David's Prayer And Plans

Title: David’s Prayer And Plans
Date: 20th Aug 2017
Preacher: Rev. Wong Siow Hwee

For this year’s Jubilee Pit-Stop (church retreat), the theme was “Co-create your life with God”. When we set a theme like this, the Jubilee community is taking a theological stand. We are saying that your life is not pre-determined by God. Your actions and your decisions matter in shaping your own future. You are not a robot or puppet under remote control by God. You are not just an actor going through the motions in a play fully-scripted by God. We are taking a theological stand against that conclusion. At the same time, as much as your actions and your decisions matter in shaping your own future, we also want to acknowledge that God also matters in our lives. We do not live our lives as the masterminds of our fate. We do not think of God as a convenient divine power to be used like how we use money or technology. So what are we saying? We are saying that co-creating your life with God is a dynamic and collaborative process. Our actions and decisions do matter. But we are also equally interested in God’s actions and decisions, because we believe that God’s actions and decisions should and do matter for our lives. This was what I said at Jubilee Pit-Stop 2017.

And today, I will demonstrate how such a theology came into play in David’s life. I will first show you God’s actions and decisions. Then I will show you David’s actions and decisions. And the result of the interaction of the actions and decisions of both sides was the co-creation of David’s life. David’s fate appeared to be sealed by the prophetic words of Nathan. 2 Samuel 12: 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ And true enough, by 2 Samuel 15, we witnessed the insurrection of David’s own son Absalom. Just as how David destroyed the family of Uriah and killed him in the end, we should expect the same for David’s fate. God made his move in executing his judgment.

But David was not a totally passive recipient of his life. He had a reaction to God’s action. He might have said in 2 Samuel 15: 26 But if (God) says, ‘I am not pleased with you,’ then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him. But then, David was very much involved in shaping “whatever seems good” to God. So when the insurrection happened, David was quick to escape Jerusalem. But it wasn’t a normal kind of escape, it was executed in the form of a repentance. We are told in today’s passage that 30 David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up. This tells us that David was fully aware that the insurrection was divine judgment upon him, and while he might be escaping his judgement, but at the same time, he was also responding in repentance to God. This is one of the key lessons for today. If God is angry with you, go back to God.

Take the example of the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3: I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
For 20 verses, Jeremiah was very clear that it was God who was against him, God against his people. But Jeremiah knew that the way out of God’s judgment was by God alone!
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Therefore, it was the same for David as he responded to co-create his life with God. As he received the judgment from God, at the same time he was also active in repentance. When will the salvation arrive? Nobody knows for sure. But one thing is certain. But if God is the one against you, then your only hope is God himself.

Absalom wasn’t the only tool in God’s arsenal of judgment. We were also informed earlier that 12 While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. I don’t think the appearance of Ahithophel and Absalom’s sacrifices in the same verse is a coincidence. Ahithophel was God’s instrument against David. And this is made clear later in 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. So you know that David knew that Ahithophel had the wisdom of God. Ahithophel could execute God’s will to perfection. If Ahithophel was on Absalom’s side, then the judgment upon David would also be completed perfectly. In the beginning, it did appear to be so. When asked for his first advice, in 2 Samuel 16: 21 Ahithophel answered, “Sleep with your father’s concubines whom he left to take care of the palace. [1] Whoever was considering joining Absalom in his insurrection needed the assurance that his personal father-son relationship with David was not going to be a problem, and after Absalom’s outrageous act, it proved that the relationship between David and Absalom was officially broken. On one hand, this was just a good strategic move. But on the other hand, for us, we know there is more. We should see Ahitophel acting as the hand of God. And the judgment on David was executed as the Nathan has prophesied. And David knew this about Ahitophel as well.

But remember what I said earlier? If God is the one against you, then your only hope is God himself. 2 Samuel 15: 31 Now David had been told, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “Lord, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.” What is truly interesting for me is that David knew Ahithophel’s counsel was like “that of one who inquires of God”, yet in his prayer, he was asking for God to turn it into foolishness. It seems like a contradiction to be praying to God against God himself. But the acts of praying and co-creating with God have always been a paradox. We are asking God to interact with us, mere humans. But David knew that was what he needed to do. And it didn’t end there. When his friend Hushai appeared after he prayed to God, he sent him to Absalom’s camp to frustrate Ahithophel’s counsel. He even taught him what to say to convince Absalom. He also set up a spy network consisting of the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and their sons, so that news from the enemies could be communicated. I’m highlighting all these to show that even though David was fully aware that he was at God’s mercy, he was also actively involved in making his salvation from God a reality. He was a co-creator with God.

