2 Samuel 15:31-37

Prayer for Divine intervention.

The facts are:

1 . David, hearing that Ahithophel was among the conspirators, prays that God would turn his counsel into foolishness.

2 . On reaching the top of the Mount of Olives, the aged Hushai expresses his desire to go with David into exile, but David declines his offer on account of his infirmities.

3 . On the other hand, David suggests that he can render him good service by returning to the city and living as a servant of Absalom, and he advises him to act in concert with Zadok and Abiathar.

4 . Acting on this suggestion, Hushai returns to the city, and, some time after, Absalom also enters. There passed a pang through the heart of David as he beard of the treachery of his trusty counsellor Ahithophel, bitter because he had relied so much on this wise man's honesty and sagacity, and more bitter still as he remembered the cruel conspiracy which he once entered into with Joab against the life of Uriah. Yet the forgiven and renewed king, in the fulness of his anguish, was true to his revived religious instincts in at once raising his heart to God with the prayer that he would bring his own wisdom to bear so as to defeat the wisdom of this man. We see here—

I. THAT THERE IS IN THIS WORLD A CONFLICT BETWEEN HUMAN AND DIVINE WISDOM . David was well acquainted with two great facts:

II. THAT A GOOD MAN BELIEVES IN GOD 'S POWER TO COUNTERACT THE WISDOM OF MEN . This was the intellectual basis of David's prayer for intervention against the devices of Ahithophel. Faith in God's appointment of prayer is associated with a perception of the fact that God can and does so control human action as to restrain it within definite lines, and to secure in spite of it certain issues that are for the good of the world. A theism that renders God inactive, or bound in the unbreakable chains of a physical necessity, had better be frank and renounce the sacred name, and say once for all, "Force is in eternal motion along lines eternally fixed." God is a Spirit, and as such has free access to the spirits of men. His unseen and unconscious contact may paralyze or divert thought, and render possible ideas which, when carried out, will prove to be subversive of the very ends which the wicked thinker once had set his heart upon. We don't know how much we owe to this silent action of God on evil men. He also, as a free Spirit, is in contact with the ultimate elements of things, and can act on them without dislocation of the order of nature, more perfectly than we can in the effort of our will. Many Christian people do not, it is feared, half believe in this great truth, and do not sufficiently see its ample bearing on the great stress of life. God not only looks into men and sees them through and through; he is an Actor, and brings his wisdom to put to nought the wisdom of the wise.

III. THAT A GOOD MAN IN EXTREMITY NATURALLY PUTS THIS BELIEF INTO PRACTICE . David felt that he could not cope with the combination against him. His heart fainted at the thought of the sagacity of the counsellor uniting with the daring and dash of the ambitious usurper. His prayer was true to nature. We do not in ordinary circumstances allow our faith to have sufficient influence over our lives. Trouble brings us straight to God. Our vast resources are drawn upon when heart and flesh begin to fail. All prayer is a cry for God's help, or it is nothing; hut the earnestness and intensity of the cry are proportioned to the perception of peril.

IV. THAT PRAYER FOR HELP , IN THE CASE OF A GOOD MAN , IS ATTENDED WITH A DISCREET USE OF MEANS TO SECURE THE END IN VIEW . The practical character of David's religion is seen in this—that, as soon as he had committed his desperate case to God, he took steps, through Hushai, to counteract the wisdom of Ahithophel. He knew that God worked on the minds of men partly by the agency of other men, to whom he secretly imparts wisdom and discretion. Not only would secret unconscious influences operate within Ahithophel to cause him to blunder in advice, hut thoughts would be directed in the minds of Hushai and Zadok so that they would act at the right season and in the right way. This combination of trust in God and action among men is characteristic of all true religious life. "The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much," and his labour also "is not in vain in the Lord."

GENERAL LESSONS .

1 . In all our dealings with men, and efforts to get them to act, we should remember that we can get at them through God.

2 . The Church, in its conflict with the world, should rest in the consolation that the wisdom of God can never fail.

3 . Much of our success in Christian work depends on our assigning men to duties suited to their character, age, and position.

4 . Good men who are compelled by force of circumstances to live among men of evil purpose may use their knowledge of the world and its ways so as to promote the best interests of the kingdom of God.

HOMILIES BY B. DALE