saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything. Then Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Giloite, David's counselor from his city, from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong, for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. Father, we thank you for your word. We want to live by every word that proceeds from your mouth, and we pray that you would help us not to miss anything, but Father, to understand it, to worship you with it, to be thankful for it, and to adjust our lives to conform to your scriptures. By your Holy Spirit, empower us to that end, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Well last week we started looking at the incredible damage that has been done to various churches across America through the same demonic influences that were at work in the lives of Jezebel and Ahab and Absalom and of course our special focus was upon Absalom And I found it interesting, several of you came up after the worship service and told me that you have seen exactly the same principles at work and in the military and your business jobs and in the politics that you have been dealing with. And of course, the scripture applies these principles in other areas as well. I think one of you had mentioned the book of Esther, that Haman was an absalom par excellence. And that's exactly right. And you also pointed out that it was a risky business to try to expose this Haman. And nobody seemed to realize what his true intentions were. Esther risked her life in trying to expose him. But anyway, once you begin to see that syndrome at work, you begin to see it everywhere. With some people it's more subtle, and with others it is a lot more obvious. And I know some of you are visual learners. You like pictures, you like to see things, and I've got a couple of movies that I think explain a little bit of the background on that. For the Ahab and the Absalom spirits, I think the movie by Mel Gibson, Braveheart, is just a masterful explanation or illustration of that. Now I recommend you watch it using clearplay. We use clearplay for everything just in case there's bad scenes or bad language. But anyway, Edward Longshanks is an Ahab to a T. He sought to maintain his power through deceit, manipulation, alliances, pitting one faction against another and he was absolutely brilliant at that. Robert the Bruce's leper father was exactly the same. He was an Ahab when he was dealing with his son, Bruce, and with the other nobles, but he was an Absalom when dealing with Longshanks. The Scottish nobles were Absaloms who used treachery, undermining each other, promises, broken promises, anything it took to be able to rise in terms of their power and their influence within the nation of Scotland. And the best movie that I've seen that illustrates the spirit of Jezebel is the Christian movie, what is the name of the Christian movie? What's that? A Dangerous Calling, that was it. Ah, that's just an amazing movie. You know, a lot of the Christian movies are still in the infancy, but I think that's a fairly well done movie, very worth watching. And I think it illustrates the Jezebel spirit working within the church actually quite well. So if you're very visual, keep those two movies in the back of your mind and I think it'll help you to think through what we're trying to give an exposition of. Now before we continue this passage, because we really quit in the middle of the passage last week, I want to give you a little bit of a review. Absalom can often be a man or a woman whom leadership of the church has highly invested in, cares about a great deal, loves a great deal. And this makes it much harder to oppose him when he undermines. Secondly, in verse 1, we saw that this syndrome is rooted in pride, and yet it is brilliantly masked with appearances of humility. It is self-indulgent, and yet it's very well camouflaged as being devotion to God. It is selfish, and yet it is so well disguised as unselfish service that if you were to try to criticize this Absalom, you'd probably come out on the bad end of the stick. Absaloms can be snarky, but usually they're fairly affable people. They're people people. They can mix it up, and they're fun to be around, and they can include people in their circle of influence quite easily. We saw in verses 1 and following that absaloms are opportunistic. They are opportunistic of any hurts, any pains, any controversies, any problems that may exist, and of course, because politics is full of sinners, and businesses are, and churches are, there's always going to be hurts, pains, problems, controversies that will come up that an Absalom can take advantage of opportunistically. Sixth, we saw in verses 3-4 that Absalom didn't really complain In order to fix the problem, he complained in a fashion that guaranteed that no fixing would take place. He didn't go to David. He didn't go to the deputies and say, hey, there's people out here who really need this case to be heard. No, he didn't want them to be hearing that. Instead, he uses these things to undermine the leadership, but he does it so cleverly. While those verses show Absalom's willingness to criticize. to cast accusations, to be negative, he mixes it up with displays of being a servant, being so lovable, really having the interest of the kingdom as a whole in his mind, very spiritual sounding and praising others, that again, it's very hard to oppose what Absalom is doing. Then in verses 4 through 6, we saw that Absalom's negative spirit spread like a virus to others. very rare that an Absalom spirit or an Absalom works alone. He's always conscripting a malcontents to be a part of his group. Where earlier chapters seem to indicate that the whole nation