Holiness > Wisdom
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INTRODUCTION: Welcome/Prayer
Our text is 2 Samuel 16:15-17:29
The title of our message is Holiness is greater than wisdom...
Now of course, to be holy, in part is to be wise… yet there is a wisdom devoid of holiness… especially of which the world esteems to be wise yet goes against the will of God
And the will of God can be summed in the first part of Lev. 11:44a
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.
It is not the will of God for anyone to be or act unholy, therefore, any wisdom or advice counseling to do what is unholy is foolish and leads to death, for God will hold that person accountable...
We see an example of it today in the midst of the fued between David and Absalom with David’s former key advisor Ahithophel
We’ll learn from Ahithophel and others that if we must discerning in how we live and what kind of wisdom we listen, lest we end up opposing the will of God...
Let’s begin by reading 2 Samuel 16:15-17:14
15 Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. 16 And when Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” 17 And Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?” 18 And Hushai said to Absalom, “No, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. 19 And again, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you.” 20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel. What shall we do?” 21 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” 22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. 23 Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom. 1 Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. 2 I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, 3 and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace.” 4 And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel. 5 Then Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he has to say.” 6 And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “Thus has Ahithophel spoken; shall we do as he says? If not, you speak.” 7 Then Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.” 8 Hushai said, “You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war; he will not spend the night with the people. 9 Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’ 10 Then even the valiant man, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are valiant men. 11 But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. 12 So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found, and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground, and of him and all the men with him not one will be left. 13 If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley, until not even a pebble is to be found there.” 14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.
Here we see God’s sovereign will at play in two different ways with Ahithophel...
First, we see the will of God played out through Ahithophel as he counsels Absalom to sleep with his father’s concubines in sight of all… a fullfilment of God’s judgment against David’s sin… 2 Sam 12:11-12
11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
The second way, is that we see God’s will oppose the good advice of Ahithophel as God continues to provide and protect His anointed one… King David… before we speak of the how of that let’s look at this wisdom of Ahithophel...
The wisdom given by Ahithophel was held with such esteemed it was as if one counsulted the Word of God, verese 23.
Though the advice given here was anything but the Word of God, it was ungodly in two key ways…
First, the advice to sleep with David’s concubines fly in the face of the Torah’s instruction
As such it is unholy advice, therefore it goes against the will of God
Lev. 18:7-8
7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
If you recall Reuben, Jacob’s son, he lost his birthright for this very thing, an act comitted in Gen 35:22
22 While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
And then the consequence of it in Gen 49:3-4
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
All summed up in 1 Chron 5:1
1 The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son;
Now, you might be thinking, if God ordained for this action to happen as judgment upon David, how is it unholy? Wasn’t in accordance to the will of God?
Here we see two types of God’s will at play…
Remember God is sovereign, fully, so all things that happen in life, good and bad, happen at His will… not meaning that He causes all of it, but whatever He does not cause He permits...
So we have His permissive will… that is, God allowing or permitting man to act in certain ways of which they are fully accountable...
Let me give two examples...
When Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph into slavery, was that the will of God? Yes, His permissive will, meaning, He allowed it to happen so that He may bring good from it… but the actions of those who did the evil necessary for the good to happen are still unholy and are still accountable…
Consider a better example… Judas… it was the will of God that His Son be betrayed… yet, through the person of whom the Son is betrayed, great judgment awaits… Mk 14:21
21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
And then we have His decretive will… that is, what He desires to happen, happens… example Genesis 1.
So, we see His permissive will here with the concubines, and then we see His decretive will later foiling the advice of Ahithophel…
But let us be careful not to get caught up in the variances of God’s will… in short, all things are subservient to the will of God, even things that are unholy, and those of whom unholy things come by, moral responsibility remains.
Beyond sleeping with the concubines, Ahithophel’s advice is unholy in a second way for it encourages direct harm upon the Lord’s anointed...
Recall the ample opportunities David had with Saul to strike him down… yet, not once did David touch him… the one time he cut a piece of cloth off of Saul’s robe, David felt immense guilt over it...
Yet, here we have Ahithophel without any care to David being the Lord’s anointed…
Along with Absalom not caring either…
Granted, Absalom hasn’t been concerned about God at all in any of this… he doesn’t even try to stage an anointing ceremony to win over the priests… he’s purely focused on the ways on the world
We would be wise not to allow ourselves to be seduced by similar wisdom that is highly esteemed yet goes against the will of God… against the Word of God...
Our trust ultimately must not rest upon the esteemed wisdom of society or academia… but God alone
And don’t think that because it sounds good, or there’s partial truth to it… that it’s in accordance to the will of God… even the devil appears as an angel of light 2 Cor 11:14
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Don’t let the generic “love your neighbor” deceive you...
Don’t let others seduce you with their unholy world view that skin color, gender, or sexual identity, trumps the Word of God… or that emotions are the basis of truth or the means to discern the will of God...
