II Samuel 15:23 And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.
When the Power Goes Out
It is always interesting to see how people respond when the power goes out. When electricity gets cut off, people respond in very different ways. Years ago at the Ranch, we had a big power outage. There had been an ice storm. Trees were falling, power lines were cut, and for a couple of days we had no electricity which meant that we had no heating or lighting. It was quite the time. Most of us are so accustomed to such stability from the power company that we don’t know how to respond to just one day without electricity.
It is easy to do right when the power is on, but when the power goes out, people’s true character is revealed. In II Samuel 15-16 the power had gone out for David, and he was running for his life pursued by his son Absalom.
David was in exile. He was no longer a young man, was not, at the moment, in power, and nobody could tell the future. This situation revealed the true character of a number of people. We see courage, faith, nobility, revenge, and greed all exposed when David’s power went out.
We see courage. II Samuel 15:18 speaks of six hundred men who came with David from Gath. These men had come with David from a foreign territory. These men were with David before, during, and after the time that it was “cool” to be with David. This exile revealed courage in these men that was not required of them when David was in power. You get rewarded when the king is in power, but when you stick with the king even when he is pursued, that reveals courage.
David showed faith and nobility. Verse 25 says, “And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation.” God’s people had a tendency to trust in the Ark of God more than in God Himself. The priest and the Ark of the Covenant both exhibited great power and came with David into exile, yet David sent them back to Jerusalem trusting that God would restore him if He saw fit. David was revealed to be a man of faith, not just when he was in the palace, but when he was in exile. He didn’t trust the ark as merely a token of God’s presence; he trusted God Himself.
We also see a vengeful heart revealed. Ahithophel, believed to be Bathsheba’s grandfather, was among the conspirators with Absalom. He gave vicious, deadly counsel to Absalom against Absalom’s father, David. When the power went out, the revenge in Ahithophel’s heart sprang to the hand just like a dagger.
When authority structures are in place, the lights are on, and there is peer pressure, it may be easy to do right. Your character is revealed when the lights go out. May God help us to develop the character to sustain us when character is all there is left.