The first piece of advice Ahithophel gives is at the end of chapter 16. Absalom asks him what he should do and Ahithophel replies: 'Go in to your father's concubines'. These are the secondary wives that David had left behind. Chapter 15 tells us that he'd left 10 of them.When a new king came to power one of the symbolic

Last week we saw the call to be committed to God's king when his cause seems weak. God's king in 2nd Samuel is David - who points us forward to Jesus. The cause of God's king - and his kingdom - really does seem weak. David has been driven from Jerusalem. His son Absalom has claimed the throne. Most people,

Why doesn't David stop Shimei? He says at the end of verse 11: 'The LORD has told him to do it'. By that David recognises that it's part of the consequences of his sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah. David knows that God is a God of justice who is fulfilling his word. But he also knows

Shimei openly curses David. Just as many openly curse the Lord Jesus in our own day - and nothing seems to happen to them. That's exactly the situation here. David could easily have stopped Shimei's cursing. Abishai offers to do it for him. He says: 'Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and

Ziba is the servant of Mephibosheth, who is a son of David's friend Jonathan, and a grandson of Saul. Jonathan was killed along with his father Saul at the end of 1st Samuel. But when David became king, rather than wipe out anyone associated with the previous king, he shows kindness to Mephibosheth. And here comes Mephibosheth's servant Ziba to

We saw last week how Abiathar and Zadok come carrying the ark of the covenant. We looked at it from David's perspective - how he refused to try and use God. He refused to try and use that sacred object as a lucky charm as others had before him. Let's think about it briefly from Abiathar and Zadok's perspective. They're

Ittai is what you could call a recent convert. He isn't an Israelite. Rather he's from the Philistine city of Gath. That's the same city as Goliath. He's a Philistine. But he comes to trust in the true God. Up to this point, he and his men are presumably hired soldiers. It's one thing to be a hired soldier, or

Who are your true friends? They are those who are there for you in trouble, aren't they? In 2 Samuel 15 and 16, David is in trouble. It's when he's in trouble that we see who his true friends are - and who his enemies are. The first thing we have to remember when we come to all this is

The final thing we want to see about David's reaction in the face of adversity is his tears. It shows us that it's ok to weep. David weeps, and the people weep. Some Christians might want to say to them: Man up! The Bible says to weep with those who weep. Particularly, they are weeping over the state of God's

What is it that helps David look to the LORD in all this? It's because he knows that Absalom, with all his scheming, isn't sovereign. Only God is sovereign. David didn't just know the truth of that in a general way, but specifically. After his sin with Bathsheba, the LORD had told him through Nathan the prophet: 'Behold I will