“It feels so good, how can it be wrong?” or
“It feels so right, this is who I “feel” I am… who can tell me that is wrong?”
God can… and He does...
Don’t especially put your trust in with the masses… not saying the masses are never right… but be sure to know that society is right and acting in holy wisdom not worldly wisdom b/c you know the Word of God...
If you allow yourself to be deceived by ungodly worldviews and sentimental reasonings… of which you only have yourself to blame....
Don’t be surprised that when you give your last breath you don’t wake up in the presence of Christ… but in the outer darkness where there will unending weeping and gnashing of teeth… testing and examining the worldviews and its reasonings is not judgment… but wise and godly.
So put your trust in God - not knowledge or wisdom, and I’m referring to esteemed knowledge and wisdom (we need some knowledge to know the truth of Christ… right? Our saving faith isn’t all heart, it’s heart and head)
But there are a lot of well-known pastors out there, of which no one checks with God anymore…
They read or hear them say something and they take it at face value… they listen to them as if it was Ahithophel himself speaking…
They don’t check the Word of God, or know the Word of God well enough to refute it…
Even pastors locally are treated this way…
I have engaged in discussions with others at other churches about what their pastors teach, I often get this response… I don’t know, what the Bible says… I just know this is what my pastor says…
May it never be with me…
If someone challenges you on something that I teach on, I pray you can go to the Scriptures and begin to wrestle with it there.
If I mention the necessity of baptism, without explaining why… b/c I make an assumption, you should urgently study the Scriptures on it… be a good Berean… if you don’t know what I mean by a Berean… study it… google it… Acts 17…
But don’t treat pastors, or anyone else, whether it’s the president, Dr. Fauci, anyone… as if they are like Ahithophel and their counsel is like the Word of God…
Ensure all counsel that you desire to obey is in accordance to the Word of God.
And godly counsel is not found in secret or in mysterious understanding… it can be found in God’s Word… not in hiding… but in plain sight.
Don’t let anyone deceive you into thinking it’s too great for you to understand… all that you need to know and understand has been provided for you… in His Word
If a pastor says regularly something like this, “I’ve studied this extensively and this is the conclusion I have come to...” and it doesn’t show you the dots of which he drew that conclusion from God’s Word… flee from him.... don’t follow anyone is unable or unwilling to show you the dots and how they are connected....
God’s Word and wisdom, is not a mystery anymore… it’s a person… Christ Col 2:23
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Ahithophel was a false teacher in a sense, being a member of Israelite’s covenant community yet leading people astray from covenant obedience...
But Ahithophel was in his position and counseled as such to Absalom primarily because Abasalom desired it...
Absalom did not desire to know the will of God… he did not care for it...
And Absalom had access to the ark of the covenant and the priests… yet he does not consult God
Likewise, today, we get the leaders we want… we get the wisdom we want…
If you’re looking for a particular voice that will speak to satisfying your desires you will find it…
But if you’re looking for a voice that will speak to you living in holiness you do not need to look for it… it’s right here…
You simply need to put your trust and faith in Christ… and obey it… even when the world looks at you and calls you crazy, bigoted, foolish, or whatever derogatory term you can think of…
We often hear the phrase today that the truth will set you free… but what does that exactly mean… it’s important, b/c this often shapes our worldview or how we understand God’s will for us
Let’s look at John 8:31—32
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So what truth excatly? And how do we know it? Verse 31… by abiding in His Word… and being a true disciple… one who obeys Him in all things…
We need to understand… that Liberty, freedom… the sense of it, the exercise of it… is not truth… as in…
“This “experience”, this understanding, this practice, is so “freeing”… that it must be true. By unloading this burden, it frees me from guilt and conviction, thus it must be true.”
More explicitly… yes, I was born a boy, but I feel like a girl… and rather than fighting it… I must embrace it, b/c it’s true, and in embracing this truth, I find freedom… b/c no longer do I feel convicted by it… or burdened by it…
That’s not the what Jesus means here… rather regardless of your circumstance… whether oppressed or not, burdened or not, by knowing the truth of God, knowing His will, one is freed from the power and condemnation of sin… and remains a slave to sin… (v. 34)
Therefore, recognizing that the world’s understanding of what truth is and God’s being very different… and recognizing that our emotions, our feelings, can very much give us false assurance… we must be wise and follow the words of Paul in 1 Th 5:21
21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Otherwise, you may find yourself like Ahithophel… finding that one’s wisdom was not enough to overcome the will of God and after putting his matters in order, hung himself… as Judas did after betraying Jesus.
Now, let’s look at how God opposed Ahithophel’s counsel…
Absalom, by the providence of God, that is the acting of God upon Absalom, requests for Hushai to come and give his counsel on the matter...
Hushai appeals to Absalom’s pride and his fears…
Reminding Absalom of David’s military prowess
Then advising it would be better, if he, the king, not Ahithophel, gather a very large force to fight David wherever they find him...
