The Verse is unique!
It is descriptive of the battle
fought when Absalom rebelled against his Father David.
War was raging!
David was fleeing the Throne of
Israel!
The young reprobate was
advancing toward what appeared to be a royal future!
Then the Holy Spirit writes:
"For the battle was there scattered over
the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people
that day than the sword devoured." 2nd Samuel 18:8
The Lord willing, we're going
to study that Verse!
Each of you should
ponder it
carefully.
Ask the Lord to show you some
things it might be teaching.
After all, that's the way to
begin the study of any Bible Text!
With sincere, humble prayer!
Here's a specific example.
Directed to the Lord,
"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law." Psalm 119:18
Just as well pray, "Teach me
Thy Word!"
Amen!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 2:
The battle was raging!
It was an unnecessary battle
too.
A son is fighting his own
Father, the King of Israel.
Absalom is a rebel!
David is a man after God's Own
Heart!
We are today studying one
single verse. At least part of it. "For
the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country:
and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword
devoured." 2 Samuel 18:8
The noun "battle" is "milchamah"
in Hebrew. It means not only "battle" but also "war." In the
King James Text it's translated "war" 158 times and "battle" 151
times. It is derived from the basic verb "lacham." And the
interesting thing is that "lacham" can mean "to eat" or "to
devour" as well as "to do battle!" In fact, the Hebrew noun for
"bread" is "lechem," a relative of "lacham!"
A young man trying "to devour"
his own Daddy!
Let it today be emphasized that
this whole confrontation could have been avoided.
On both sides it could have!
A good peacemaker, without
compromise too, might have introduced some harmony into this
awful mix, and a bloody chapter of Jewish history might have
never been written.
Don't misunderstand please.
If wrong must be ascribed here,
Absalom bears the heavier load of guilt! He might even have been
90% to blame, or more! That of course leaves only 10% or less
liability for King David, but it's there anyway. In that small a
quantity even.
Here's why I say this.
We of course must look at both
sides.
Under NO circumstances ever is
a child, even when grown, to disrespect and disobey and
denigrate one of his parents.
The "first commandment with
promise" had been written hundreds of years earlier!
"Honour thy father and thy mother: that
thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee." Exodus 20:12 thunders from Sinai, from God to
Moses to the people!
This Commandment alone declares
Absalom guilty!
Here's another reason too.
David, had Absalom just bided his time, had he just waited for
the years to transpire, would have had riches aplenty!
David was not in the habit of
denying his children anything! To his shame he had "spoiled"
each of them!
Concerning his son Adonijah, we
are told: "And his father had not
displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and
he also was a very goodly man; and his mother
bare him after Absalom." 1st Kings 1:6 makes it
clear!
David gave his kids anything
they wanted!
He never "displeased" them! "Atzsab"
means "to grieve, to hurt" or even "to make sorry!"
But greedy Absalom wanted 100%
of the inheritance now rather than waiting for sure but
delayed wealth later!
Absalom violated Scripture!
Absalom coveted power and
affluence and gold and silver!
He was wrong!
Furthermore, withour even
thinking apparently, Absalom sought to "touch" God's anointed
Leader for Israel! That's not to be tolerated!
Persuading himself to let King
Saul, wicked as he was, remain in safety, young David lived by
this principle from God: "Touch
not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." The King
is one of God's anointed Offices!
Not to Absalom
apparently!
He sought to kill
"the sweet Psalmist of Israel!" See 2nd Samuel 23:1 for this
title for King David. It's Biblical.
Yes, the "battle"
of our Text could have been avoided!
"For the
battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and
the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
It could have been
circumvented on David's side too!
He absolutely
refused to see his son, even to look on Absalom's face, for two
full years! With Absalom asking again and again to see His
Father. "So Absalom dwelt two full years
in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face." 2nd Samuel
14:28
Next Absalom tried
to get Joab, David's military commander, to contact the King!
