Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: If you seek counsel on an issue in your life, be careful who you choose. Here's Pastor Jeff to explain why.

It can bring confusion and it can bring defeat if one is counseling from the word of God and the other one is counseling by what they feel is right, their philosophy. So you go to one person and you hear the word and you go, "Oh, that's interesting." Now I'm going to go to this person and ask them. And then they give you another whole way to look at it. And you go, "Hmm, now I'm confused." I thought having many counselors is great.

Well, yeah, when they're all counseling from the word and they all confirm one another and you're sitting there just getting hit by the word left and right, the same thing over and over. You go, "Wow, I guess I've got to do what God says."

Guest (Male): Welcome to Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Today we'll continue our study of Second Samuel by turning to chapter 17. David is a new man and has repented from his sin and is seeking to make things right. Bathsheba's grandfather Ahithophel has stored bitterness and resentment in his heart over the course of a 10-year period.

And now we're about to see him launch a rebellion against David. We'll learn that vengeance is never our right and forgiveness is a must. Here's Pastor Jeff in Second Samuel 17.

Jeff Johnson: This morning we're in Second Samuel chapter 17. Starting a new chapter, chapter 17 of Second Samuel. I don't know if you've ever heard this saying, but I think it's true: oh, what an evil web we weave when we at first deceive. David definitely started this whole thing. David here is caught in the middle. His worst nightmare now is upon him as he's driven from Jerusalem by his own son whom I believe he loved very much.

Especially after losing one son, now his heart was going out towards his rebellious son. Now he gets totally driven from Jerusalem. Many are turning against him. Those who he thought were friends are turning against him. There's some that are cursing him and throwing stones at him as he's leaving Jerusalem. His son now, who is in Jerusalem as he goes off into the wilderness, David knows the wilderness. He's been there before.

He understands the Lord's directing him out there again, and I'm sure he's very open to what God has at this point. God's definitely got his attention. But now his son is in Jerusalem. Ahithophel, who is remember, David's old counselor and friend—you have to put a question mark on that. But he turns against David and in Psalm 41 verse nine it says, "Yea, my own familiar friend," David says, "in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me."

And he was speaking of Ahithophel. Ahithophel is now giving counsel to Absalom as Absalom is taking over Israel. And remember over in chapter 16 verse 23 we see Ahithophel's counsel. And he says, "And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom."

His counsel it says was like the word of God. Interesting. It was authoritative. It seemed to be very wise. So it was very like the word of God, but here's the key: it wasn't the word of God. You see, we need to know God's word, don't we? And there is no new revelation. Sorry about that, Mormons. There is no Latter-day revelation. In fact, I found a scripture in Galatians chapter one that I think really Paul is trying to make the point here.

He says in Galatians 1 verse 8, "But though we, or an angel," Moroni? "from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed or damned." And we said before, so I say now again, "If any man," Joseph Smith or whoever it might be, "gives you any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be accursed or damned."

There is no new revelation. We have the word of God, thank God, to go by. Nobody's going to slip something in in the 1800s. In the late 1800s, we had both Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons share that they now have a Latter-day revelation from God. Just to confuse things, and the enemy is definitely a part of that. We have God's word. We have his counsel and we need to saturate ourselves in the word of God because even Jesus said, "You will know the truth and then the truth will set you free."

So it's very important that we know God's word. In fact, Paul saying goodbye to the elders at Miletus, he said, "And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all of them which are sanctified." And he just said, "Hey, I'm just going to give you to God and to his word. I know it's powerful. I know if you just study it, get into it, it'll deliver you, it'll set you aside, it'll bless your life.

So I just give you to God's word. I know there's wolves coming. I know there's people going to come try to rip you off. But if you've got his word, you've got it made." And so I give you to the word of God. Now get into it. The sword of the spirit, you know? The times of battle against our enemies. Jesus said, "It is written, Satan." And how we need to be able to quote the word, to know the word, to come against these lies and deception of the enemy and say, "It is written."

