What Does II Samuel 17:5 Mean?

Then Absalom introduces the contingency that will save David's life: "Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith." The request to consult Hushai is the pivot point of the entire rebellion narrative. Ahithophel's counsel has already been approved, and there is no military reason to seek a second opinion. Absalom's decision to hear Hushai is either an act of prudent governance or, more likely, the result of divine influence on his judgment, the first fruit of David's prayer that the Lord would "turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness."

The narrative is structured to make the reader aware that providence is operating beneath the surface of human decision. Absalom does not know that Hushai is a double agent; he seeks his counsel because it seems wise to hear from both advisors before committing to a night assault. But the wisdom that prompts this consultation is not Absalom's own; it is the hidden hand of God, answering the barefoot prayer of the weeping king who climbed the Mount of Olives and asked for exactly this intervention.

The God who governs the counsels of kings governs them through the ordinary mechanisms of human deliberation. Absalom's request to hear Hushai appears to be an act of political judgment; in reality, it is the instrument through which the Lord intervenes to save His anointed. The sovereignty of God does not bypass human decision-making but works through it, and the history that unfolds in the council chambers of Absalom's court is, at every point, the outworking of the purpose of the God who raises up kings and casts them down at His pleasure.