loved David, saw him as a hero, there are more and more being infected with an attitude that tends to see the negative and not see the positive at all. The positive is still there, but all they focus on is the negative. And then over time, he stole the heart of loyalty from the people, and we looked at the implications of that. So, that brings us up to verse 7, and we're going to start with a puzzler right off the bat. We're not going to dig into the Absalom spirit, because if we don't understand what that first phrase means, We're not going to be able to apply it very effectively. Verse 7 says, now it came to pass after 40 years. Now last week, it was two, maybe three of you came up afterwards and wondered, how in the world could it be 40 years later? It seemed puzzling to you. Well, you're very, very observant because it is a puzzler. Chronologists say that this is just impossible. It cannot be 40 years after verse 6. It can't be 40 years after verse 1. It can't be 40 years after he comes back from Geshur to Jerusalem when Joab brought him back. It can't even be 40 years after his birth because he dies at age 25. at least on conservative chronologies, the most you could possibly stretch it would be 33 years old when he dies. So it's not 40 years later on that account. And so it's kind of a puzzler, but there are other possible solutions that have been proposed. Some have thought that David was 40 years old here, or they say, well, maybe it's the 40th year of his reign, which would make him 70 years old. And you won't find chronologists saying that because it really is impossible when you start putting the pieces in the chapters together. I won't give you all of the verses, but if you turn with me to 1 Kings 2 and verse 11, I'll give you the general framework within which you have to operate. 1 Kings 2, verse 11, it divides his reign up into two parts. It says, the period that David reigned over Israel was 40 years. Seven years he reigned in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he reigned 33 years. And the seven years is actually a rounded number. In 2 Samuel 2, verse 11, the same author says he reigned for 7 1⁄2 years, if you're going to be very, very precise. But rounding numbers, perfectly legitimate. But here's the problem. You can't make David's reign any longer than 40 years, or if you want to be very, very precise, 40 1⁄2 years. because it just doesn't fit into the chronology at all. So if you're counting forward, David has another 12 years to live, which makes him 58 years old in this passage and only 28 years into his reign. So if you count forward, it's not 40 years from his birth and it's not 40 years into his reign. Now, if you count backwards, you've got some of the same problems as well. If David was 40 years old here, then he would have become a king 10 years before. And we already know that the first 7 1⁄2 years of his reign was only over Judah. It was in the southern tribe there, which means that all of chapters 5 through 15 has to be fit into 2 1⁄2 years. Well, chronologists tell you that's absolutely impossible. Chapters 5 through 15 cover 20 years of his life, not 2 1⁄2 years. So it's a real puzzler, so much so that some people think that there is no solution and that the Hebrew here is wrong. Now, we Bible believers Can't take that option because we believe the Old and the New Testament is so clearly said that God would preserve every jot and tittle. And that's Hebrew, by the way, jot and tittle. Every Hebrew word would be preserved for all time in all ages forever. It would be kept pure forever. There's many, many scriptures. We've shared those before, which means that it can't be lost from the canon of scripture. And yet you have liberals and neo-evangelical substituting something here that you will not find in a single Hebrew manuscript. They say that it should mean four years, not 40 years, and somehow the Hebrew text got corrupted. And so the ESV, if you've got an ESV Bible or if you've got an NIV, it'll say in the main text, after four years, and then in the margin they'll say, but the Hebrew manuscripts say, you know, after forty years. Now when the ESV does this textual emendation sometimes they do it without any evidence whatsoever other than the prejudice that they have that this text doesn't really mean what it says. At least here they've got some old textual evidence that shows at least some people thought. If you look in the New King James margin you'll see that it says some Septuagint manuscripts to be precise, two Septuagint manuscripts from the Lucianic revision have four years, and the Syriac translation, which was probably impacted by this, it was translated I think second century A.D., But it says four years, and Josephus makes a passing reference to four years. So, they at least have some evidence on saying that it really originally meant four years. But all of the other Septuagint manuscripts of whatever revision, all other translations whatsoever say 40 years, and certainly every Hebrew manuscript says 40. So that's the first problem I have with this solution. Secondly, in Hebrew, no scribe would mistake 40 for four. The English words might look similar, but not the Hebrew words. So it couldn't have been an accident. If it got changed, it had to have been a deliberate change, which I just cannot fathom. It's beyond me to think that the Masoretes would have deliberately changed something from 4 to 40. And so there has to be an explanation. How did this change occur? And I think the easiest explanation is to say that the Septuagint thinks 40 years. It can't possibly be that. Let's just say that it was four years. The Septuagint has made all kinds of changes to the Hebrew, some of which are so bizarre and