Still to no avail! "Therefore Absalom sent
for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to
him." 2nd Samuel 14:29
If a Dad ignores
his son's cries long enough, something is going to happen!
Pouting and
sulking and refusing to acknowledge someone's desires is not the
answer!
I know Absalom had
murdered his own half-brother Amnon. But Amnon had raped
Absalom's sister Tamar, his full sister. And King David was
apparently going to dispense no judgment at all to the rapist,
no discipline whatsoever!
But still, just to
"talk" to one's own son, is not a bad thing to do!
I'm sure glad the
Prodigal's Father did not have David's attitude! If so, Luke 15
might be missing from the Bible!
Here's another way
King David could have avoided this terrible event. In all
probability anyway. By living more godly!
His greatest blot,
that adulterous episode with Bathsheba, brought God's
chastisement to the Royal House! Especially in this sense,
according to the Prophet Nathan: "Now
therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because
thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the
Hittite to be thy wife." 2nd Samuel 12:10
So, the sword
devoured Amon.
Then nearly David,
by the hand of his own Son!
Then, finally,
Absalom the rebel himself!
Oh, by the way,
one more thing!
Absalom is the son
of David's wife "Maacah," a heathen gentile whom David sinned by
marrying anyway! "Absalom the son of
Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur," says 2nd
Samuel 3:3.
Had David obeyed
God's Word about a wife, Absalom the killer would have never
been born!
This civil war,
Son versus Father, was unavoidable ... on both sides!
Come to think of
it, a lot of our battles are too!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 3:
The verse merely
describes a battle.
It could have been the
beginning of civil war in fact.
Absalom, son of King David,
sought to overthrow his Father's throne!
Here's 2nd Samuel 18:8 in its
entirety: "For the battle was there
scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood
devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
Heaven's favorite in this
battle is not the rebel, not Absalom!
It's David, whom Paul called a
man after God's Own Heart! "I have found
David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart."
Acts 13:22
Today we shall concentrate on
the verb "was scattered." In Hebrew it's spelled "putzs" and
means "to disperse."
I believe that God "scattered"
these skirmishes across the countryside for one purpose, to
protect King David and spare his life a while longer!
David's trusted counselor of
many years, Ahithophel, had just defected from the King!
He, a wise man indeed on most
issues, had joined sides with Absalom and offered his expert
counsel in expediting the war!
Had his advice been followed,
David would have been dead soon. No widespread war would have
occurred!
But God frustrated the nearly
fool-proof advice of Ahithophel!
This whole episode is divinely
engineered to give David the victory
The scene developed this way.
"And one told David, saying,
Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And
David said, O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel
into foolishness."
"Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give counsel among you what we
shall do."
Next ...
"Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out
twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David
this night: and I will come upon him while he is weary
and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people
that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king
only. And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man
whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all
the people shall be in peace."
Those twelve thousand men could
have easily found David, encircled him, and dealt the death
blow!
But God intervened!
Numerous scattered skirmishes,
all small in size, can be handled. Twelve thousand men coming at
once, all cold and hungry and ready to fight, can change a lot!
This scene clearly pictures
God's Hand of control in all areas of human life!
Indeed,
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for
us, who can be against us?"
Amen!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
One more thing!
Why would Ahithophel so hate King David? Why would he defect
from the side of the proven old King and fight for the foolish
young rebel Absalom?
Watch these Verses
and draw your own conclusion. Notice the name of Ahithophel's
son. "Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the
son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite."
2nd Samuel 23:34 tells us, Eliam.
Now get the name
of Bathsheba's father. "And David sent and
enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not
this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?" 2nd Samuel 11:3 lists Eliam.
These two names,
Eliam the son of Ahithophel and Eliam the father of Bathsheba
are speaking of the same man!
Ahithophel was
Bathsheba's Grandfather!
Now we know why he
hated David so passionately!
LESSON 4:
The verse is
unusual.
While its context, its
"setting" in 2nd Samuel 18, certainly must be considered, it can
nearly stand alone!
It's that powerful!
