Designed 2 Disgrace, Designed 2 Destroy (1): God has another plan
Text2 Sam 16:21-17:2, 17:7, 14
Introduction
There are some people who are just like a bomb waiting to explode; you could almost hear them ticking away when they come near you. They appear normal, they talk normal, walk normal, come to church like normal church people, praise God like normal believers and you can have normal conversations with them about almost every issue under the sun. But whenever you bring up certain subjects they have issues with or you introduce certain issues related to their past, it is like pulling the trigger. Bang! If you are not careful, they may explode. These sorts of people are those carrying a grudge, those who have been offended by something or someone in the past, and this past may be years and years before.
Let’s pause and ask the question: What is a grudge? The dictionary defines it as a “cherished dislike,” which is like someone cherishing what he or she dislikes, someone holding tight to what they abhor. Extraordinary isn’t it. It really doesn’t make send hold on something you dislike when there are loads of things you can like and hold on to: like the Holy Spirit, like righteousness, like holiness, like your wife, like your husband, like your children, like the Word of God! But these people keep on holding to what they loath, what they detest, until it swallows them completely! Cherished dislike, an oxymoron, a combination of contrasting words that ordinarily doesn’t ordinarily make sense, but it is the contrast in the two words that vividly illustrate what grudge really is.
There are four main characters in my message today: a man in the second book of Samuel known as Ahithophel, David the King, his son Absalom and a true friend of David called Hushai. Ahithophel was a walking bomb, waiting to explode, David had allowed sin into his home and kingdom, Absalom was mounting a rebellion against his father, and Hushai it was that God used to keep David alive! Now, let’s consider a few key points today:
1. Carrying a grudge makes you bitter and bitter people don’t get better
If you are carrying a grudge, you are a bitter person and bitterness has been described as strong, unpleasant, sharp in taste; being resentful, angry, hostile and very cold. The Bible goes further by talking about the root of bitterness, in other words, bitterness has a root. See Heb. 12:15. If you haven’t noticed, bitterness takes you away from God’s grace, it takes you farther from your destiny; in fact it is a destiny destroyer. Why does the bible talk about its root? Because roots start out by being hidden in the soil, just like bitterness starts out unnoticed, like a benign tumour that grows and becomes cancerous if it is not surgically removed. Bitterness begins hidden within the soil of your heart; its roots are entwined around the heart and mind, until they choke the life out of you emotionally and spiritually. If left to grow unchecked, the root of bitterness will cast a huge shadow over everything you are, over everything you do and it will dominate your life. And once the root of bitterness is immersed inside of you, you will find it extremely difficult in becoming better in whatever you are doing.
2. A good person can also be a “grudge person”
Ahithophel was a good man who worshiped God and the Bible says he sacrificed to God (2 Sam. 15:12) which means he was a believer of sorts. He was a smart man whose counsel was like that of God (2 Sam. 16:23). The Bible says his advice is like that of someone who inquired from the Lord. His advice was always accurate, always spot on. He was a wise, because only a wise man could be a counsellor to a great King like David. David trusted his advice and direction. He was an influential man who had direct access to the King. He could approach the King at any time of the day or night. He was a great friend companion of the king. In Psalms 41:9, David described him as his great friend. Yet, despite being a good worshiper, a wise counsellor a great friend and companion of the King, he was a time bomb, he was carrying a grudge, he was bitter, angry and hostile, because of an experience that he was not able to get over. An ordinarily normal and friendly man was wound up tighter than a clock. And he was ready to explode. He was good, but the grudge in him eventually squeezed out the good. What a tragedy.
3. Bitterness Overshadows Smartness
This wise man’s inside was being eaten by an event that happened years before. On the outside he looked normal, which tells you that inside a ‘normal person’ there may be an abnormal situation. The Bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked. In Matthew 23, Jesus described the Scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites. He likens them to a white washed tomb that is bright and beautiful on the outside, but rough and rotten on the inside where dead bodies lay. The word hypocrite originates from a word that means an actor, one who plays a part. And in the famous Greek tragedies of old, a single actor would often play many parts, wearing a different mask for each part. He will transition from one part to other by switching one mask for another. Hence, a hypocrite is someone who plays different roles by hiding behind different masks.
So, to conceal your bitterness, you hide your face behind a mask, you pretend to be someone’s friend, while inside of you, there is nothing but hatred. That makes you a hypocrite. That’s why some people are really great on Sunday mornings, but if you meet them on Monday evening, they are more of demons that believers who listen to great sermons. On Sunday, they put on their holy mask and on other days they put on their hatred mask. For this kind of people, what you see is far from what you get. If you are wearing a mask today, remember, absolutely nothing is hidden from God. (Heb. 4:13)
4. Sin creates the greatest opening for spiritual attack
You may not like this, but I am here to let you know that the devil is waiting for you to fall into sin and sin is one way of removing God’s hedge from around you. Once you are no longer protected, sin jumps in! Resist the devil and he will flee from you, but if you frolic with the devil, you are frolicking with sin. The Bible makes us understand that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and sent her husband to his untimely death. This terrible sin and David’s failure to mange his own house stripped respect from him and everything went spinning out of his control. His son Amnon raped his step sister Tamar, Absalom then killed Amnon in return, and thereafter went into exile in Geshur, Syria for three years.