ludicrous that not even the liberals or the conservatives will buy into the Septuagint changes. They do that all the time. The Septuagint is not inspired. The Hebrew text was. And so anyway, the point is that it couldn't be a scribal error. Those words look quite different. Third, four years still brings it into conflict with the biblical chronology, no matter which event in Absalom's life that you will say it's four years after. This is eight years after the rape of Tamar, six years after he kills Amnon and flees the country, three years after Joab brings him back into Jerusalem, which means that he could have only been sitting in the gate for one year, undermining David. In other words, all of verses 1-6 occurs over a period, a span of one year. Now, when he was under house arrest, or sort of house arrest, Chapter 14, verse 28 talks about that. There's another two years you could tack on and say maybe he had some influence during that period as well, but it's still not four. It's three years. So any way you slice it, they amount to two, three, five, six, or eight. So it's really not the solution that people make it out to be. It's still in conflict with the chronology. Now I know this is a long rabbit trail. I don't usually do this, but some of you were curious. And I think the integrity of the scripture really is at stake here. And so for the conservative Bible believer, as tempting as it might be to change it from 40 to four. And there have been evangelical commentaries that have done that. If we take the inspiration of the scripture and God's promised preservation of every word of the scripture, even remotely seriously, we don't have a choice. We have to say it means after 40 years or 40 years later, you could translate it either way. One ironclad rule of interpretation that I have is if the Hebrew says something, we follow it, no matter how difficult it makes the interpretation seem to be. Now as we've already seen from past issues like this, These issues that were forced to follow the Hebrews sometimes open up absolutely remarkable solutions to long-standing problems. For me, it's exciting. I just have a trust in God's preservation of the text, and many times it turns out just beautifully. So what's the solution? Well, Floyd Nolan Jones points out something very, very interesting. It is exactly 40 years from David's slaying of Goliath, becoming a captain in the armies of Saul, to the date of Absalom's rebellion. You say, well, what's significant about that? Well, it fits the context here beautifully. Take a look at verse 6 again. Second part of verse 6, it says, So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, And when did David gain those hearts? It was 40 years before, when he slew Goliath, and then he became a captain in Saul's armies. 1 Samuel 18, which is exactly 40 years before, says that David won the hearts of all of the people, and God Himself gave David favor in the eyes of all of the people. In that year, even Saul's son, Jonathan, acknowledged that David was to be the next king. And he gave his steadfast loyalty and gave his heart to David and said, my heart is knit to your heart. I know you're going to become king. He gave him his his garments. He gave him his sword. In other words, David was given by God the trust, the loyalty, the hearts of all Israel. So I think it's very appropriate to say 40 years after David was given those hearts, Absalom stole their hearts. I think it fits the Hebrew grammar. You don't see it quite as obviously in the English translation here, but it does fit the Hebrew translation quite well. Now there's more. This phrase is also making a theological statement. God had rejected Saul, had given the kingdom to David, And the people had given their heart loyalty to David as well. David did not have to steal those hearts in order to become king. He already had those hearts. God had given those hearts as a stewardship trust. So the Hebrew reader of that day would immediately connect the theological points that were being made earlier by the same author in 1 Samuel chapter 18 and realize there's correlations all over the place in this chapter as well. Remember that 1 and 2 Samuel are one book in the Hebrew written by the same author. And so when a Jew read, now it came to pass after 40 years, he'd say, well, 40 years after what? And he would count back 40 years and say, okay, 40 years after Goliath and Saul's demonic activity And all of these, you know, the giving of the hearts to the people for Samuel 18. And he would all of a sudden see all kinds of correlations. And not everybody may be convinced by Floyd Nolan Jones's reconciliation. I don't think most of the commentaries have even aware of that, but it's the only reconciliation of the text that I have read that takes the Hebrew at all seriously. And I think it has the advantage of thematically tying this whole passage together in a remarkable way. Consider this further evidence. Just as the Absalom syndrome is demonic in its origin, we saw that last week, so too was Saul's. Exactly 40 years before, Saul had a demon who moved him to jealousy and fear and manipulation and attempts to destroy David, who was God's appointed leader. Who knows? It might have even been the same demon. We don't know that. But rather than stepping down from office and respecting God's chain of command, Saul sought to operate in the wisdom of the world. Since Saul could no longer claim the hearts of his men by God's authority, he had to use human means to maintain authority. Since God had rejected Saul, chosen David, Saul had to steal the hearts of the men of Israel away from David through promises, bribery, slander, manipulation, deceit, etc. And if we had the time to go through