"For the
battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and
the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
2nd Samuel 18:8
Basically we're being told that
on the day being described, more people died from exposure to
the "wood," now called "woods," than to the army's weapons!
Those were dangerous "woods!"
The Hebrew noun is "yaar." It
is used a total of 58 times in the Bible. It is translated
"forest" most of those times, 38 to be exact. Then "wood" 19
times and "honeycomb" 1 time! A maze of thickly grown trees can
form a honeycomb-like pattern I reckon.
This word for the "woods" is
used in 1st Samuel 14:25 and associated with "honey" again.
"And all they of the land came to a
wood; and there was honey upon the ground."
Again our word, "yaar," is
linked to "glory" in Isaiah 10:18, specifically
"the glory of his forest."
"The forest of his Carmel," quoting
Isaiah 37:24, specifies Lebanon with all its majestic cedar
trees. These beauties were used to built the Temple of God in
Jerusalem.
Ezekiel preached
to the woods! "And say to the forest of
the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD
...." Ezekiel 20:47
The "woods" also
provided lumber for the royal palace during the days of King
Solomon. They called the mansion "the house of the forest of
Lebanon." Here's 1st Kings 7:2 for an example.
"He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length
thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof
fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four
rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars."
What blessings
these "woods" have provided through the years!
What sweetness and
utility!
Yet, all of a
sudden, things change!
These woods,
productive as they have been, become dangerous!
Deadly!
"Devourers," says
our Text!
"For the
battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and
the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
The verb
"devoured" literally means "to eat or consume!" It's spelled "akal"
in Hebrew.
Why such a change?
From benign
forests to malignant infestations of danger!
Because God
ordained it!
These people chose
to fight on the wrong side of the battle.
They have elected
to oppose King David, who not perfect for sure, was still God's
Man!
God's anointed!
God's King!
A forerunner of
Christ Jesus!
To fight for a
rebel, Absalom, against a King, David, is to invite trouble!
Judgment!
And the "woods"
can administer such discipline!
It's like this.
If God is "after"
a man, about to punish him, nothing can spare him!
"As if a man did flee from a lion, and a
bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the
wall, and a serpent bit him." Amos 5:19
Even the woods are
dangerous when you're out of the will of God, being disobedient
to His Cause!
Think about it!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 5:
How can the
"woods" be so dangerous?
The question is based on the
truth of 2nd Samuel 18:8. "For the battle
was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the
wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
The "wood," meaning the forest
or the woods or the nearby thickets of overgrowth, devoured or
killed more folks that day than did the sword!
Using the Bible as our only
source, here are some dangers found in the woods. The list is
impressive. This is simply a word search for "yaar," the Hebrew
noun translated "wood" in our Text.
Significantly, the "first
mention" of the woods in Scripture involves danger!
"As when a man goeth into the
wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand
fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the
head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour,
that he die ...." Deuteronomy 19:5
Then Elisha the Prophet was
defended one day by something from the woods, something
dangerous! "And he turned back, and looked
on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came
forth two she bears out of the
wood, and tare forty and two children of them."
2nd Kings 2:24
Here's more about such beasts!
God is talking in Psalm 50:10. "For every
beast of the
forest is mine, and the cattle upon a
thousand hills."
The "boar" is a fierce wild
hog! "The boar out of the
wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth
devour it." Psalm 80:14 is describing the destruction of
a vineyard.
In such thick woods, fire is
always a danger too. "As the fire burneth
a
wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire
...." Psalm 83:14
Creeping things too!
"Thou makest darkness, and it is night:
wherein all the beasts of the
forest do creep forth." Psalm 104:20
Now remember than in Scripture
a lion can represent the devil. "Will a
lion roar in the
forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out
of his den, if he have taken nothing?" Amos 3:4
The woods, Scripturally
speaking, are filled with dangerous things!
Flying axe heads!
Furious she bears!
Manifold beasts!
Rampaging hogs!
Wildfires!
Creeping things!
Lions, too!
