What Does II Samuel 17:20 Mean?

Absalom's agents arrive at the woman's house and ask directly: "Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" The woman replies: "They be gone over the brook of water." The misdirection sends the pursuers in the wrong direction, and "when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem." The entire intelligence operation hangs on the woman's ability to lie convincingly under pressure, and her success ensures that the message reaches David in time to save his life.

The failure of Absalom's search represents another instance of the divine frustration of the usurper's plans. Every component of the rebellion that requires effective intelligence fails: the agents cannot find the couriers, the couriers reach David safely, and the delay that Hushai engineered in the council chamber is compounded by the delay in the pursuit. The accumulation of small failures will produce the large failure of the rebellion itself, and each failure bears the fingerprint of the God who "maketh the devices of the people of none effect."

The Lord Jesus, when His enemies sought to seize Him before the appointed time, "passed through the midst of them, and went His way." The sovereignty that protected David's messengers is the same sovereignty that governed every moment of Christ's earthly ministry, and the enemies who sought to find Him before His hour could not lay a hand on Him until the Father's timing permitted it. The hour of the cross was not the triumph of the enemy's search but the fulfillment of the Father's plan.