And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this thy kindness to thy friend? why wentest thou not with thy friend?
Absalom's words are a direct challenge to Hushai, David's friend, demanding whether this is his kindness to his friend and why he did not go with his friend. The question turns on loyalty, testing Hushai's apparent desertion of David at the moment of rebellion.
The verse stands in the account of David fleeing from Jerusalem and warring against Absalom in Absalom's rebellion. That flight is the circumstance that occasioned Psalm 3. It follows David's sin against Uriah and the disgrace and sorrow that came upon him through his sons Amnon and Absalom.
The larger story is the troubles in David's family told in chapters 13 to 20. It is part of the history in 2 Samuel 11-24 and 1 Kings 1-2. That history revolves around the beautiful Absalom and includes his base conduct, the treachery of Ahithophel, the cursing of Shimei, and the fear and flight of the king on his pathetic journey that touched the hearts of old friends, ending in Absalom's defeat and his father's sorrow over his wicked son's fate.
Those family miseries, including disgrace and sorrow through Amnon and Absalom, are traced largely to the evil of David multiplying wives to himself. That produced a large family of children by different wives in which idleness, luxury, and jealousy developed unenviable characters. Absalom's ambitions were roused by fulsome flattery poured out upon a shrewd and handsome prince.
The rebellion and unnatural crimes within David's family form the retribution and judgments that followed David's great wickedness against Uriah. They came in complete accomplishment of the prophet Nathan's denunciation. David received suffering in his own family in the same kind as the wrong he had done, so that wrongdoing brings suffering back in kind. That wickedness gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme and is neither covered up nor excused, while David himself placed on record a most humble confession of his great transgression.
Hushai was David's friend, and his counsel to Absalom caused about three months' delay between Absalom's occupation of Jerusalem and Absalom's death. That delay gave David time to number his adherents and thoroughly organize his army under experienced generals. It answered David's prayer for Ahithophel's counsel to be turned to foolishness. Absalom used the time rallying superior numbers to his standard, but numbers counted for nothing against David's trained heroes because God was not with Absalom.
The history teaches that walking contrary to God's laws brings suffering because every transgression of divine law carries its inherent curse even when God does not openly reprove and may seem to wink at blindness. Wrongdoing brings suffering back in kind. However loud the profession, however large the following, however flattering the prospects, ultimate failure is certain if God is not in the move.
The question rebukes professed friends of Christ who will not go into all the world to preach the gospel to perishing millions. It shows that true friendship requires going in person. Preaching at home, directing, collecting, or giving cannot replace it.
Absalom's words are a direct challenge to Hushai, David's friend, demanding whether this is his kindness to his friend and why he did not go with his friend. The question turns on loyalty, testing Hushai's apparent desertion of David at the moment of rebellion.
The verse stands in the account of David fleeing from Jerusalem and warring against Absalom in Absalom's rebellion. That flight is the circumstance that occasioned Psalm 3. It follows David's sin against Uriah and the disgrace and sorrow that came upon him through his sons Amnon and Absalom.
The larger story is the troubles in David's family told in chapters 13 to 20. It is part of the history in 2 Samuel 11-24 and 1 Kings 1-2. That history revolves around the beautiful Absalom and includes his base conduct, the treachery of Ahithophel, the cursing of Shimei, and the fear and flight of the king on his pathetic journey that touched the hearts of old friends, ending in Absalom's defeat and his father's sorrow over his wicked son's fate.
Those family miseries, including disgrace and sorrow through Amnon and Absalom, are traced largely to the evil of David multiplying wives to himself. That produced a large family of children by different wives in which idleness, luxury, and jealousy developed unenviable characters. Absalom's ambitions were roused by fulsome flattery poured out upon a shrewd and handsome prince.
The rebellion and unnatural crimes within David's family form the retribution and judgments that followed David's great wickedness against Uriah. They came in complete accomplishment of the prophet Nathan's denunciation. David received suffering in his own family in the same kind as the wrong he had done, so that wrongdoing brings suffering back in kind. That wickedness gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme and is neither covered up nor excused, while David himself placed on record a most humble confession of his great transgression.
Hushai was David's friend, and his counsel to Absalom caused about three months' delay between Absalom's occupation of Jerusalem and Absalom's death. That delay gave David time to number his adherents and thoroughly organize his army under experienced generals. It answered David's prayer for Ahithophel's counsel to be turned to foolishness. Absalom used the time rallying superior numbers to his standard, but numbers counted for nothing against David's trained heroes because God was not with Absalom.
The history teaches that walking contrary to God's laws brings suffering because every transgression of divine law carries its inherent curse even when God does not openly reprove and may seem to wink at blindness. Wrongdoing brings suffering back in kind. However loud the profession, however large the following, however flattering the prospects, ultimate failure is certain if God is not in the move.
The question rebukes professed friends of Christ who will not go into all the world to preach the gospel to perishing millions. It shows that true friendship requires going in person. Preaching at home, directing, collecting, or giving cannot replace it.