David, Part 10: Absalom | Bible Stories Retold

And through all of it, the only thing David asked was for the boy to be safe. After he came home, Absalom got up early every morning and stood beside the city gate. When anyone came with a complaint for the king, Absalom would stop him. "Your case is good and right, but the king has no one to hear you. If only I would judge in the land, I would give everyone justice." Then he would hug them and kiss them. And so Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel. For four years he did this. Then he went to Hebron and sent messengers through every tribe. When you hear the trumpet, shout, "Absalom is king." The rebellion grew stronger every day. Even David's most trusted advisor, Ahithavel, went over to Absalom. A messenger came to David. The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. David said, "Get up. We have to run." The king left Jerusalem on foot. He went up the Mount of Olives weeping as he went, his head covered barefoot. And all the people with him wept too. David told a foreign soldier named Itai to go home. "This wasn't his fight," Itai said. "As the Lord lives, wherever my Lord the king is, whether for death or for life, there your servant will be." When everyone else turned away, an outsider stayed. On the road, a man from Saul's family came out cursing David and throwing stones at him. "Get out. Get out, new man of blood." David's soldier, Abishai, said, "Let me go over and deal with him." David said, "Leave him alone. Let him curse. Maybe the Lord will look on my misery and repay me good for his cursing today." Absalom took Jerusalem. Then he gathered an army to finish his father off.

David's men got ready for battle in the forest of Ephraim and the king gave his commanders one order, in front of everyone. Deal gently for my sake with the young man, with Absalom. The battle went against Absalom as he rode his mule beneath a great oak. The thick branches caught him and the mule kept going and Absalom was left hanging between heaven and earth. One soldier saw him and refused to touch him. But David's general Joab ignored the king's order. And Absalom died there in the forest. David sat between the city gates, waiting. A watchman saw a runner coming and then another. The king didn't ask who won. He asked only one thing, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" The second runner said, "May all the king's enemies be like that young man." The king was shaken. He went up to the room, over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said, "My son Absalom, my son Absalom. If only I had been the one instead of you. Absalom, my son, my son." David won the war and lost his son. It started years before with a silence after Tama. And two years when David wouldn't look at his son, what goes unspoken in a family doesn't go away. It grows. Maybe there's a son or a daughter you haven't spoken to in a long time. Don't wait for the runners, break the silence while you still can. And hear what David cried at the gate. I wish I had died instead of you. A thousand years later, a son of David would actually do it. [MUSIC]