This is not to say that the
woods can't be made safe! God can protect one anywhere he or she
goes.
But it's not wise to stay in
the woods very long if you're fighting against the man of God!
That's exactly what these people were doing in our Text Verse.
Aiding Absalom and rebelling against David!
If that's the side one takes,
anything can happen! "For the battle was
there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood
devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
True safety is not found in
guns and horses and armour of various kinds. It's found in the
Hand of God! "The horse is prepared
against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD."
So says Proverbs 21:31.
The question of the day is
asked by Moses to the Israelites in Exodus 32:26.
"Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp,
and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come
unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together
unto him."
Who is on the Lord's side?
If you are not "with" Him, stay
out of the woods!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 6:
When Absalom
rebelled against his own Father, King David of Israel,
multitudes followed his wicked lead!
"All Israel," said one account!
"Therefore I counsel that
all Israel be
generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the
sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go
to battle in thine own person." 2nd Samuel 17:11
The young rebel
"stole the hearts of the men of Israel,"
says 2nd Samuel 15:6.
At the very first "hint" of the
insurrection, Ahithophel proposed to Absalom:
"Let me now choose out twelve thousand
men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night."
Twelve thousand! 2nd Samuel 17:1
Apparently the majority stood
with Absalom, against the aging and less active King David.
But David was not without
supporters either!
Fewer in number, yet loyal to
the core, some stood with the King! Here they are hurriedly
leaving Jerusalem, fleeing for their lives!
"And the king went forth, and all the
people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off. And
all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites,
and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men
which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king."
2nd Samuel 15:17-18
Even the enemy, Absalom and his
advisers, said of David's less numerous men,
"They which be with him are
valiant men." 2nd Samuel 17:10
Lacking specific numbers,
Scripture does say of David's adherents:
"And David numbered the people that were with him, and
set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand
of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of
Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of
Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the people, I will
surely go forth with you myself also." Sounds impressive,
especially for an abdicating King! 2nd Samuel 18:1-2
The battle lines look well
drawn!
Then, why does 2nd Samuel 18:8
report this? "For the battle was there
scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood
devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
It seems that the battle
started in the fields, a likely place, but soon regressed into
the woods! "So the people went out into
the field against Israel." Then, next, we are informed:
"And the battle was in the wood of
Ephraim." 2nd Samuel 18:6
Then, get this shocking fact!
More people, followers of
Absalom, died in the thick forests than on the heated field of
battle!
David wins!
"The
people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and
there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand
men." 2nd Samuel 18:7
Here's the point
today. Absalom apparently had the masses, David the smaller
number of soldiers. Yet Absalom's people were not as sure, not
as brave, not as valiant!
Before long they
had left the field of battle and retreated into the woods!
And there, clearly
having chosen the wrong side, they somehow were killed,
thousands of them!
The "attitude" the
woods revealed that day is amazing!
Fear!
Insecurity!
Doubt!
While David's men
charged onward, fervently wielding their swords, Absalom's men
cowered in fear!
If a Cause is
built upon sinking sand, such will be the outcome!
When leaders are
unsure, so will be the followers!
If panic infests
an army, it will often spread!
Again our Verse:
"For the battle was there scattered over
the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people
that day than the sword devoured."
The facts given do
not even say that David's little army had to enter those woods!
"Nature" took care
of these disloyal subjects!
"Providence," the
old-timers would have said.
"Luck," today's
so-called journalists would have chronicled, "bad luck" at that!
Dead ... in the
woods!
But it was not
nature or fate or luck!
It was the Lord!
If a sparrow can't
fall without His supervision, neither can a Jewish soldier!
Isaiah 28:16
preaches, "He that believeth shall not
make haste." Those who belived in King David and His God
prevailed, without fear or confusion!
Meanwhile,
Absalom's crowd reaped confusion!
They had a spirit
of fear!
Remember,
"For God hath not given us the spirit of
fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
2nd Timothy 1:7
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but
the righteous are bold as a lion." So says Proverbs 28:1,
a pretty good commentary on the battle we're studying!