all of those earlier chapters, which I'm not going to do, you would see, point by point, all kinds of correlations with everything that's going on in the life of Absalom in this chapter. And so this phrase in verse 7 was preparing the reader to realize that while the Absalom syndrome may seem like a wise way to go for some people, it will not be prospered by God any more than Saul was. It is always self-defeating. And then lastly, just as Saul sought to make a well-loved man to be despised, so did Absalom. Just as Saul slandered the well-established reputation of David, so did Absalom. So that first phrase of verse 7, what it's doing is it's tightly connecting Absalom with Saul, and especially the demonic influence that was behind Saul back then. Now, that's a lot of background. But I think it'll help you to see the 10th characteristic. Now we're going to continue from last week. The 10th characteristic of an Absalom. An Absalom is so skilled with his methods that even the most well-loved leaders can be vilified. Even the Goliath killers can themselves be toppled. Even the most well-established reputations can be trashed very, very quickly. Peter Hammond and Brian Abshire wrote an incredible book documenting this syndrome in the modern church and giving counsel to leaders to not be overcome by evil, to not get bitter, and to for sure not respond with the same kinds of manipulative things. That makes you into an Ahab. You know, you're being undermined by an Absalom. How do you protect yourself? you become an Ahab using the same kind of manipulations, pitting one person against another. They're saying, don't do that. Anyway, the book is titled, Character Assassins, Dealing with Ecclesiastical Tyrants and Terrorists. In other words, it's dealing with both the Ahab tyrants as well as the Absalom terrorists. in the church, and that title is not hype. You read the book and you see it's a pretty straightforward description of what goes on in a lot, especially the larger churches, but a lot of churches in America. It's absolutely must reading. They document example after example of elders or sessions that have functioned very sacrificially, pouring their lives into congregations, faithful over the decades, very well loved by their people. And all of a sudden, at some point, mysteriously, they find themselves vilified and slandered and criticized and undermined and the brunt of anger. They haven't changed anything. They haven't done anything differently. And that would warrant the vitriol, but it's there. And it's one of the signs that the demonic is at work behind the scenes. Now, let's quickly look at eight more characteristics. We looked at nine last week. We got nine this week. So, you know, about even amount. But the 11th thing that you see happening is that these Absaloms don't have to tell lies in order to deceive people. They might tell lies too, but they can deceive using the truth. Take a look at verses seven through nine. Now, it came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said to the king, Please, let me go to Hebron and pay the vow which I made to the Lord." Now, does he make a vow and does he fulfill a vow in Hebron? We're going to see next week. Yes, he does fulfill this vow in Hebron, but is that the main reason why he is going to Hebron? Obviously not. That's a cover for why he's going to be going to Hebron. He is telling the truth, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Keep in mind, parents, that children can deceive you by telling half the story about the fight that they got into with their siblings. They're not lying, but they're very cleverly not telling you about certain facts so that you will side with them rather than with their sibling. That is the Absalom spirit at work in your own family. And we need to keep in mind that truth used to deceive is still deception and it should be punished as deception. Verse eight, for your servant took a vow while I dwelt at Geshur in Syria saying, if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. Now, did he make a vow while in Geshur? We don't have any way of verifying whether he did or not, but I have no reason to doubt that he made that. It wouldn't have been fun to be in exile there, and he saw himself as a believer. You've got to remember that. He saw himself as being the good guy. You know, David, he's not taking justice against Amnon. I'm the good guy. Why am I getting the bum rap? I mean, he sees himself as the hero of this story who really has had bad things that have been happening to him. So I don't see any reason why he couldn't have been in Gesher saying, Lord, if you bring me back to Jerusalem, I'll pay such and such. Here's my vow that I'm going to give to you. It could very well have happened. But commentators ask. Why did he wait so long to fulfill his vow? There's something odd about that. In fact, commentators say they're mystified as to why David is not puzzled about this as well. Why is he not asking, now wait a minute, why did you wait so long to take your vow? Doesn't the scripture say, do not delay to pay your vow? There's something fishy about that. Okay, verse nine. And the king said, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. The king sees nothing wrong. Now, I believe that he was somewhat distracted by the sickness that he had that Psalms 39 through 41 described as happening right at this point in his life. And we'll deal with that in the next point. But what I wanted you to see under point 11 is this tendency to use truth in order to deceive. It's one of the things that makes it so difficult to confront an Absalom because they always have an alibi. He is skilled at using truth to deceive. And even on the rare occasions where you might