Taking the rebel’s place, God’s Son went “about a stone’s throw” (Lk 22:41) to pray, “Not My will…”
It was time for battle. So “David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them” (2 Sam 18:1). David chose the difficult terrain east of the Jordan, a region cut with hills and sharp ravines, also containing “the woods of Ephraim” (v 6). This gave an advantage to David’s men, breaking Absalom’s army into fragments. “The battle there was scattered over the face of the whole countryside, and the woods devoured more people that day than the sword devoured” (v 8). The king intended to lead his troops, but the people said that Absalom’s whole objective was to target David (see v 3). “So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out” (v 4). As they left, in the hearing of all his men, David pled with his commanders, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom” (v 5)—this “young man” who had murdered David’s firstborn, stolen the hearts of David’s subjects, driven David into exile, usurped David’s throne, and plotted David’s death! But it was not to be. Fleeing before David’s men, Absalom “went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and his head caught in the terebinth; so he was left hanging between heaven and earth” (v 9). When this news came to Joab, he dispatched the rebel with three darts through his heart. The story ends with two contrasting memorials for Absalom. One he built himself in the King’s Dale. Although a later construction, what is called Absalom’s Pillar today is the place where Jewish fathers take wayward sons to warn them of the rebel’s end. But his real memorial is a pile of stones, as the law decreed (Deut 21:18-21). Thus “they…laid a very large heap of stones over him” (2 Sam 18:17), Absalom the rebel son.