2 Samuel 15:1 – Presenting An Image
David is king. He’s finally ruling after so many years on the run from Saul. And yet his own son Absalom is going to launch a challenge for the throne. By the end of the chapter, David will be on the run again. There’s a lot we can learn from David’s faith, and be warned about from Absalom’s scheming. But there’s something more going on here, as I trust we’ll see as well. And that is God’s anointed king being betrayed by someone he trusted and rejected by the people. In this, David points us forward very clearly to the Lord Jesus Christ, betrayed by one of his 12 disciples, and rejected by the people he came to save.
Our current king is Charles III. But there could have been another Charles III, 200+ years ago. He was the grandson of James II, who was removed from the throne in 1688. James the II’s son James, tried to regain the throne during the Jacobite rising of 1715, and then his son Charles tried to do the same thing in 1745. That would-be king is better known to us as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, but in his lifetime he was known as ‘The Young Pretender’.
Here in 2 Samuel 15, we also have a young pretender. Absalom, as we saw in the last chapter, has just returned from exile, having fled to escape justice after the cold-blooded murder of his brother Amnon. And as soon as Absalom is back, he gets to work winning the hearts and minds of the people. It’s all part of a plan to remove his father from the throne and become king himself. So what’s his strategy? By looking at it we can learn to beware of similar people today.
Firstly, in verse 1 Absaolm cultivates his image. He gets himself a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him. In other words, he does what he can so that he starts looking like a king. He tries to look like something he isn’t – and can’t rightfully claim to be. What a temptation that can be for us, whether on social media or in real life, to present an image to the world of the person we’d like people to think we are, but which isn’t real. It’s particularly easy to do if we don’t have friends who know what we’re really like.
Question
- What’s the first part of Absalom’s strategy?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would not present a false image to the world.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.