2 Samuel 15:1

2 Samuel PARDONED SIN PUNISHED2 Samuel 15:1 - 2 Samuel 15:12 . There was little brightness in David’s life after his great sin. Nathan had told him, even while announcing his forgiveness, that the sword should never depart from his house; and this revolt of Absalom’s may be directly traced to his father’s disgraceful crime. The solemn lesson that pardoned sin works out its consequences, so that ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’ is taught by it. The portion of the story with which we are concerned has two stages,-the slow hatching of the plot, and its final outburst. I. 2 Samuel 15:1 - 2 Samuel 15:6 give us the preparation of the mine. It takes four years, during which Absalom plays all the tricks usual to aspirants for the most sweet voices of the multitude. He seems to have been but a poor creature; but it does not take much brain to do a great deal of mischief. He was vain, headstrong, with a dash of craft and a large amount of ambition. He had no love for his father, and no ballast of high principle, to say nothing of religion. He was a spoiled child grown to be a man, with a child’s petulance and unreason, but a man’s passions. He loved his unfortunate sister, but it was as much wounded honour as love which led him to the murder of his elder brother Amnon. That crime cleared his way to the throne; and David’s half-and-half treatment of him after it, neither sternly punishing nor freely pardoning, set the son against the father, and left a sense of injury

. So he became a rebel. The story tells very vividly how he adopted the familiar tactics of pretenders. How old, and yet how modern, it reads! We who live in a country where everybody is an ‘elector’ of some sort, and candidates are plentiful, see the same things going on, in a little different dress, before our eyes. Absalom begins operations by dazzling people with ostentatious splendour. In better days Samuel had trudged on foot, driving a heifer before him, to anoint his father; and royalty had retained a noble simplicity in the hands of Saul and David. But ‘plain living and high thinking’ did not suit Absalom; and he had gauged the popular taste accurately enough in setting up his chariot with its fifty runners. That was a show something like a king, and, no doubt, much more approved than David’s simplicity. But it was an evil omen to any one who looked below the surface. When luxury grows, devotion languishes. The senseless ostentation which creeps into the families of good men, and is sustained by their weak compliance with their spoiled children’s wishes, does a world of harm. We in Lancashire have a proverb, ‘Clogs, carriage, clogs,’ which puts into three words the history of three generations, and is verified over and over again. How well Absalom has learned the arts of the office-seeker!

XV. (1) Prepared him chariots and horses.—As a preparation for his rebellion, it was necessary to impress the people with his wealth and splendour. (Comp. 1Kings 1:5, where Adonijah does the same thing.) This was the first use in Israel of chariots and horses as a part of regal pomp.

2 Samuel 15:1 . Absalom prepared him chariots, &c. — When he thought he had established himself in his father’s good affection, he began to take great state upon him, set up, as we now speak, a splendid equipage, and was royally attended, as being the king’s eldest son, (now Amnon was dead,) and next heir to the crown. For it seems Chileab, who was elder than he, 2 Samuel 3:3 , was either dead also, or, through some cause, was incapable of the government. Absalom undoubtedly designed, by taking this course, to draw the eyes of the people to himself, who, as they were much in love with his beauty, so were doubtless mightily taken with this fine sight of chariots and horses, especially as it was unusual, not being allowed by the law. David was, however, so indulgent that, it seems, he took no notice of it. And fifty men to run before him — An honour this such as his royal father had neither had, nor thought of. These, though attendants in appearance, were, in effect, guards.

Ch. 2 Samuel 15:1-6 . Absalom ingratiates himself with the people 1 . And it came to pass after this ] To recall Absalom without granting him a full pardon was ill-judged: to readmit him to favour, after he had been irritated by two years of exclusion, without the slightest sign of repentance on his part, was fatal. The natural consequences of such treatment are recorded in the following chapters[100]. [100] Dryden has made use of the events of this period as the basis of his political poem on the court of Charles II., entitled “Absalom and Achithophel,” in which Absalom represents the Duke of Monmouth, and Achithophel his evil adviser Shaftesbury. chariots and horses , &c.] A chariot and horses. Absalom imitated the magnificence of foreign monarchs, in order to make an impression on the people. Cp. Adonijah’s practice ( 1 Kings 1:5 ), and see 1 Samuel 8:11 .

Verse 1. - After this. The Hebrew is a more precise phrase than that on which we have commented on 2 Samuel 10:1 and 2 Sam 13:1, and implies that Absalom began his devices soon after obtaining his liberty. Chariots and horses; Hebrew, a chariot and horses ; that is, a chariot for state occasions, in which Absalom rode, while fifty footmen ran at his side. Probably his grandfather Talmai practised similar magnificence at Geshur. In India it is still common for men of rank to be attended by runners on foot, who will keep up with horses or elephants for an incredible distance. 2 Samuel 15:1