Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 16-17.

When Hushai presented himself to Absalom, Absalom was initially skeptical of Hushai.  However, when Ahithophel, who was generally considered to be a very wise advisor, advised Absalom to give him a small force to pursue David, Absalom sought Hushai’s advice before taking Ahithophel’s advice, and then chose Hushai’s advice over that of Ahithophel.  Let’s look at this a little closer.  Absalom followed Ahithophel’s advice to sleep with David’s concubines without question or delay.  But when Ahithophel advised Absalom to send a force under someone else’s command after David, he balked.    One of the things which Ahithophel advised was to only kill David and to welcome those of his followers who turned to follow Absalom after David’s death. While Hushai advised killing all of those who had chosen to follow David as he fled from Absalom.  I believe that this played almost as much of a role in Absalom heeding Hushai’s advice as the glory he felt he would receive as leader of the army which defeated David.  It seems likely that Absalom wanted to see those who did not abandon his father to follow him pay a price for their loyalty to David.  Perhaps Absalom blamed his father, and those who remained loyal to him, for Amnon raping his sister.  Or, perhaps he just wanted vengeance on them because they had not immediately come over to his side.  In either case, Absalom provides a case study in making bad decisions.  He rejected good advice in favor of bad advice which stroked his ego.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.