Whyte - Bible Characters Vol 3. - Ahithophel to Nehemiah

BibleCharacters

ahithophel tonehemiah

by

AlexanderWhyte, D.D.

published by

OliphantAnderson and Ferrier

edinburgh and london

Biblecharacters

XLVIII

I AM not going towhitewash and rehabilitate Ahithophel. I am neither to extenuate nor am I todenounce Ahithophel. I shall put myself back into Ahithophels place, and Ishall speak of Ahithophel as I see and feel Ahithophel to have been. I shall domy best to put myself first into Ahithophels place, and then into Davidsplace, and then I shall tell you exactly and honestly what I see and what Ifeel, first as to Ahithophel, and then as to David. But, to begin with, who wasAhithophel, and what were the facts?

Well, Ahithophel was far and away theablest and the most famous politician, as we would say, in that day. Thecounsel of Ahithophel was a proverb in Israel in Davids day. There was no onefit to hold the candle to Ahithophel in that day, unless it was Hushai theArchite, another of Davids astutest counsellors. For the counsel ofAhithophel, says the sacred writer, which he counselled in those days, was asif a man had inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel ofAhithophel both with David and with Absalom.

Ofthose the false Ahithophel was first:

Forclose designs and crooked counsels fit,

Sagacious,bold, and turbulent of wit,

Restless,unfixed in principles and place,

Inpower unpleased, impatient of disgrace;

Afiery soul, which, working out its way,

Frettedthe pigmy body to decay,

Andoer-informed the tenement of clay.

SoDryden describes Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury in his Absalom and Ahithophel,that very able but still more truculent and time-serving piece. Matthew Henryis always worth consulting. Ahithophel was a politic, thinking man, and onethat had a clear head, and a great compass of thought, and so on. If thetraditional interpretation of the fifty-fifth and some other Ahithophel psalmsis true and is to be taken, David and Ahithophel had been bosom friends fromtheir boyhood up. Ahithophel may not have been exactly a Jonathan, and yet hemay have been a very dear and well-deserving friend for all that. David andAhithophel were such close companions, indeed, that had it not been forJonathan, the proverb might have run thusDavid and Ahithophel: so was the soulof David knit to the soul of Ahithophel. Jonathan strengthened Davids hand inGod, it is true; but this out of David and about Ahithophel is almost as good.A man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counseltogether, and walked unto the house of God in company. Till, when Davids timecame to be lifted up of God into the throne of Israel, Ahithophel was proud tolay all his magnificent gifts of sound advice and incomparable counsel atDavids feet. And Ahithophel continued to do that for all the best and mostshining years of Davids kingdom. David never made a law, nor gave a judgment,nor proclaimed a war, nor negotiated a truce, nor signed a peace, tillAhithophel had been heard, and till his advice had been taken. But the sacredwriter has already given you all that, and far more than all that, in one ofhis incomparably strong and satisfying sentences; it was, he says, as if a manhad inquired at the oracle of God.

All that Ahithophel was to David in thecouncil-chamber, all that Eliam, Ahithophels only son, was in the army. Thefathers splendid talents for counsel came out in the shape of soldierlyservice in the son; and the son was as devoted to David in the field as hisfather was in the chamber. Now, Eliam had a daughter at home, a beautifulwoman-child, who was the one ewe-lamb of her father Eliam and her grandfatherAhithophel. And it so happened that Eliam had a very trusty under-officer amongthe captains of the mighty men, whose famous name was Uriah. This Uriah was notan Israelitehe was a Hittite; but he was as brave and as loyal to David as ifhe had been an Hebrew of the Hebrews. And his high talents and his greatservices had carried him to the very top of the six hundred, where he stoodclothed with worth and with honour beside Eliam the son of Ahithophel. With hiswhole soul Uriah loved Eliams daughter, and both Eliam and Ahithophel gave toyoung Uriah the desire of his heart. Davids devoted bodyguard had theirquarters built for them in the city of David, and just under the walls ofDavids palace; and when Uriah came home on furlough, he was the happiest manin all Jerusalem with such a wife, and with Eliam and with Ahithophel. As timewent on, and as Ahithophel counselled for David, and as Eliam and Uriah foughtfor David, Davids power increased till the King of Israel denied himself nothingon which he had once set his heart. And in an evil hour he set his heart onUriahs wife, who was also Ahithophels one grandchild. And it does not need anoracle of God to tell us how Ahithophel took the ruin of his grandchild and themurder of her husband. Ahithophel would have been Jesus Christ Himself to havecontinued after all that to take sweet counsel with David, and to walk withDavid unto the house of God in company. I do not like to listen to all thenames you would have called Ahithophel and Eliam had they still remained inDavids service, and had they still eaten Davids bread, with Bathsheba inDavids bed and with her husband in his grave. I do not know what all you wouldhave called Eliam and Ahithophel had they winked in that way at Davidsadultery and blood-guiltiness.