The Apostle Paul,
near the hour of his martyr's death, penned:
"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing." He does not sound
too scared!
And Jesus,
approaching His Death on Calvary, challenges the forces of
darkness! "I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my
face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me;
therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my
face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He
is near that justifieth me." Then our precious
Saviour asks: "Who will contend with me?
Who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me? Who is
he that shall condemn me?" Isaiah 50:6-7
Any fear here?
Hardly!
Yes, God can give
confidence to those who obey Him and confusion to those who
oppose Him!
He often does!
No wonder the
Bible loves the clause, "And I know ...!"
Real saints of God
do not want to flee to the woods!
They want to stand
true to their God!
Like Shammah of
old, "And after him was Shammah the
son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered
together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of
lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines. But he
stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and
slew the Philistines: and the LORD wrought a great victory."
2nd Samuel 23:11-12
He stood, refusing
to run into the woods!
Who needs the
"woods" when he is on God's side?
"The LORD shall fight for you, and ye
shall hold your peace." Exodus 14:14
"Ye
shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for
you." Deuteronomy 3:22
"For the LORD your God is he that
goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save
you." Deuteronomy 20:4
Yet again,
"O children of Israel, fight ye not
against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper."
2nd Chronicles 13:12
David ... or
Absalom?
The choice had to
be made!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
LESSON 7:
The verse simply
says, "For the battle was there scattered
over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more
people that day than the sword devoured." 2nd Samuel 18:8
These words were written by the
Holy Spirit as He recounted the bloody battle between rebellious
Absalom and his royal Father, King David.
Civil war, really!
Most of Israel apparently
followed the younger man.
And many of them died too!
David's numerically meager army
was fierce! "The people of Israel were
slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great
slaughter that day of twenty thousand men." 2nd
Samuel 18:10
Twenty thousand of Absalom's
followers, dead!
Known dead!
Counted dead!
Verified fatalities!
Twenty thousand!
But, presumably plus these
thousands, "the wood devoured more people
that day than the sword devoured."
God providentially intervened
on David's behalf!
Maybe by wild beasts, or
swamps, or thirst, or whatever ... the woods proved deadly that
day!
But here's the amazing thing.
Among those devoured by the
woods, yea by the very trees, was the rebel himself, Absalom!
Here's how it happened,
"And
Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule,
and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his
head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the
heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said,
Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak." 2nd Samuel
18:9-10
The wood, the
woods, got him!
Then, Joab,
David's military Commander, enters the picture.
"Then Joab took three darts in his hand,
and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was
yet alive in the midst of the oak."
Dangling in the
trees!
"And ten young men
that bare Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and
slew him."
Not a very
glorious death!
No honor in that!
Yet such was the
miserable end for the man who sought to harm God's Anointed
leader!
Yes, Absalom
definitely had numerical advantage at the start of the battle!
But not at the
end!
And David, while
lacking in numbers, ended up victorious!
Even numerically
victorious!
On the way to do
battle with the insurrectionists, King David's cohorts forbade
him! "But the people answered, Thou shalt
not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us;
neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but
now
thou art worth ten
thousand of us: therefore now it is better that
thou succour us out of the city." 2nd Samuel 18:5
Their noble
leader, all alone, by himself, was worth 10,000 good men,
fighting men!
I'd call that fact
one of numerical significance!
The day the
"woods" killed a multitude!
Rebels all!
But, do remember,
"Rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft." So says God's Prophet in 1st Samuel 15:23.
Deadly rebellion!
Oh, one more
thing. The greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, also
died on a Tree!
But a more
significant death has never been experienced!
Through that Death
we have life, eternal life!
Praise the Lord!
--- Dr. Mike Bagwell
ONE VERSE ... MANY
LESSONS! THAT'S THE VERY NATURE OF THE WORD OF GOD! IT "LIVETH
AND ABIDETH FOR EVER!" 1st
Peter 1:23