When Absalom eventually came back to Jerusalem, he was convinced that he, not David should sit on the throne of Israel, and he started working against David his father. (See 2 Sam 15:6) The Bible says he stole the heart of the people and after four year of undermining his father, he lied to him that he was going to Hebron to fulfil a vow to the Lord. Isn’t it unbelievable that some people lie in the name of the Lord to? Absalom went to Hebron not to fulfil his vow but to plan the overthrow David. He was putting an army and a shadow cabinet together ready to attack Jerusalem. And he took 200 people with him, people who were innocent of his plans. Have you come across people who lead you on without telling you where there are taking you and when you realised that you are not exactly happy to be where they have led you it would be too late to do something about it?
And he invited Ahithophel to join him. Because he was able to attract people of the calibre of Ahithophel, people who were close to David, others began to think, well, maybe something good is happening here. So, the big question is how was Absalom able to get Ahithophel to leave David his friend and join him against his friend and companion? The answer: Absalom knew something about him that he was about to exploit. You know that there are some people who are aware of poor choices you have made in the past and are waiting to exploit that to their own advantage? Maybe you have confided in someone and now they are threatening to release your secret? Absalom knew Ahithophel was a walking time bomb, that he was carrying a very heavy grudge, a cherished dislike about David his friend. It was David’s sin that let to disarray in his house, so watch out.
5. At the root of most bitterness is a grudge
What was the grudge Ahithophel was carrying? When Absalom rebelled against David his father, Ahithophel saw his chance to avenge the injustice against his house by David and he joined the rebellion against his friend and companion. The Bible in 2 Sam 23:34 listed a man named Eliam as one of the leaders of David. Eliam happened to be the son of, guess, Ahithophel. In other words, Ahithophel had a son named Eliam. And Eliam happened to have a daughter named, you won’t believe this, Bathsheba, yes the same Bathsheba that David slept with (2 Sam 11:2), Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. It is becoming interesting isn’t it?
This makes Bathsheba the granddaughter of Ahithophel and the wife of Uriah the Hittite whom David sent to his death. Now the grudge, the cherished dislike: Bathsheba the grand-daughter of Ahithophel was taken from her husband and her husband was killed by David. To Ahithophel, David was responsible and he should be punished. The action of David made him bitter, angry and resentful. Grudge bearers are always looking for those to team up with against the object of their grudge. Absalom was alienated from his father and Ahithophel used that opportunity to participate in the rebellion. Absalom thought he was using Ahithophel and Ahithophel thought he was using Absalom. What they didn’t know was that both were using each other! God!
6. Grudge is often the motive behind Revenge
So, Absalom asked Ahithophel, the wise one for advice: How should we attack David my father the King? Ahithophel then gave Absalom two pieces of advice:
The first advice was designed to disgrace David 16:21-23. He advised him to sleep with David’s concubines. He had an insider’s information that 10 of David’s concubines were left behind when David was fleeing from the sword of Absalom. There are people who are always looking out to use information they have about you against you, especially when they know that without such treachery and manipulation, they couldn’t harm you. Everyone who is trying to disgrace you will be disgraced, in the name of Jesus.
Ahithophel used privileged information against his friend and companion. He knew if Absalom slept with his father’s concubines – which he did on the same roof where David saw Bathsheba – it would be a public disgrace to his father which would create a rift between father and son, a rift that could never be healed. Any outsiders who are trying to get between you and your wife or husband will be disgraced in Jesus name. Absalom’s disgraceful action of sleeping with his father’s concubines confirmed the coming to pass of Nathan’s prophesy. See 2 Sam 12:11.
Ahithopel’s second advice was designed to destroy King David. In 2 Sam 17:1-4, Ahitophel asked Absalom give him 12,000 men which he Ahithophel will lead to war against David, that he would attack David when he was weak and weary, he would kill only the king and bring back the people. Because of his grudge, he wanted to kill David himself and had this second piece of advice been followed, it is possible that David would have been killed. Remember, Ahithopel’s counsel is always spot on. But God had another plan! In your situation God will have another plan!
7. God the Great Counsellor is able to cancel any cancerous Counsel
There was a man called Hushai who was David’s friend (2 Sam 15:37, 16; 16) and a true friend for that matter, not friends with various masks playing various roles. I pray that God will bring your way great friends not mask wearers. Hushai had originally planned to go with David when he fled from Absalom, but at the King’s request, he stayed behind in the city to try to overthrow the counsel of Ahithophel.
Instead of heeding the counsel of Ahithophel, something was telling Absalom to seek an alternative counsel. It was God who caused Absalom to seek an alternative counsel and here comes Hushai into the discussion. Now Hushai wasn’t exactly renowned for giving great advice, but on this occasion, God had a plan. After Hushai had gained Absalom’s confidence, he contradicted the wise counsel of Ahithophel and says Absalom, don’t do as the great Ahithophel said, go to battle yourself. He appealed to Absalom’s ego, he appealed to his vanity. If you Absalom kill the most decorated king in Israel’s history everyone will respect you and providentially, God made Absalom to believe the counsel of Hushai and he said: Let us take Hushai’s advice, not Ahithophel’s! (2 Sam: 17:14).
And when Ahithophel realised that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey, went to his hometown, set his affairs in order, and hanged himself. A good man, a wise man, a smart man who never recovered from his grudge, his bitterness, killed himself. If you look at 2 Sam 17:14, you will discover that God was working for David in the background by cancelling Ahithopel’s counsel. The Bible says God was determined to do that, and I believe this was in response to David’s prayer in 2: Sam 15:31 when he asked God to turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness. Pray today that any ungodly counsel against you - by those who are nursing secret grudges you may not even be aware of – into foolishness.