I love that scripture in Hebrews 4:12 where it says it's a two-edged sword cutting asunder the soul and the spirit, the intents of the heart. Goes deep to reveal that it is of God or that what is of God and what is not of God. God's word is here. All counsel, I believe, is to be judged by God's word. Anybody saying, "Thus saith the Lord," you check it out and you judge it by God's word.

So in order to do that, you've got to realize I've got to get to know it. If somebody says this and I go, "That sounded weird, but maybe God did say that," you just got snowed and you're going to get hurt. There's going to be a lot of lies coming out in these last days, a lot of deception. Are you going to be one that's going to be deceived? You need to say, "No, I don't want to be deceived. I want to know what God says. I want to be able to stand on it myself, be fully persuaded in my own heart."

What the Bible says. So we need to get into it, see it as a benchmark, see it as our answer book, and if it's not in here, then dump it. Get rid of it. Don't do it if it's not in the word of God. Now remember, Ahithophel is Bathsheba's grandfather and is very angry at David because, remember what he did to his granddaughter? Killed her husband Uriah. So he's angry. Now Jerusalem is Absalom's and Ahithophel sees that this is his time to get back at David.

But we know this, that vengeance is not sweet. Oh, you might want it and you might try to get it, but when you get it, it's not going to fulfill that void. It's not going to do anything for you. You're still going to be hurting. So let's get to chapter 17 verse one. "Moreover, Ahithophel said unto Absalom, 'Let me now choose out 12,000 men and I will rise and pursue after David this night. And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and I will make him afraid, and all the people that are with him shall flee, and I will smite the king only.'"

Now remember we've been talking through here about dealing with your anger, dealing with bitterness that you might have in your life. If you do not deal with it, it will consume you and it could drive you to even murder. You say, "No way, I would never commit murder." But remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, when he said, "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, 'Thou shalt not kill.' Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother—if you hate your brother," Jesus goes on to say, "you committed murder. If you're angry with your brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother 'Raca' shall be in danger of the council. Whosoever shall say 'Thou fool' shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has ought against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go your way, first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift."

So God's saying, "Hey, listen, before you pray and you've got hatred and anger in your life, don't come to me with that. Come to me with your heart that's been reconciled. Come to me with a heart that has dealt with the issue. Go to that individual, seek reconciliation. All you can do is try." And the Lord says, "I'll help you. I'll go with you." Believe me, this'll set you free. So you can then go before the Lord and begin to pray for that individual.

And man, when you get to that point where you're praying for that individual, you know you've been delivered from bitterness and anger. It's great when you can pray for your enemies. And God wants to do that with us. He wants to set us free. Note the strategy that Ahithophel uses here. Now the Prussians also used this type of strategy, and today Israel also has this type of strategy. And what is that? But they hit them hard and quick.

Our Marines are another group of individuals that always have learned to hit hard and hit quick. Why? Because they are small groups. And these small groups of individuals that are mighty men cannot last the long siege and they know that. And so they hit quick. They hit fast and hard. Remember with Israel with Entebbe? They hit quick. And remember Israel with Iraq? They hit quick and they're just into that. And that's exactly what he's saying here.

Now someone has said this: winning isn't everything, but losing is nothing. So fight to win. And so Israel thinks this way. Ahithophel is saying, "Let's just go for it and let's hit hard and fast." Verse three, "And I will bring back all the people unto thee," talking to Absalom, "and the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned. So all the people shall be in peace." And the saying, it says, pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel.

Ahithophel was just saying, "I just need to kill David. If I kill David, the people are going to be broken and they're going to come unto you as their king then. We just need to get rid of David." So Absalom it says is pleased. You see Absalom was David's son and he hated his father's rejection of his life. He hated his father's bad example. He just hated his father and he wanted his father dead. Great relationship, right?

Here you have a son, you bear a son and you love your son and your son is raised up and then he turns on you, hates you and wants to kill you. But remember this: the same way that you judge, so shall you be judged. And so we see the end of anger and bitterness. We see that it brings separation and it brought separation in this family. And eventually it will bring death, not only to Ahithophel but also to Absalom.