be able to demonstrate that what he is saying is wrong, he's going to be able to say, well, you know, in some way that this was a mistaken thing and show a sincerity that he had. But you won't get very far in an argument with him. He's a master at using truth, usually partial truth, to deceive. A twelfth thing that is hinted at here, but very clear in the Psalms, is that Absalom was taking advantage of a weakness in David's leadership and a gap in his service. And absolums will often strike when a leader is so preoccupied with counseling crises, family troubles, personal illnesses. Maybe when he's gone on a sabbatical for a year. I always worry when pastors go on a sabbatical for a year. I wonder, boy, are they going to be back in the pulpit? The vast majority of the cases I'm familiar with never ends up back there again, okay? And whether that's due to an absolum spirit or whether he just got, you know, antsy feet and wanted to go elsewhere, who knows? I did put in your outlines there a couple question marks beside verse 9 because the fact that Absalom arose may simply mean that he had bowed down prior to that. But it does, that word does imply getting up from a sitting or from a kneeling position, not just a bowing position. Since we know from the Psalms that David was sick in bed at this juncture, and may also indicate that David was lying down, and that Absalom, wanting to show humility, does not want to be appearing to be higher than David, and so he's either sitting beside the bed, or he's kneeling beside the bed, but in any case, says that he got up, he stood up, he arose, is the Hebrew. So it may be a hint of David being low. But even if that's not the intended implication of that word, David's lack of suspicion may still be due to the preoccupation he had with an illness that he was experiencing. Each of Psalms 39 through 41 make mention of this, and each of those Psalms was written during this Absalom rebellion. All of my commentaries, I think, demonstrate that quite well, that they were written right at this juncture. And so let me give you a little bit of the evidence from these Psalms. Psalm 39 speaks of how frail he felt at this juncture, verse 4. speaks of him wondering if he's got long to live in verses 5 through 6. So it must have been a fairly serious illness. It says that he had some kind of plague, verse 10. That he didn't look very good, verse 11. That he had very little strength left, verse 13. Psalm 40 says that he felt like he was in a miry pit, verse 2. He felt very needy, verse 16. Psalm 41 says he was lying on his bed with some kind of a sickness, verse 3. Needed healing, verse 4. His enemies thought that he was about to die. And that's in verse 5. And again, it indicates it must have been some fairly serious illness. And they were actually reporting to everyone that he was about to die, verses 7 through 8, and that his disease was a judgment from God. Now, there were other problems that probably were a distraction as well. But the point is that Absalom's strike when a leader is down. when he is weakest and most vulnerable. And Psalm 41 especially speaks of how his enemies had taken advantage of his severe illness. Actually, some commentators have said this might explain why it was that David was not available for judging cases. Remember in verse 3, Absalom complains, oh, there's nobody here to judge your case. I'm not sure that that I mean, it could have been a factor in there, but was David sick for the whole year? Absalom was certainly making those claims the whole year, and there were other deputies. I'm not sure that that's an implication we can make, but what is clear is that at this point, David was deathly sick, and that Absalom took advantage of that. Thirteenth characteristic is that verses seven through nine show a man who isn't interested in complaining to David about what is wrong in the kingdom, what needs fixing, and saying, hey, David, I know there's some issues here. Is there any way I can help you? No, no, no, no. He's the kind of guy who's going to complain to people he knows will not be able to fix the problem, because he didn't want the problem fixed. They're going to become heroes if they fix this problem. He's going to complain about it to others. But I want you to notice in verses 7 through 9, which I'm going to read again, there's not the slightest hint of any discontentment. I mean, you'd think he was the happiest camper in the kingdom when he comes to David at this point. No sign of undermining. Now, it came to pass after 40 years, that Absalom said to the king, please, let me go to Hebron and pay the vow which I made to the Lord, for your servant took a vow while I dwelt in Geshur in Syria, saying, if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron." Now, this is often, not always, but it's often a key to the Absalom syndrome. Make sure you can complain to people who can't fix the problem. For sure, don't complain to the leadership, right? Complain to people who can't fix the problem. Act like there is no trouble when you're around the leaders. David can't fix anything because Absalom has never directly complained to him. The fires are springing up in the background, okay? And he knows they're there, and the Psalms that he wrote during this period express a frustration that David had. There's complaints out there, there's problems, and I can't pin my finger on it. It's probably a situation where, you know, somebody in his court is saying, yeah, well, it's like everybody in the kingdom disagrees with this, David. And he said, well, who in specific is in disagreement? Well, I don't know. in terms of names, but there's rumors floating out there. In fact, in the Psalms, he talks about rumors and he talks about the enemies whispering. You know, it's this idea. It's behind the scenes and he can't pin his finger. He doesn't know where it is. He doesn't know how to fix it. Okay? And this ties in with the next point. In verse 10, we see evidence of prior meetings, plans, and agendas that have been crafted secretly without the awareness of the leadership. Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron." Now, the word spies indicates that this was done in secrecy. The fact that there was no further explanation that was needed shows that those to whom the spies were sent, they already knew what the plans were, what the agendas were. All they're waiting for is the final word, and then they step into action. And that meant that they had been meeting prior to this. And absolums today use secret caucusing. It's one of the things that really troubled me in the PCA when we, as a congregation, were a part of that denomination. At the General Assembly level, there were always, prior to the meetings, these secret caucuses where they would decide how to tell what way to vote on different things and when a certain person would stand up and everybody else would stand up at that time. It was the secret caucusing to get their agendas passed. They would speak in secret things that they would not dare to speak in an open sunshine way, and good churchmen should avoid that. Statesmen should avoid that as well, such kinds of secrecy and being a part of a shadow government. Now there was the temptation for some of us conservatives to do exactly the same thing. We've got to figure out how to oppose the progressives. Let's have our secret meetings and let's do our strategies and how we can use Robert's rules, you know, to get around the system. And I vigorously opposed that. I said, I have no interest in that whatsoever. Discuss things openly, vote them up or down. I can respect losing a vote and moving on. That doesn't bother me at all. Not at all. I can respect people who disagree with me, but I can never respect subterfuge, deceit, secrecy, undermining, and an Absalom spirit. And it's not just in churches that you see this. There's Absaloms who are manipulating behind the scenes at the Congress and the Senate level. They're Absaloms and we need to pray against this demonic spirit. Okay, the 15th thing that we see in this passage is that Absaloms tend to be good leaders. They wouldn't be effective Absaloms if they were not good leaders. In one sense, it's so sad that it's wasted talent, because they are incredible leaders. In fact, they're so good on the points that we looked at last week, that many people follow them without knowing at all any of the damage that's going to come out. Take a look at verse 11. And with Absalom went 200 men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything." And you might think, how is that possible that they could not know anything? Well, believe me, most who help Absaloms have no idea that they are helping a conspiracy. Many of the Obama supporters that I have talked to are not bad people. They were convinced to support Obama because they saw so much of the corruption that was happening in the Republican Party. And when I've talked to them about some of the unconstitutional things that have been going on under the Obama administration as well, it's something puzzling to them. They've gone into this You know, in a sense, deceived. They're not necessarily bad people. Don't assume that when people join maybe the wrong side of a really nasty, bad church split, that the people who joined the bad side are bad people. Maybe they don't have a clue of some of the deceitfulness, the manipulation, the behind-the-scenes problems that were going on. and the negative things of the leader whose leadership they were following. As we saw last week, absolums in politics and business and in church masquerade their treachery with spirituality, kindness, humility, and other good things that they can go undetected at least by some of the people. The 16th principle that we see is that absolums have the power to alienate even David's closest friends. Now, because Joab was hard to get along with, Absalom didn't even bother trying to get Joab to be a part of the conspiracy. His brother Adonijah later does. But he didn't even touch Joab. And because Hushai was such an incredible man of integrity, he didn't dare to try to influence Hushai. In fact, Hushai, he probably would have instantly rebuked it and instantly exposed it. So he just left people like that completely alone. Hushai could not be bought. He could not be blackmailed, flattered, manipulated into joining. Instead, He just leaves him alone. And it reminds me of the Duke of Wellington. We're most familiar with him as the man who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. But he had a long and distinguished career prior to that time. And he was surrounded by a number of Absaloms. But for the most part, I think he avoided involving himself in the Absalom syndrome himself. I'll just give you one example. after the successful battle of Assai in India he was in charge of some of the negotiations and there was a ruler there who really wanted to know what parts he could get acceded to him as a result of these negotiations so he sent an emissary to Wellington and he just pestered him and pestered him for information which would have been totally wrong very wrong for Wellington to reveal but he kept asking for information At one point, this emissary offered him a huge sum of money, which would have made Wellington very, very rich. And Wellington immediately asked, Oh, can you keep a secret? And the man said, Yes, indeed. And Wellington said, So can I. In other words, leave me alone. You know