![\"5.png\"](\"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5.png\")
<\/a> <\/p>Over on Absalom\u2019s side, there was a man who was especially good at coming up with plans. His name was Ahithophel.<\/p>\n
This guy was definitely smart. The problem was, he wasn\u2019t using his brains for the right thing.<\/p>\n
Ahithophel said to Absalom:<\/p>\n
\u201cKing, there\u2019s no need to make this complicated. Give me twelve thousand men, and we\u2019ll leave tonight.<\/p>\n
David is exhausted and scared right now. We\u2019ll catch him while he\u2019s still worn out.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll suddenly attack him, and his men will scatter in fear. Then I\u2019ll go straight after David and take him out.<\/p>\n
Once David is dead, everyone else will settle down, and the people will naturally come over to you.<\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t that be perfect?\u201d<\/p>\n
Absalom and all the elders of Israel heard this and thought:<\/p>\n
\u201cHmm\u2026 That actually sounds pretty good!\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone agreed that Ahithophel\u2019s plan made a lot of sense.<\/p>\n
But Absalom wanted to hear another opinion.<\/p>\n
That man was Hushai.<\/p>\n
Hushai appeared to be on Absalom\u2019s side, but secretly, he was working for David.<\/p>\n
Absalom asked him:<\/p>\n
\u201cAhithophel has suggested this plan. What do you think? Should we do it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hushai knew immediately:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way I can let them do that!\u201d<\/p>\n
So he said:<\/p>\n
\u201cKing, if you ask me, Ahithophel\u2019s plan this time just isn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Absalom asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hushai replied:<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about it. Your father David\u2014what kind of man is he?<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a veteran warrior. He has spent his whole life fighting battles.<\/p>\n
Sure, he\u2019s running away right now. But do you really think he has no plan?<\/p>\n
He and the men with him must be furious right now. They\u2019re probably like a mother bear whose cubs have been taken away\u2014dangerous and ready to fight.<\/p>\n
And your father is an experienced soldier. He certainly isn\u2019t going to sleep out in the open like an ordinary person.<\/p>\n
He may already be hiding somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Hushai continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cSuppose our first group attacks them and a few of our men get killed.<\/p>\n
As soon as people hear about it, they\u2019ll start saying:<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh no! Absalom\u2019s men have been defeated by David!\u2019<\/p>\n
Then everyone\u2019s courage will disappear, and people will lose confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sounded pretty convincing.<\/p>\n
Hushai kept going:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd David\u2019s men are tough. Every one of them is brave and fierce. They have hearts like lions.<\/p>\n
Everyone in Israel knows David is a great warrior. They also know that the men following him are experienced fighters.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t think we should just sneak after him with twelve thousand men.<\/p>\n
We should gather the entire army of Israel.<\/p>\n
From Dan all the way to Beersheba, bring everyone together. There should be so many people that they\u2019re like the sand on the seashore.<\/p>\n
Then you personally should lead them into battle.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll use overwhelming numbers and charge forward all at once.<\/p>\n
Once we find David, we won\u2019t let a single man escape.<\/p>\n
And if David hides inside a city?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s even easier.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll surround the city and pull it down with ropes. We won\u2019t leave even one stone standing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Absalom and all the men of Israel heard this and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWow! Now that\u2019s a plan!\u201d<\/p>\n
So they said:<\/p>\n
\u201cHushai\u2019s plan is better than Ahithophel\u2019s plan!\u201d<\/p>\n
But they didn\u2019t realize something.<\/p>\n
The one truly deciding what would happen wasn\u2019t Ahithophel.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t Hushai either.<\/p>\n
It was the LORD.<\/p>\n
The Bible says:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the LORD had determined to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, in order to bring disaster on Absalom.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words:<\/p>\n
Ahithophel could be as smart as he wanted, but he still couldn\u2019t outsmart God\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
Hushai Warns David<\/p>\n
Hushai knew there was no time to waste.<\/p>\n
He quickly went to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, so they could send word to David.<\/p>\n
He told them:<\/p>\n
\u201cTell David right away:<\/p>\n
\u2018Do not spend the night at the fords in the wilderness. Cross the Jordan immediately!<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Absalom and his army may catch up with you and destroy everyone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, two messengers\u2014Jonathan and Ahimaaz\u2014were waiting for the message.<\/p>\n
But they didn\u2019t dare enter the city because they were afraid someone would see them.<\/p>\n
So a servant girl secretly came out and gave them the message.<\/p>\n
The two men heard it and thought:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to go\u2014right now!\u201d<\/p>\n
But along the way, a young man saw them.<\/p>\n
He immediately went and told Absalom:<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Jonathan and Ahimaaz!\u201d<\/p>\n
Now things were getting dangerous.<\/p>\n
The two men quickly ran for their lives.<\/p>\n
When they reached Bahurim, they found a house with a well in the courtyard.<\/p>\n
They looked at each other and basically thought:<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u2026 looks like this is our hiding place!\u201d<\/p>\n
So they climbed down into the well.<\/p>\n
The woman of the house covered the opening with a lid and spread grain over it.<\/p>\n
From the outside, nobody could tell there was anyone hiding underneath.<\/p>\n
After a while, Absalom\u2019s servants came looking for them.<\/p>\n
They asked the woman:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?\u201d<\/p>\n
She answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey already crossed the stream.\u201d<\/p>\n
So the men went looking for them.<\/p>\n
They searched everywhere but couldn\u2019t find them.<\/p>\n
Finally, they gave up and went back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Once they were gone, Jonathan and Ahimaaz climbed out of the well.<\/p>\n
Then they hurried to David.<\/p>\n
When they found him, they told him:<\/p>\n
\u201cKing David, don\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n
Ahithophel has made a plan to attack you.<\/p>\n
You need to get up right now and cross the Jordan!\u201d<\/p>\n
David listened.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t waste any time.<\/p>\n
That very night, David and everyone with him crossed the Jordan River.<\/p>\n
By sunrise, every single person had safely crossed.<\/p>\n
Ahithophel Realizes His Plan Has Failed<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ahithophel looked around and realized:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Absalom didn\u2019t listen to me?\u201d<\/p>\n
He probably knew right away:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He understood that under Hushai\u2019s plan, Absalom would first have to gather the entire army.<\/p>\n
That would take time.<\/p>\n
And while they were wasting time getting everyone together, David had already crossed the Jordan.<\/p>\n
Ahithophel knew what that meant.<\/p>\n
Absalom was probably going to lose.<\/p>\n
So Ahithophel went back home.<\/p>\n
He put his affairs in order, left instructions for his household, and then took his own life by hanging himself.<\/p>\n
And that was the end of Ahithophel.<\/p>\n
His great wisdom could not save him.<\/p>\n
His carefully designed plan had failed.<\/p>\n
Because ultimately, God\u2019s plan was greater than his plan.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarah Over on Absalom\u2019s side, there was a man who was especially good at coming up with plans. His name was Ahithophel. This guy was definitely smart. The problem was, he wasn\u2019t using his brains for the right thing. Ahithophel said to Absalom: \u201cKing, there\u2019s no need to make this complicated. Give me twelve thousand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-reflection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10441,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10440\/revisions\/10441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}