The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 29 August 2025: Beware Of The Counsel Of Ahithophel
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TOPIC: Beware Of The Counsel Of Ahithophel
READ: 2 Samuel 15:13-37 (NKJV)
- Now a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”
- So David said to all his servants who [were] with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee; or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
- And the king’s servants said to the king, “We [are] your servants, [ready to do] whatever my lord the king commands.”
- Then the king went out with all his household after him. But the king left ten women, concubines, to keep the house.
- And the king went out with all the people after him, and stopped at the outskirts.
- Then all his servants passed before him; and all the Cherethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath, passed before the king.
- Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also going with us? Return and remain with the king. For you [are] a foreigner and also an exile from your own place.
- “In fact, you came [only] yesterday. Should I make you wander up and down with us today, since I go I know not where? Return, and take your brethren back. Mercy and truth [be] with you.”
- And Ittai answered the king and said, “[As] the LORD lives, and [as] my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be.”
- So David said to Ittai, “Go, and cross over.” Then Ittai the Gittite and all his men and all the little ones who [were] with him crossed over.
- And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the Brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness.
- There was Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished crossing over from the city.
- Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and show me [both] it and His dwelling place.
- “But if He says thus: ‘I have no delight in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him.”
- The king also said to Zadok the priest, “[Are] you [not] a seer? Return to the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.
- “See, I will wait in the plains of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”
- Therefore Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem. And they remained there.
- So David went up by the Ascent of the [Mount of] Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who [were] with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up.
- Then [someone] told David, saying, “Ahithophel [is] among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O LORD, I pray, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”
- Now it happened when David had come to the top [of the mountain,] where he worshiped God — there was Hushai the Archite coming to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head.
- David said to him, “If you go on with me, then you will become a burden to me.
- “But if you return to the city, and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; [as] I [was] your father’s servant previously, so I [will] now also [be] your servant,’ then you may defeat the counsel of Ahithophel for me.
- “And [do] you not [have] Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? Therefore it will be [that] whatever you hear from the king’s house, you shall tell to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
- “Indeed [they have] there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s [son,] and Jonathan, Abiathar’s [son;] and by them you shall send me everything you hear.”
37 So Hushai, David’s friend, went into the city. And Absalom came into Jerusalem.
THE MESSAGE:
Counselors can make or destroy a man; they can also keep, preserve, sustain, or demote a person. Watch every counsel that men offer you; be vigilant because even a good counselor can become wicked. Before Absalom’s revelment, the counsel Ahithephal gave under King David was as if he consulted the oracle of God. However, he joined in Absalom’s conspiracy and turned to a wicked counselor. When David fled from Jerusalem to the wilderness to escape from Absalom, he left his concubines to keep the house. By the counsel of Ahithephal, Absalom went into his father’s concubines in the sight of all the people (1 Samuel 16:22).
Household enemies are really dangerous When David said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19), he spoke from experience. When David fled on barefoot with his head covered, he prayed, “O Lord, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (2 Samuel 15:30), and God harkened: Ahithophel’s counsel to Absalom to choose 12,000 men to pursue David and kill him was defeated by God and was not followed (2 Samuel 17:1-4, 23), so Ahithophel hanged himself. Beware of evil counselors lest they ruin you. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.
PRAYER: O God, turn all evil counsel against me into foolishness, Amen