what you're asking for is wrong. I just love it. But I can imagine Hushai scuttling any of Absalom's attempts to include his services because he was totally loyal to David. Ahithophel was a different story. Ahithophel discussed things with Absalom that he should not have. And it's my guess that he was one of the first to join Absalom's group of malcontents. Verse 10, no, excuse me, verse 12. Then Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Giloite, David's counselor from his city, from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices. Now Psalm 41, 7-8 shows that the rumor being spread was that David's sickness was unto death and that would give Absalom a good cover. He could say, hey, David's dying and it's very important for the safety of the kingdom that there be continuity and I'm the next in line as king anyway and so what we're going to do is we're going to not bother David about this, because he's sick. We'll just leave him alone. I'm going to be king anyway, so let's go ahead and get this coronation taken care of. Everything will be hunky-dory. I think it's probably a pretty good story that he could have given to the people. The fact that Ahithophel was part of that false rumor and that strategy is recorded in Psalm 41. There's a couple verses there, and then verse 9 ends by saying, Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." Now the fact that the New Testament applies that to Judas shows that Ahithophel was a Judas and Judas was an Ahithophel. Ahithophel was David's best friend. He ate with him regularly. He was very close to him. He was a confidant of David's. And yet Ahithophel raised his heel up against David. And to put your heel on an enemy is to declare victory over that enemy, to declare dominion over that victory. So in a sense, it's saying Ahithophel is acting treacherously here. He's doing exactly the same thing that Absalom is doing by undermining the current king. Now could an overthrow happen in America? It wouldn't surprise me. Certainly the Absalom syndrome has been strongly at work. Certainly the Constitution has been dethroned. It's treason as far as I'm concerned on the part of many people. Point 17, during this whole time, Absalom has been portraying himself as a man who dearly loved God. a man who loved the church and who was devoted both to God and to the church. Look at verse 12. Then Absalom sent for Hithophel the Giloite, David's counselor, from his city, from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices. And commentators point out that because Gilo was not ever authorized for sacrifices, but Hebron had been, that it was Absalom here who was doing the offering of the sacrifices. I think that's fairly clear. But this is showing his love for God, okay? Treachery right in the midst of worship. And the conspiracy grew strong for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. Now, how people can plot to overthrow a godly man and still pretend to love God and to love God's people is a mystery to me, and yet it happens all the time. All the time. For example, I heard about a man in Long Beach, California who went to a fried chicken place to pick up two dinners, one for himself, one for his date. And the woman who was doing the serving handed him the wrong bag so that when he got to the park and they opened up their dinners, she had chicken, but his had $800 in it. Apparently the manager is used to going to the bank and hiding his money in a bag, making it look like a food takeout thing. Well, meanwhile, back at the fast food restaurant, he is frantic. You know, where is this $800? So when this man comes in with this bag and he gives it to the manager, he says, I want you to know, I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners, wound up with all this money here. And the relieved manager was ecstatic. He said, oh, great. Let me call the newspaper. I'm going to have your picture put in the local newspaper. You're the most honest man I've heard of. Well, the man blanched, and he said, oh, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. Then he leaned closer, and he whispered, you see, the woman I'm with is not my wife. She's someone else's wife. So you've got incredible honesty over here and incredible dishonesty over here. How can the two go hand-in-hand? But they do. They go hand-in-hand all the time. He was a guy who would never cheat with money, and yet it was so easy for him to cheat with another man's wife. With an Absalom, you can have those two things side-by-side. He can look like an indispensable spiritual leader and yet be destroying the church. And of course, the rest of the chapter shows that once there was sufficient discontent and momentum within the kingdom, Absalom could act very, very quickly to destroy David. Now, there are a lot of leader killers in America. We need to make sure we are not one of them. When criticizing church leaders, it's important that we do it like Isaiah or like Nathan the prophet did. Do it one-on-one, to their face, not hiding anything, not undermining behind their backs, basically following Matthew 18. The Absalom spirit is rife in America, and I would urge you to take a stand against it like Hushai did, and like Joab did, and to pray against it. As I mentioned last week, one of the keys, I think, there's a lot of keys to praying for revival and reformation in America, I think one of the keys is to pray against this pervasive spirit of Ahab and Jezebel and Absalom. Once it takes hold and there is momentum that is built, it can do irreparable damage. Now I don't know if there are any Absaloms in this congregation, probably not, but if there were, And or if any of these characteristics of an Absalom are true of you, whether at work