Throughout the entire story, there were ample evidences of human ingenuity. The spies of David, the priests’ sons, Ahimaaz and Jonathan were cleverly-hidden Absalom’s men. They were going to warn David about Ahitophel’s plan. Ahithophel had made a bold suggestion to strike David with speed, and end the fight with minimum casualties. His advice was fully consistent with his reputation of divine wisdom. And for Hushai to defeat him, he had to find the one single flaw in Ahithophel’s plan: Absalom himself. 3 times in Hushai’s counsel, he mentioned the words “your father”. 8 You know your father and his men; they are fighters. … your father is an experienced fighter. 10 … for all Israel knows that your father is a fighter and that those with him are brave. The fact was that despite all the bravado that Absalom could muster, staging an insurrection and sleeping with the concubines, he still could not escape the huge shadow of David. Hushai tapped into this fear, and then appealed to his pride: David his father could only be defeated if Absalom himself led the battle with a huge army from the entire Israel. Absalom was fooled by Hushai into giving up Ahithophel’s brilliant plan, and David managed to escape in time. But just in case we think that all these were all about human ingenuity, we are again reminded by the storyteller in 2 Samuel 17: 14 For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom. This verse does not mean that it was only God at work, and all the human actions were meaningless. This verse shows that God was co-creating. If David had kept Hushai and the priests to himself, if Hushai had not been asked for his counsel, if the spies had not been well-hidden, if Absalom had been more resolute, then David would not have survived. But David acted, Hushai and all the priests acted, Ahithophel and Absalom acted, and God acted as well. It began with David’s prayer to God for help against Ahithophel who was an agent of God himself. And in the end, everyone, including God acted, for this prayer to be answered. The life of David was a co-creation with God.

Today, I hope I have proven clearly to you that our theological stand is bible-based. Yet, knowing the theology is only step one. The most crucial step is living it out. Many church members still ask me about living out this co-creation. I believe that most of the time, our actions and decisions are straightforward. If you were in Absalom’s situation, and if you know you have a counsel who speaks for God, well, then listen to him! Things only went wrong when Absalom gave in to his personal fear and pride. In our worship and in our cell groups, we share the word of God. But our main problem is to listen and have faith. Well, listen and have faith! If you do fall like in David’s situation, and you are suffering because of your sins, your obvious action is to repent and hope for mercy. In most situations, your path to co-creation is obvious. But sometimes you may hesitate because it is a 50-50 situation. Do I have a general advice for 50-50 situations? Whenever I’m in a dilemma, I pick the choice with more Hesed.

And this key word Hesed appeared in 2 Samuel 16: 17 Absalom said to Hushai, “So this is the love (Hesed) you show your friend? If he’s your friend, why didn’t you go with him?” 18 Hushai said to Absalom, “No, the one chosen by the Lord, by these people, and by all the men of Israel—his I will be, and I will remain with him. Hushai was just playing with words. In his mind, “the one chosen by the Lord” was David. To the listeners, especially Ahithophel, the chosen one was Absalom. And both Hushai and Ahithophel could be right. It was a 50-50 situation. David was chosen earlier over Saul. And Absalom was chosen as God’s judgment upon David. And like I said earlier, history could have gone either way in this battle. It was a 50-50 situation. But, I think Hushai chose the better decision, because Hushai chose out of Hesed and Ahithophel didn’t. Hushai didn’t pick David because he thought David would win. In 2 Samuel 15: 32 When David arrived at the summit, where people used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite was there to meet him, his robe torn and dust on his head. Hushai was repenting alongside David. And if God’s judgment would destroy David, I believe Hushai was fully willing to suffer with him. This is Hesed. He was willing even to die for the sake of David. And I believe that even though David’s fate was a 50-50 scenario, Hushai’s choice out of Hesed for David was the better one. My reflection is this, in our co-creation of our lives with God, we do not always know the eventual outcome. But in every 50-50 scenario, choose the one with more Hesed. Because if your choice is out of Hesed, even if you eventually “lose”, truly you have won. Love makes everything worthwhile.

In your co-creation with God, your path is clear. Listen and follow the word of God. And when you fall, repent and hang on to God. And in 50-50 situations, pick the one with more kindness, more faithfulness and more love. May God’s hesed be with you always.

[1]Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself obnoxious to your father, and the hands of everyone with you will be more resolute.” 22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. This is good advice. You see, most people’s main reservation with joining Absalom will be his relationship with David. For example, the insurrection fails, Absalom might still be forgiven by David as a son. But the rest who joined Absalom will not be allowed the same mercy. What if Absalom suddenly decides to reconcile with David? Absalom needed to do this outrageous act to let the entire country know that there is no turning back for him as well. There can be no reconciliation possible and no giving up in this insurrection. It is do or die for Absalom.