But God

2 Samuel 17:15-22

It matters not where you are, King David running for his life from his son or the prophet Daniel put into a den of lions, God will fulfill his plan for your life.  Nowhere does it say in Scripture that these men’s emotions were not going wild, but they never doubted that if it were God’s will, He would save them.  Jan and I have learned a beautiful verse while leading fourth graders in Awana Club, it is found in Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous.  Do not fear or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God who goes with you.  He will not leave you or forsake you.”  King David had witnessed God doing that while just a shepherd boy, and as he fought Goliath, or for the many years that Saul hunted him to kill him.  Do you look back to a time where it was God going before and behind you, and you knew in your heart, He will not leave me or forsake me?

God has put Hushai in place to not only hear the plans of Absalom but to give advice that will give David and the people time they need.  But God had others there to carry the message; one such person was the priest Zadok, and a servant girl, and two of David’s men Jonathan and Ahimaaz.  Now the two men were about one-fourth of a mile from Jerusalem at a place called En-rogel where the Kidron and Hinnom valleys met.

Beginning the account in verse 15 through 22, “Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so have I counseled. Now, therefore, send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not stay tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’” Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. A female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city. But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it. And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

After they had gone, the men came up out of the well, and went and told King David. They said to David, “Arise, and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.” Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice