Absalom's Folly

What happens when someone blessed with every advantage—looks, privilege, and opportunity—loses their way because of vanity and poor character? The biblical story of Absalom serves as a powerful warning across the centuries.
Through this compelling narrative, we uncover three crucial life lessons: the danger of letting conceit and appearance mask a corrupt heart, the devastating consequences of surrounding ourselves with poor advisors who tell us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear, and the painful reality of parental blindness that prevents us from seeing our children's true character. David's inability to recognize the darkness growing in his son ultimately contributed to both their downfalls.
Whether you're in a position of leadership, raising children, or simply navigating relationships, Absalom's story offers timeless wisdom about the importance of character over appearance, choosing wise counsel, and loving others with clear-eyed honesty. Join me every weekday morning for these five-minute reflections designed to start your day with purpose and perspective. Your mornings matter—let's make them count together.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with
Danny Mac.
I'm going to be here everyMonday to Friday to help you get
a great five-minute start toyour day, so grab your cup of
coffee, sit back, relax and letme help you start your day.
Right Over the last while, wehave spent some time talking
about the different charactersthere are in the Bible, we've

(00:28):
talked about the ones who wereunknown that did amazing things.
We've talked about those whohad absolutely no qualifications
to be leaders or important, andGod chose them and used them
for significant purposes to leadthe people.
But we haven't touched yet on agroup that was the privileged,
the ruling class people.
These are the people who,because of their birthright,

(00:50):
were in a position to make agreat difference in people's
lives and for their countries,but in many of them, there was
no strength in their characterand so they wound up just
messing it all up.
One of these characters is a sonof David.
His name was Absalom and weread most of his story in the
book of 2nd Samuel.
Now the story goes on forseveral chapters, so let me
summarize it for you, but beforeI start I just need to warn you

(01:14):
this is a pretty sordid tale.
There are all kinds of veryrepulsive things that occurred
under David's watch, in his ownhome, amongst his own family,
and yet God left this story inthe Bible for a reason to teach
us some things.
Absalom was not David's oldestson, but he was David's favorite
.
His older brother was namedAmnon, and he was the man that

(01:37):
Absalom wound up killing becauseAmnon had raped his sister.
It was an ugly situation.
This murder of Amnon caused theseparation between David and
Absalom, and over a few years,though, david reconciled with
his son and they got backtogether.
Now, along with many of hisother negative qualities,
absalom was also incredibly vain.

(01:59):
In fact, he had this longflowing hair that he thought
made him the most gorgeous manin the whole kingdom.
In 2 Samuel 14, starting inverse 25, it says In all Israel,
there was not a man so highlypraised for his handsome
appearance as Absalom.
From the top of his head to thesole of his foot, there was no
blemish in him Whenever he cutthe hair of his head.

(02:20):
He used to cut his hair fromtime to time.
When it became too heavy forhim, he would weigh it, and its
weight was 200 shekels by royalstandard.
Yes, he thought he was prettyhot stuff.
Shortly after David and Absalomreconciled, absalom decided that
he wanted to be king, so heplotted to overthrow his father.
David was so afraid of Absalomthat he ran away and hid.

(02:42):
Absalom found himself beingmore popular than his father and
he surrounded himself withso-called advisors, but really
they weren't very wise.
They were Absalom's buddiesfrom his partying days and they
gave him some very poor advice,one of them telling him to go
after David and kill him now,while he had the chance.
So a war broke out between KingDavid's men and Absalom's men.

(03:04):
Now David had fewer men, butthey were true warriors.
They knew how to fight and theywere winning.
In fact they killed over 20,000of Absalom's men.
In 2 Samuel 18, absalom is outin this battle and he is riding
a mule.
When he goes underneath a treeand his long flowing, gorgeous
hair gets caught in the tree,the mule goes out from under him

(03:26):
and he's left hanging by hishair.
He was found there by Joab, oneof David's mighty men, who
killed Absalom right then andthere.
Now there are some lessons wecan learn from this story, and
I'm going to give these to youvery quickly this morning.
First lesson is that Absalomlet his conceit get the better
of him.
He actually was too greedy andin a lot of ways David was too

(03:48):
trusting.
He loved his son so much hedidn't see all of the evil
things that were in his heart.
And it cost David greatly.
And even though Absalom lookedgood, very handsome, very
charming, sometimes looksconceal a very murderous heart.
Secondly, absalom got badadvice from his advisors.
He had gotten rid of the menwho were guiding David in his

(04:10):
life, with the exception of onewho tried to protect David in
the middle of all of this.
But Absalom decided to listento his new advisors, his buddies
, his friends, those he hung outwith.
Their ideas and their wisdomwere more important to him than
the people who understood whatit meant to function and act in
the position that Absalom wasnow in.
He got rid of the people hecould trust to guide him and to

(04:31):
help him, and he should not have.
I want to give you one more.
This is about King David.
King David, let his emotionsget the better of him.
As parents, we all want andexpect the best from and for our
children.
There are many parents thatrefuse to believe that their
child could ever misbehave inschool or in youth group or in
anything else.
They simply refuse to believeanything could be wrong about

(04:54):
their children.
Their children are brilliantand perfect, no matter what.
That kind of blindness can hurtus, as it hurt David, but it
also hurts the child, and we seethat in how Absalom then took
that and twisted it around totry and gain power for himself.
David refused to see theugliness there was in his son.
We need to be honest withourselves.

(05:16):
We need to encourage truth fromour kids.
We need to expect the best fromthem, but we also need to be
very much aware of what theirweaknesses are, so that those
weaknesses don't destroy them atsome point in their lives.
So there you have it the storyof one of the privileged and one
of the ones who hadopportunities in abundance to do
great things, but they began tofocus too much on themselves

(05:38):
and let the selfishness ruin anddestroy them.
It is a sad story, but withsome great lessons.
I hope you all have a great day, enjoy your family, share some
love, Say hi to somebody youhaven't talked to for a while.
Let God bless you and workthrough you.
Have a great day.
We'll talk again tomorrow.
Thank you for listening todayand I invite you to join me

(06:05):
Monday to Friday, right here onStarting Right with Danny Mac.