God's Plan Carried Out

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 107:1-2, 43
• Hymn — Rejoice, the Lord Is King
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — 1 John 2:1-2
• Sacrament of Baptism — Zadok Daniel Stoutgrammar
• Prayer
• Hymn — The Lord's My Shepherd
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Sermon
• Hymn — The God of Abraham Praise
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: God's Plan Carried Out

Scripture: 2 Samuel 17:1-23

I. The Decretive Will of God Carried Out Through the Art of Persuasion

A. Hushai's counsel is three and a half times longer than Ahithophel's and is a masterful rhetorical display, appealing to logic, reason, and fear

• Ahithophel's counsel in Hebrew is only 40 words — brief, urgent, to the point
• Hushai heaps up scare tactics: even valiant men with hearts like lions will melt with fear before David

B. God regularly uses the art of persuasion through his saints to carry out his plans

1. The sermons in Acts — Peter in Acts 2, Stephen in Acts 7, Paul throughout — constantly seek to persuade that Jesus is the Christ
2. In Acts 26:24-28, Paul defends the rationality of the gospel before King Agrippa
3. In 2 Timothy 1:13, Paul charges Timothy to follow the pattern of sound (healthy) words

C. The church today must recover the art of persuasion over the art of protest

1. The goal is not to win a debate but to win souls
2. Christians are called to be fishers of souls, not fishers of power and influence
3. Sound, healthy, truthful words — not gotcha words, smear campaigns, or destruction of opponents

II. The Decretive Will of God Carried Out Through the Appeal to Pride

A. Absalom is established throughout as a vainglorious, prideful man

1. 2 Samuel 14:25-26 — the most handsome man in Israel, obsessed with his hair
2. 2 Samuel 15:1 — rides into the city gate with chariots, horses, and 50 men

B. Hushai brilliantly exploits Absalom's pride

1. Ahithophel says "let me" — Hushai says "you go, you lead, you get the glory"
2. The image of all Israel gathered to Absalom echoes the Abrahamic promise — flattering Absalom's ego
3. The Hebrew of 2 Samuel 17:11 — "your face go out to battle" — echoes Exodus 33:14, where Yahweh's face goes before his people

C. This is divine irony — the serpent gets a taste of his own medicine

1. Ahithophel, seeing that his counsel was rejected and David would prevail, sets his house in order and hangs himself — a parallel to Judas who betrayed the Lord's anointed and hanged himself
2. To betray the Lord's anointed is self-destruction

D. Two lessons from the prideful downfall

1. Watch your pride — pride makes you deaf to sound counsel, blind to reality, and causes foolish decisions even wicked men can see through (the lesson of Absalom)
2. Watch who you hitch your wagon to — are your models bombastic glory-seekers or cross-bearing humble servants? (the lesson of Ahithophel)

III. The Decretive Will of God Carried Out Through an Act of Providence

A. Hushai does not rest in his own clever counsel — he sends warning to David through Zadok and Abiathar, not knowing whether Absalom listened to him or Ahithophel

1. This mirrors the Christian prayer life: we plead and pray, then respond to reality, trusting not in our genius but in God's providence

B. Providence works through an unnamed woman in enemy territory

1. Ahimaaz and Jonathan are spotted and pursued; they hide in a well at Bahurim — Benjaminite territory, the land of cursing (2 Samuel 16)
2. The unnamed woman covers the well with grain and misdirects Absalom's servants
3. This echoes Rahab hiding the two spies in Joshua 2 — both women deceive pursuers, both protect God's people

C. God brings victory through the obscure and unnamed in the land of cursing

1. In heaven we will meet countless unnamed people whom God used in his strange and awesome providence
2. The church in the West is increasingly a minority — but God's people know this terrain; the church survived as an executed minority for three centuries

D. Application and encouragement

1. Be persuaders, not protesters
2. Be filled with cross-bearing humility, not sword-bearing pride
3. Own your minority status and live by faith, not by sight — 2 Samuel 17:14: the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel
4. God has ordained the end from the beginning; he will place all enemies under his Son's feet