.  Absalom had one intention and one intention only—to become King.

Verses seven through nine contain the fifth historically standard marketing step that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king.

Step Five – Make it appear you’re doing everything for God. 

7 And at the end of four years Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the LORD, in Hebron. 8 For your servant vowed a vow while I lived at Geshur in Aram, saying, 'If the LORD will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the LORD.'" 9 The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he arose and went to Hebron.

 First of all, there is no way Absalom actually made this vow. Nothing in this story should lead us to conclude this was anything but a lie.

In addition, if David hadn’t been so passively foolish in leading his family, he would have immediately asked his son why he had taken six years to fulfill his vow to the Lord. Remember that Absalom had sat in “time out” in Jerusalem for two years waiting to state his case to his father to be restored, and now he’s been living in that freedom for four years!  If David was at all engaged with truly leading his family, he would have already confronted Absalom about the lies he was spreading at the gates, something David had to have known was going on.  But now that Absalom is standing in front of David suggesting that he is suddenly in need of rushing off to Hebron to fulfill a vow he’s done nothing with for at least six years, it should have at least caused David to ask what inspired him to finally fulfill his vow and why it took so long for him to finally do it.

The reality is that after four years of his father’s refusal to confront Absalom’s deceitful practices, Absalom knew he had successfully caused enough doubt in his father's leadership that the false perception of confidence he had created in his own leadership could be seen as the better option for Israel and he was ready to pull the trigger on the final step of his plan.

“We cannot assume that any such vow was made, for both the tenor of Absalom’s character and the oh-so-convenient way in which this seven or eight-year-old vow fitted into his bid for the throne suggest it to be a stratagem rather than an exercise in personal piety. David appears to have suspected nothing. He granted Absalom his request readily enough and so, unwittingly, made the first move in the coup by which Absalom intended to become king in his place. The die was cast. Absalom then moved swiftly to implement his planned revolt.”⁵Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (pp. 142–143). Evangelical Press.

“David’s final words to his son (בְּשָׁל֑וֹם לֵ֣ךְ, beshalom lekh, “Go in peace”) are significant in several ways. First, the convention was proper only for the socially superior party of a pair to say to the inferior party upon parting. Thus, ironically, the last words Absalom hears before he ignites his initially successful but ultimately disastrous coup announce that his father is and will always remain his superior. Secondly, the words probably indicated that David would provide his son with an armed escort to assure his safety on the trip to and from Hebron. This is ironic because when Absalom returns to Jerusalem from Hebron, it will be David who will need an armed escort to assure his safety in flight. And thirdly, Absalom will now “go” but with no intention of preserving the peace with his father. Absalom’s name—original vocalization אָבִישָׁלוֹם (avishalom)—means “My (divine) Father is peace/wellbeing.” Absalom’s divine Father was Yahweh, whose declared will and covenant with David he was now attempting to thwart. On the human level, his father was David, whose throne he planned to steal from him. There is no peace (שָׁלוֹם, shalom) in any of Absalom’s plans.”⁶Hoffner, H. A., Jr. (2015). 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 2, p. 584). Lexham Press.

 Verses 10 through 12 contain the sixth historically standard marketing step that Absalom took to deceitfully manipulate the public into enthusiastically wanting him to be king.

 Step Six – Secretly cue your supporters to publicly proclaim you as King. 

 You will quickly notice that Absalom didn’t stand up and proclaim himself to be King because that would never work. Instead, he had strategically built relationships with influential voices who would do it for him, and now, after four years of sowing seeds of criticism and doubt about David’s leadership as well as building up people’s confidence that he would be a better king, Absalom pulled the trigger.  The Bible states,

 10 But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, 'Absalom is king at Hebron!'" 11 With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited guests, and they went in their innocence and knew nothing. 12 And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city Giloh. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing.

Absalom sent messengers all over Israel to give the cue to announce he had been declared King in Hebron, the Holy City of their day. There were a variety of layers to this sixth act.  Saying he was declared King in Hebron would lead people to believe the priests had endorsed him, and thus, God endorsed him.  In addition, it’s a safe bet to assume the two hundred invited guests were people that Absalom had not only groomed as potential supporters but were also respected enough throughout Israel that when it was told they were with him at in Hebron, it would be presumed they were endorsing the declaration of Absalom as king and thus add serious validity to it.