It was all that Ahithophel could do: heshook the dust off his feet, and Ahithophel returned home out of the city ofDavid to his own city of Giloh. And no sooner had Ahithophel left David thanthe Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan said to David, Thus saith the LordGod of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out ofthe hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy masters house, and gave thee the houseof Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover havegiven unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised thecommandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah theHittite with the edge of the sword, and hast taken his wife, Ahithophels granddaughter,to be thy wife, and hast slain Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon.Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thy house. For thus saith theLord, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house. For thou didstit secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.And, after that, our hearts stand still as we watch how the vengeance of Godcame down on Davids head, and how the vengeance of God travelled, as it alwaysdoes, on stepping-stones which David laid for it with his own hands. As thus:And Amnon loved Absaloms sister. But David did not trouble the spirit ofAmnon, because he was his first-born. And Absaloms servants did to Amnon asAbsalom had commanded. And Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and was there threeyears. And David said, Let him return to Jerusalem, but let him not see myface. And Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And Absalom sent forAhithophel the Gilonite, Davids counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh.And the conspiracy was strong, and the people increased continually withAbsalom. For the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, wasas if a man inquired at the oracle of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophelwith Absalom as it had been wont to be with David.

Absalom had no head of his own. But hehad what was better than ten heads of his own, for he had a head to know thosewho had heads and to send to their cities for them. And with Ahithophels headlike the oracle of God, and with his heart rankling against David like hell,the conspiracy was strong, and the people increased continually with Absalom.Ahithophel was worth ten thousand men to Absalom, and no one knew that betterthan David. And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspiratorswith Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel ofAhithophel into foolishness. And then David took Hushai, his next astutestcounsellor to Ahithophel, and filled him with guile and sent him back todeceive Absalom and to counteract all the counsels of Ahithophel. Which he did.For at the end of all their cross-counsels we read this report and thisreflection of the sacred writer on it all: And Absalom said, The counsel ofHushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord hadappointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that He mightbring evil upon Absalom. Ahithophel gave two of his deepest counsels toAbsalom. Ahithophel has been called Judas, and all manner of evil names, forhis first counsel that he gave to Absalom. And, no doubt, Ahithophels firstcounsel sounds in our ears at this time of day abominable enough. But you willbelieve all things, and will hope all things even about Ahithophel. You willjudge neither Ahithophel nor any other man, without necessity, nor withoutknowledge, nor without love. For Absalom had said to Ahithophel, Give counselamong you what we shall do. And Ahithophel gave Absalom a counsel that you knowalready, or if you do not know it you will read it at home. Nothing, certainly,could sound worse. But, when I put myself in Ahithophels place, for anything Iknow, the so subtle and so sorely injured Ahithophel may honestly enough havesaid something like this to himself. Something, possibly, like this: Has notDavid cast himself completely out of the throne? Has he not destroyed himself?Has he not thrown down the sceptre? Has not the Lord turned against him? Anddid not the Lords righteous servant say that the Lord would do this same thingto David that David had done before all Israel and before the sun? I am onlycounselling Absalom to fulfil as the hand of the Lord what the Lord swore thatHe would do Himself to David. Ahithophels extraordinary and superhumansubtlety may honestly enough have led him to think that he saw in his counselboth prophecy, and policy, and payment back again into Davids own bosom of allthat David had done to other men, and to no man more than to Ahithophelhimself. But whatever may be said about Ahithophels first counsel, his secondcounsel to Absalom is pronounced to be good by the sacred writer; but, then,what of that, when the Lord had appointed to defeat it that the Lord mightbring evil upon Absalom? When we are working upon Ahithophel in this way, andwhen our minds and our hearts are full of Ahithophel, we cannot but wish thatwe had been told some more about him, and especially about his latter end. Butthe sacred writer has to hasten on. He has David and Absalom so much on hismind and on his heart that he draws a black border round Ahithophels deathbedin these terrible words, and then leaves him: And when Ahithophel saw that hiscounsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home tohis own house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself,and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.