Hushai’s counsel is found to be better than Ahithophel’s… for one reason… verse 14… “For Yahweh ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel”
As such, which we will read in a moment, Ahithophel finding that his wisdom was not enough to overcome the will of God and after putting his matters in order, hangs himself… as Judas did after betraying Jesus.
Let’s read the other half of our passage and see what Hushai does next and what happens to David upon hearing the news… 2 Samuel 17:15-29
15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so have I counseled. 16 Now therefore send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not stay tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’ ” 17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. A female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city. 18 But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it. 19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. 20 When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. 21 After they had gone, the men came up out of the well, and went and told King David. They said to David, “Arise, and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.” 22 Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan. 23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. 24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. 25 Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had married Abigal the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother. 26 And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. 27 When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, 28 brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils, 29 honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”
Hushai utilizes the network of spies setup by David via the priests and their sons...
Men who were willingly to take great risk for the Lord’s anointed...
Remaining in the will of God often involves risk…
And of course that will change as the currents of society change as it did here…
David on the throne, a friendly society towards those faithful…
Yet, with Absalom… not so much.
We must not view the presence of danger or risk as a sign that we are doing something wrong…
Just as much as we must not view prosperity and comfort as a sign we are doing something right… all things must be measured against the Word of God so that we may discern what is His good and perfect will...
Now, through bravery and the support of a loyal couple the sons are able to make their way to David and give him the news...
David acts quickly in case Absalom changes his mind and decides to heed Ahithophel’s advice
In doing so they cross the Jordan River which is not an easy task, it is not some small creek…
Upon crossing David and his people come to Mahanaim… the place where Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul, ruled for two years...
As David arrives at Mahanaim, the narrator informs of Absalom’s actions.. which will set us up for the climatic battle of chapter 18.
Absalom has crossed the Jordan with his army and made Amasa general over the army who was a cousin to Joab and Abishai.
Absalom’s people encamped near Gilead… while David and his men were in Mahanaim.
While in Mahanaim, David was blessed greatly by three men, all three non-Israelites… they were foreigners taking great risk and enduring a cost in their supplies offered to provide for David and his people...
Whereas the people of Israel should have remained faithful to the Lord’s anointed and supported the Lord’s anointed and openly reject Absalom’s move on the throne...
These men, though outside the covenant community, act as members of the covenant community… though uncircumcised, in their actions they act with a circumcised faith… in the eyes of God… consider Paul’s words Rom 2:27
27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
This brings us to another aspect of trust we must be wary of…
We must not rely on our positions, our status, our inheritance, that is what we are born into, as a place of security...
God will bring those from the outside to replace those on the inside (Those who helped David were foreigners, those fighting against him were Israelites) Consider the words of John the Baptist Matt 3.9-10
9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
If the people of God refuse the will of God by embracing the wisdom of this world, by following the advice of the Ahithophels and the leadership of the Absaloms… God will find others to replace His people… He will remove the lampstand if necessary from His church as He warns the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2.
We pray for a revival, we pray for the Spirit to be present… then we must be willing for God to purify His church, for the Spirit to do when it shows up… convict of sin, expose deeds of darkness… make men and women holy, through repentance in Christ Jesus...
Therefore, let us discern His will… so that we may be found faithful and we may put our trust where it belongs upon Him…
And again, God’s will is no mystery… that is if you read His Word, believe it to be authoritative and sufficient…
If you don’t believe that, then yes, His will is a mystery, and you may believe what you want… but you do not know Christ… for it is only in His Word we may know Him…
And to know the will of God, is to know the Son of God, Jesus Christ… and the will of God, again is summed up in this… this time I will read 1 Peter 1:15-16, which quotes Leviticus 11:44
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
So, in order for us to be holy as He is holy, we must set our hope and trust fully upon Jesus Christ so that we may be born-again and be clothed in His righteousness...
As Paul reminds in Eph 5, let us be alert, awake, and clear headed… so that we may not be deceived and we may live in keeping with our new nature…
Don’t be Israel and follow Absalom, don’t be seduced by him and the counsel of Ahithophel…
No matter how good the advice sounds, test it…
No matter how esteemed the person is…, test it...
Even if the person is a well-known “Christian” author and speaker with years under their belt of faithful service…
Even Ahithophel served faithfully with David before he turned against him...
Don’t think it can’t happen to others… test everything
And above all, be faithful to the Lord’s Anointed… to the Son of David, to the Son of God, Jesus Christ...
Recognizing the risk it involves and that at times it will be unpopular to do so… even within the community of God’s people...
Israel, just like the false church today, will seek out and destroy those who are faithful to the Word of God.
This is the nature of humanity… and we’ll see over and over again as we continue through Samuel and through Kings.
Now, let us affirm our loyalty, our faithfulness to the Son of David, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by partaking of the elements of the Supper...