What Does II Samuel 18:9 Mean?

The climax of the chapter arrives with devastating precision: "And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away." The prince who stole the hearts of Israel is now suspended between heaven and earth, caught by the very hair that was the symbol of his beauty and his pride. The mule, the royal mount, walks out from under him, leaving him hanging.

The image of Absalom suspended in the oak is one of the most symbolically dense scenes in the Old Testament. He hangs between heaven and earth, belonging to neither: rejected by earth because the rebellion has failed, and rejected by heaven because the rebellion was against God's anointed. The oak that catches him is an ironic throne, elevating the prince above the ground but denying him the earth he sought to rule. The hair that the nation admired, weighing two hundred shekels according to chapter 14, has become the instrument of his capture.

The Lord Jesus was also lifted up between heaven and earth on the cross, but where Absalom hung as a captive, Christ hung as a volunteer. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The elevation of Absalom was the symbol of his judgment; the elevation of Christ was the means of the world's salvation. The tree that trapped the rebel son became, in the gospel, the tree on which the obedient Son bore the sins of the entire human race, and the suspended figure that Absalom presented became the icon of redemption that the cross presents to every generation.