We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

How do you respond to 2 Samuel 17:14–15?

“Absalom and all the men of Israel said, ‘The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.’ For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom.”

This passage is sometimes cited to support the view that God ordains all things, including how people respond to other people’s advice. I submit that this conclusion goes beyond what the passage warrants. In response to David’s prayer, and in line with his sovereign design to secure the throne of David, God had determined to “turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (1 Sam. 15:31) and thereby bring judgment upon Absalom, King David’s wicked son.

The passage does not suggest that God had ordained Absalom’s foolishness from before creation. What God does in this passage he does in response to what humans do. Absalom’s wickedness was not part of God’s sovereign plan. This was entirely Absalom’s own doing. But because Absalom chooses this for himself, God is able to ensure that his wicked schemes have a disastrous outcome (2 Sam. 18:9–15, cf. Prov. 16:9).

Related Reading

Is speaking in tongues the initial evidence of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Pentecostals have traditionally taught that speaking in tongues is evidence that a person is filled with the Holy Spirit. Those who defend this position do so primarily on the basis of a pattern they discern in Acts. They note that when the disciples were first baptized in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, “all…

Topics:

How do you respond to Genesis 3:15?

The Lord promises that he will “put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is commonly considered the first messianic prophecy of the Bible. What a glorious and gracious picture of God we are given here!…

When Did Jesus Bind the Strongman?

Question: In Luke 11:21-22 Jesus said: “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.” My question is, when…

What is the significance of Deuteronomy 13:1–3?

Moses tells the Israelites that God allowed false prophets to sometimes be correct because “the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” If God already knows such matters with certainty, Scripture’s inspired description as to why such testings take place…

Topics:

How do you respond to Psalm 105:25?

Speaking of the Egyptians, the Psalmist says,“…whose hearts he [God] then turned to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants” Some compatibilists cite this verse as evidence that God meticulously controls human hearts. If so, we must accept the conclusion that even grotesquely wicked hearts like Hitler’s and Stalin’s were exactly as God…

What about the thief on the cross?

Question: You hold that most people who are saved will nevertheless have to go through a “purging fire” to have their character refined and fit for heaven. Whatever is unfinished in our “sanctification” in this epoch must be completed in the next. But how does this square with Jesus telling the thief on the cross,…