Ahithophel –the Ticking Bomb

I’ve read a number of stories about people who have tried to disarm bombs and maybe they have blown up in their face. Handling a ticking bomb could be a very dangerous thing.

Have you ever know a person that’s like a ticking bomb? They seem like a normal people, but you get on a certain subject and they explode. There’s a certain thing that is like a trigger, and if you talk about that thing with that person, it just sets them off. They’re time bombs. The smallest static electricity set them off. A comment, a word.

One thing that makes for unstable people and people that are time bombs is when they carry a grudge. They’ve been offended about something or certain subject, and you bring that subject up and they’re explosive.

As a pastor, I would visit people like that. Maybe they weren’t going to church any more, and they had a reason that they weren’t going to church. And if you wanted to find it out, you would go and sit down and talk with them and mention them coming back to church, and poof, explosion. Because there was something they felt injured about, that they were carrying, and that had built up a lot of gunpowder in their lives. They were carrying a grudge.

The dictionary defines a grudge as a “cherished dislike”. Isn’t that an interesting word? Cherished dislike. Now, it’s one thing to cherish something that you like. That makes sense. You wife, your children, your God; but when we cherish something that we don’t like, what’s going on?...

ILL. This is an oxymoron - words in combination that simply don’t make sense. Soft rock. There’s no such thing as soft rock, is there? Working vacation. Or, Almost saved. These words just don’t go together. That’s an oxymoron. To cherish a dislike is an oxymoron. That’s what carrying a grudge is. It’s a wound that we grab to ourselves and that we hang on to.

Imagine someone who loves their wound, you know. They broke their arm and they cherish it: “Wow, I love that. Isn’t it great? I mean, look at that!”…. People who are carrying a grudge are displaying wounds, are cherishing wounds, and they’re time bombs. Because if you touch that wound, they explode. You never know when they’ll explode.

Ahithophel was a time bomb. He was a person like that. Normal under all circumstances, seemed to be a friendly person, a very bright person, good friend of King David, but he was wound up tighter than a clock. And he was ready to explode. Now, it wasn’t that he was unintelligent. He was a very intelligent man, but there was a part of his life that he was really stupid in. Even smart people can do some really stupid things.

2 Samuel 16:23 – “Now in those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel’s advice”.

Isn’t that amazing? When it came to judgment in most things, talking with Ahithophel it was like you were talking to God. How would you like that said about you? "When you get counsel from Pastor Ovidiu, it’s like you’re asking God."

We read in 1 Chronicles 27:33 that Ahithophel was the king’s counselor. Now, not only was Ahithophel a wise man, but as the king’s counselor he had a lot of status in the kingdom because any time the king had a problem, he would call for Ahithophel. He would have access to the palace and to David directly. Any time the king wanted good information, he asked Ahithophel. It would be like today, President Obama always calling you for advice. "I need to know what to do in the Middle East. What do you need me to tell you what to do?"

He would have a lot of say in the kingdom. But Ahithophel, as wise as he was, was loaded up with gunpowder. He was a time bomb. He was carrying a grudge. He was full of bitterness, anger and hostility because of an experience that he had, that he was not able to get over. What was the grudge that he was carrying?

What is the grudge that you’re carrying? Are you carrying something? Is there something in your life that is building up the gunpowder, of being a time bomb that if someone touches you on that subject it really sets you off? Maybe it was something you were injured about. Maybe some individual that did something totally wrong to you. Is there someone, is there something in your life that sets you off?

Let’s see what set Ahithophel off. You remember the story in the Bible that Absalom rebelled against David. The Bible said he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And we can read about it in 2 Samuel 15:2-4. (read)