It's interesting what Paul says, or actually the writer of Hebrews—which I believe is Paul—he says in Hebrews 12, "Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." So seek peace. "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many be defiled." So seek to live at peace with your brothers and sisters.

Seek to live with peace at those that you work with. With everything that's in you, seek to live peaceably. Why? Because you get caught up in anger and bitterness, and it will not only be a cloud over your own life, but it'll start to hurt those around you. You see, Absalom not only hated his father, but he got everybody else to hate his father. Bitterness and anger breeds bitterness and anger. And you turn people against other people because of the way that you're feeling.

Notice that the elders also in verse four were pleased. These were supposedly old friends of David's, the elders of Israel. So Absalom's rebellion has been very successful. He's won over all the elders' hearts. And now he's got them to turn against David. So the true colors are really being revealed here. And I believe that God is doing some house cleaning. He is beginning to reveal the rebels. You see they're coming to the surface.

Those that are against David, those that David needs to know about, those that David needs to deal with, they're all coming to the surface. So verse five, "Then said Absalom, 'Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.'" Now do you remember Hushai? He's in chapter 15 verse 32 through 34. He was an old guy that came to David, that wanted to go with David. And David said, "No, you're too old, the trip's going to be too hard for you.

What I want you to do, Hushai, is go back into Jerusalem and I want you to there be my spy, my double agent to win over number one the king's heart." And remember in chapter 16 verse 16, that's when Hushai started to say, "Save now the king," and looked at Absalom and he just really snowed him really good and won him over. And got him to trust him. And then he was also called by David to go in and to defeat Ahithophel's counsel.

So Absalom wants another opinion. He says, "I appreciate your counsel, Ahithophel, but now I want Hushai to come in and give me his counsel." Now remember we talked about this, that it is a blessing to have many counselors, isn't it? Blessed is the man surrounded with many counselors. But let me say this about multitude of counselors: there is a downside to it. And the downside is simply this: it can bring confusion and it can bring defeat if one is counseling from the word of God and the other one is counseling by what they feel is right, their philosophy.

So you go to one person and you hear the word and you go, "Oh, that's interesting." Now I'm going to go to this person and ask them. And then they give you another whole way to look at it. And you go, "Hmm, now I'm confused." I thought having many counselors is great. Well, yeah, when they're all counseling from the word and they all confirm one another and you're sitting there just getting hit by the word left and right, same thing over and over. You go, "Wow, I guess I've got to do what God says."

And here's another point. You know how people, they want to hear what they want to hear? And if they don't hear it from one pastor and the pastor gives them the word of God, then they say, "Well, I'm upset. I didn't like what that guy said. I'm going to go to the next pastor." And then you go to the next pastor and, "I don't like what he said." And you go to the next one, next one until finally you get one that just tells you what you want to hear and you go, "Oh, now that's the guy I want to hear."

And people do it all the time. They're running from the truth. They do not want to hear the truth that will set them free. And so there's confusion coming in in this counseling. But here God anoints Hushai's counsel to overthrow Ahithophel's. Note verse six. "When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke unto him saying, 'Ahithophel has spoken after this manner. Shall we do after his saying? And if not, speak.'"

And so Hushai said unto Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good at this time." Note this, he doesn't say Ahithophel's counsel is no good. He says it's just not good at this time. You see timing is everything with God. Timing is everything. There's a song we sing: He makes all things beautiful in His time. And we must learn to wait upon the Lord, to wait for His timing. And then the scripture says he'll renew our strength.

So he's saying that his counsel at this time is not good. And then he says in verse eight, "For," said Hushai, "thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men and that they be chafed in their minds as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field. And thy father is a man of war and will not lodge with the people." Just like you know Arafat, he always bounces around from one village to another. He never lodges with the people because he doesn't want to be in one place because he knows they're going to get him.

So every night stays every night in a different home. That's his life, fearing for his life. David was also a man of war, he was also wise, he would never stay with the people. He would always have a different place to stay in and behold, he is hidden now in some pit or in some other place. And it will come to pass when some of them be overthrown at first when the first assault comes in, that whosoever heareth it will say, "There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom."