or at church, in you or in your children, think about the disastrous consequences in the upcoming chapters that happened as a result of allowing these things to go through and ask God to spare you from that. It's the wisdom of the world, not the wisdom of Christ. Now, Absaloms have in the past repented, and I think in Robert the Bruce is probably one of the best examples of a person who had a massive turnaround. It didn't seem like he really wanted to be an Absalom, but he kept being manipulated into being one by his Ahab-like father. He didn't have the strength to resist that, so he constantly found himself in muddied waters. compromised waters. Well, in the movie Braveheart, there's a powerful scene where there's this altercation between Bruce Sr., his dad, who was a leper, and Bruce himself, Bruce Jr. Leading up to the scene was a battle where Wallace and his men were fighting the English, and he thought that he had the pledge, the promise of the nobles who would fight on his behalf, but unknown to him, those nobles had struck a deal with the king, with Longshanks, And they pulled away with a smirk on their face, and he was completely betrayed. And Robert the Bruce was a part of that betrayal, and he felt sick about it. It was on his conscience. He just felt like he could not get over that. But at this point in the movie, he resolved to not allow that betrayal to define him any longer. Bruce Senior said, I'm the one who's rotting, but I think your face looks graver than mine, son. We must have alliance with England to prevail here. You achieved that. You saved your family, increased your land. In time, you will have all the power in Scotland." And Robert the Bruce responded, lands, titles, men, power, nothing. And Bruce Sr. says, nothing. And you can see the startled look on his face. He's just aghast that his son would even say that. He is so used to operating in this sphere, this demonic sphere, so to speak, he cannot fathom a person who would not play the part. But his son is just broken hearted over this. Bruce Jr. said, I have nothing. Men fight for me because if I do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and children. Those men who bled the ground red at Folkert fought for William Wallace. He fights for something that I never had, and I took it from him when I betrayed him. I saw it in his face on the battlefield, and it's tearing me apart. Bruce Sr. tries to comfort him by saying, all men betray, all lose heart. And Robert says, I don't want to lose heart. I want to believe as he does. I will never be on the wrong side again. And though he never willingly is on the wrong side again, his Ahab-like father manipulates him into once again betraying Wallace. But I think it's such a powerful image. It is really idolatry that drives all Absaloms all Jezebels, all Ahabs. And as we saw last week, that idolatry leaves them empty. It robs them of the very thing that they wish that they had. It leaves them with a leadership that does not inspire anybody. It's not respected by anybody. And it always backfires on them. When you see the demonic actions of Absalom, Jezebel, and Ahab in politics, Please, brothers and sisters, learn to despise that as much as you despise the nobles in that movie Braveheart. And you should despise it. When I look at some of the ways and treasonous ways in which our congressmen and our senators have overturned, shamelessly overturned, the Constitution and used Absalom kind of techniques, it disgusts me. And I think it should disgust all of us. when we see things like that. When you see those demonic actions at work in your business that you're employed at, don't get sucked in by it. Don't join the cause. Learn to despise it. Absalom's can steal your calling. They can steal your kingdom, but they can only steal your heart if you allow them to. Jezebel's may control America in the form of multinational corporations, but don't let them make you bitter. Don't respond in kind. Don't get involved in the Absalom spirit. Don't fall into the same syndrome that drove those Scottish nobles. It's a very, very easy thing to do. Ahabs can fire you from your job for being a principled Naboth and resisting and not doing something that's unethical. Don't let them capture your heart. With Robert the Bruce, say, I don't want to lose heart. I want to believe I will never be on the wrong side again. And as you take that stand, may God receive the glory and may you be richly blessed by Him. Amen. Father, we thank you even for the sobering parts of Scripture, the times that describe our own lives. It's so easy, Father, for our children to fall into this Absalom spirit, for we as parents and and wives, husbands, as leaders to follow the wisdom of the world. And we want to be spared from that. We thank You for Your promise in Jude that You are able to keep us from stumbling. And we pray that You would keep our hearts from stumbling, Father, into these ungodly waves. Help us to operate by the power of Your Spirit. And by the power of Your Spirit, we pray that You would expand Your Kingdom May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May your kingdom come more and more into our lives. We love you, Father, but we want to love you more. We want your glory lifted up. We want the name of your Son exalted in all the earth. And so we pray that even though we feel weak in many ways and insufficient to deal with all of the Ahabs, the Jezebels, the Absaloms that are out there, Yet, Father, help us to never grow weary in doing good, knowing that we will receive a harvest if we do not faint, that our labors in the Lord are not in vain. And so we pray that you would bless this your people with renewed courage, renewed faith, a renewed love for you.