Ahithophel

“When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself.” – 2 Samuel 17:23

The extremes in Ahithophel’s life are a bit alarming. He goes from being esteemed by both David and Absalom as a god (“Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God,” 2 Samuel 16:23), to committing suicide once Absalom took Hushai’s advice over his. The truth was, Hushai’s advice was (intentionally) bad, and it would lead to Absalom’s death. Ahithophel had not lost his touch; he had it more than ever. Why go hang himself?

We don’t know for sure. Perhaps it was simply having idolized his high status and career success so much that it was unbearable to feel passed over. Ahithophel was David’s most valued counselor, and was specifically requested by Absalom at the start of his conspiracy (2 Samuel 15:12, 2 Chronicles 27:33): that is a kind of power that would have gone to anyone’s head. Sometimes the best way to identify idols in our lives is to see what affects us most when we don’t have it. How would I react if I were to lose my mind, my physical health, my ability to work, my status as a parent, my wealth? Would I be sad or completely destroyed, without any remaining sense of meaning or identity, unable to go on? 

But we also know that Ahithophel was the father of Eliam (2 Samuel 23:34), who in turn was the father of Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:3)—a fact David was full-aware of, as it was the very first thing he learned about her. Eliam was one of the mighty men of David, as was Ahithophel’s son-in-law, Uriah. David had betrayed his closest counselor by violating his granddaughter and killing his son-in-law, a man who fought together with his own son. Perhaps this was why Ahithophel betrays David in turn by joining Absalom, proposes killing David himself (2 Samuel 17:2), and takes his life when he finds the conspiracy will likely fail. God had forgiven David, but perhaps Ahithophel had not. Are there ways we hold on to bitterness and a vengeful desire for our own justice in our lives?

There are faint echoes here of Judas, another man who betrayed a King only to hang himself. And just as we see the sovereignty of God in that situation, we see it here. When Ahithophel advises Absalom to publicly violate his father’s concubines, God uses that counsel to fulfill his word (“he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun,” 2 Samuel 14:11). But God also foils Ahithophel’s counsel to achieve his purposes (“the Lord ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel,” 2 Samuel 17:14). If anything, we learn that human thinking, even from the sagest man in the kingdom, is not enough. God’s power, his ways and thoughts, are higher than ours. Wisdom does not guarantee a righteous end. Ahithophel’s great-grandson Solomon would also be known for his wisdom and have to figure this truth out for himself.