In other words, they will fear and they'll flee. And he also that is valiant whose heart is as the heart of a lion shall utterly melt. For all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man and that they which be with him are valiant men. And this is his really, his wise counsel. David, he says to Absalom, is a very angry man at this time. He has been kicked out of Jerusalem. He's like a bear that gets his little—the bear's cubs get taken away from him.

And have you ever seen a mama bear looking for her baby bears? Man, you're talking about one mad bear. You don't even want to be in the same forest as that bear. Because they're ripping everything up. And he's been around a long time. I mean, this guy's going to be hard to take. I mean, listen, he's a veteran warrior. He knows the land, the terrain, and he's got the advantage. And he'll get the underhand and he'll take you guys out and you'll lose and your men are going to panic as soon as the first assault hits.

You're going to see how valiant a fighter David is. So Hushai is pointing out the holes in Ahithophel's counsel. Ahithophel said, "Alls we need to do is go in and get David." But Hushai says, "Yeah, but you must consider David and just what kind of guy you're dealing with here." Verse 11, "Therefore I counsel this, that all of Israel be generally gathered unto thee from Dan to Beersheba." That's always a term for all of Israel. Because Dan is in the northern part, Beersheba is in the southern part.

And when you say from Dan to Beersheba, you cover it all. We used to have trips to Israel and we used to call it from Dan to Beersheba because literally when we take groups there, we go from one end of Israel to the other and we're pilgrims in the land. So we see it all. It's a very small country. It's 50 miles by 300 miles. So you can see it all in a few weeks, you can see the whole thing. "So from Dan to Beersheba as the sand that is by the sea for multitude and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falls from the ground. And of him then of all the men that are with him there shall not be one left so much as one. Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all of Israel bring ropes to that city and we will draw it to the river until there be not one small stone found there." Now here's Hushai's counsel. And he says, "Here's what I think you should do."

First of all, I want you to include all of Israel. 12,000 men aren't enough to fight David. Can you imagine? David's just got a few hundred guys out there and he's going through the wilderness and Ahithophel says, "Well, just give me 12,000 guys, I'll take David out." Okay, sounds pretty good, huh? 12,000 against a few hundred? But now Hushai's saying, "I want take all of Israel. Get the multitudes to go after David. You'll be able to wipe him out and all the traitors with him."

In other words, it'll be a mass slaughter. "And if he seeks refuge in a city, then we'll just level the city. We'll consume them." And Ahithophel's counsel remember was just to kill David. But Hushai wants to wipe them all out. And he really was playing on Absalom's arrogance and his pride because he says, "And Absalom, you lead them. You get the victory, you get the glory. You lead them in this mighty attack against David and slaughter of his men."

And that really was he liked that. He knew he would like that because he's the new king and me lead them. "Yes, it sounds—the multitudes, right? All of Israel behind me, right? Yeah, you lead them. Yeah, I think I'll have enough men," and it's going to his head. Notice verse 14. "Absalom and all the men of Israel said, 'The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.' For the Lord has appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom."

If you note David's prayer in chapter 15 verse 31 of Second Samuel. Very interesting prayer in the last part of verse 31 of chapter 15. He says, "O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." And I want you to notice that his prayer wasn't exactly answered the way he wanted it to be. Because Ahithophel's counsel was not foolishness. It was very wise counsel.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Johnson is currently teaching us from the 17th chapter of Second Samuel and the story of Ahithophel. This is Sound Doctrine. We house all of our Second Samuel studies at sounddoctrineradio.org. This comes in handy should you miss a study or two on the radio, or just want to hear something again, or even share it with someone you know. This study and more are available now at sounddoctrineradio.org under messages.

You can also listen at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio podcast app. And of course, speaking of podcasts, Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts. And that includes Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This program is made possible through the support of our listeners. To make a contribution to the ministry, just visit sounddoctrineradio.org and click on giving. Be sure to join us next time when Pastor Jeff will return to Second Samuel on Sound Doctrine, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Downey.