But here’s the deal: neither the priest nor these two hundred guests had anything to do with it, nor even knew it was happening! Meanwhile, it’s spreading all over Israel that they did, and as such, momentum begins to increase exponentially.  The “big MO” had kicked in because the predictable human behavior of FOMO is always present.  For four years, Absalom had sown doubt and dissatisfaction about David, and David never rebuked him or confronted the lies.  Meanwhile, Absalom was simultaneously building up his own popularity so that when people heard he had been declared King, it made sense to them.  Even though it had never actually occurred when highly trustworthy people said that the priests at Hebron and a couple hundred highly influential people from Jerusalem were a part of it, people started jumping on the Absalom bandwagon—FOMO!

From both a marketing and political science standpoint, what Absalom did was genius.He had convinced an entire nation there was a bandwagon that didn’t actually exist so that people then made one that actually did!  And bang, just like that, the door was open for him to walk into Jerusalem as the new king of Israel before anybody in Hebron likely even knew what was happening.

So, how did David respond to this blatant and rapidly increasing coup?

 Well, that leads us to the second scenario in 2 Samuel 15. It's still an extremely dire situation, but unlike the first, it contains a glimmer of hope and optimism!

Absalom’s betrayal shook David enough to finally wake him up from his passivity. 

 13 And a messenger came to David, saying, "The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom." 14 Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword." 15 And the king's servants said to the king, "Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides." 16 So the king went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house.

 Note:  Some might say this is still a passive approach by David, but at this point, there is a better argument for it being the most proactive thing David could do.  Absalom had so much momentum, so quickly, that David knew he needed to get out of town.  Furthermore, contrasting with Absalom’s total self-interest, David knew if he didn’t quickly get out of town with what was left of his army, when Absalom showed up with his, a bunch of innocent people were likely going to die in Jerusalem.  At this point, it was also a safe bet to assume that Absalom already had numerous men inside the walls of Jerusalem who were ready to take up arms against David and anybody else in Jerusalem who resisted as soon as Absalom showed up.

17 And the king went out, and all the people after him. And they halted at the last house. 18 And all his servants passed by him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath, passed on before the king. 19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. 20 You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you." 21 But Ittai answered the king, "As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be." 22 And David said to Ittai, "Go then, pass on." So Ittai the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. 23 And all the land wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.

“Kerethites and the Pelethites Foreign mercenary troops comprising the royal bodyguard (2 Sam 23:22–23).”⁷Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (2 Sa 8:18). Lexham Press.

“The people, including 600 Gittites (faithful men who had followed him from Gath in Philistia when he was pursued by Saul; 1 Sam. 23:13; 27:2; 30:9), fled with David.”⁸Merrill, E. H. (1985). 2 Samuel. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 471). Victor Books.

 What an encouragement this must have been for David.To see all these men willingly march out with him had to be huge.  But nonetheless, David had to feel like a total failure.  How do you wrap your head around your own son betraying you and then couple that with the obvious fact that you had failed to take the opportunities put in front of you to keep this from happening?

As David stood there, he had to have two very real emotions going on.There had to be a tremendous amount of encouragement in these men supporting him, but there also had to be a massive amount of guilt and shame that he hadn’t confronted Absalom about something he had been doing every single day in the gates of Jerusalem for four straight years; something that was now causing David and all of his supporters to have to run for their lives, as well as leave the nation he was in charge of shepherding to be led by a wolf!  As a shepherd who truly loved the sheep he was charged to care for, David had to have felt like somebody was ripping his guts out as he heard the people weeping over what was taking place!

David then says something that makes it very clear that he and Absalom are not operating from the same place.

24 And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with all the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. 25 Then the king said to Zadok, "Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. 26 But if he says, 'I have no pleasure in you,' behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him."

Unlike Saul, David isn’t grasping at straws to try and remain king. He fully trusts in God’s will; if God wants to remove him as king, then to God be the glory.  David knows he in no way deserves to be king, especially after what happened with Bathsheba and Uriah, so if God was done with him as king, what right would he have to try and convince God otherwise?

Meanwhile, what happens next is the first beam of light in multiple chapters that David has finally gotten back to being the David that Samuel had originally anointed to be King; the David that went out to battle the giant with complete confidence in the Lord and a cunning plan to kill the giant with a sling he knew he had mastered the use of! So, amid his obviously massive sorrow and while he's crying out to the Lord, news comes to David that he immediately realized he needed to act on to help protect himself, his men, and all of Israel; news that if God so willed could help open the door for him to return to the throne.

Remember, faith is not a passive response to God, but rather, it’s the active participation in the promises of God.In this case, God had made a promise to David about what he was going to use him to do as King, so until God said that promise was fulfilled or null and void, David needed to act on it no matter what—something he hadn’t been doing for far too long!  Here’s what happened,

27 The king also said to Zadok the priest, "Are you not a seer? Go back to the city in peace, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. 28 See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me." 29 So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there. 30 But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. 31 And it was told David, "Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom." And David said, "O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." 32 While David was coming to the summit, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn and dirt on his head. 33 David said to him, "If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me. 34 But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant,' then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel. 35 Are not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 36 Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son, and by them you shall send to me everything you hear." 37 So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.

For time’s sake, we’ve got to put this story on pause, but in so doing, I want to read you something that absolutely leaped off the page at me as I was researching this chapter.

H.A. Hoffner wrote,

 “Among Absalom’s followers was none other than Ahithophel, David’s own trusted advisor, of whom it was said that listening to Ahithophel’s plans was like hearing God himself (2 Sam 16:23). The shock was evident in David’s immediate response: “Please, Yahweh!” For the first time now in many chapters we see a praying David. He prays because he is in deep trouble. As Peterson (210) writes: We have considerable evidence that David has not been tending the store during these years—both family and governmental responsibilities are in a state of disarray. He probably was not being attentive to God either. But the Ahithophel crisis puts him on his knees again. He prays. Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, once said in a radio interview, “I only pray when I’m in trouble; but I’m in trouble all the time, so I pray all the time.”⁹Hoffner, H. A., Jr. (2015). 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 2, pp. 610–611). Lexham Press.

And that’s exactly what I want you to get out of this.  The ultimate passivity is when we foolishly live our lives as if we don’t need a constant abiding relationship with God.  Spiritual complacency is the most dangerous passivity that can ever exist.  We are literally living in a battle that never stops, a battle that determines if our life will be one of living in every circumstance or dying in every circumstance.

The Bible states that our flesh is WARRING against the Spirit within us (Galatians 5:17).  Everything about the world we live in, even our own flesh, is calling us away from His life, and yet, somehow, we convince ourselves it’s not the case.  We somehow make room in our lives for everything but what fuels victory.  We somehow tell ourselves that we love Jesus but that we also don’t need to have an active, abiding relationship with Him; that is, until the reality of our sinful flesh and/or the reality of the cursed condition of the world we live in erupts around us like Absalom’s rebellion.  We go along with the condition of our spiritual complacency until things get so bad that we find ourselves crying out to God as David did in 2 Samuel 15.  Listen to what David later wrote about what went down on that mountain as he cried out to God.  He recorded it in Psalm 3,

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah 3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.  4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.  6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah (Psalm 3)

Of this Psalm, Keddie wrote, “Here is a living faith in the Lord of hosts, a holy confidence in the Son of Man! Here is the Christian’s only boast—the glory of God and the enjoyment of him forever, in and through Christ Jesus our Lord!”¹⁰Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (pp. 148–149). Evangelical Press

So, I’m not belittling turning to the Lord when our life erupts in disaster; I’m just saying it makes no sense that we wait until our world is a disaster to think it’s worth it!  There is never a moment in our life that we don’t need an abiding relationship with Him, but we all too often act like it. So,

Challenge

Are you allowing the knowledge of the awesomeness of life in Christ to be your motivation to actively and consistently pursue an abiding relationship with Him, or are you going through life with the same kind of spiritual passivity that enabled David to do nothing about his own son undermining his throne for four straight years?

 Why settle for a spiritually fruitless life when you can be filled with the opposite?  The answer to that question should be enough to motivate us to pursue a consistent, abiding relationship with God.  But when you add the knowledge that a spiritually complacent life is a guaranteed path for the enemy to flip the script of your experience in this life to be one filled with the sinful and dark reality of the fruit of the flesh instead of the fruit of the Spirit, then why in the world do we ever rationalize spiritual passivity in our life? But we do.

It makes no sense, but we do it.  We find ourselves making just enough room for the Lord to perhaps listen to or read this sermon, but what will we do next?  Is this an opportunity to check a box in hopes that if you just keep doing what you’re doing, you can avoid the inevitable or at least not get the same empty results you are already getting?

Or, is this you saying to God, "I need you!” Is this you seeking God to feed your heart and give you the strength to trust Him no matter what?

Is coming to church, getting involved with a life group, studying God’s Word on your own, and praying over what you learned in His Word all about abiding in Him, or something you do to go through the motions?

Are you considering the words of this sermon and the Scriptures it’s about, from a heart that longs to know Him, that longs to be stirred and fueled to follow Him, or a heart that wants to convince itself you’ve done enough?

Is it coming from a heart crying out to God to be awake and filled with knowledge that drives you to love and trust Him in every circumstance, so much so that you can’t emotionally or mentally rationalize doing anything but obediently following Him?