2 Samuel 15:13 - Meaning and Application

Here is the notice brought to David about Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15:13). The situation was serious enough already, but it seems to have been made worse to David in the telling, as such reports often are. He was told that the hearts of the men of Israel, meaning the bulk of the people, especially the leaders, were with Absalom. David was all the more likely to believe it because he could now remember the ways Absalom had used to win people over. He may also have felt regret that he had not done more to protect his own rule, since he had been too confident of it.

This reminds us that rulers should take care to secure the loyalty of their people. If they have their people, they have their money, their arms, and everything else at their service.

The news alarmed David, and he quickly formed his plan. We can easily imagine how stunned he was when he heard that the son he loved so deeply, and had treated so kindly, had risen against him in such an unnatural and ungrateful way. He might well have said, as Caesar did, "What, you too, my son?" Parents should not set their hopes too high on their children, or they may be deeply disappointed.

David did not call a council. He consulted God and his own heart, and at once decided to leave Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:14). He made this surprising choice, so unlike the brave man he was, for one of two reasons. First, as a repentant man, he was submitting to God's discipline and bowing under God's correcting hand. His conscience now reminded him of his sin in the matter of Uriah, and of the sentence pronounced against him, that trouble would rise against him from his own house. He seemed to say, "Now God's word is beginning to come true, and I must not fight against it. God is righteous, and I submit." Before unjust Absalom, he could defend himself and stand firm. Before the righteous God, he had to condemn himself and accept God's judgment.

Or second, he acted as a wise ruler. Jerusalem was a great city, but it could not be held easily. From David's prayer (Psalm 51:18), it appears that its walls had not been rebuilt, much less fully fortified. It was too large to defend with the small force David then had. He also had reason to fear that most of the people in the city favored Absalom and could not be trusted. If he shut himself up there, he might lose the countryside, where he hoped to find more loyal support, especially among those farthest from Absalom's influence. He also loved Jerusalem too much to make it the place of war and expose it to a siege. So he was willing to leave it quietly to the rebels.

Good people, when they suffer, are often willing to bear it themselves, even if few others are spared from the trouble.

David's flight from Jerusalem was quick. His servants agreed with his plan and stayed faithful to him (2 Samuel 15:15). They assured him of their loyalty, and then he went out of Jerusalem on foot, while Absalom rode with chariots and horses. It is not always the best man, or the best cause, that looks the strongest. Here the traitor rides on horseback, while the rightful prince walks on foot, like a servant on the earth (Ecclesiastes 10:7). David chose to go this way to humble himself under God's hand and to stay close to his friends and followers, showing that he would live and die with them.

He took his household with him, including his wives and children, so he could protect them in this time of danger and find comfort in them during his grief. Heads of families, even in great fear, must not forget those under their care. He left ten concubines behind to keep the house, thinking that their being women would protect them from murder, and that their age and closeness to him would protect them from harm. But God overruled that choice to fulfill his own word.

David also took his bodyguard with him, the Cherethites and Pelethites under Benaiah, and the Gittites under Ittai (2 Samuel 15:18). These Gittites seem to have been Philistines from Gath, about 600 men in all, who had come to serve David after knowing him in Gath. They loved him because of his character and devotion to God, and they had embraced the Jewish faith. David made them his bodyguard, and they stayed with him in his distress. The Son of David did not find such great faith in Israel as he found in a Roman centurion and a woman from Canaan.

He also took with him as many people from Jerusalem as were willing to go, and then he stopped at some distance from the city to arrange them (2 Samuel 15:17). He forced no one. Those whose hearts were with Absalom could go with Absalom, and they would soon find out what he was like. Christ accepts only volunteers.

David then spoke with Ittai the Gittite, who led the Philistine converts. David urged him not to go with him (2 Samuel 15:19, 2 Samuel 15:20). Even though Ittai and his men might be useful to him, David wanted to test whether he was truly loyal or leaning toward Absalom. So he told him to go back to his place in Jerusalem and serve the new king. If Ittai was just a man looking for work and advancement, then he should go where he would be paid and favored best. If that was his aim, he could go that way.

But if Ittai was faithful to David, David still did not want him exposed to the hard work and dangers that now lay ahead. David's tender heart could not bear the thought that a stranger and exile, a new convert who should be encouraged and made comfortable, should face such rough treatment right at the start. "Why should I make you wander with us?" he was saying. "No, go back with your brothers." Generous people are often more troubled by what others must suffer with them than by their own suffering.

So David dismissed Ittai with a blessing: "Mercy and truth be with you." That means God's mercy and faithfulness, mercy according to his promise, the promise made to those who turn from other gods and put themselves under God's care. It was a fitting farewell when parting from a friend: "May God's mercy and truth be with you, and then you are safe and at peace wherever you go." David himself trusted in God's mercy and truth for comfort and happiness, both for himself and for his friends (Psalm 61:7).

Ittai answered boldly that he would not leave David (2 Samuel 15:21). Wherever David went, in life or death, in safety or danger, Ittai would stay with him. He strengthened this promise with an oath so that he would not be tempted to break it. He valued David, not for his wealth or power, for those had now fallen low, but for his wisdom and goodness, which were still the same. Whatever happened, he would never leave him.

A true friend is one who loves at all times and stays with us in trouble. In that way, we should cling to the Son of David, Jesus Christ, with full purpose of heart, so that nothing, neither life nor death, will separate us from his love.

The common people also showed sympathy for David in his distress. When he and his followers crossed the brook Kidron, the same brook Christ later crossed as he went to suffer (John 18:1), they headed toward the wilderness road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and the whole country wept loudly (2 Samuel 15:23). There was plenty of reason for tears.

First, they saw a prince brought so low. David, who had lived in great honor, was forced out of his palace and feared for his life. With only a small group, he sought shelter in the wilderness, and the city he had won, built, and strengthened was no safe place for him. Even strangers would have felt pity at seeing such a great fall, made worse by the wickedness of his own son. It was a sorrowful case.

Parents who are abused and ruined by their own children deserve the tender sympathy of their friends as much as any suffering person. And second, they saw their own king treated this way. He had been such a blessing to the land, and he had done nothing to lose the love of his people. To see him in this trouble, and to know they could not help him, was enough to bring tears to their eyes.