Samuel 18:1-18 - Pierced to the Heart

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Absalom’s Defeat and Death

1 And David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. 2 Then David sent out one third of the people under the hand of Joab, one third under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and one third under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the people, “I also will surely go out with you myself.”

3 But the people answered, “You shall not go out! For if we flee away, they will not care about us; nor if half of us die, will they care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us now. For you are now more help to us in the city.”

4 Then the king said to them, “Whatever seems best to you I will do.” So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. 5 Now the king had commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains orders concerning Absalom.

6 So the people went out into the field of battle against Israel. And the battle was in the woods of Ephraim. 7 The people of Israel were overthrown there before the servants of David, and a great slaughter of twenty thousand took place there that day. 8 For the battle there was scattered over the face of the whole countryside, and the woods devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

9 Then Absalom met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and his head caught in the terebinth; so he was left hanging between heaven and earth. And the mule which was under him went on. 10 Now a certain man saw it and told Joab, and said, “I just saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth tree!”

11 So Joab said to the man who told him, “You just saw him! And why did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a belt.”

12 But the man said to Joab, “Though I were to receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the king’s son. For in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware lest anyone touch the young man Absalom!’ 13 Otherwise I would have dealt falsely against my own life. For there is nothing hidden from the king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me.”

14 Then Joab said, “I cannot linger with you.” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart, while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. 15 And ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, and struck and killed him.

16 So Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel. For Joab held back the people. 17 And they took Absalom and cast him into a large pit in the woods, and laid a very large heap of stones over him. Then all Israel fled, everyone to his tent.

18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King’s Valley. For he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.

David sent forth his small but mighty army against Absalom’s because the people of David did not want to lose him to Israel as their future king once more.  The battle ended badly for the king’s son but it was not due to death in the battle; he ran into the forked branches of a tree on his mule and was stuck hanging there as the mule kept going without him.  The first man to see Absalom hanging helplessly there was of David’s army.  He dared not kill the son of his sovereign because David gave explicit orders not to kill him due to his love for him and his own guilt and consequences of his own sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.  This soldier told Joab who had no such reservations and he went and pierced Absalom to the heart with three spears while hanging helplessly there in the tree and others joined him to ensure he was dead.  This pierced David to his heart when he heard the news just as the son was pierced as a kind of picture of the Son of God pierced through on the cross (Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 22:16, John 19:37) as the Seed of David according to the flesh that grieved the Father yet was necessary for the King to rule over death (Isaiah 9:6, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 24-25) by the resurrection to follow.  We have no monument as Absalom did for our pierced Savior King but the cross of our curse on which He sacrificed Himself and shed His lifeblood to atone for our sins forevermore.  He set they up for Himself that we may look on the One we have pierced who is the Son of God and man who hung seemingly helplessly there as His side was pierced along with the Father’s heart to establish the everlasting kingdom which is far greater than the shadow of the anointed one of king David in this account.  Our Father’s heart was pierced for our salvation from divine wrath by His plan of infinite grace and mercy on that tree of our curse due to sin.  Praise Him!