Covert Operations

Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him. —2 Samuel 17:16

Hushai knew Absalom might change his mind at any moment.

If he were to launch an immediate attack on David’s forces, whose backs were to the Jordan River, escape would be impossible. He therefore hastened to Zadok and Abiathar and informed them of Ahithophel’s dangerous counsel. He urged them to get word to David, warning him to cross the Jordan and escape into the eastern wilderness.

The sons of Zadok and Abiathar had set up a watch at the well of En-rogel. They did not want to be seen suspiciously coming and going from Jerusalem.

Women frequented the well to draw water, and it would not be hard for them to pass messages from the priests to their sons.

A maidservant was immediately sent to the young men, telling them to relay Hushai’s urgent warning to David. But the covert operation had developed a problem.

The suspicious actions of the sons of the priests were reported to Absalom.

Jonathan and Ahimaaz knew they had been compromised, so they hid in a well in the courtyard of friends sympathetic to David. The woman of the house covered the top of the well with a tarp and placed grain on it to dry. When Absalom’s servants tracked the men to her house, she did not deny they had been there but said they had moved on.

The servants looked in the direction she indicated but could not find the pair. Frustrated, they returned to Jerusalem and reported failure.

When the coast was clear, the messengers climbed out of the well and made their way to David. Here they delivered the message of Hushai: “Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you” (2 Samuel 17:21).

“David, spent with toil and grief after that first day of flight, received the message that he must cross the Jordan that night, for his son was seeking his life. “What were the feelings of the father and king, so cruelly wronged, in this terrible peril?” His words are found in Psalm 3. “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17). Mutual help is a force multiplier.