2 Samuel 15:1-6
And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Absalom is no sooner restored to his place at court than he aims to be in the throne. He that was unhumbled under his troubles became insufferably proud when they were over.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Pride buddeth, and ambition rideth without reins. Absalom will needs have a train like a prince and successor to the kingdom, so to dazzle the eyes of the common people, who are apt to judge of inward worth by outward spendour, and to dote upon glittering shows, as they did upon Herod, Acts 12:21,22.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “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 much more approved than David’s simplicity. Absalom begins by dazzling people with ostentatious splendour.
MATTHEW HENRY: The people desired a king like the nations; and such Absalom will be, appearing in pomp and magnificence, above what had been seen in Jerusalem. No man’s conduct could be more condescending, while his heart was as proud as Lucifer’s. Ambitious projects are often carried on by a show of humility, Colossians 2:23. He knew what a grace it puts upon greatness to be affable and courteous, and how much it wins upon common people: had he been sincere in it, it would have been his praise; but to fawn upon the people that he might betray them was abominable hypocrisy. “He croucheth, and humbleth himself, to draw them into his net,” Psalm 10:9,10.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): On a slight hearing, when one party only represented his case, Absalom flattered him with certain success in his cause, if there were anyone deputed to hear him, but insinuates the negligent administration of justice, and how much the land suffered for want of an active upright magistrate; intimating how happy it would be for people if he were judge, when every man might expect speedy redress and equitable decisions. Such pretensions easily sunk down into unthinking minds, and flattered them with halcyon days under his administration: and his familiarity and condescension to the lowest of the people soon won their hearts; for he shook them by the hand, embraced them as if a friend or a brother, and scrupled not to stoop, however low, in order to climb into the throne.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: How old—and yet how modern! We 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.
THE EDITOR: There is nothing new under the sun. Absalom was the “law and order candidate,” playing on people’s emotions by reaffirming their pent-up feelings of being unjustly treated by the government—just as he considered himself to have been “ill-treated” by David; thus, though a wealthy and privileged royal prince, he could style himself as being “one of them”—and that he, their brave champion, was “fighting for them,” since he alone understood their pain and was filled with empathy for their grievances. Absalom was the quintessential demagogue, seeking the support of ordinary people by emotionally appealing to their desires and prejudices, rather than by rational argument.
THOMAS COKE: Zeal for the public good, and redress of grievances, is often the dust thrown into the eyes of the populace to conceal the projects of ambition. They who court popularity by low condescensions are no sooner in power, than they throw off the mask and play the tyrant over a deluded people.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: There was, no doubt, truth in the charge he made against David of negligence in his judicial and other duties. Ever since his great sin, the king seems to have been stunned into inaction. The heavy sense of demerit had taken the buoyancy out of him, and, though forgiven, he could never regain the elastic energy of purer days.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): A strange passiveness seems to have crept over David, and to have continued until his flight before Absalom. The narrative is singularly silent about him. He appears to be paralyzed by the consciousness of his past sins: he originated nothing. He dared not punish Amnon, and could only weep when he heard of Absalom’s crime. He weakly craved for the return of the Absalom, but could not bring himself to send for him till Joab urged it. A flash of his old kingliness appeared for a moment in his refusal to see his son, but even that vanished when Joab chose to insist that Absalom should return to the court…At every step he was dogged by the consequences of his own wrong-doings, even though God had pardoned his sins.
THE EDITOR: Yet there is something deeper in David’s silence while Absalom was preparing the ground for his subsequent rebellion. Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, but he had been already installed as the beloved idol of his father’s heart.
THOMAS COKE: Probably David himself was proud of the figure his son Absalom made, and, by connivance, encouraged his ambitious views. Parents who indulge their children in pomp and pride, know not the injury they do them and themselves.
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): Children are always uncertain comforts, but indulged children surely prove trials to pious parents, whose foolish fondness induces them to neglect their duty to God.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The essence of idolatry is this—to love anything better than God—in some form or other this great sin is the main mischief in the heart of man. And even in saved men this is one of the developments of remaining corruption. We may very easily make an idol of anything and in many different ways. No doubt many mothers and fathers make idols of their children.
THE EDITOR: But what was Absalom’s idol?
A. W. PINK: “Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place, ” 2 Samuel 18:18. There are two references to “the king’s dale:” in the one, Melchizedek brought forth that which symbolized Christ, Genesis 14:17,18; in the other, Absalom erected a monument to himself.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Self is the great idol which is the rival of God.
MATTHEW HENRY: The pillar designed for Absalom’s glory, but proved Absalom’s folly.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): This was the effect of his pride and vain-glory.
THE EDITOR: The Hebrew word translated as Absalom’s “place,” literally means Absalom’s “hand.” Indeed, in the works of our own hands, we either serve God and His glory, or ourselves and our own glory. And what great heart idol did Joab cherish? Almost everything Joab did, seems motivated by one constant consideration: being captain of the host of Israel—and anyone who threatened Joab’s idol did so at their peril.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols—man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual idol factory.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Let us examine ourselves carefully on this.
D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Whatever you love more than God, is your idol.
