II Samuel 17:14 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 appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.
Have you ever asked for advice, gotten counsel, and then later wished you had just done what you wanted to do because you got such horrible advice? I remember years ago asking a roommate in college whether I matched. Later, I found out that the guy was colorblind. Obviously you can’t get good sartorial advice from a guy who is colorblind. Many times we ask counsel of people who are colorblind in life. They don’t have any depth or distinction and don’t know what should be done. Asking them will not be of any help.
Absalom, David’s rebel son, needed advice. II Samuel 17 tells us the story of how he asked counsel of two different men. There was Ahithophel, who had joined Absalom in rebellion against David. The Bible says that people took his counsel as if it came straight from Heaven. The other was Hushai, who was a friend of David and David’s plant inside the workings of the Absalom rebellion.
Absalom has a question, “How can I kill my dad?” This is a horrible question that I’m putting in the simplest terms, but that is essentially what Absalom was asking. Ahithophel gave advice that would have been completely damaging to David resulting in his death, the destruction of David’s kingdom, and Absalom’s success in his rebellion.
On the other hand, Hushai, David’s friend, gave counter counsel. When it was all said and done, we have God’s commentary on what had happened. Verse 14 says, “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 appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.”
There are three interesting things there. First, the counsel of David’s friend was considered better. Second, we realize that the counsel of Ahithophel, the rebel with Absalom, was actually good counsel. Third, God intended to bring evil upon Absalom.
The question to ask is, “How do you define good counsel?” Let me begin by saying the questions you are asking tell you something about yourself. Absalom was not asking, “Should I kill my dad?” He was asking, “How do I kill my dad?” Sometimes we ask for counsel but we don’t realize that all the counsel we are asking is not at the same level. Asking how to do something is downriver from if you should do it in the first place.
It is obvious that when the Bible says that God allowed the counsel of David’s friend to scuttle Absalom’s murderous intent it was so the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. Now this does not mean that God was morally deviant or that the advice that God had allowed was morally inferior. It is talking about bringing to nothing the plans of Absalom to murder his father.
How do you define “good” counsel? Do you personally define good counsel by God’s purposes or by your own? A lot of people just do what we call confirmation bias. They subconsciously ask advice of people whom they know will give them the advice they want to hear. A lot of times we need encouragement, but sometimes we need someone to push back on our natural inclinations. So, if you take the counsel of Ahithophel, who was very savvy, wise, astute, and political, and the counter advice of this man Hushai, David’s friend, the bad man, gave good, effective advice, and the good man gave bad advice. Ahithophel gave effective advice; Hushai gave inept advice.
If you are just talking about what accomplishes the purpose, then I would say that Ahithophel gave the right advice and Hushai gave the wrong advice. So, when the Bible says, “The good counsel of Ahithophel,” it was not talking about something that was morally superior. It is talking about good for the purposes that Absalom had in mind, but those purposes were what was evil to begin with. His purpose was wrong. The very question of how he should kill his dad was a horrible question. Upriver from that was should he have been doing this in the first place? The answer would have been no.
The lesson for us is that the gap between your desires and God’s purpose indicates where you are with God. James talks about “wisdom,” and you may put that word in quotation marks because sometimes the wisdom that people have is not wise at all. It is pragmatically efficient but morally wrong. James 3 says, “But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” This kind of wisdom is only good here on earth, it can fool our senses, and its source is the devil.
The passage continues, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” This is where Absalom and Ahithophel were. It goes on, “But the wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
So, Absalom was asking for advice, but he had a wrong purpose, and the gap between your desire and God’s purpose indicates where you are with God. At the end of the day, God accommodated Absalom. Absalom wanted counsel, and God saw to it that he got counsel that preserved His man David. I don’t want God to accommodate me, I want God to lead me.